Conrail Windsor St Yard (York PA) Engineering Report

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Thanks. That's really one of the big things I'm striving for with the layout: realistic overall scene construction. Realistic spacing, realistic scaling, etc...

[C855B]

Thanks. That's really one of the big things I'm striving for with the layout: realistic overall scene construction. Realistic spacing, realistic scaling, etc...

QFT.

Making headway this week, I noticed the vast (half-vast?) expanse of unobstructed mainline between two LDEs - about 15 feet. The reality of it just didn't seem right, not model-railroady enough. "Maybe I ought to add a couple of industries here," blah blah blah. I had to smack myself around a little for the reminder that was exactly what I was going for - the less compression, the better. At most, maybe a team track at one station, which would in fact follow the prototype for that location.

[John]

Yep! That's exactly what I'm going for.

https://binged.it/2aipO4g

[GaryHinshaw]

I think it looks great Ed!  However, I confess that I view it with 2016 eyes, and I'm not sure how it would have looked in 1985.  I love the use of the jersey barriers, oil tanks, etc.  Muy authentico.

Making headway this week, I noticed the vast (half-vast?) expanse of unobstructed mainline between two LDEs - about 15 feet.

Trust me, 15 feet will seem like nothing in 6 months time.   The two long walls of my upper deck have about 15 feet of "negative space" mainline and it now seems short to me, especially when a typical train on my layout fills that space.  Another reason to avoid stocking your layout to the gills is so that you have half a chance of finishing it in your lifetime (not to be too macabre...), while still pursuing other aspects of MRR'ing such as detailing and weathering your fleet, installing the latest tech gadget, or ballasting that mainline. 

[Cajonpassfan]

Oh yea, let's not forget the ballasting, that alone can take half a lifetime
Looking good!
Otto K.

[seusscaboose]

not with Ed's grouting philosophy

just dump and go man.... JFRT!.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

not with Ed's grouting philosophy

just dump and go man.... JFRT!.

With the grout, it's almost this easy.

Dump, groom, spray, drench.

[chicken45]

HO scalers may look down upon us for lack of detail, etc. but we win almost every time in the "selective compression" department. Why? Because we don't have to as much as they do!

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Lol. Exactly. I might've been tempted to put a stripped down Penney coaling tower there, had one been available.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I finally got around to another piece of ops documentation that I wanted to write: Terminal Information Publications.

A few years ago, @GonzoCRFan shared some documents he had found with me that contained a real trove of information about the locals that operated out of Bay View Yard: http://conrail1285.com/conrail-terminal-information-publications-bayview/. Those docs are amazing. They contain great information about how things actually worked. I wanted to replicate them for Windsor St.

I also realized that they'd be a good way to convey the information that a crew would need when running a particular train. I had to modify them a bit to achieve that goal, but I think it worked out pretty well.

You can get the full thing here: http://conrail1285.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/NCR-Terminal-Information-Publications.pdf
Here's a single page:


I also updated my reference page with documentation with them too: http://conrail1285.com/windsor-st-layout-operations-documents/

[wm3798]

Those are great.  But you should spice them up a bit.

"There's a homeless chick that lives under the loading dock at Agmark.  Make sure you call ahead to make sure her underwear isn't drying on the grab irons of the covered hopper you need to pull.  And whatever you do, don't look out the engineer's side window on Wednesdays.  It's bath day."

or

"Don't worry about banging the slack too loudly at York Refrigeration.  The shipping manager is an ********, and he's usually sleeping in his office around the time you get there."

and how about

"Make sure you leave at least one gondola fouling the Ma & Pa lead so they can't switch their bakery.  Our dispatcher has a drinking game where he slugs a YooHoo everytime the Yorkrail yardmaster calls him a twat."

This could really make ops interesting on a small layout!

Lee

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Lol. I like those!

Have you ever read Lance's ops book?

[wm3798]

I recall the article about the Miami switching layout he did in HO, with details such as the local voodoo ritual of sacrificing chickens on the tracks and such... 

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I recall the article about the Miami switching layout he did in HO, with details such as the local voodoo ritual of sacrificing chickens on the tracks and such... 

Yep. He's done a whole series of stuff. One of which was a book about modeling the various "railroading" operations that take place. For example, instead of just slam into the siding, grab the car and go, unlock the gate, unlock the derail, couple up, knock off the hand brakes, etc... It's good stuff, and makes smaller layouts go much further.

I have two copies of the book. If the one I can't find ever surfaces, I'll let you borrow it.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

After some operation, I realized that I really do need the opposite crossover at the north end of Windsor St Yard (CP Loucks). This is so trains coming south on the NCR will be able to get into the Yard.

I hadn't initially included the crossover in the plan because a train coming out of staging would've simply run wrong main the 6' from Hanover Junction to the yard. However, practice has shown me two instances where this would be useful:

• When trains are "orbiting" prior entering the yard. They usually run around the loop counter-clockwise, putting them on the wrong track to get in and do work. It's tough to cross them over earlier though, especially if there are other trains running.
• It's a pain in the a$$ to re-stage trains. Since my staging yard is a muzzle loader, if I want to back something in, I have to run it wrong main over the entire layout. Again, this gets to be problematic if there are multiple trains running.

I am incredibly pleased by how I lucked out here. It's almost as if this were planned. It wasn't, but fits almost perfectly.

Construction begins shortly.