Ontario Western Final Run before sale.

WELCOME
TO

ONTARIO WESTERN
RAILROAD



FINAL RUN BEFORE ABANDONMENT
AND
SALE OF ALL EQUIPMENT

SUNDAY NOVEMBER 12TH 2017
9 AM TILL NOON

549 SALES DRIVE
WOODSTOCK

Ideas about Elsewhere and Elsewhere

Before I forget again we should add a rerailer to the main run around track going to the turntable.

As it would be difficult to add more tracks to the Wellington yard or use the sanding rack tracks as yard tracks can we reduce the types of cars stored there?  We could only use the sawdust cars at the sawmill or eliminate them, 1 less car type.

Next we could designate gravel hoppers to the branch. So, on your run to and from the branch, switch Oxford Sand and Gravel and Shell Industries (remove limestone delivery to Zorra to be replaced by coal for the kiln) in Herons Landing. This would bring down the number of cars types in Wellington yard to the available 8 sidings.

We need 7  racks or hooks labelled for the 7 storage tracks in the new Elsewhere yard to keep track of the order of the Trains.  Delivering a train to empty track 7 you would then take out train 1 and so on. With 2 branch line trains stored there, they will get run twice in seven trains originating from Elsewhere, or at least once a session.

If at the end of a session all 7 Elsewhere tracks are full, and may be an extra left on the inbound track, they should be the first trains to be run at the next session to open up 1 track in Elsewhere.

There will be no need for a caboose track in Elsewhere as they will stay with the Trains.

If the sidings are 6 feet long they would hold 11 cars and a caboose. It is anticipated that under our 8 car rule the Trains will only have 8 cars, so Elsewhere will hold 48 cars most of the time.

Train repetition even though the cards are left with the train, should not be a problem as it is unlikely you would pick up a train you left in Elsewhere in the same operating session.

Tuesday night at the Huff and Puff 10,24,2017

N.B. we will be closed on October 31.

We bought 4 Peco turnouts and 5 short covered hoppers at the Woodstock Train show. Saw that others also found some good deals including an engine house to replace the one  removed from the layout last week.

Background buildings temporarily installed in Elsewhere, when Elsewhere is reworked a new background will be installed and painted and the background buildings will be installed permanently.

Items for upcoming work nights include, rolling stock repaired and identified with a HP stamp and listed. Turnout for the team track/piggyback ramp in Springbank. Turnout for stock pen near Ortona. Replace problem turnouts in Miller, Northdale and Lincoln. Designing the new yard in Elsewhere. Replacing 70 gauge track in Northdale. Discussion about the forwarding cards.

My thoughts about Elsewhere which are up for any other ideas. I like the idea about not switching cars in Elsewhere to reduce congestion in this area. It would go like this, a train arrives in Elsewhere and is left in an open siding in 1 of the double ended yards. The cards are left in the racks intact as a complete train. This will work perfectly with our card system.  The engine is turned on the turntable and run over to pick up the oldest train and it's cards. The caboose is set aside, the train is picked up and the caboose is reattach. The train is ready to go. Multiply this by 7 tracks, should work fine. As Branchline trains are also staged in Elsewhere it will get them run more often.

Busy night

Background buildings 

Backdrop buildings

As we had received a few free buildings and no one wanted them, I took 4 of them home. After they were disassembled, I put the first 2 back together as flats for Elsewhere. The first picture shows how they may look when they are all done, creating a row of buildings over 6 feet long.  The next picture shows a shed reassemble into the Woodstock  Firestone plant in profile.  The last picture was a brick warehouse made into a factory I labelled as the old Massey Harris plant that was in Woodstock making the Cub tractor. None of these buildings will be served by the railroad.

Tuesday night at the Huff and Puff, 10,17,2017

New car cards added with quantities of 1 to help with forwarding, which seems to be working well. Gathered up items to sell at the train show on Sunday in Woodstock. Viewing the layout I found a new piggyback ramp in Springbank. A new turnout will be installed to separate off the team track section. A stock yard will also be installed near Ortona on the branch line. The question was asked if we could build the new yard for Elsewhere and then swap it out, probably in sections 8 feet long. Thinking about this the turntable is on its own section, and the turnouts could be used on other parts of the layout. Even doing it that way there would still be a few days of interruption to install it, but this idea has merit.

The box cars are sitting on the team track section 

New piggyback ramp in Springbank 

Tuesday night at the Huff and Puff, 10,10,17

Actually the day started out with a visit to see Rock's garden railroad. During this last run of the season, rick ran a lash up of F units and a 2-6-0. See pictures below.

Later at the Huff and Puff,  when we arrived someone had left a box of oils, glues, and electrical parts for us at the door, my neighbor had given us some rolling stock, and Jim brought in boxes of stuff and bundles of milled wood. After sorting through all of these treasures we got down to operations. 

With a new set of cards sorted into car types we set up some trains using our car forwarding logic. It became apparent very quickly that we needed more cards with smaller quantities, back to the printer I go. This system worked well for the Trains were had set up. To explain the forwarding logic let's look at a train of just 3 box cars leaving Elsewhere.  The first switch is at Johnson Transfer were we drop off a box car and pick up 1, so we still have 3 box cars, at Jutland we again leave 2 box cars at McKay Fuels and retrieve 2. At Lincoln we swap 3 box cars at Hay Co. leaving Lincoln with 3 box cars we head for Springbank. There we spot a box car at Mutual Grain after picking 1 up. Three box cars are dropped at Zorra Cement Warehouse and 3 are removed. At Wellington we remove and leave a box car at Cullen Mill before dropping our train at the yard with, you guessed it, 3 box cars being spotted there. With all that work completed we best top up our water and coal. The beauty of this system is that we made 6 switching moves, with 6 cards and only 3 box cars. The bad thing is that you are always just swapping cars. Also the cards can get mixed up in the racks. How this will work when we have a switcher at Lincoln is yet to be seen.

Meeting night at the Huff and Puff October 3, 2017

The topic of discussion was the forwarding system we have been working on. A division point system was talked about. An example would be the switcher at Lincoln would control traffic in and out. That person would also supply forwarding cards to outbound trains. May have to make new cards for each division. It was agreed that each card will only have 1 type of rolling stock to be delivered so new cards will have to be made to fix that. We will also try only picking up what you deliver that is if you deliver 2 flat cars you only pick up 2 flat cars. Another idea was to sort cards into rolling stock types ignoring the day of the week. This would make looking for forwarding cards much easier. Projects for the new year will be reworking Elsewhere, (moving the turntable and cutting the yard into 2 yards),replacing or repairing troublesome turnouts, and repairing rolling stock. A new shelf under Valleyview will also be installed to hold all our casting material and clean up the office area.