18 Ops 121419 by Verryl V Fosnight Jr
Verryl V Fosnight Jr's Gallery Verryl V Fosnight Jr's Gallery
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  1. Verryl V Fosnight Jr's Gallery
  2. Wyoming Division HO Operation LayoutWyoming Division HO Operation Layout
  3. 18 Ops 12141918 Ops 121419
03 Phase III Construction
04 Phase IV All Track Done--Details
05 Structures
06 Wyoming Division Operation Sessions
07 Fall Invitational Nov 12-14, 2016
08 First Annual Winter Invitational
09 Backdrops Signals Scenery
10 Backdrops Signals Scenery
11 2017 Winter Invitational Meet BBQ
12 2017 Winter Invitational Meet Ops
13 Winter Invitational 2017 Lenander Photos
14 2018 Fourth Winter Invitational
16 Spring Invitational (5th) Ops Meet
17 Photographing the WyoDivOps 12/14/19
18 Ops 121419
19 Photos "Lightweight Ops Article"
20 Scenery and Structures June 2020
21 Wyoming Division Scenery
22 ABS Signals
23 Structures During Pandemic
24 Post Pandemic August 2022
25 How We Operate-Fall 2022
Op Session of 12/14/19: This view is of both slopes of Sherman HIl (east slope on the far bench, west slop on the near bench), and is taken from the 7 foot wide view mezzanine that is suspended over the 75 foot length of the layout building. The mezzanine has no supports under it except at the ends, so there are no posts to obstruct the benches on the floor. Here the first train has passed the redimix plant on the outskirts of Laramie and is stopped at the ABS "Mother May I" ABS signal controlled by the Laramie YM Guy Forsythe in the vest. The Laramie tie treating plant borders the tracks here.
Op Session of 12/14/19: The engineer watches the ABS signal bridge for his signal to turn from red to yellow. This signal is manually controlled by the YM to meter the input to his Laramie yard, so that he can set the route for the train through his yard. The coal and water stop with line shacks at Harriman, Wyoming can be seen just over Bob Ellis' head. Bob is the Passenger Train Superintendent on the Wyoming Division. He manages the Streamliner City Trains of San Francisco, LA, Portland, and St. Louis as well as a few mixed trains each session.
Op Session of 12/14/19: This is the opposite side of the 50 foot wide building showing the Cheyenne yard above staging. Fred Eisenthall (red shirt) works Cheyenne while Ted Maas takes his train past Wamsutter, Wyoming. Below Ted's bench is part of Rock Springs, Wyoming on the lower level of the free standing mushroom design benches.
Op Session of 12/14/19: Same view with Lenny Wyatt, head electrician-3D printer-laser etcher-and master model maker who is passing. Lenny built the steel buildings (there is a separate shop and crew lounge building next door. One of the 16 phones that connect to the Dispatcher on the mezzanine can be seen also at Fred's elbow.
Op Session of 12/14/19: This shows about 1/2 of the upper level of the layout, with parts of some of the lower level visible. On the top level from right to left are Cheyenne (which continues across the top of the photo), then Wamsutter at the east end of the Harriman siding (center siding), the Red Desert region, and Rawlins, Wyoming with the Sinclair Refinery. Part of Cheyenne's Frontier Refinery is at Fred's right. On the lower level can be seen the western end of Rock Springs. The east end is in the last photo.
Op Session of 12/14/19: This is the same view as the last, except I got Nick on the lower level behind the main helix 2x6 structure to look up. Nick is very valuable to us. He works 2 or 3 days to help set up for each monthly operating session, placing trains in starting positions other than the main staging (lower level, far right), cleaning track, and emptying coal hoppers around the layout for the 3 Coal Extra jobs are ready to receive new loads.
This is a long view of the rest of the upper level not captured in the last two photos. The industries in west Cheyenne include a steel supply, Wyoming State Liquor, the stock yards beside the tracks, and Wycon Chemical, a producer of fertilizer from Wyoming's ample supply of trona (soda) mined (on the layout) near Green River on the lower level. Shown on the far right are tracks #1 and #2, and #3 (leaving Speer Wye), all going up Sherman Hill. The next bench brings #1 and #2 back down into Laramie where the YM and engineers are clustered. The coal town of Hanna is to the far left under the viewing mezzanine.
Slightly different view showing Bob Burke who is the Cheyenne Train Master, operating the 60 Tortoise switch machines in the complex Cheyenne yard.
Another attempt to show the entire upper level of the layout. This is again is a view over Cheyenne, but from the other end of the steam yard, and the classification yard it to the extreme left. The next bench to the right of the Cheyenne Classification tracks has Wamsutter and the center siding between the E and W mains. This Harriman Siding is over 17 feet long to accommodate our longest trains of loco and tender plus 30 cars and a caboose. The cabooses are necessary, because it is 1957. The arcing... 
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support over the yard holds a miniature video camera to peer down to the transfer table between the car shop buildings. After all this bench is 74 inches (7 feet) wide. That explains the use of 60 Tortoise switch machines mentioned on the last photo for the turnouts beyond reach from the aisle.
This is taken from the opposite corner of the building, and it shows the other half of the upper level of the layout, plus some of the lower level. On the lower level to the right is Evanston, WY just past the two mile long tunnels #2 and #3 (Aspin and Altamont). Danny brings his train out of Wyoming into Utah, having just gone through the Wasatch Tunnel (#4) and one of the two Curvo Tunnels (#6). Curvo Tunnel #5 is on the other track, but cannot be seen with the lower level tucked underneath the upper bench.
Pretty much the same view. In the foreground is the mountain through which Aspin and Altamount tunnels pass, and the tracks can be seen in the open just past the west portals. Some of the 11 foot long main helix can be seen on the far right. he far corner of the room is just to the right of the window. The layout fills the 50 x 75 foot one room building
This is Echo, Utah with the Ideal Cement plant that made the iconic Red Devil brand of bagged cement. Here the operator is switching 2 hoppers of coal across the trestle to leave at Ideal. He is using the Echo steam goat, but his road consist is a pair of RS-2's visible under the coal tower. Echo has a 3 track yard (17 feet long tracks), and one of these tracks is the beginning of the Park City Branch. It is the outer track that continues on to hidden Park City Utah. The steep grade of this hidden track can be seen. The Park City Local job leaves Ogden (far end of this bench), switches Echo, continues to Park City, switches it, and returns to Ogden, leaving any east bound cars at Echo for the Ogden-Green River Local.
On this day, two new operators worked together here. Note that the west bound coal drag is on the left hand main. AS with Sherman Hill, UP runs on the newer 1905 left hand track between Ogden and Curvo to utilize the shallower grade it has. The upper level aisle can bee seen through the access opening (looking past the white dispatcher's phone). A construction note: 1 1/4" square tubing welded into the shape of a capital letter F" was used for the benches. To the long, side of this "F" (backwards... 
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here) was screwed a 4 x 8 sheet of 1/2 in plywood (the phone is mounted on it). Two second sheets of 1/2 inch plywood made up the bases of the 2 benches, upper and lower. The spline track or plywood cutouts made up the track roadbeds. The flat sheets of plywood make up sturdy shear panels in the vertical and horizontal directions. The lower level backdrop is curved to form a wire channel for the lower level. The upper levels have a wire channel behind the 6" tall doors (see hinges and handles).
This is Green River, WY, and here the curved backdrop is exaggerated at this angle. Eventually buildings and flats will be against the backdrop fronted by the spur tracks that are already used for ersatz industries. A west bound City passenger train round the bend out of Green River. It will either go through Ogden (City of LA or City of San Francisco) or cut off at the near end of the left bench to go though a "mouse hole" entrance to the hidden track of the Oregon Short Line (OSL) as the City of Portland. The hidden track can be seen a few inches below the bench to the left. This hidden track is 186 feet long and ends in a 10 track hidden staging yard under the next bench over to the right. This staging yard is "Portland Oregon."
This is the "end" of the layout--the end of the layout with scenery. This is the end view of the Cheyenne classification yard seen looking over the Frontier Refinery. Across the aisle is Wamsutter, WY, and on this west side of Wamsutter is a stretch 3 tracks, #1 and #2 (west and east bound mains), and between them is a center siding (Harriman Siding) that serves either track. The double ABS signals can be seen at the left edge of the photo; the top signal head shows a green aspect. The lower head... 
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signals the center track, the siding. The turnouts leading to the center siding at either end--3 each, 1 on each main and a Y turnout on the siding--are operated manually with slide electrical switches that connect electrically to Arduino computers programs to set the lower signal head either red or yellow depending on the setting of the turnouts. The Dispatcher's desk is on the mezzanine beside the hanging 12" steel beam that holds up the mezzanine from huge arches over the floor (seen at the right side of photo
I took many of these photos with my new Lumix G9 computer--I mean camera. It automatically assembles a single image from about 30 to 60 images it takes as a video at 30 frames/sec, using the best in-focus parts of those many images to make a "focus stacked" final image. It, plus the Leica lens, has 6 axes stabilization, so it works well hand held for the 1-2 second of exposure. There is no way to capture this deep image of this 50 foot long bench with al of it and the far wall in focus without using... 
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Helicon (which I also use) to digitally assemble many manually focused images taken with a camera on a tripod. This set up is not practical with 25+ busy operators walking the aisles. We normally have about that many operators to each session. This was my first use of the camera for focus stacking, and I was unsure that I would be able to hold the camera steady, so I took multiple shots--as you can see from the duplicates in this album.
Ditto: another focus stacked image. It was a waste of time and of electrons to take multiple images. Not one of about 12 had held focus stack photos came out with camera shake. I built the Frontier Refinery with miscellaneous junk parts, many from old computers. The piping was 3D printed by a commercial outfit.
Guy Forsythe today's YM in Laramie. Sherman Hill on the far bench, and Hanna coal marshaling yard on the bench to the left. Medicine Bow, WY is at the far end of the left bench. The iron oxide horizontal beams are the floor of the view mezzanine, and the end of one 12 inch I-beam from which it is hung is visible at the edge of the floor beams. These vertical beams are hung from two very large overhead beams that arch over the whole floor space. Thus there are no posts obstructing the floor. One of the large arch beams, painted sky blue, can be seen rising from behind the far back drop and continuing along the pitched ceiling.
This is Otto, the day's staging YM. Staging is 15 tracks wide, 7 on each side of a through track down the center. The diagonal track divide the staging tracks in half. One quarter to the far left is storage, the near quarter is fr incoming/outgoing tracks, and the far 7 tracks are used for passenger train storage (to the right) and for train assembly far right. Unseen are 5 18 foot long tracks on the same lower level of the bench to the far left (i.e., under Cheyenne). We call these "North Platte,"... 
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and before a session they are loaded with trains from all points east. There is also the 10 track staging yard of "Portland" at the end of the hidden track of theOSL. We also stage trains out on the mains and in some yards so at the beginning of a session there is activity all along the 1,008 foot long double tracked mains #1 and #2.
An east bound City passenger train passes by Wamsutter, WY on #2 main, passing the Harriman Siding between the two mains. The large piece of polycarbonate at the edge of the bench is to protect the signals, crossing gate, and pole from operators' arms. It, and others are meant to be removable for photos. Oh well, maybe next time.
Lenny Wyatt in his cubby hole operating his 3D printer. He has drawn and made windmills, stock tanks, snow fences, crossing gates, and other items for the layout.
Danny reporting to the Dispatcher as he arrives at Ogden. The operator in the mole hole is switching the 13 industries of Downtown Ogden, which is SP territory. The UP Ogden YM delivers 6 or so cars from Ogden (to the left of the train shown) to the Downtown 3 track yard just behind the backdrop/view block. The the mole sets out and pulls cars from those 13 businesses, and sends the outgoing cars back as a string to UP in Ogden. He can continue this routine all day if he wishes. The crossovers... 
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under Danny's train are used to leave the Ogden yard on the left hand track (nearer the backdrop). Note that Danny has arrived in Ogden on the other track, and his loco was also running left handed until he got to the crossover. His train is in the process of switching back to the track the Ogden YM orders him to enter on. The small white sign just above and to the right of the phone is the Yard Limit sign.
This is an attempt to show the whole upper level of the layout (as well as a focus stacking test). The upper level is the Cheyenne Steam Yard just as we bend it to the adjoining bench where the Cheyenne classification yard and Frontier Refinery are. I stood on about the 3rd step of a short ladder for this shot. Were it not for the mezzanine, I could stand up on a much taller ladder and get most of the layout, well the upper level, anyway. AS this photo shows it is impossible to photograph anything close... 
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to all of the layout at once. Ogden yard is on the lower level here, and staging is around the lower left corner. The Dispatcher's Desk is on the mezzanine directly above the bright yellow yard map glued to the fascia just to the left of the picture's center. While seated he cannot see any of the layout, isolated just as a real dispatcher is.
Being too lazy to delete this photo, I will say that these are the red spray painted lines we laid out for the bench locations Thanksgiving weekend 2011.
Duplicate of a focus stacked photo, again no camera shake. Obviously, the last photo of the floor was a misfire as I negotiated the ladder.
Ogden classification unencumbered by local buildings--lots of cardboard place holders, though. Some day we'll a\paint the beautiful brass Ogden coal tower.
I maintain that the reason few kids are interested in model railroading, is that we don't let them run trains. This is a 6 year old who just visited this day with his parents. Notice he has the throttle in his hands. He is standing on a kiddy cart for engineers I built. It is a 3 sided box bolted to a flat mover's dolly. On the dolly down low is a cinder block for ballast. There is a shelf for the child to stand on that places his eyes about 5' 10" off the floor. His parent pushes him around and forms... 
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the closure to the open end of the box, so he cannot fall out. That is the parents' responsibilities, to push him and hold him safely. This kid ran a train for nearly an hour while I walked in front of him and set the turnouts and gave him verbal orders on speed, stop and go.
Don't tell me kids can't get interested in trains! Even the boring part of the main helix was a big deal to him.
This is a closeup of Wamsutter with the polycarb shield removed. Notice the mezzanine is missing. This was taken and processed by my close friend, Paul Saumure, who turned me on to both the Panasonic Lumix G9 camera and Luminar, a post processing program. Luminar 4 has an automatic sky replacement function, and that is why there is no mezzanine or building structure or lights
Close up of Lenny's Rawlins Freight House.
The Hanna, WY coal mines. The 3 track marshaling yard plus a runaround track is at the right. Allen Montgomery did the trestle and mine structures. Across the left aisle is Cheyenne, and Rawlins is on the other side of this same bench. Across the aisle straight ahead is the Red Desert/Wamsutter WY bench.
This is another in camera focus stacked photo. Note how sharp the focus is throughout the deep field. The far corner of the room is about 55 feet away. The wide angle shot (12 mm eq to 24mm full frame) was taken at a shutter speed of 1/60 sec, at a nearly wide open aperture of f/4. Shown if the Laramie Tie Treating Plant behind the Laramie round house and the Laramie yard around the end of the bench. Hanna with lots of coal hoppers is across the aisle with the mines to the left of that yard. The Cheyenne steam yard is across the aisle above the yellow switch panels.
Just east of the Laramie Tie Treating Plant is the Monolith RediMix plant. It is just inside the yard limits of Laramie. Allen built the buildings from scratch, and the mixing mechanism is made by Lenny from 3D formed parts.
This is the reason I switched from my Nikon D7000 to the Lumix G9--to use the automatic focus stacking for the long benches of the Wyoming Division. This shot has much better and uniform focus over the whole depth of field than with my manually focus stacked photos taken by using Helicon to stack photos focused on the wire tray door handles which are about 4 feet apart, that is a "stack" of 5-7 photos focused about every 4 feet. The G9 stacked the images of a 1-2 second long video at 30 to 60 frames per second. And with the 6 axis image stabilization, no tripod is needed--it is hand held.
Another Focus Stack with the G9. From camera t the wall is about 57 feet. This is both sides of Sherman Hill, the east slope on the right (notice tracks #1 and #2 on the far right, rear of the bench, and the Harriman Cutoff, Track #3 on the front of the bench. The tie treating plant is on the near left, and the redimix plant is beyond that. The west portal of one of the two Hermosa Tunnels is visible in the cut of the mountain.
This is the Speer Wye about 5 miles southwest of Cheyenne. As per the prototype, the left track is the Borie Cutoff part of the Harriman Cutoff Track #3, the alternate route up Sherman Hill. The curved track further from the camera heads toward Denver. The near track is UP's preferred route from all points west to Denver, and it bypasses Cheyenne. On the layout Denver is the staging yard (if entered via this track). Thus the Denver track folds back to run on the edge of the Cheyenne steam yard bench,... 
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and that is the only way to get it to "Denver," i.e., Staging. Ideally it would become hidden track and run under the Cheyenne bench, but that bench is faced with the 13 panels of 60 electrical switches for the Tortoise machines out in the unreachable middle of the 74" wide bench. So our Denver track runs along the very edge of the bench, but it does not connect to Cheyenne, so it is in fact a distinct route to staging=Denver.
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