 |
| New siding to Mutual Grain. |
 |
| Glen's train returning to Wellington. |
Friday, September 20, 2019
Friday afternoon at the Huff and Puff
Wednesday, September 18, 2019
Tuesday night at the Huff and Puff
We had a meeting focused on what's in the future.
We will run for a while to find any gremlins in the new trackwork, before any scenery is added there.
We will try using train orders instead of our present 1 card per industry. The orders will use the same information but also include train direction, possibly staging track number, possibly 2 sided for east or westbound, what the car is transporting and the consist.
We will flop the yard functions in Wellington with the yard nearest the door being staging, or at least most of it.
We will replace Buckley Mills with Gay Lea Foods (The Hobbermister building). The fate of Buckley Mills is yet to be determined.
In the future, we may put a Cold Storage plant in place of Schell Industries, which may end up on the branchline with Buckley Mills.
We will add City Services either at the end of the Allen Lumber siding or where the turntable is.
Relocating the turnout for Allen Lumber and Buckley Mills was not thought to be a good idea because switching them would block the upper mainline.
The tracks in the Lincoln Station area need to be moved for better alignment.
There seems to be a problem where the the lower loop meets Herons Landing, and which quad is powering the loop. This will be investigated and our block map updated.
Some of our sidings were lengthened, and a lot of track cleaning was done. Tools are being moved to the cupboard under Ortona.
We will run for a while to find any gremlins in the new trackwork, before any scenery is added there.
We will try using train orders instead of our present 1 card per industry. The orders will use the same information but also include train direction, possibly staging track number, possibly 2 sided for east or westbound, what the car is transporting and the consist.
We will flop the yard functions in Wellington with the yard nearest the door being staging, or at least most of it.
We will replace Buckley Mills with Gay Lea Foods (The Hobbermister building). The fate of Buckley Mills is yet to be determined.
In the future, we may put a Cold Storage plant in place of Schell Industries, which may end up on the branchline with Buckley Mills.
We will add City Services either at the end of the Allen Lumber siding or where the turntable is.
Relocating the turnout for Allen Lumber and Buckley Mills was not thought to be a good idea because switching them would block the upper mainline.
The tracks in the Lincoln Station area need to be moved for better alignment.
There seems to be a problem where the the lower loop meets Herons Landing, and which quad is powering the loop. This will be investigated and our block map updated.
Some of our sidings were lengthened, and a lot of track cleaning was done. Tools are being moved to the cupboard under Ortona.
Monday, September 16, 2019
Things to do tomorrow
Where are we putting Hobbermister Woolens?
Remove unnecessary braces under Lincoln.
Clean track. If you are running, clean track where your engine stalls.
Watch for hesitation while crossing block gaps.
Extend sidings at the coal mine, oil ref. and corral.
Put all tools in cupboard under Ortona.
Things to consider
Move turnouts for Allen Lumber and Buckley Mills. Maybe Piggyback and La France. To get more westbound switching and take pressure off Lincoln?
Do we want to round out Gravel Dock Benchwork?
Move Schell Ind. Maybe in open area behind branchline loop?
Replace Schell ind. With a Cold Stg, more traffic for refers., or wharehouse?
Change coal deliveries to Zorra Cement to either covered hoppers or gravel hoppers?
Remove unnecessary braces under Lincoln.
Clean track. If you are running, clean track where your engine stalls.
Watch for hesitation while crossing block gaps.
Extend sidings at the coal mine, oil ref. and corral.
Put all tools in cupboard under Ortona.
Things to consider
Move turnouts for Allen Lumber and Buckley Mills. Maybe Piggyback and La France. To get more westbound switching and take pressure off Lincoln?
Do we want to round out Gravel Dock Benchwork?
Move Schell Ind. Maybe in open area behind branchline loop?
Replace Schell ind. With a Cold Stg, more traffic for refers., or wharehouse?
Change coal deliveries to Zorra Cement to either covered hoppers or gravel hoppers?
Sunday, September 15, 2019
WOD Meet in Ingersoll.
Hi Guys:
A WOD meet and part of the NMRA is having a meet in Ingersoll...I am looking after the programs this year...everyone welcome in-case your are interested...George
|
|
|
|
Sunday morning crew.
Jim installed the ne transformer, put ends on some bus wires, ran bus wire for Lakeview block 3, and then joined the construction crew. The construction crew, Glen, Lary and myself, put plywood down for Ortona and cut all the plywood for the branch between the sawmill and Lincoln. Then cleaned up the mess. Some track cleaning got done also.
Back to the last post about flipping the yard function in Wellington. There are 7 tracks in the stub end yard to hold trains with 7 cars and a caboose. When leaving staging you would take the industrial passing siding, if you have switching to do in Wellington. You would also use the passing siding if you are arriving with cars for Wellington industries. There is also the front passing siding, of the Ready Yard, to go to and from the staging yard. This leaves 3 double ended tracks in the Ready Yard plus 3 shorter yard tracks in the staging yard area.
Instead of removing the Buckley siding Glen and I thought we could just move the switch for Buckley Mills and Allen Lumber to the upper main line track, making them both westbound switches. Glen thinks we should put City Services at the end of the Allen Lumber siding, just to keep things interesting.
We can extend the coal mine sidings to hold 8 hoppers making the coal train a little longer. We also need to extend the Shell Oil Siding to hold at least 6 tank cars. While we're at it we should rename the refinery so it is not confused with Schell Industries.
Don't know if we can add a wharehouse in the gravel pit area or not. But we could easily add a second siding at the Crane Dock.
The siding at the Corral should be lengthened to hold 3 stock cars which would require moving the road to the right of the Jutland station.
We have been under utilizing several sidings such as Allen Lumber, Buckley Mills, Cullen Mills, ADM, Zorra Silos, Hillside Lumder, McKay Fuels, Stock Yard and the Harbour Crane. This will be addressed with either the Train Orders or the old card system. I have yet to hear any negative comments about the Train Orders.
Back to the last post about flipping the yard function in Wellington. There are 7 tracks in the stub end yard to hold trains with 7 cars and a caboose. When leaving staging you would take the industrial passing siding, if you have switching to do in Wellington. You would also use the passing siding if you are arriving with cars for Wellington industries. There is also the front passing siding, of the Ready Yard, to go to and from the staging yard. This leaves 3 double ended tracks in the Ready Yard plus 3 shorter yard tracks in the staging yard area.
Instead of removing the Buckley siding Glen and I thought we could just move the switch for Buckley Mills and Allen Lumber to the upper main line track, making them both westbound switches. Glen thinks we should put City Services at the end of the Allen Lumber siding, just to keep things interesting.
We can extend the coal mine sidings to hold 8 hoppers making the coal train a little longer. We also need to extend the Shell Oil Siding to hold at least 6 tank cars. While we're at it we should rename the refinery so it is not confused with Schell Industries.
Don't know if we can add a wharehouse in the gravel pit area or not. But we could easily add a second siding at the Crane Dock.
The siding at the Corral should be lengthened to hold 3 stock cars which would require moving the road to the right of the Jutland station.
We have been under utilizing several sidings such as Allen Lumber, Buckley Mills, Cullen Mills, ADM, Zorra Silos, Hillside Lumder, McKay Fuels, Stock Yard and the Harbour Crane. This will be addressed with either the Train Orders or the old card system. I have yet to hear any negative comments about the Train Orders.
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.
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.
Friday, September 13, 2019
Friday clean up.
Tom, Glen, Larry, Don S. Jim L. and myself, cleaned track, vacuumed, ran a cleaner train, (yes we are short free!), repaired a few problems and had some great discussions. More track cleaning is needed as you can well imagine.
After explaining the Train Orders idea, from the last post, a couple of great ideas came up, even if not necessarily new, I had not thought about folding them into this operating system. First idea from Jim was to have East Bound and a West Bound cards. All the switching would be only on trailing switches, ei. No run arounds. As an example, the Corral in Jutland would only be switched by a train coming from Elsewhere, or west bound and McKay Fuels would only be switched by a train going to Elsewhere. This would eliminate a lot of bottlenecks! His next idea, with Glenn's added input, was for people who like just switching. If someone wants to do this, a special card would be used to make up and deliver a certain number of cars to Lincoln, the duplicate card would be given to the Switcher(who could use the switching engine stored on the old turntable track) to pull the matching set of cars from the industries as the train of cars is being delivered by someone else. Upon the trains arrival, the cars will be dropped and the cars pulled by the switcher picked up. This delivery train could also do switching at other towns.
It was suggested that we need more wharehouses which can ship and receive anything, even if we just rename some buildings we have on the layout.
Other changes we made include, putting La France where the Freight Station was in Lincoln, moving Union Ice on the back siding on the east end of Lincoln, the Freight Station was placed on the siding in front of it, and this siding will be extended to include Mutual Grain, situated between the mainlines in and out of Lincoln. We discussed moving Shell Industries to the branchline, as it takes gravel loads, and replace it with......(yet to be decided).
The Northdale buildings we set up, see what you think on Tuesday. We could add a Freight Station or team track there, maybe.
Larry move all the construction material from the new "talkers corner" area as Tom vacuumed it up. Don was asking if we need to round out the end of the water area not only cleaning up the look but also make more room for boats.
After explaining the Train Orders idea, from the last post, a couple of great ideas came up, even if not necessarily new, I had not thought about folding them into this operating system. First idea from Jim was to have East Bound and a West Bound cards. All the switching would be only on trailing switches, ei. No run arounds. As an example, the Corral in Jutland would only be switched by a train coming from Elsewhere, or west bound and McKay Fuels would only be switched by a train going to Elsewhere. This would eliminate a lot of bottlenecks! His next idea, with Glenn's added input, was for people who like just switching. If someone wants to do this, a special card would be used to make up and deliver a certain number of cars to Lincoln, the duplicate card would be given to the Switcher(who could use the switching engine stored on the old turntable track) to pull the matching set of cars from the industries as the train of cars is being delivered by someone else. Upon the trains arrival, the cars will be dropped and the cars pulled by the switcher picked up. This delivery train could also do switching at other towns.
It was suggested that we need more wharehouses which can ship and receive anything, even if we just rename some buildings we have on the layout.
Other changes we made include, putting La France where the Freight Station was in Lincoln, moving Union Ice on the back siding on the east end of Lincoln, the Freight Station was placed on the siding in front of it, and this siding will be extended to include Mutual Grain, situated between the mainlines in and out of Lincoln. We discussed moving Shell Industries to the branchline, as it takes gravel loads, and replace it with......(yet to be decided).
The Northdale buildings we set up, see what you think on Tuesday. We could add a Freight Station or team track there, maybe.
 |
| All cleaned up! |
Larry move all the construction material from the new "talkers corner" area as Tom vacuumed it up. Don was asking if we need to round out the end of the water area not only cleaning up the look but also make more room for boats.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)