SP Mountain District (Tehachapi Pass) - N scale

[svedblen]

I guess the quick and easy answer is to point out that, at some point, any train that was going to clear up back in such a spur had to get back in there in the first place (which would have involved occupying the mainline block while trying to unlock the switch), so keeping the switch points locked in the event of a train in the block may not have worked too well in that situation. 

True! So there was something obvious I failed to see  Thanks Chris

[kc9jts]

Thanks a million! The info about both ends of Walong and S Bealville certainly seem to confirm what I've observed. Very interesting, too, that there were facing point absolutes that didn't have the required relays to darken the lower head. I wasn't aware of that! I guess it's time to start reprogramming a few Logix here and there! 

If you're feeling bored or generous (or both!) at some point, I'd be interested in knowing the same info for the following control points which are modeled on my layout. No need to delve into a lot of detail, but just basically whether both leaving signals lit off their own track (or both tracks) and, if it's not too much trouble, whether the facing point signal would've had a darkened lower head.

S Marcel
N Marcel

S Woodford
N Cliff
Note: Woodford and Cliff are combined into one siding on my railroad and Rowen is missing completely

N Bealville

None of this affects how my operators will run trains at all, of course, but I think it's such a cool part of the hobby to try to get all the idiosyncrasies of a complicated signal system like this right!

Thanks again! You've already been so helpful and informative that I've nearly forgiven you for whatever hand you may have had in completely ruining the character of Tehachapi Pass! 

As requested:

North Bealville = separate lighting for main and siding, both the trailing bulbs lit off the same relay
North Cliff = separate lighting for main siding; bottom trailing bulb only lit if signal was at stop or for diverging move
North Marcel = separate lighting for main and siding, both the trailing bulbs lit off the same relay
South Marcel = separate lighting for main and siding, both the trailing bulbs lit off the same relay
South Woodford = separate lighting for main siding; bottom trailing bulb only lit if signal was at stop or for diverging move (from what I can tell, not 100% about the bottom head)

[John]

Fantastic progress Chris!  It's great to see so much Tehachapi love on this board now.  It helps balance out all the SPF's.   

and who said we had a Pennsy bias here 

[ChrisKLAS]

As requested:

North Bealville = separate lighting for main and siding, both the trailing bulbs lit off the same relay
North Cliff = separate lighting for main siding; bottom trailing bulb only lit if signal was at stop or for diverging move
North Marcel = separate lighting for main and siding, both the trailing bulbs lit off the same relay
South Marcel = separate lighting for main and siding, both the trailing bulbs lit off the same relay
South Woodford = separate lighting for main siding; bottom trailing bulb only lit if signal was at stop or for diverging move (from what I can tell, not 100% about the bottom head)

Thanks again! Now to implement all this! 

[ChrisKLAS]

Fantastic progress Chris!  It's great to see so much Tehachapi love on this board now.  It helps balance out all the SPF's.   

Thanks Gary!

[jagged ben]

First off let me offer a slight disclaimer and that is that most of what I know comes from looking at signal plans and not from "in-cab" experience (I may need to hide and change my name to avoid getting tarred and feathered but I had a hand in the replacement in a lot of the old stuff on Tehachapi).  ...

You won't get tarred and feathered if you just tell us that you have all the old components in your garage and you just need a little time to put together the price list that you are going to post on the TRW Trading Post.
 

(PS: don't mention this to my wife yet.)

[kc9jts]

You won't get tarred and feathered if you just tell us that you have all the old components in your garage and you just need a little time to put together the price list that you are going to post on the TRW Trading Post.
 

(PS: don't mention this to my wife yet.)

I will gladly pay you TUESDAY for a searchlight today!

sorry but I don't have any of the parts.  I am guessing the signals were scrapped along with everything in the houses.  I only do the engineering for signal applications; when it gets installed and what happens to the old equipment is something I usually don't have much (if any) knowledge about.  The reality though is that when "older" installations get taken out of service and the signals removed it is not uncommon for some of the equipment to be so rusty/fragile that there is no point in saving it.

[basementcalling]

Fantastic progress Chris!  It's great to see so much Tehachapi love on this board now.  It helps balance out all the SPF's.   

The modelers with Cajones help in that effort too. Takes a lot of dry desert modeling to undo the floods from the SPFs. 

[ChrisKLAS]

I will gladly pay you TUESDAY for a searchlight today!

sorry but I don't have any of the parts.  I am guessing the signals were scrapped along with everything in the houses.  I only do the engineering for signal applications; when it gets installed and what happens to the old equipment is something I usually don't have much (if any) knowledge about.  The reality though is that when "older" installations get taken out of service and the signals removed it is not uncommon for some of the equipment to be so rusty/fragile that there is no point in saving it.

Not everything made it to the scrapper. In fact, quite a bit of it seems to have grown legs and walked off. The guy who lives in the house just above tunnel 10 has the entire cantilever from Sandcut and the signal bridge from Walong in his yard, lol. 

On a completely unrelated note, I can neither confirm nor deny that this is a picture of my back yard. 

[GaryHinshaw]

What's supposed to happen when it turns red?  Everybody out of the pool?   

[basementcalling]

What's supposed to happen when it turns red?  Everybody out of the pool?   

Thought yellow was the danger color in a pool?

[ChrisKLAS]

Thought yellow was the danger color in a pool?

This has to win post of the day!  lol

[ChrisKLAS]

I've spent the past couple evenings trying to whip the dispatcher's workstation into shape in preparation for Sunday's upcoming operating session, during which we'll try remote dispatching for the first time with my buddy in Tennessee running the show from 1,600 miles away. We did a little test run this evening and all went remarkably well, with my buddy running the board and me frantically running around the room(s) trying to keep an eye on four trains at once. I didn't get by any red signals, so I came away with that minor accomplishment under my belt.

Photo Caption: ATSF stacks (S-RIDA) and SP racks (KCOAU) are meeting at Walong, the Santa Fe's wine train empties (H-SRFR) are just about to enter single track at Cable, and the SP's EUESM land barge is lined into the hole at Bealville. The EUESM doesn't fit anywhere between Caliente and Marcel, so its a$$ end will be hanging out of W Bealville meaning he can only meet one there. The DS will send the racks on down to meet the manifest at Bealville, put the wine empties in at Marcel (where they'll meet the stack train that will leave Walong after the autoracks get by), then send the SP manifest up from Bealville to meet the wine empties at Walong, where they will have been waiting for him after heading down from Marcel to the Loop once the stack train cleared. 

[Scottl]

Very cool.

[John]

Nice .. I love CATS ..  are you able to sufficiently recreate the SP signal rules?  On the M&O, I've not tried to recreate any specific railroad rules outside of JMRI