The railroad does not have a mainline, as such, but a Thoroughfare track which links all the junctions and branches together. The Thoroughfare track runs from Dolton Junction, Illinois, through Calumet South, past the Interchange, through Forest Junction and Thorn Junction and on to Van Loon Junction, Indiana.

The layout has a few different areas, outlined below.

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Interchange Area

The interchange has a runaround loop to facilitate shunting. There are also a few industries / services close to the Interchange:

• Midwest Foods - medium sized food manufacturing facility.
• American Electric - electrical products wholesaler.
• Northern Chemicals - make of chemicals mainly transported in tank cars and covered hoppers
• Amoco Fuel Distributor - a regional gasoline & diesel fuel storage facility.
• RIP facility - for repair of faulty cars.
• Loco Servicing / Stabling - For refueling and minor servicing of locos from all and any railroad.
• Caboose holding track

There is a junction and passing loop between the Midwest Foods / Northern Chemicals spurs and the Interchange. The loop is called Calumet South Loop, the junction is called Calumet South Junction.

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The Midwest Branch

There are two industrial branches, each with different industries and needs. The Midwest Branch starts at the Thorn Creek Jcn switch and interchanges with the Midwest Short Line RR at it's terminus. The Midwest Short Line (MWSL) locos are painted in different combinations of their wheat / purple / orange color scheme. These often run to / from the Midwest branch terminus to / from the Interchange or to / from the Chessie / B&OCT's Barr Yard (staging tracks). The industries on the Midwest Branch are:

• A transhipment facility for trailers and containers. This facility can also handle auto-racks.
• Illinois Mineral Company - Limestone quarry near the Midwest Junction interchange, supplies mainly Limestone for agricultural or construction purposes. The building is a selectively compressed version of the Elmhurst Chicago Stone Co bunker and buildings.

There is also a single interchange track where the MWSL and C&SFT RR's can interchange cars.

Currently the Midwest Branch does not have a turnaround track, so all local trains must be pushed from the Interchange to Midwest Branch destinations. Trains from other railroads that use the branch always run with locos on the front of the train rather than the back.

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The South Forest Branch

The other branch is called the South Forest Branch because it ends near South Forest. This branch branches off the C&SFT thoroughfare track (main track) at the Forest Junction switch. The industries on this branch include:

• Sawmill - Receives logs in log cars and resin in tank cars (for making glue for chipboard and ply board), and supplies sawn lumber and chip- and ply-board.
• Wette & Drigh Flour Milling Company - The silos attached to this industry stores and receives various types of grain flour, wheat and barley for use in the Flour Mill and for bulk flour shipments. The silos are a model of an Australian S008 silo which has a storage capacity of 800 tonnes. It has 4 main bins of 14' diameter, and there are also 8 smaller bins inside the silo, which allow for the storage of various types of flour and grain. These silos have a 64' bin height, with a 6" wall thickness. The Flour Mill building can despatch bagged flour, and bagged feed grain. The industry got it's name because I used painted Wet and Dry Paper to coat the walls of the Flour Mill to simulate a render finish.
• Arkright Engineering - Makes interesting and necessary things out of metals.
• Feed N Seed - Farm supplies retailer.

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The East Branch

This area is currently represented by the short staging area to the north east of the Interchange, past the Chemical facility spur.

Currently the branch is not operated, but I do have plans to make it a fully operate-able branch with a connection to the N&W somewhere near the N&W's Gibson yard on the ex-NKP mainline into Chicago.

As far as industries go, there will probably be only one or two - I am thinking a salt storage facility, and maybe a food warehouse / coolstore, and then there would be a staging track or two and a turn around track at the end of the branch.