Friday and Sunday Construction

The ore track is finished except for feeder wires, but first we need to decide if we  want to be able to power it on and off. Glen worked an the steel mill backdrop to make it more realistic. Most of the ballasting and some of the feeders are soldered onto the track and half of the turnouts are also wired up in Wellington. Because the freight yard is all wired up, we loaded it up with rolling stock, 50 in all. With that done and some shuffling all the rolling stock is in its proper place again.

Ore train waiting to be picked up. 

Freight yard loaded with rolling stock. 

Tuesday Night at The Huff and Puff, 2,22,2017

Wellington is taking shape, ballasting, and feeder wires being installed. Most of the buildings are in their new positions. Glen pointed out that the ore track needs feeders. Tate brought in a tanker truck, cool (I wonder if he has ever heard That? ).

Will need to clean out Elsewhere and drill out holes for wires and switches and then vacuum up the mess.

General update

With construction at Wellington well on its way and the Great Lakes Steel siding completed its time to update a few things. We will have 2 new team tracks, 1 in Springbank and 1 in Wellington so new industry cards have been produced for them. New train Orders have been made to reflect not only the new ore siding but also the new run around at Pinehurst. This new run around allows for prototype logging operations where the log cars are moved with their locomotive downhill, except for the grade up to Oxford. After reading the previously suggested train route and schedule post to the blog, please advise me or bring up any ideas at the next meeting so adjustments can be made. As you will see in that post, we can have 5 trains to run, which can be repeated to complete a session, if necessary. We also have the option to run through freights from Elsewhere and Wellington. Coupled with switching duties at Lincoln, Herons Landing, and Springbank and 2 person crews, that is a total of 17 operators.

Train Routes

Elsewhere Freight.  After picking up rolling stock  requirements for 2 industry cards, it leaves Elsewhere and travels the mainline to Wellington, switching freight as required. After switching Wellington, if needed, the train is left on 1 of the receiving yards tracks.

Ore Train picks up empties at Great Lakes Steel in Jutland. Heading west on the mainline, it's switches to the branch line at Lincoln. It continues  to Ortona and switches empties with loads. It then returns with the loads, via Lincoln to Jutland, and switches the ore cars to the Great Lakes Steel siding. There are 2 unit ore trains 1 brown and 1 black, not to be mixed.

Ortona Mixed Freight. Leaves Ortona  yard with yesterday's freight train, 2 industrial cards, and the passenger/caboose stopping at all stations on its way to Elsewhere, where it drops it's freight cars. Then it picks up rolling stock requirements  for the 2 industrial cards picked from the branch line card rack before leaving Ortona. It now returns to the branch line via Lincoln and completes it's required switching. The picked up rolling stock and passenger/caboose is left in the Ortona  yard.

Mainline Passenger Train. The passenger cars are picked up in the Wellington  passenger yard. All stations are stopped at on its trip to Herons Landing where it turns on the lower loop. It then returns to Wellington again stopping at all stations on its trip. It enters the upper loop at Trents  Hill tunnel to arrive at the Wellington station.

Log Train starts by picking up empty log cars at the Miller sawmill. Running around the log cars in Miller, it switches back at Oxford, pushing the log cars up to Pinehurst. The log cars are run around again in Pinehurst so they can be pushed up to  the spare tree at Ridgewood. The loaded log cars are pulled from the spare tree siding and run around in Pinehurst. After switching back at Oxford the log cars are run around in Northdale, and delivered to the logging pond siding at the sawmill in Miller.

Wellington  Freight. The reverse of the Elsewhere Freight. Any switching in Wellington will be done from the industrial run around. 

Train schedule 

Tuesday night at the Huff and Puff, 2/14/2017

Most members did some running during the chaos of putting Wellington back together. Some wired in switch machines, added missing ties and some ballasting, to the new Wellington track work. The industrial track will be ballasted with black ballast to help separate it visually from the mainline. The track to the coaling tower needs to be put in and lots of wiring and ballasting to come.

Track gang, Friday 10, Feb. 2017

After studying the picture of the industrial area, posted previously, I didn't think the east end of the industrial run around was laid out correctly. The big u curve looked like trouble. With some help from Glen and Donald we arrived at a far better track arrangement, which also made the team track siding/switching lead a straight run, Bonus!  Small areas of track was ballasted to help keep things in place for a test run. The freight yard was laid out, which shifted it slightly towards the aisle, which allowed the sanding rack to be moved further from it's turnouts. This allowed better alignment of the 2 tracks. The caboose track was then installed. It is estimated that the freight yard will hold 45 cars.

Freight yard, sanding rack and caboose track 

Revised industrial run around, the u is gone.

Work night, Feb. 7, 2017

The track layout at Wellington was talked about and generally agreed to. Then a list of outstanding projects was read and after the meeting most of them were worked on. The ore track was finished, the outside lean of the curve near Oxford was corrected. At least 1 lead was put into the turntable and the marshaling yard was nailed down. The freight yard, sanding rack and caboose track were worked on. The new run around was completed in Herons Landing. Now feeders were installed. We agreed to test the yards in Wellington before ballasting them.

Oxford curve reworked

Herons Landing new run around

Ore siding

View of the marshaling yard

Laying out the freight yard tracks.

Yard Work Feb. 5, 2017

Put in the inbound/outbound yard and the industrial run around. The industries were put into position and tracks were positioned to them. All of the turnouts on the far side of this yard will be powered. The freight yard was also laid out with its runaround and the sanding/fueling tracks. Once everyone agrees to the layout, it will be installed. The new ore track was installed.

Yard tracks

Freight yard

Ore siding

Tuesday night at the Huff and Puff, Jan. 31, 2017

Cookies, thanks Rick. Wellington has been cleaned down to the base. The new tracks to the logging camp were ballasted and a scenic base has been installed for the ore siding. All of the old track and turnouts have been cleaned.