Getting ready for operations - Preparing for the first session.

[rickb773]

There is actually a fair amount of N-scale guys in NJ, even here in SJ. Just very few with a home layout and/or online presence.
New Jersey Southern (N-Trak) has quite a fair-sized membership, myself included.
-Cody F.

Cody, based on scrounging 3 forums (Railwire, Trainboard, nScale.net) (where I make the weak assumption most of the modelers seeking social interaction would be) I have only found the following:
Name   Railwire Name  C/S Location          Models
Rick   rickb773        S   Sewell           PRSL, PRR; early 1950s
Cody   VonRyan            S   Westmont         PRR 20s through mid-50s; UK 1900-48
Phil   Conrail98             S   Cinnaminson      Conrail 1996
Rich   pennsyfan1361   S   Atco             PRR Harrisburg 56-66,
                                                             Conrail Northern Div 76-8
John   -------                    S   Glassboro        NS in VA, KY
Bob    NTrainz1               S   Mt Laurel        CSAO
Tim    TimHar47               S   Monroeville/Aura PRR, Middle Div     (has left N scale and gone to HO)

Gene   gpumph              C   Barnegate Light  Turtle Creek RR
David  David K Smith      C   Toms River
Mike   SecretWeapon     C   Lakewood
Marty  kmcsjr                 C   Monmouth County
?????  Jugtown Modeler C   ?????            LV?
?????  [JamesRSmithJr]  C   ?????            DL&W
?????  [rwerner]             ?                    CNJ
Russ   rswinnerton       (C)  PA visits Lakewood Twp, Bordentown

I did meet your mentor (and you) during the November open houses and talked with one of your N-Track modelers (the rest did not seem interested in interacting with the crowd).

Phil is involved with several operating groups so putting together a new operating group (with compatible people) will still be a challenge.

[rickb773]

And the evening and the morning were the first day.

What have we learned so far?

•   Unlike my heavenly father I need to rest already.

•   Lost 10 out of 125 cars to bad wheels and broken couplers (running done prior to operations beginning)

•   Moving 34 to 46 (down from 55) cars in a session is a lot of work. May need to reduce it some more.

•   I moved all the yard cars to the far end of the combined yard to judge the remaining capacity. Still have some room to begin the 2nd day (but the 3rd day will be the acid test when cars start returning to the main yards). I have added the needed cars for the second day and the second Philly transfer has arrived (and flipped and moved waybills).


•   I reallocated tracks in the shared yard to have capacity for the transfer cars. Camden/Pavonia will have 4 tracks and the misc shared terminuses will have 2 (both will share the caboose/work train track which was moved to track 5).


•   Pushing the limits of the Camden sidings (RCA, Campbell Soup, and Van Sciber Furniture). (More cars arriving today).


I am skipping the hold cycle on the reefer icings since I assume they would be iced in a day or less.


The out and back locals will terminate in Millville and Deepwater (the "other" portion of the yard) and turn around to return to Pavonia. Since at this time the PRSL was all double tracked with only trailing point turnouts. The outgoing locals will drop the cars on the other side/track in Woodbury and pick them up for delivery on the return phase (same day) of their run.

The reefers will be iced in Woodbury and then sorted for the appropriate train  to reach their target towns.
Woodbury should be a busy place!

Let the second day begin!

[conrail98]

Rick, looks like a good start. The one thing to try and keep in mind is don't let the yard get above 70% capacity, that'll start to teeter on an overloaded status. I've finally started to understand the system used on most of the layouts I operate on using CC&WB so if you have any questions, let me know,

Phil

[seusscaboose]

looks like you've got a good start

[VonRyan]

Cody, based on scrounging 3 forums (Railwire, Trainboard, nScale.net) (where I make the weak assumption most of the modelers seeking social interaction would be) I have only found the following:
Name   Railwire Name  C/S Location          Models
Rick   rickb773        S   Sewell           PRSL, PRR; early 1950s
Cody   VonRyan            S   Westmont         PRR 20s through mid-50s; UK 1900-48
Phil   Conrail98             S   Cinnaminson      Conrail 1996
Rich   pennsyfan1361   S   Atco             PRR Harrisburg 56-66,
                                                             Conrail Northern Div 76-8
John   -------                    S   Glassboro        NS in VA, KY
Bob    NTrainz1               S   Mt Laurel        CSAO
Tim    TimHar47               S   Monroeville/Aura PRR, Middle Div     (has left N scale and gone to HO)

Gene   gpumph              C   Barnegate Light  Turtle Creek RR
David  David K Smith      C   Toms River
Mike   SecretWeapon     C   Lakewood
Marty  kmcsjr                 C   Monmouth County
?????  Jugtown Modeler C   ?????            LV?
?????  [JamesRSmithJr]  C   ?????            DL&W
?????  [rwerner]             ?                    CNJ
Russ   rswinnerton       (C)  PA visits Lakewood Twp, Bordentown

I did meet your mentor (and you) during the November open houses and talked with one of your N-Track modelers (the rest did not seem interested in interacting with the crowd).

Phil is involved with several operating groups so putting together a new operating group (with compatible people) will still be a challenge.

The majority of the NJS membership tend to just browse the forums rather than participating. The core group of NJS members numbers around 10 guys, myself included, but we have over 30 folks on our roster.

[rickb773]

Supplies

I am halfway through the Tuesday schedule and will document some of the painful new "Lessons Learned" (from my project management days) a little later.

Thankful for the advice I have received here, I spent an hour or two hopping around collecting recommended supplies.

None of the multiple people I latched onto at Home Depot could find the orange $0.39 Home Depot aprons shown on the link I was sent. But we did come up with $0.77 white ones (and the cashier actually reduced the price to $0.39 without me asking!). These will hold the waybills for the engineers.

I had previously gotten both Micro-Mark and Rix Pick uncoupler tools. We will see which the operating crew prefers.

Harbor freight supplied me the micro LED flashlights (~ $1.60 a piece). These will serve two purposes:
     1) reading car numbers (my eyes ain't what they used to be and the loft lighting leaves a lot to be desired);
     2) Seeing between the cars to uncouple them.

I am considering duck taping the uncoupling tools to the flashlights (their on-off button is conveniently on the bottom) but that may interfere with purpose number 1.

[conrail98]

Rick,

The best tool I've used for uncoupling N scale cars is actually throwbar wire. For some reason it just worked a lot better for me then the Rix product or the one I use on all the HO layouts I operate on, bamboo skewers,

Phil

[rickb773]

Rick,

The best tool I've used for uncoupling N scale cars is actually throwbar wire. For some reason it just worked a lot better for me then the Rix product or the one I use on all the HO layouts I operate on, bamboo skewers,

Phil

What is throwbar wire?

[sdodge]

What is throwbar wire?

Yes, what is throwbar wire? I use the Rix Pick now and it works but if there is something better...

[seusscaboose]

I buy 100 bamboo skewers for 2$ and use a pencil sharpener occasionally to keep em' sharp

it's cheaper then rix pix


also...    you can hold car cards in an oversized  black binder clip http://www.wardrobesupplies.com/spree/products/264/large/Black_binder_clips.JPG?1331652295

[conrail98]

What is throwbar wire?

It was this (or something like it)

http://www.handlaidtrack.com/037in-Throwbar-Wire-For-Tortoise-Switch-Machines-p/tl-0037.htm

When Jim Lincoln had his "The Chocolate" layout at the RPM meet in North Jersey, I ended up operating it during the show. He had some of that laying around and no skewers, so I ended up using about a 4" piece of it. I was amazed at how easy it was to pick apart the coupler with it. I didn't feel like I was stabbing the couplers like I do with the other tools I've used in the past,

Phil

[conrail98]

I buy 100 bamboo skewers for 2$ and use a pencil sharpener occasionally to keep em' sharp

it's cheaper then rix pix


also...    you can hold car cards in an oversized  black binder clip http://www.wardrobesupplies.com/spree/products/264/large/Black_binder_clips.JPG?1331652295

That's what most of the guys do with their skewers and those are the binder clips we use for car cards, particularly for blocks or the car cards associated with trains in staging, usually hanging right next to the staging yard and/or dispatcher. We also use something called a train card. Each layout's varies a little bit, but here's an example from John Rahenkamp's CL&W:



The trains are color coded with green for easy, Yellow for semi hard/some switching, and Red for see you tomorrow when you're done, 

Phil

[peteski]

Supplies

I had previously gotten both Micro-Mark and Rix Pick uncoupler tools. We will see which the operating crew prefers.

Um, cheap bamboo skewers (from a dollar store or from any supermarket) work just as well as the $3 tools, and they cost a fraction of the "real" uncoupling tools. Plus, if someone breaks or misplaces one, there is no big loss.

[VonRyan]

That's what most of the guys do with their skewers and those are the binder clips we use for car cards, particularly for blocks or the car cards associated with trains in staging, usually hanging right next to the staging yard and/or dispatcher. We also use something called a train card. Each layout's varies a little bit, but here's an example from John Rahenkamp's CL&W:



The trains are color coded with green for easy, Yellow for semi hard/some switching, and Red for see you tomorrow when you're done, 

Phil

I love John's system. I got the chance to kinda-sorta operate on it a couple times when I was younger, but didn't get to stay very long since I always had school the next day.
It was such a great layout to operate on and it really opened my eyes to the potential of operations.

[Rich_S]

That's what most of the guys do with their skewers and those are the binder clips we use for car cards, particularly for blocks or the car cards associated with trains in staging, usually hanging right next to the staging yard and/or dispatcher. We also use something called a train card. Each layout's varies a little bit, but here's an example from John Rahenkamp's CL&W:



The trains are color coded with green for easy, Yellow for semi hard/some switching, and Red for see you tomorrow when you're done, 

Phil

+3 on the skewers. We use them as well on the WVC&P. We also use binder clips on car cards for trains heading into staging, it helps keep the car cards organized in the staging bill boxes. We also use the binder clips to hang the Employee Timetables at the different stations around the layout. The WVC&P train cards are called Train Profiles, and are very handy especially for new operators.  Rick, it sounds like you are off to a great start, I just wish I lived a little closer to the Garden State.