P1001527 CROP per sheet
The former picture cropped to minimize the building parts.
Capture Date: Oct 24, 2022 10:19 AM•Views: 36
No comments yet. All fields are required, fill in the form. Comment successfully added. Comment
|
P1001531 TD1 per sheet
This is the cut on the west end of Rawlins, showing the carved and stained plaster and scenery.
The car cards, seen stacked in the plexiglass card slots, are 1/4 sheet of card stock.
We also use 1/2 sheet block cards, that identify the first and last cars in a block by railroad, car number, type, and color, and the total number of cars in the block. Block cards are handy for quickly making up a train with a few or many identical type cars that all carry the same commodity. Whenever we operate it is harvest time and we run long stings of up to 30 cars plus a caboose pulled by Big Boys, or Turbines or consists of diesel power.
Smaller locomotives have lower tonnage ratings expressed as the maximum number of cars allowed on their trains. Loco cards are laminated, because they don't change. They are the third type of card in my Four Card System.
The 4th card is a Train Sheet which tells where the train is to go, and what priority of class it is, and most important what type train it is . The train types are ordered in priority or superiority. From high to low they are shown on the next graphic image.
Upload Date: Nov 14, 2022 11:49 AM•Views: 33
No comments yet. All fields are required, fill in the form. Comment successfully added. Comment
|
Nomenclature in JPG
This is the Nomenclature sheet we use to govern operations as to train types and train superiority.
Every train has a coded train name of "From-To-Type-Direction" as explained in the top block. An example is
"Green River to Cheyenne-Local- East.
This train is a "turn," that is it goes to the "To" location, turns and returns to the "From.' On its way back it is named:
"Cheyenne to Green River-Local West."
The Type of train also designates its Superiority, from "Special" (Highest) down to one of the interchangeable lowest types.
The simplified schematic map of the layout shows the commonly used off-the-layout locations, which are those outside the rectangle which represents all of the layout except staging, which is to say the two staging yards (Main Staging and Portland on the third level).
Memory aids for locations: Anything North of Green River is "Portland. Anything west of Ogden is either "Oakland" or "LA." And any place east of Cheyenne is North Platte, Nebraska (e.g., Chicago and St. Louis). And anyplace south of Cheyenne is Denver.
Upload Date: Nov 19, 2022 09:37 AM•Views: 32
No comments yet. All fields are required, fill in the form. Comment successfully added. Comment
|
Ops Summary for SlickPic Album 25
It seems to me that many formal model railroad operating sessions are organized to mimic prototype operations of days long gone before computers and modern communications that had to use archaic paperwork without signals. To the prototype operator the knowledge of the "Rule Book" and of its accurate interpretation were all importance for efficient running and for safety--accidents were life threatening for sure!
This excessive reliance on that paperwork that model RRs have, not for safety, but for the holy grail of "prototypical" ops seems misplaced to me. For me, running trains and seeing them run through realistic scenery takes a distant second to knowledge of, and application of, the Rule Book.
When I used to go to meets to operate, it seemed to me that way too many times, the operations stalled for long times while 3 or 4 knowledgeable operators got together to argue a certain situation and how to manage it and solve it according to the Rule Book. Meanwhile the rest of us, who had flown and rented a car and paid for food and lodging for 3 or 4 days, were left to just stand around like poor relatives.
The supreme goal of my Wyoming Division is to be a good host who provides an opportunity to run trains in a fairly prototypical way. Who cares what those obscure rules are? Or,for that matter, what does it matter what is in each car? Do we need a tiny waybill, which only the conductor and office workers saw anyway? Unless it is haz mat in miniature it would seem.
Upload Date: Nov 23, 2022 02:34 PM•Views: 31
No comments yet. All fields are required, fill in the form. Comment successfully added. Comment
|
Car Card and Block CArd JPG
This is a car card (1/4 sheet on card stock) and a Block Card, (1/2 sheet of card stock).
The Car Card is good for 15 moves. If you need to clear some space at a spot, just add a next move Using the 3 ring "Spots on the Wyoming Division" binder at the closest yard to pick a destination when the current move is completed. Use pencil, not ink.
This makes every operator into a part time Freight Agent! It also makes sure that operations do not get shut down by a overcrowded yard.
This car card becomes an LCL card just by checking the "Full," "LCL," "Unloaded" or "Loaded" boxes, and writing in the next station up the line in the "To" box. Just keep LCL cars and cards going the same direction until they get to staging!
For the Block Card, if the "To" and "From's" are circled, you can erase them and circle another logical destination. write in a new destination following the previous one in the "Special Instructions" blank. Use the "Spots" binder to find a reasonable destination. A block and its card moves the same as as single car with its car card.
This newfound power to cause car moves utilizes an age old and cherished railroading principle: "Move those cars down the line and make them someone else's problem."
Upload Date: Nov 19, 2022 12:41 PM•Views: 33
No comments yet. All fields are required, fill in the form. Comment successfully added. Comment
|
Loco Card for Training Doc4004 - Copy
This is a Locomotive card for Big Boy 4004. Each steam and diesel loco on the layout have cards that fit their pulling power, the "Tonnage Rating" on the right hand side, middle of the card in units of number of cars, not including the caboose. Big boys are rated at 30 cars, and other lighter locos have a lower rating.
The cards are printed on full sheets of colored paper, the color being unique to the loco type and class. Big Boy sheets are red. All sheets are laminated in plastic since they are never written on or changed, and the color makes them easier to find when a train is first made up for that loco class.
The array of spaces is like a timetable. For a trip east to west the engineer should read down to see what stops must be made to serve the loco--to take on fuel, water, sand, or to dump ashes. For a west to east trip the chart is read from the bottom up.
At the bottom is a list of throttle/loco functions (sound effects) and how to turn them on and off.
Upload Date: Nov 19, 2022 01:23 PM•Views: 29
No comments yet. All fields are required, fill in the form. Comment successfully added. Comment
|
Train Order INSTRUCTS TRAINING
This is one of many Train Sheets that give complete instructions on how what a train crew should should do on this particular. The top line is filled in by the staging yardmaster, and it identifies the train by its job designation by the 4 job name components, "Loco number, From, To, and Type/Priority of train." This is how the conductor should report this train to the Dispatcher. This Train Sheet is for a "Manifest" freight train train, which we define as a freight that has 5 cars on the head end that must be set out along the way as the car cards for them dictate. And the train should pick up and take with it a replacement car or cars from that location and forward them along the line. So those trains do a bit of switching at most locations, either by helping the resident YM or by the engineer alone using the switch engine stationed at each location. Each NCE throttle can be set to change between one of two locos, so he can in turn move the car or cars or the Manifest train as needed.
The large test array at the bottom 3/4 of the TS lists the yards the train traverses, and a one line showing the work that may be required there. The right hand half of the array gives loco and work requirements in very brief form.
This sheet is for a west bound Manifest. There is a east bound Manifest TS withe the stations in reverse order. Manifests that are meant to run over only part of the layout can use this same sheet, just by the operator ignoring the stations that are not passed.
Upload Date: Nov 19, 2022 01:23 PM•Views: 33
No comments yet. All fields are required, fill in the form. Comment successfully added. Comment
|
Coal Order Form Rock Springs West
For the coal drag from Rock Sprints to Ogden the operator starts his shift as another coal agent. He takes the one blank order form on his clipboard, and walks from Rock Springs on the lower level and counts the empty (MT) coal hoppers at each of the coal distribution places. He fills in the MT's to be picked up and the matching number of loaded hoppers to deliver to replace them.
Then he uses his throttle to run the Rock Springs switch engine to assemble the total number of loads to be delivered to those places, and adds the caboose to the end. then he returns the switch engine to its stub track, and couples the road engine diesel consist to the train.
With Dispatcher (Ds) clearance to Green River, his first stop, and does his work at Green River with the permission of the YM there. When he is done, he asks Ds for clearance to Westvaco, does his work and continues all along his route in the same way.
He then continues as a lowest class train all the way to Ogden working the stops along the way, and he keeps in touch with the Ds for each move. He continues all along his route to Ogden. Then he returns to Rock Springs where he is done, and free to get another train from the Staging YM.
Hint: if there is a free track at Echo, he can park some of his MTs in the Echo Yard, and pick them up on the way back from Ogden and on to Rock Springs.
Upload Date: Nov 21, 2022 02:42 PM•Views: 28
No comments yet. All fields are required, fill in the form. Comment successfully added. Comment
|
Signs on the Fascia CROPPED
We have posed many signs on the fascia to help operators
1. know where their train is
2. see where it should go to get to its next destination
3. Where to call the Dispatcher (Ds) and what to tell him. 9Remember you identify your train to him by reporting the 4 things on the top of your TS (Train Sheet) by saying, "This is [Loco number] [train name/type] [From] [To] and [at] (stating your current location.
4. there are track maps of all yards or locations where you might be looking for a car to pull or a spot to leave a car.
5. Yard Limit signs show the boundaries of the YM's authority over you and your train.
6. All of the layout is double tracked except for the Harriman Cutoff , which is bidirectional with a single length of double track for meets., and the OSL which is an 186 foot long track with two sidings. The OSL is hidden track but visible on its straights on the edges of the benches.
7. The current of running changes to left hand running between Dale Junction and Laramie and between the Curvo overpass and Ogden. Engineers watching for fascia signs will see this change noted by a tan colored fascia sign that schematically shows this.
8. Each yard has a brief note of yard instructions on blue paper i a sheet protector.
9. Each yard has a skinny 3 ring 8 1/2 x 11 binder with the list of spots, in case the YM to the engineer needs to pick a spot to send a car forward on his own.
Upload Date: Nov 22, 2022 11:31 AM•Views: 30
No comments yet. All fields are required, fill in the form. Comment successfully added. Comment
|
Current of Running for Wyo DivWITH Yard LimitGR 2LEFT RUNNING
This is a schematic of Tracks #1, #2, and #3/ It shows
1. Where the current running changes from conventional right hand to left hand.
EAST TO WEST: At Cheyenne west bound trains must take #1 (RH) up the Hill. At Dale they must take one of two crossovers to change to left hand running down the Hill.
At Curvo the west bound track #1 goes over #2 at the Curvo overpass and continues left hand running into Ogden.
WEST TO EAST: Trains leave Ogden eastbound on Track #2 until Curvo. They return to right hand running automatically by passing under Track #1 at the Curvo Underpass.
At Dale east bound trains must set one of the two remote turnouts to revert to right hand running either down the Hill into Cheyenne, or down the Hill to either Cheyenne or Denver via the Harriman Cutoff.
WEST TO EAST: This is the name naturally, and engineers must be alert to take the correct route at the above 3 locations.
WITHIN LARAMIE OR OGDEN: The left to right or R to L is chosen by turnouts and almost solely by the YM there, for he directs the incoming or outgoing trains within his yard. Engineers must make the final moves as they leave to continue on the correct track.
Upload Date: Nov 22, 2022 03:17 PM•Views: 29
No comments yet. All fields are required, fill in the form. Comment successfully added. Comment
|
OS Instruction Card
Instructions on how to call the Dispatcher and how to report so he can get the progress of a train in his Train Sheet.
Upload Date: Nov 22, 2022 10:13 AM•Views: 29
No comments yet. All fields are required, fill in the form. Comment successfully added. Comment
|
OS TRIANGLES 6
A Sheet of Yard Limit signs that are posted on the fascia right at the Limit near the mains as they enter the yard.
Upload Date: Nov 22, 2022 04:16 PM•Views: 28
No comments yet. All fields are required, fill in the form. Comment successfully added. Comment
|
Cheyenne Fascia Map 01
The Cheyenne Steam and Diesel yard is 84" (7 ft) wide, so except for the throws visible on the near tracks we use Tortoise electric switch machines. To aid me--everyone else seemed to be able to work this yard without the numbers--I planted 3/16" square plastic posts near the points of the Tortoise turnouts, and I numbered the posts and turnouts on the very large yard map. This would have been a better photo if I had captured a few more of the yellow switch panels/maps at the bench edge. So see the next photo.
Capture Date: Nov 12, 2014 02:28 PM•Views: 32
No comments yet. All fields are required, fill in the form. Comment successfully added. Comment
|
P1063634 Paul
There are about 11 of these switch panels to operate the Tortoise turnout machines. (I try to follow the adage that a turnout is a railroad track element, and a switch is an electrical device.) they have rocker electrical switches mounted nearly horizontally behind the 1" diameter holes, so other is no chance of accidentally bumping one and throwing a turnout unknowingly.
They are hinged at the bottom so they can be swung down for maintenance.
At the far left about 1/3 the way from the bottom, 2 white numbered posts can be seen.
Lenny Wyatt made all of the Tortoise switch panels. (A "switch panel" in my usage, is a panel of electrical switches that controls a related batch of track turnouts.)
The Ogden end of the main staging yard is visible in the distance on the lower level. The adjunct staging is on the same level below the electrical switch panels.
Capture Date: Feb 6, 2020 01:55 PM•Views: 35
No comments yet. All fields are required, fill in the form. Comment successfully added. Comment
|
Laramie Flipped FULL JOINED HALVESscreen shot to rid line
This is the fascia map of Laramie, lifted from the original track plan. It is printed on yellow card stock and is about 27 inches wide. It is mounted on a hinged board on the front of the bench, so it can be tipped up to be read easily. It is covered with a clear sheet plastic to protect it.
There are similarly generated yard track plans for all yards or places with multiple spots, so operators can find the spots they are to set out cars on.
Upload Date: Nov 23, 2022 10:14 AM•Views: 51
No comments yet. All fields are required, fill in the form. Comment successfully added. Comment
|
No comments yet...
All fields are required, fill in the form.
Comment successfully added.
Comment