Now that I have a yard installed, I'm able to assemble trains and send them forth, some eastbound, some west. Next I'm working on getting a proper engine terminal installed. This will enable me to mix up the power as well as the cars.
I still have some kinks to work out, and I need to install another throttle jack closer to the yard, but it looks like a full operating session will involve up to 8 different trains, two road engineers, an engineer for the Paper Mill switcher, and a yard master. Extra hands could serve as a dispatcher, and a tower operator at Maryland Junction.
Maryland JunctionTo do it right, I'll need to get two more Prodigy Advance throttles, but I can probably make it work with one more (I have two).
I have plenty of motive power for the layout in its current configuration, and an ample supply of coal hoppers and other freight cars to meet the current traffic demand. I'm running two coal extras, an eastbound train of loads and a westbound train of empties, which basically run the loop while I'm switching the mill or building the next train in the yard. I don't have an on-line marshalling yard, so the coal traffic is relatively unsophisticated. Once the layout reaches it's full form, there will be a lot more. So, in addition to buying turnouts and track for the coming expansion, I'll also be stocking up on hoppers.
I'm using car cards and waybills, and managing the local traffic with switch lists. I've been able to get copies of actual WM paperwork, and modified it in my graphics program so it can easily be photocopied on standard paper. I'm managing overall traffic with a train movement report, which is also a reproduced WM form, which notes train number, direction, loads and empties in each train, and time. There's a stack of these at the dispatcher's desk, and it gets filled in as each train enters and leaves the layout via the yard branch.
So far, the schedule is as follows:
The West Local leaves Elkins and heads eastbound on the Thomas Sub.
BT-1, a scheduled freight, leaves westbound for the Connellsville Sub. At Maryland Jct, it picks up any westbound traffic from the Thomas Sub, and from the mill switcher, and sets out cars bound for Elkins.
While the West Local is switching set-outs and pick-ups at Maryland Jct., an Eastbound Coal Extra heads down from the Thomas Sub
While the coal extra is doing laps, the Mill switcher catches up spotting the new arrivals at their various spots around the paper mill complex.
Once that work is done, the East Local arrives from Cumberland with its switch list. It picks up the Elkins traffic, and sets out cars for the mill.
The East Local also takes care of the only on-line coal business (for the moment) a truck dump that handles about 4 cars every other day. It then proceeds back to the yard, which represents Elkins.
Next a train of empty hoppers appears from the east end staging, and makes its rounds, again while the VO 1000 clears the sidings at Maryland Jct.
It will head back to the yard, swap power with the train of loads, and wait to be dispatched again as a different train number.
WM-6 arrives next from the west, with traffic for Hagerstown and points east. WM-6 is the fast freight from the West End to Baltimore, but it will have a cut of cars that will be switched to AJ-2 or AJ-12, which will go through Rutherford Yard on the Reading toward Allentown and New York.
Including the mill switcher, that's seven trains. I'm trying to make room in the yard to stage a grain train (eastbound loads, westbound empties) and my stone train. At this point I'm not including any Alpha Jets, because A) I want to run 89' pig flats and auto racks, and the temporary loops are a bit snug for that, and the AJ's would just be through traffic, and I don't have enough yard capacity to have two long trains just laying around.
I'll be running some more trains over the weekend to see where the bugs are. The Mill switcher looks like its going to be the job to have, as it keeps moving pretty much all the time. If I had room for a small engine house, I could probably justify two mill switchers!
Lee
