Large Scale Central

Saturday at the Woodland Railway (many pix!)

General Discussion
#1

Saturday, Jim Strong hosted an ops session at the Woodland Railway. The event was attended by a rare East Coast appearance by prodigal son, Kevin, WVMGRS regulars, Bruce and Jean Chandler, and Jack Thompson. Sadly, the much anticipated running of the new downsized Connie was postponed due to the shippers using Kevin’s package for a game of kickball. Several parts were broken or bent! Jim used a color disc (painted pennies) method of routing cars. The discs corresponding to various destinations are placed on the cars. The Dunkirk, sporting a special Woodland Railway/C&A Ry. livery, was called into action -

delivering its final load down at Willow Flats -

Kevin was doing something in the bushes

Oh, he’s running a passenger service :wink:

Bruce tried running some of his smaller vehicles but the motor car got stuck sideways in the turn around tunnel at Woodland Junction. Not learning his lesson, he tried running the track inspection car through the same tunnel. Both will need a few nights of repairs -

Jack was also doing something in the bushes

He was running his track inspection loco which needed five finger helper service to make it up the big 6% grade between Woodland Junction and Hemlock Hills. Ben and Dusty discuss the nuisances of AirWire in Ben’s mogul

I ran my new 7/8’s scale rail tractor off of 4 AA cells. 6 volts was just right and it looked great running around the layout -

A good time was had by all - (left to right) Kevin, Dusty, Ben, unknown woman, Alan, Jim, Ken, Bruce, Jean and Big Jack.

-Brian

#2

Great pics, including that suspicious one of Kevin in the bushes.

Can you expand on the colored disc method of car routing? It sounds easy, but I want to make sure that I understand it.

#3

Cars are spotted initially through out the layout. There are five different yards/interchanges each with a corresponding color - red for tall oaks, blue for hemlock hills, etc. The discs are placed on the cars and its up to you to put your train together and then deliver or pick up the cars as you go along your route.
Its a system that would work well with smaller layouts by shuffling cars between sidings and industries.

-Brian

#4
Brian Donovan said:
Cars are spotted initially through out the layout. There are five different yards/interchanges each with a corresponding color - red for tall oaks, blue for hemlock hills, etc. The discs are placed on the cars and its up to you to put your train together and then deliver or pick up the cars as you go along your route. Its a system that would work well with smaller layouts by shuffling cars between sidings and industries.

-Brian


And it can be sub-divided by numbering the sidings/industries of any given location, also requires knowing the direction of travel since East bounds only pick up cars that go East etc. etc.
Saves quite a bit on the paperwork and is reasonably easy to use even for newbies. Doesn’t do a thing for the colour blind!

#5

I was there later in the day, with wife and one child. Got to meet Kevin and Jim again and Jack Thompson. A real treat, and our daughter had a great time with Kevin’s daughter and Kevin’s Mom. I didn’t bring anything to run, partly because I don’t have anything that runs on batteries and partly for the same reason I would not play guitar around Eric Clapton or George Benson. Better to watch and learn.

It’s a really wonderful railroad, just beautifully designed as a garden as well as a railroad. Every viewpoint seems well considered

#6

Thanx for the pix and description of the session. Bruce has talked about Jim’s RR a few times. I came through that area on I-95 on Sat. If I’d known about it I’d have blown the horn on the truck just to wish you guys luck…:wink:

#7

Cool photos, Brian. I’ve got my thoughts on the day posted here: http://www.mylargescale.com/Community/Forums/tabid/56/forumid/5/postid/41307/view/topic/Default.aspx

(http://home.comcast.net/~kcstrong/WRYops/wryops19.jpg)

Here’s one of Brian switching out Woodland Junction. BTW, if you have Garden Railways magazines back to 1996, I think, dad and I wrote an article on the tab-on-car operation system that’s close to what we used on Saturday. Dad and I talked about some refinements to it, so we’ll see where that leads. I had a blast! It was fantastic meeting you guys in person. I always wish we had more time to just sit back and chat because I keep feeling pulled in so many different directions at these things. Later, K

#8

That is an amazing railroad garden (note the order of the words). I especially like the first pic with the track exiting a rock hewn tunnel and then going immediately under the hanging rock. Fantastic. Then it looks as if it has been in place for centuries with all the moss and lichen strewn around. Wonderful.

#9

Great documentary on both sites of a good event. Thanks for sharing.

#10

Colored penny form used for years on indoor railroads. One might use colored thumb tacks, color indicates the town while a letter or number on top of the tack would indicate the spot or industry in that town the car goes. Really enjoyed the pictures, would like to visit there myself one of these days - sure looks like a cool spot to be in the hot summer months!

#11

I just looked up the article we wrote - June 1994, if your collections go back that far. We adapted the idea from an article in one of the small-scale magazines. If I recall, they had different shaped tabs for various styles of cars, which went a step further to determine which cars went to which specific industries.

I think dad uses the WVMGRS e-mail list to publicize the dates of his operating sessions, so if you’re going to be in the area over the summer, you’re always welcome to attend. I don’t know if the dates show up on an on-line calendar or anything like that. Brian may be able to shed more light.

BTW, the unidentified woman in the group photo is Jenn Meyers, a friend of Allison’s who lives nearby.

Later,

K

#12

Yes, what a fun day. Great to meet some new folks! Clearances were certainly tight. I THOUGHT that my Shay might make it, but it kept getting hung up on the rocks. I’m glad that you found the hose bracket, Kevin. (Now, if you find the step board for the light inspection car, or the brackets for the cow-catcher on the motorcar, let me know - I’ll be right over! )

(http://www.jbrr.com/Pics/Events/WoodlandRY/IMG_5153.JPG)

The Woodland Railway just looks neat.

(http://www.jbrr.com/Pics/Events/WoodlandRY/IMG_5162.JPG)

I barely caught Jack in this picture, but that’s Jim running the passenger train.

(http://www.jbrr.com/Pics/Events/WoodlandRY/IMG_5163.JPG)

Here, Ben, Jack, Ken, and Kevin discuss some weighty topic. Note the baggage car used as a temporary storage platform.

(http://www.jbrr.com/Pics/Events/WoodlandRY/IMG_5172.JPG)