Large Scale Central

1.5 Operations

Operations
#1

Today, we setup for Car Card/Waybill Ops this weekend at the Ridge Live Steamers in Dundee, Florida. 80 freight and Passenger cars, which include some ride on cars. Took most of the day to get them spread out over the acreage at all the sidings. Operations is basic, 5 car trains with 2 ride on cars for up to 4 crew members, an engine and a caboose. So 9 or 10 cars depending on the power. Interesting, takes time to get the cars out of the storage buildings and gathered at the main yard. Then matching car cards with a waybill and placing on the cars. It takes time to cover the railroad, place the cars at the industries, and get the rolling stock to stay where you want it. 5 major switching areas out on the railroad, plus 2 interchange tracks. Each switching area location has 6 cars pre - staged. Interchange tracks hold 4. That’s what we did today. Tomorrow, the plan is to make up a train with 5 cars. The switching locations each have a waybill box. The 5 waybills you bring with you go in the back of the box and you take the front 5 cards and figure out their location in the switching area. That’s the gists of what I know now.

Fresh report tomorrow evening.

Check out -

http://www.ridgelivesteamers.org/

Go to -

“Pictures” and you can click on the Ops Sessions in 2014 and 2015.

#2

Track plan is in PDF form HERE: http://www.ridgelivesteamers.org/new_trackplan.htm

I’ve done one visit with a friend and we were offered a ride.

The track plan or route we followed may have made sense to our kind engineer, but we felt a little like we’d run in circles!

Our run that day in 2012: Don and Hans ride in Ridge

Ric,

Are you staying in the “camping” section?

#3

Hi Don,

Yes, we are.

It does look like a spaghetti bowl on a track diagram or from an areal view. But the terrain is quite varied and locations are isolated by elevation or vegetation. It was daunting at first, but you do get used to the locations and can see one location following another along the line.

The first day of Ops is complete and was very interesting. We ran with 4 person crews and I was allowed to be the conductor on 6 different trains. Most were turns or extras with the train going out and returning to the same yard. All were freight trains and made up of an engine, forward riding car for engineer and forward brakeman, 5 freight cars, a back riding car for the switch man and conductor and then a caboose. A waybill/car card box was at each switching location and it contained the cards of the equipment already there at the labeled industries. The 5 cars that were brought in were exchanged with the first 5 cars in the car card box and then the inbound car cards were place at the back of the box upon being set out. Destinations were either a track or a specific location on a track at a loading platform or warehouse door.

A passenger train ran to a timetable in each direction. They had an arrival and departure schedule for each location and the freights had to respect and stay clear of the passenger schedule. The two passenger trains ran their complete loops each direction in an hours time. The passenger schedule was without an hour marking and only distinguished minutes of each hour for both station arrival and departure. This was a new experience for me, but easy to catch on to. You looked for your location on the passenger timetable and checked the time the passenger trains would be at that location. The rest of the time the track was yours, but you had to guard front and back, for other traffic, if not in an industrial trackage area.

It is all well thought out and well done. Lots of thought and effort was put forth to get the operations this far. Not all of the club members embrace the “operations” logic and so it is currently only run a few times a year. But switching districts, clear of main line running will allow everyone to share in the fun at the same time, as things progress.

Pictures should be posted on the club’s website within a couple of days. I’ll note it, when they are posted.

#4

That track plan sure is busy, but it looks like they have packed as long a run as possible into the space they have by doing a lot of looping. This is one area of the hobby I have been meaning to explore. There is a pretty active club track about an hour and a half from me that has a public open house every Fathers Day. One year I will get there!

Glad you had fun!

#5

That one area over on the far right looks like it would be a fun place to spend a day switching…(http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)

Half a day figuring it out and the other half getting it done.

And YeeHaw Jct. is an actual place in FL. Follow 60 east to the turnpike…(http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)

#6

Ric and others in the Illinois/Michigan area:

Everybody is probably familiar with the very large Train Mountain layout in Southern Oregon. Over forty miles of actual track and covers a few thousand acres. But there is also a beautiful layout in Western Michigan built specifically for operations. 6-1/2 miles of actual track sitting on 120 plus acres and is a PRIVATE railroad!! Called White Creek Railroad.

Check out this one video showing just a couple of switching operations and setting out some cars using a card system. Lots of physical work is done by these folks and great exercise. This property has two large lakes that can be traveled around on the railroad if you just want to do a little “sight-seeing”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mU0AZfDG4ac

There are many other videos of this railroad available on Youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaRCo1gOLu4

http://www.whitecreekrr.com/story/

#7

Today, we had rain predicted about 3 pm and a cold front was coming through. Trust me a cold front is not what Jan and I know as a COLD front. Anyway, not near as many people showed and nobody wanted to get wet, so all the rolling stock was brought back to “Elston Yard” from all the locations and sorted as to ownership and which barn they went in. Then everything was put away and buttoned up. Almost as much fun as the last two days.

Rain came in about 2 pm EST and things got quiet. What a great weekend and experience.

Like many HO layouts that are confined to space, they look like a spaghetti bowl, but as I told Don, the terrain and elevations really does divide it quite a bit. Do a little “finger following” and you will see that it is basically a large series of reverse loop to reverse loops with many different out and back destinations. If you look at the track plan, “Ridgeville Station” and “Elston Yard” are the operational two ends of the railroad.

I can certainly say that after running 6 different trains to 5 different locations, I have been able to establish, in my head, the different switching areas and routes. When you take a train, you should expect to be gone for a couple of hours.

Ken, that Bowen Jct. area is at the highest point on the railroad. Club cars, available for anyone to use, are located in the “G” Barn. My thoughts for a day’s fun is to gather cars from the “G” Barn, take to “Bowen Jct.” and set out and then exchange and return. For 2 trains running you could have cars delivered to “TJ Bissett” , which is center bottom of the layout at Mile Post 44 to MP45. And then a “Turn” would run them up to Bowen Jct. for distribution. Our little bus will haul 3 cars and the riding car with two people. This distance is literally about a half of mile and 40 feet elevation change, going up to Bowen Jct. from TJ Bissett Yard.

Side note - TJ “Tommy” Bissett was the original owner of the rail bus we now have.

Believe this would make for a very enjoyable, busy day. During the “Operations”, Bowen Jct. and Bowen Branch was only used as a back in location for the passenger trains. No freight work was done there.

Gary, I’ve heard of both Train Mountain and White Creek, both on my bucket list. Another private railroad, but maybe more achievable, is Eagle Point in Tennessee. The Florida Live Steamers say it is literally chisled out of the rocks.

So much to do, so little time.

#8

Ric,

I have had many long phone calls from Scott Lindsay, owner of J&S Railcar in Tennessee telling me how great Eagle Point is. This is definitely one on my “bucket list” too. Check out the Youtube videos of this place. FLS guys are right…it is literally chiseled out of rock on the mountain! Rocks the size of houses!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIKssYrnfak

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRbCegKap5M

#9

Great videos, thanks Gary!

#10

Ken, that Bowen Jct. area is at the highest point on the railroad. Club cars, available for anyone to use, are located in the “G” Barn. My thoughts for a day’s fun is to gather cars from the “G” Barn, take to “Bowen Jct.” and set out and then exchange and return.

I can see where that would take a day to accomplish.

#11

1.5 Operations with the Chattanooga Society of Model Engineers this coming weekend. First visit to the Eagle Point Railroad. Should be an interesting experience.

http://csme-eprr.com/eprr.htm

I’ll report on the event as it unfolds and time permits.

#12

Well, I can tell you they have very poor internet connections in them there hills.

Great railroad and great experience. It is as good of layout as the pictures on the website show.

Got to be Conductor on one of the two passenger trains that run each way from the middle station at Eagle Point, each hour. Each way means up to the top of the mountain and turns at “Henley Switch” and down to the bottom at “Sale Creek” and returns to “Eagle Point”

You can find these locations here -

http://csme-eprr.com/track/map/index.htm

The passenger trains are 101, which leaves “Eagle Point” becoming 102 at “Henley Switch” at the top and then returns to “Eagle Point”. The next hour it becomes 103 and runs to “Cumberland” and then becomes 104 running down through “Sale Creek” before returning to “Eagle Point”. At the end of the second hour the process starts over as the third hour begins with 101 heading for “Henley Switch”. This passenger ops started at 0900 and ended at 1600. The schedule is run using the the minutes on all cell phones and the two passenger trains would meet each hour at “Stillhouse”.

The name of the railroad comes from a rock outcropping that looks much like the silhouette of the old “Mopac Screaming Eagle”, located right by “Eagle Point Station”.

#13

Photos of the OPs at Eagle Point from the Spring of 2016 are posted -

http://csme-eprr.com/events/photos/2016/042224SpringCardOrder/index1.htm

Enjoy!