Engineer Patrick runs an L&N RS3 around its cars to spot empties at the Mayflower tipple as conductor Rick checks the switch list
Last night marked another successful operating session on the St Charles Branch–the first with the scenery base in place and perhaps the last lower-deck only session. We ran a full 1968 session with three trains, all led by aging first-gen power. First up was the L&N’s CV Local with Patrick at the controls and Rick making his debut as a conductor. A pair of loads picked up at the trailing point operation at Maness (off the layout) gave the crew a little extra to work around all shift. While the CV Local was up the Bailey’s Creek Branch, I ran Southern Train 61, brining in a couple dozen empties from Andover and picking up last night’s loads from the tiny yard at St Charles. For the first time, train 61 was led by a trio of grungy F-units.
Southern’s Train 61 shoves a string of empties past the JAD Turner loader in St Charles
After waiting a bit for the slower-than-normal work of train 61 to finish up in St Charles, the CV Local tied up in Pennington staging before Patrick and Rick fired up the pair of local F-units for the Southern’s St Charles Switcher. Blocking their train in the yard, the crew set out to work four loaders including the two new stand-in mock-ups in St Charles. The job took 8 fast-clock hours to complete due to all four operations being stub-ended and requiring run-arounds and removal of loads before spotting empties–’twas the lot of those who worked this line!
The St Charles Switcher completes a run-around at Mayflower with Rick at the controls
“Firsts” and experiments for this session
First session with zero derailments from poor track or cars (we did have an operator-induced derailment, but I won’t say who…)
Rick directing the switching moves at Mayflower as conductor for the St Charles Switcher
Had a great small operating session with a new operator, Rick Trinkle. Rick is an O-scaler and serious BN modeler, so I tried to show him that the hills are greener in the HO scale Appalachians. We took our time and ran three trains over about 3 1/2 hours circa 1976. It was amazing how much more “in role” the layout seems with a few mountains painted on the backdrop and the basic hills down. The layout also cooperated more than usual with only a few slight hiccups… each time is an improvement.
Rick pointed out this cool view that is now possible with the backdrops complete… just a little foreground needed…
One new thing I added to operations was an “origin” column in the master switch list to go along with the “destination.” This allowed us to not only build a custom switch list with the cars in our outbound train, but it allowed us to search through the master switch list to identify the cars we should be picking up to make it a complete switch list. Going to stick with this!
There were some “firsts” in this session:
First operating session with any “green” on the layout
First use of an “origin” column in the master switch list
First use of a TCS Wow Sound decoder (a replacement for the burnt out LokSound in my L&N C420)–sounded amazing, especially shoving cuts of cars up the hill to Mayflower!
Learning points:
Gravity-assisted switching moves are useful and doable with the “handbrakes”–we used the brake above the yard twice to move the caboose from one track to another using gravity instead of a long run-around–saved a lot of time!
Still a couple derailments, both Tangent cars… very odd since these are the heaviest cars on my layout
Still need a couple more “handbrakes” in spots to keep cars from rolling when spotted–these can be the simpler static paint brush variety
Rick working the St Charles Local dropping empties at St Charles YardThe ever-dreaded back-up move shoving 25 empty cars into the yard at St Charles
Patrick and Stuart work Mayflower with the St Charles SwitcherPatrick runs the St Charles Local figuring out how to get 10 pounds of cars to fit in a 5 pound sack
Or is it “operating session Aug 2, 1976?”… Regardless of the date, it was a lot of fun hosting two great friends, Stuart Thayer and Patrick Tillery. This was the first-ever 3-operator session on the layout, and despite only having one of the two decks complete, it still took the three of us the better part of three hours to run four trains. Part of that is because I know Stuart and Patrick are both experienced operators and prototype buffs, so we put some “veteran mode” rules into effect. In addition to the normal rules of “get the cars where they need to go,” “follow signals,” and “follow the timetable and orders,” we had to protect crossings (more on that in a later post), unlock/set/lock semaphores to protect the branches we were operating, cut cars to avoid blocking a new road across two yard tracks, and follow all blocking instructions including placing all loads ahead of empties.
Trains included a “Black Mountain Local” that simulated bringing in the previous night’s haul from the non-existent upper-deck tipples, an L&N “CV Local” to handle the L&N’s trackage-rights agreements at two tipples, Train 61/60 the “St Charles Local” bringing empty hoppers out of Andover (staging) and returning with loads, and the “St Charles Switcher” working St Charles area tipples and the Baileys Trace Branch to Mayflower. With the “veteran mode” rules in effect, even the simplest of trains still took a while to operate. Just the movement of the Black Mountain Local out of the helix (including a stop to reset the semaphore) and blocking in the three-track yard took a full scale hour (15 minutes real-time). Despite the simplicity of the St Charles Local’s job (bring empties, pick up loads), the yard’s prototypically small size creates the need to use the tracks and wye creatively to swap out cuts, and the instruction that all empties (in this case empty covered hoppers) have to go behind the loads, drives the sequence of picking up cuts.
Having completed work at Baker, Patrick slows the mine run to a crawl on the way back to Mayflower as Stuart protects the crossing with fusees
Growling L&N C420 1317 plied the Southern’s rails without incident with Stuart at the throttle, but his luck was not to hold when he took the throttle for the St Charles Switcher with GP38AC 2877 and GP35 2649 at his control. Let’s just say that there is a certain switch at Mayflower that 2649 decided it needed to jump every time, and it only needed to cross that switch 18 times to work the tipple. Despite several breaks to ensure proper gauge and freedom of motion in 2649’s trucks and tweaking some spots in the switch with a gauge and pair of pliers, 2649 was determined to stay on the ground. Of course, now that the session is over, 2649 navigates that switch just fine… sigh. I still have a long way to go until things are bulletproof.
First use of the new “fusees” I’m installing at all the grade crossings
First use of the new-and-improved crew assignment board
First time a “tipple” has been in place at Baker (a new mock-up)
First use of a new “speed-retarding system” on the steep portions of the St Charles Yard (spaced-out monofilament line)
First use of the new “safety slogans”… and no one was seriously hurt 😉
And of course some areas for improvement and “lessons learned”:
Too many derailments–I still need to improve my trackwork to make it bulletproof
I need to make blocking instructions more prominent if I want them to be followed
I don’t think the use of the train-order semaphore in St Charles is as understandable as it needs to be
I still need to work on the crew assignments to better balance how much each operator works
The St Charles Switcher arrives back in St Charles completing the ops sessionCrew assignment board for the session–I modified it halfway through to give “operator 1” more jobs… still working on balancing things
Patrick working the St Charles Local–dropping off fresh empties and picking up loads to take back to Appalachia and Andover
Yesterday was the second operating session on the St Charles Branch, and Patrick Tillery was again my partner in crime. Despite only having the tracks for one deck complete, we were able to run 4 trains, and it took us about 2 1/2 hours to get all the chores done. That’s a pretty good showing for only 1/2 the layout and 2 operators! I learned a lot in the session, mainly which switches to keep working on to avoid derailments, but at least we didn’t have any repeat offenders, so I’ll call it progress!
L&N 100 (still an “in progress” model) works Mayflower as the power for the CV Local
For this session, I picked the date July 30th, 1969 which meant F-units for the Southern’s mine run and and RS3 for the L&N. We ran a “busy day” with two Southern mine runs. Since the helix was recently completed, I staged the “Black Mountain Local” on the helix with loaded hoppers as if it was returning from the tipples which will eventually be on the upper deck, so it was more like 1/2 a train, but it did add a little more operation as the train needed to be blocked in the yard and the power tied up. It also required some “meets” in St Charles, so the orders needed to specify which legs of the wye to occupy and which to leave open for the higher priority trains. No collisions, so I guess I’ll call that a success.
In addition to having a full set of fascia controls to work with and the beginnings of backdrops, this session had some other notable “firsts”
First session with first gen diesel sounds (EMD 567s and and Alco 244)
This is the makeshift job board for session #2 and the 4 trains we ran
Some things I learned:
Even with the switch lists, I probably still need a “master switch list” everyone can access
Instructions for the crews need to be a little more explicit on the job required and not just a blocking sheet
A little momentum in the locomotives made it more fun and realistic–I’ll probably turn it up a bit more next time
Even though it’s a small chore, using the switch locks and semaphore controls added some prototypical realism and slowed things down a little (which is good)
Overall I’d call it a success. It was fun, and it motivates me to keep going! If anyone reading this is ever in Colorado Springs, give me a shout and we’ll set up another.
This is the makeshift job board for session #2 and the 4 trains we ran
Since there’s no upper deck yet, the helix served as a staging track for the “Black Mountain Local”
Patrick finishing up the Black Mountain Local by blocking cars for pick-up by the St Charles Local
L&N 100 (still an “in progress” model) works Mayflower as the power for the CV Local
Patrick working the St Charles Local–dropping off fresh empties and picking up loads to take back to Appalachia and Andover
Patrick Tillery stops at the St Charles depot while running the first-ever L&N CV Local
I’d like to thank Patrick Tillery for informing we he was coming over Monday night to check out progress on the layout which became the catalyst for the first multi-train operating session on the St Charles Branch! Despite some major obstacles such as having to reach under or across the layout to throw switches and a couple turnouts and cars that were acting up under their first real use, we managed to run 3 trains: the St Charles Local, the St Charles Switcher, and the L&N’s CV Local. These are the three primary trains on the layout during “busy times” across all eras of the layout–the timing of the trains may vary, but each serves the same basic function.
The St Charles Local is a scheduled train that runs between Appalachia/Andover, VA and St Charles. In leaner times, it serves as the mine run for the St Charles area branches. In heavier times, it serves to shuttle empty hoppers to the small “yard” at St Charles and pick up loads retrieved by the St Charles-based mine run. This is the “big train” on the layout and the only train to ever be assigned more than two locomotives.
The St Charles Switcher, known in some eras at the Black Mountain Local, is the mine run based out of St Charles that serves the area loaders. It picks up empties dropped off by the St Charles Local and plies the numerous branches and tipples dropping off empties and picking up loads. This train is the star of operations on the layout and the only train that will normally have a crew of two (conductor and engineer).
L&N CV Local runs around its empties at Mayflower with Patrick at the controls–the C420 is still in TC colors
The L&N Cumberland Valley (CV) Local is the only other scheduled train on the layout. This train works the old L&N mainline between Corbin, KY and Appalachia, VA including the modest coal loadings of the Middlesboro, KY area mines and the St Charles Branch. The L&N has trackage rights over the portion of the St Charles Branch from L&N Junction (Pocket), VA to the ends of the branches beyond St Charles which it reached via a short L&N branch between Pocket, VA and the L&N’s CV mainline at Pennington, VA. Despite several loaders in this area, the prototype CV Local never seemed to need more than a single locomotive, an RS3 or a C420, to handle the handful of hopper loads bound for the L&N.
Last night’s operating session took about 2 real hours. Patrick took the first train, the L&N CV Local, up to Mayflower to swap out 4 empties for 5 loads. Leading the train was Alco C420 400 still in Tennessee Central colors (it’s bound for the paint shop soon, but the L&N used ex-TC C420s on this line because they were the lightest on the railroad). The CV Local had to first stop at the depot track on St Charles wye to pick up an extra set of orders from the Southern dispatcher. This job took about 40 minutes from start to finish. After the L&N CV Local cleared St Charles, the St Charles Switcher with me as engineer showed up with 18 cars – 16 empties, a covered hopper of fertilizer for Mayflower, and a boxcar for the team track at St Charles. It took about 20 minutes to assemble the loads from the previous day and replace them with the fresh cars in the tiny 3-track yard. A derailment kept the L&N CV Local waiting for a few minutes until the superior train on the timetable was finally able to depart for Appalachia.
With the home rails now to itself, the St Charles Switcher left the house track next to the depot to serve four tipples with Patrick as engineer and me as conductor. We worked the two local tipples first, JAD Turner and Cavalier, before swapping out the boxcar for a now empty flat on the team track. With the locals taken care of, we swapped roles and picked up the remaining empties an the load of fertilizer and headed up the branch to Mayflower. At Mayflower, it took two sets of run-around moves to place the empties above the tipple and swap out covered hoppers on the tail track. One more run-around set us up to work the stub track at Baker before assembling all the loads and departing town. A little blocking back at St Charles yard rounded out the job which took nearly an hour.
All told, we got 2 hours of operations out of just 1/2 the layout–not bad! Despite working out a few kinks in the rolling stock and trackwork, the overall track arrangements worked well for the jobs–they required enough moves to keep operators thinking and having to make smart moves without being frustrating for lack of sufficient track. I underestimated how handy it is to have a wye for turning trains working the yard instead of having to run around the length of the train. It was also the first major use of paperwork on the layout, something I’ll describe in more detail in a future article.
I’m so glad Patrick was up to playing guinea pig for the first session, and I’ve now got a new punch list of stuff I need to fix before attempting this again. All part of the learning process!
