Tehachapi, BC

[GaryHinshaw]

With the main construction of the Vortex now complete, it is time to look ahead to the next phase of the build: the Bakersfield yard.  Since I consider this layout build to be something of a group effort with the asshats here, I suggest that we multi-task: I'll focus on finishing some Tortoise installations and getting control panels set up while you design me a yard. 

The main function of Bakersfield is north staging for through trains.  The current sketch I have for it is very unimaginative: it consists only of 8 balloon tracks and some loco servicing tracks:



The plan is loosely inspired by Kern Junction, where the BNSF returns to their own tracks.  Here BNSF trains enter/leave via the top half of the yard, and UP via the bottom half.  I like this feature and would like to retain it, if feasible.  Further, the shape is loosely dictated by the planned footprint of the first mainline deck to be built above it, shown here over the yard:



Heading south from Bakersfield, the mainline proceeds clockwise from the lower left, through one turn in the Vortex, through Edison along the top, and on up the Hill from there.  For reference, here is the same view with the upper deck benchwork shown, along with a rough guess as to where the edge of the lower deck peninsula will reach.  The red circles indicate stay-out zone for human traffic, and the green circle indicates potentially usable additional space:



Operationally, recall the full plan schematic:



The basic plan has north and south staging, each with a capacity for 8 14' trains (existing for Mojave, sketched for Bakersfield), and both yards have a short connection to the storage yard with capacity for 9 14' trains.   Mojave staging cannot usefully do anything more than serial staging because of its helix style, but Bakersfield is more accessible and it will originate some local traffic, which must then get sorted into north and south-bound through trains.  (A northbound train would just be a transfer move to the storage yard.)

The current sketch does not use space very efficiently: the staging tracks are all of order 17-19' long - quite a bit longer than necessary.  It is also not imperitive that all of them be balloon tracks, though at least a few must be.  I would love to find a way to split this space up into a combination of a staging yard and an operational yard, perhaps with another small switching area incorporated as well.

The main local traffic served from here will be the Edison turn, a possible local Bakersfield turn, a bad-order sweeper that clears set-outs from the Hill, and ocassionally the cement job to Monolith (which will more often run from Mojave).  Any suggestions for how to better specify my yard requirements and/or any cartoon sketches for better configurations are more than welcome.  I'm also open to specific suggestions for a small industrial area to add - maybe a portion of a refinery, a common sight in Bakersfield.

Thanks in advance,
-gfh

P.S. The mainline tracks above the yard are 10-12" higher than the yard tracks, so any active area needs to be near the front.

[C855B]

Your Bakersfield staging loop looks eerily like my L.A. staging loop. I guess no matter how you get there, any reinvented wheel will be round.

One thing that bugs me a little - you have loco servicing inside the BFD loop. It appears to have reach issues, especially the throat into the engine tracks. Something there I'm not seeing?

[C855B]

On the Oildale branch: https://www.google.com/maps/@35.4186994,-119.0083336,17z/data=!3m1!1e3

[jagged ben]

Gary, you'll have to try the geometry on this yourself, but here's a concept to provoke some thought.

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Say you only have 4 balloon tracks, show in black.  I figure with 4 instead of eight the top of the outer one would reach up only to where the inside one is currently.   These are UP staging and continuous running.   UP engine facility comes off it somewhere and comes to a stub end that is reasonably accessible from the aisle on the Caliente side. 

BNSF staging, shown in blue, is another 4 tracks that wraps around the top of the balloon and back to the wall to get 14' of length.  At the stub end maybe you could have some crossovers to allow power to escape and come off the side to BNSF engine facility, which is the extra short blue 'siding' looking thing in the drawing.

That leaves you space, still, for some industry (purple), perhaps also in part of the area under your green circle.

One thing you lack, which I'm not sure where it would fit in, is a working yard lead if you actually want to switch a yard without fouling the main.  Maybe that's a third track that serves the BNSF yard and parallels the main back towards the vortex. 
 

[jagged ben]

So I just had a possibly better thought...

Flip the blue stub end yard in my drawing so runs underneath the black and then up the right side.    Branched off at the end is one engine facility.   The other engine facility comes off the balloon and is right next to it.

Same colors as before.  Assign UP or BNSF to blue or black as you wish.

Pretty good access for all the power and industries.

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[GaryHinshaw]

jb, your second sketch is just the type of change I've been thinking about.  I don't think it's really feasible to include both an industrial area and a class yard while retaining enough staging capacity to balance Mojave's.  Forced to choose, I think I like the industrial area more, which has been in the back of my mind for many months now.

The Oildale branch is exactly the kind of thing I had in mind and it would make a lot of sense to make it a sceniced area in front of the staging yard.  I really like the arid, sandy feel of Bakersfield and a refinery with some oil pumps scattered about would set the scene perfectly.  Having the loco servicing accessible under Caliente also seems workable to me.

To the drawing board.  Further ideas still welcome though.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I think trying to make it a staging yard and a class yard is going to be an exercise in frustration. They both serve different purposes, and the infrastructure for each is quite different. The drill track is a perfect example... absolutely key for classification, absolutely unnecessary for staging.

However, there's a very interesting hybrid concept that I must credit Allen McClellan for. It's the approach he took for his "Jimtown" yard, which was staging, but he treated as visible staging. It was, instead of being a hidden yard, or a classification yard, treated like the departure yard of a much larger facility. This meant that, while cars weren't be classified there, there was still some action. Crews would "get on" their power there and start their runs, which made for a much more interesting thing that just having a train pop out of staging.

You could do something very similar. Add in an engine facility, and you can have trains made up and ready in staging, but then have crews have to "hop on" at the pit tracks, take their power over to their trains, do their terminal air brake tests, and head out. It'll stretch out the job of running a train quite a bit, and will replicate the real job much better.

If you want to make it even tougher, you can make them have to double out of multiple yard tracks, but that'll tie up the mains and will require a rather long dedicated yard lead.

[GaryHinshaw]

Agreed Ed.  I was thinking along those lines by having the loco tracks in the oiginal plan.  The key will be to make them accessible to operators, and that is going to require a bit of re-drawing.  I started down that path last night, then progress was derailed this morning by a major plumbing leak in the house (but not the garage, thankfully!).  Gonna be spending the rest of the day cleaning up the mess. 

[Bendtracker1]

Gary,  not sure that this pertains much to your latest question, but what Ed suggested is pretty much what I am doing right now.
My main yard is nothing more than open staging and a fiddle yard on the front half.
This was going to be our yard for our modules.  But then when I built the layout, I just incorporated into the layout.
At that time I didn't see the need to hide it.  Also it's not setup for a class yard.  Although it can be done, it's not the greatest.





As for now, I/We 0-5-0 the trains together in the front fiddle yard, and for now the power is attached and when called, the crew dials it up and they leave from the fiddle yard, make their run and then return to the same yard, same track.
This is all done before the session for now.

I do have a facility that was planned to store our locos when it was the yard for the modules.  It was where the individuals could store their power until it was time for them run.
If in the future it works out, I plan to keep all the power for the four working trains in the facility [already consisted for the trains] so the road crews or hostler can run them to the trains.  Much like Ed suggested, this would give a little activity in the yard.

Right now we don't have enough crews on most sessions to pull off a lot of jobs that could be made or scheduled, or the time it would take.

The first couple of sessions one of my crew wanted to build the four working trains before hand.  We found it took much longer than wanted, so we just built them before the sessions, and so far it's worked out pretty good.  But in the future should things change, the jobs can be added.

[GaryHinshaw]

Thanks for the concrete example Allen.  One thing I'm not clear on is why you say your fiddle yard is not set up as a class yard?  Is it mainly due to the lack of a drill track?  Is the 0-5-0 mainly for efficiency?   I also have a question about your train schedules: are the 4 trains you refer to all locals?  Are they all due out of the yard at the same time?  How do through freights figure into your operations?

My Bakersfield reconfiguration a la jb's sketch is still in progress, but work and flood repairs (see above) have taken precedence...

[Cajonpassfan]

Hello Gary,
I was facing a similar set of questions when designing and building my LA staging/restaging yards. Initially, I thought of it as a simple set of hidden and unscenicked loops to accommodate in and out traffic for the western end of the line (see first photo) but it evolved to a partially scenicked operating postion loosely based on LA Union Station on one side and First Street Yards on the other, with some industrial trackage in the middle. While there are opportunities the do minor switching, change out power, and add/remove head end cars during an ops session, the main idea is to allow a single operator (me) to be able to switch and restage trains inbetween sessions and do it in a realistic setting that says LA. During an ops session, trains arrive and staged trains depart, between sessions local switchers do their job to get ready for the next "day". This is stil a work in progress, as shown below.
I don't know if any of this is applicable to your modern-day operations, just food for thought...
Regards, Otto K.

[Bendtracker1]

Thanks for the concrete example Allen.  One thing I'm not clear on is why you say your fiddle yard is not set up as a class yard?  Is it mainly due to the lack of a drill track? 

Sure, I hope it helps a bit?
Primarily, that is correct.  I do not have a dedicated drill track so I have to use the track that loops around the engine facility. 
Two problems with this 1) The loop is on the tight side so I can't move long cuts of cars. 2) The switcher will foul the loop for the through trains during the session.
This whole yard started out as a "L" shaped, 9 track, stub ended yard for the modules.  It's gone through 5 revamps, actually 6 if you count the track work I reworked for the current layout.
When I first decided to make it a through yard where I doubled ended the first 8 tracks and looped them around to the 9th track, I had actually though about adding a small section of benchwork for a drill track.  But figured I was asking for trouble when we setup for a show.  So I nixed it.  We really never had time to doing any class switching at shows anyway.

Now that it's in the basement and part of the layout, class switching was brought up, but like I said, the lack of time and crews and the lack of space, it was decided to keep it an open staging and fiddle yard......... for now.

Is the 0-5-0 mainly for efficiency?

 
Yes. One of the crew loves flat switching and he wanted to try it during an early ops session and he couldn't keep up with everyone else.  Not that he was slow, it just took too much time.  Plus the tight curves didn't help. 

So it was decided that we just stage everything prior to the session and call up the lead loco and run from there.
It still takes me a good hour or two to set things up via 0-5-0.  And that is only for the four working trains.  The 8 through trains stay the same from session to session, unless we decide to run something different or if one of the guys want to run one of their trains for something different.

I also have a question about your train schedules: are the 4 trains you refer to all locals?

The schedule is still a work in progress.
No, the four working trains are the manifests that feed El Dorado [the smaller yard on layout] for the two locals [or turns as we call them] that run from El Dorado and the W&OV train from Malvern.
 

Are they all due out of the yard at the same time?

No, two will leave the main yard early in the session and the other two will leave about half way through the session.  They do not leave the yard at the same time, the first one leaves and returns before the second one is released.  This give the El Dorado crew time to stash the first batch of cars and re-load the A/D tracks with more outbound cars for the second train.

One runs North to South, the other South to North.  They both leave the main yard, run to El Dorado and continue across the layout, returning to the main yard and the same track from where they left. All they do is drop off cars and pick up cars from El Dorado.

The first two trains bring the cars needed for the first of the two Turns that run out of El Dorado and the cars bound for Malvern [The W&OV local].  Then the second two trains will do the same thing and the cars they bring down is for the second Turn out of El Dorado and cars that are to be delivered in El Dorado proper.

At first we only had two working trains, but we soon found out El Dorado's four track yard couldn't handle it, nor could the El Dorado crew!  So we broke them down into four smaller trains. Now it gives the El Dorado crew more time and space to get things moved around.

How do through freights figure into your operations?

They are there just to add congestion to the mainline and to add additional frustrations to the Turn crews 
Plus it also gives a simple job to those who don't like to switch but rather just run trains.  It's also an easy way to get a newbies feet wet.

Two of the through trains will actually do something.  One will drop off cars at the Chicken processing plant in Fordyce.  They drop off a carload or two of chickens early in the session.  When the Haskell Turn comes through town, they grab those now empty cars and return them to the El Dorado and then one of the four working trains will take them back to the main yard during the next session.
Then Amtrak makes a layover in El Dorado.
The rest just run across the layout.  The whole line is dark territory, so the through trains gets priority on the main anytime they are running and the two locals will take the sidings.  On a side note, the only siding that can handle two of the through trains is the siding at El Dorado.  On purpose, two of the through trains are long enough that if they meet in El Dorado, they will not clear the siding.  So whoever is releasing the through trains from the main yard has to release the proper ones so they can pass each other.

I doubt much of this is considered prototype as this line was never ran this way, but it keeps us occupied and happy for 3-4 hours.   

[Kevin C]

I have been reading the comments and ideas in the previous posts about staging yards and locomotive servicing facilities positioned close together. It has reinforced my decision to model Seattle's Interbay facility on Level 3 just above what will be the entrance to Balmer Yard below. As shown in the Satelite photo below, Interbay is positioned at the North End of Balmer Yard. I read in a magazine article complete with a diagram that Interbay has three or four " Diesel Consist Tracks " where consisted locomotives are stored until they go out. I thought this is a feature I will include on my layout.



As my staging yard will be only for the purpose of staging with no switching etc planned, I will include moves where operators dial up their locomotive consists positioned in the service facility, move out onto the mainline and head for Yard where they connect to their train and then head out. Any other ideas or comments would be great.

In the photo below, the yard throat is taking shape on Level 4 with the position of the Interbay facility above where the locomotive is positioned.

Kevin.




 

[GaryHinshaw]

Time flies.... layout time has been pretty rare since the term started, but I appreciate the additional yard ideas.  I've been keeping them in mind as I doodle some more ideas for Bakersfield now and then.  I'll have a few sketches to share before too long.

One new hardware development that I'm excited about: I picked up some inexpensive 8" Android tablets recently ($120 CDN each) and I've started to experiment with them for use as control panels and throttles.  I loaded up Engine Driver on them and lo and behold, Engine Driver is much more capable than I realized.  Not only can it act as a pretty nice throttle (it's easy to acquire a loco, and the speed control is very nice), but it can also display web pages served by jmri in the same window as the throttle (or in a separate window of its own).  This combo would be pretty cramped on a smart phone, but on a tablet, it works pretty well, and the tablets I bought are pretty comfortable to hold in one hand.  So now as I traverse the layout, I can pull up any control panel that jmri will serve and throw turnouts from my throttle through a nice graphic interface.   I can also create and monitor signal aspects (once I get detection enabled) from the same control panel.

With this approach you really get control of the whole layout in the palm of your hand, and for a fraction of the cost of a DT402 throttle (which does less - and feels cheap).  I'm now thinking of doing away with local control panels entirely... But first I think I need to test this with a focus group, and assess battery life.

I'll post some screen shots when I have time, but here's a sample smart phone screen shot from the Engine Driver web site:



You can customize the throttle options quite a bit (and have more than one on a screen), and you can zoom on the panel with the swipe of your fingers.  It's so cool!

[ednadolski]

I can also create and monitor signal aspects (once I get detection enabled)

Apologies if i missed this earlier, but what do you have in mind for detection?

Ed