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Saturday, September 14, 2019

Train Order Problems

That title is a bit of a misnomer in that we have always had this problem and just didn't know it! Maybe it should be How Train Orders Have Stirred The Pot. Biggest thing that has come up connected to trailing point switching only is the large discrepancy we have with eastbound versus westbound switching. There is currently 23 BOX CARS switched eastbound and only 11 switched westbound. There are 3 more flat cars, 1 more stock car, 4 more covered hoppers, and 2 more piggybacks (actually we have zero switched westbound) switched eastbound. Some of this can be corrected by altering what cars are switched at various industries, but this only means the westbound industries are switched more often.
Possible solutions may include:
 1 put in a wharehouse on 1 siding in the gravel pit area = 4 or more westbound box cars. Could we put Hobbermister (or how ever it is spelled) where Cullen Mill is in Wellington and rework Cullen Mill into a wharehouse?
2 increase the capacity of the Crane dock, maybe another siding, so we can switch more gondolas, box cars and a piggyback?
3 make 1 gondola have a lumber load?
4 lengthen the back (wall side) siding at Zorro Cement and switch covered hoppers there?
5 increase by 1 the covered hoppers to ADM?

Should Schell Industries be moved as it is too close to Oxford Sand and Gravel, possible to replace the Lincoln turntable (putting it fittingly on the Branchline) and put a Cool Storage in its place, creating another destination for refers?
Right now Wellington is ignored! I think we should flip the yard function. Calling the double ended yard the READY YARD, let's make it a double ended storage yard and the storage yard Staging. Then staged trains leaving there with cars for Wellington industries, and beyond, or trains from the east would have to use the industrial passing siding to get in and out of Wellington, making it more of a destination removed from staging. The short yard tracks could be used in conjunction with the double ended yard.
Can we remove the siding to Buckley Mills and move it so that it comes off of the upper mainline, just past the station (switch would have to be accessible from the front) and run 90 degrees to what it is now? This would create another west bound industry.
Some or all of the above changes would benefit train flow whether or not we use Train Orders as it helps balance switching both ways.

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