The Soo Line Ashland Division is an HO scale basement size layout representing the Soo Line Ashland subdivision and Ironwood subdivision in 1965. The layout is point to point with staging yards at each end of the Ironwood sub, plus another staging yard representing the end of the Ashland sub.

Control is with a Lenz DCC system with Lenz plug in throttles and Easy DCC wireless throttles. The layout is operated with car cards and waybills, and dispatched using a timetable and train orders.

Operations center around Ashland, Wisconsin where there are 2 yard jobs on duty daily, one switching the freight yard and one switching the ore and ore dock. There are several through freights and locals that run daily.

The main line leaves Ashland heading east, and passes through the town of Marengo, where a sawmill is located and then to the town of Mellen. At Mellen there is a junction, with the Ashland subdivision continuing southeast towards Stevens Point and Chicago, and the Ironwood subdivision continuing east to Ironwood and Bessemer, Michigan, and eventually to Marquette, Michigan. On the Ironwood subdivision the towns of Upson, Iron Belt, Hoyt and Hurley are passed before arriving in the yard at Ironwood. The logging and mining industries keep the local freight busy, and at Gogebic Range mines load many cars of ore for the dock at Ashland.

At Ironwood the through freights drop off and pick up cars for the local industries. Ore loads are gathered at Bessemer yard and assembled into trains for Ashland. Through freights will continue east from Ironwood to a connection to the old DSS&A main line to Marquette and Sault Ste Marie Michigan.

Return to Layouts Page