Through Train

I guess the definition of a Through Train would be transferring a group of cars from one yard to another yard, and then sending them on a Freight to be delivered to their destinations.  My use of this train will be to put any oddball loads into it, and not switching them. If we put a track cleaner on this train, it would clean all the main lines as it goes, bonus!
The gondola with the road roller, the gondola with the gravel load, hoppers we have put aside because of their length, and a few others come to mind. Not that you couldn't send them to a certain industry, but there is now way to pick them up, with the train orders we will be using.
We could make this train as long as possible, as it does no switching. It is sent by it's  train order from the Ortona yard to the Elsewhere yard, then from Elsewhere yard to the Wellington yard, and then back to Elsewhere and then Ortona.

Tuesday night at the Huff and Puff

Ballast samples were shown to the members. Chick grit which is a ground granite (white with black specks), was chosen for the mainline and a silica sand for the branch line. The granite needs to be ground a little more because it is a little larger than we want. I'm going to try to tone it down with a dark grey wash. The stable bedding sand was rejected.
The branchline to the Lincoln Station was moved and laid down with the new siding to the Lincoln Station added.
We will be adding a turnout on the west end Lincoln passing siding, to connect to the sidings for Buckley Mills (which will be replaced by the large stone building to be named Gay Lea Foods), Allen Lumber and City Services, and La France. This will make them all, needed east bound switching, and move them out of Lincoln proper, reducing switching congestion there. The Piggyback Ramp could not be moved as it would reverse the direction of the cars and the truck on it, so the truck doors would be facing the ramp instead of the front end.
Larry M. Brought in a shelving unit and made a track storage box for the club. It was positioned under and behind the cupboard under Ortona, Rick added a couple lengths of track to it. Mike brought in some lumber to build the branchline benchwork and let's not forget all the plywood Jim F. supplied. Jim L. brought in a pail of plaster of Paris for casting rocks. Thanks to all of you.
Rob counted cars for me. This information is needed to make up our new Train Order cards. Thanks Rob.
Cars were added as needed to their starting locations and several trains were made up, for mainline running. As far as I know, all went smoothly. Three new Train Order cards we reviewed by the membership and a spelling mistake was pointed out to me, I'd like to say I did this on purpose to see if people actually perused them. How come spell check missed that one?
Next week is meeting and work night. What needs to be done?
We could install the plywood for the branch line behind Lincoln and install the ceiling tiles on it.
We could move and install the small turntable from Lincoln to Ortona.
We could attach some branchline feeders.
We could do some ballasting.
We could mount Larry's shelf unit under Lincoln.
We could move the sidings in Lincoln as explained above, and rewire them.
We could start installing some branchline track, when that benchwork is completed.
We could move Schell Industries to where the turntable was removed.
We could move Buckley Mills to the old Schell Industries siding and put Gay Lea where it was. Do we want to rename it as a Cold Storage?
We could discuss if we want to add another siding to Great Lakes Steel, for box cars and coil cars.

Lincoln Station

Rob was full of ideas. The Lincoln/branchline station will be moved back to the edge of the benchwork and both the upper mainline and the branchline will pass in front of it. This will make the loop back to Ortona 18 inch radius instead of 16.

You will notice the track to the side door of the station. This could be a new siding for freight from the mainline to the branchline.

As this part of the branchline will have to be moved anyway (to parallel the upper mainline) the turnout could be installed at the same time.

Lincoln sidings.

At the last meeting many members were against moving the Allen Lumber siding and Buckley Mills siding so they were switched from the upper mainline near the station.

Rob came up with the idea of moving the turnout back to the upper mainline passing siding, thus creating a long lead track to these sidings, eliminating mainline interference. We could even remove the short piece of track by the hunk of solder and make all 4 industries west bound switching. This would really help even the east and west bound switching.

Friday afternoon at the Huff and Puff

Above picture is of the Mutual Grain siding. Got all the boosters sorted out and test run over the layout, everything is good. Got all the sidings lengthened, and a lot of the rolling stock put in their starting locations.

New siding to Mutual Grain.

Glen's train returning to Wellington.  

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.

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?