Tuesday night at the Huff and Puff April 3, 2018.

Wow! Full house for meeting night. After the treasure report we decided the club should buy some supplies for the repair of our rolling stock. The topic of our current operating system was up next. To relieve congestion at Lincoln we will run Lincoln only trains so that only 1 train will be switching there. We might also do the same for Springbank and Herons Landing  (instead of having a person be the switcher at each of these locations). We will also dispatch trains to get all of the Trains running. After the meeting, the turnout at Jutland had a new throwbar installed and the connection to the remote turnout on the wye was repaired.

Tuesday night at the Huff and Puff Mar 27, 2018.

Lots of traffic moved during the night, causing the usual congestion at Lincoln and Springbank. I waited 15 minutes to get into Springbank. As I ran my train I noticed switching errors around the layout caused by not following our current running system. Do the majority of our members Care?  Where do we go from here?  My thought is to continue this way until the majority of our members feel the need for change as everyone seems to enjoy themselves the way things are. You also hear complains about rolling stock. Everyone should take the time to remove and record problem cars or we will always have this problem. The same goes for trackwork problems. We need a process to fix trackwork.  As an example, I had a problem switching Hillside Lumber,  backing 2 box cars into the siding. Bad turnout would be the first thought,  the box cars always derailed at the turnout. Are the point rails low, are they closing correctly, funny thing, the 2 box cars that were there gave no such problems.  This my be a topic for next week' meeting.

Switching Coastal Oil 

Coal train switching the power plant 

Brigham the Mover gets some empties.

Tuesday night at the Huff and Puff Mar 21, ,2018.

For the last 2 weeks I forgot to take my camera so no pictures. However the layout keeps moving forward. The 2 new turnouts installed in Herons Landing were wired up with only a few minutes delay in operations. The loss of power when running through these turnouts was very annoying so no one minded the break in operations.
When the system was turned on operators got right to it, including 2 exchange students who came up to see the layout.  They were both quick to grasp the basics although Montana had trouble with the momentum on Don's doodlebug. Waiting passengers got their exercise chasing the train down the tracks. The other student's train also suffered the consequences of momentum while switching his train in Springbank. Tank cars were exploding, people were running, .... OK 1 car was derailed. A fun night for one and all.

Tuesday night at the Huff and Puff Mar 6, 2018

Work night was a great success. Some rail bumpers were installed, these were 3D printed by 1 of our members. The turnouts in Miller were ballasted. The 2 broken turnouts in Herons Landing were replaced and ballasted. The electro-frog turnout in the Wellington yard was removed and replaced. It was also wired and ballasted. The repaired sawdust car was put back on the layout. Track cleaners were also hard at work. Many thanks for all the hard work.

Rail bumpers 

Replacement turnouts 

Ballasted track in Miller 

Replacement turnout 

Tuesday night at the Huff and Puff Feb 27, 2018.

Two week update. Other than a problem turnouts or 2 the layout is running well. Maybe these will be corrected next week. Finally had a comment on the blog. One of the newer members was explaining his frustration with or new sawdust car. I had thought a new set of trucks had fixed the problem. Turns out it is too tall so it's off  to the bandsaw it goes. A couple of backgrounds were also added. The oops photo below shows what happens when you socialize while you're engine it still under power.

Oops

Tuesday night at the Huff and Puff Feb 13, 2018

The mysterious hill in Miller was removed. It turned out to be a pond of hydrocal? It still has to be ballasted. Tabs were added to some turnout throw bars. The yards got congested by nights end so we moved out so cars to sidings. We have to remember that you switch car for car, not remove everything like the old system.

Tuesday night at the Huff and Puff Feb 6, 2018.

Meeting night. After a financial report and an update on upcoming events the floor was opened to a general discussion period. Because of a lack of time and material work night was postponed, although more over center springs were added. While doing so a problem area where two turnouts join together was found in Herons Landing.  One more project to be done. The lump in the siding to City Service in Miller was checked out. It will be worked on probably next week.

Problem turnouts 

Lots of engineers