I was thinking back tonight about the session that we just completed on December 18, 2010, on the CR&E. More specifically I was thinking about some actions of the crew members that made the model trains we were running seem a bit more like the real thing.
One thing I'm very much a fan of in operating sessions is slowing things down. There's no need to race across the railroad with a train, quickly completing switching moves so you can be rushed to your next assignment. Real railroaders take time, sometimes a lot of time, to perform their duties. If our desire is to emulate those duties, we should take some extra time too.
Let me just say that I noticed almost everyone, if not everyone, performing their jobs in a very realistic manner on Saturday. I was very pleased with the way the crew took things to a higher level of realism. Tonight I was thinking specifically about one episode, so I'll share that now.
I had assigned Jeff Lindstrom to K&N District mine run C76 rather early in the session. His job was to take a pair of six-axle units from the diesel shop at Lewisburg over to Meadow Bluff, where he'd pick up some hoppers to spot at the Crawley loadout just north of Meadow Bluff. After spotting Crawley, a restricted-speed shove move up the K&N with the conductor and brakeman hanging off the last hopper, Jeff took C76's units to the Cleark Fork Branch where they would pick up a unit train of loaded Top Gons.
I caught up to Jeff later when he had coupled on to the train of Top Gons and pulled it toward the connection of the south leg of the wye at Kessler with the mainline at Kessler. He was stopped at the junction so a crew member could climb off the locomotive and line the switch for movement off the branch and also double-check the alignment of the passing siding switch for mainline movement. After a short pause, the loaded train was crawling off the branch and the rear car finally cleared the junction switch. C76 stopped again, this time to allow the crew member to line the turnout back for the mainline.
During the course of an operating session, I'm pretty busy. I stepped away from this action for awhile and came back a few minutes later to see Jeff and his C76 still stopped south of the connection switch. The train hadn't turned a wheel since I left them a short time before. I asked Jeff, "Everything okay?"
"Well, you didn't give us a caboose so my conductor is having to walk all the way back to the head end now."
Excellent! Not only had Jeff listened to some of the coaching I had given crews before the session about stopping to line hand-throw turnouts, he had actually thought about where his conductor was and where his conductor needed to go before the train could move again. That's exactly the type of thinking I would like the operating crew members to do when they are executing their duties.
Finally, after a precarious walk that included walking across two bridges, C76 became C77 and was headed back south.
And with that, the Red Shirt Rookie, as he likes to refer to himself, stepped up to another level. Well done, Mr. Lindstrom!
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Monday, December 20, 2010
Celebrating one year of operations
On December 18, 2010, I hosted the fifth operating session on Version Two of the layout. One year ago this month, several crew members braved the elements (ice and snow) and came out to run a trial session in December 2009. Operations that day were very much preliminary, and I'm happy to report that they are in full swing a year later.
I also hosted my biggest crew ever, with 13 operators plus myself during each half of the session. A total of 14 operators were on hand during the day, with a few leaving after the morning portion of the session was complete. It is definitely different hosting a crew of that size, especially when I was accustomed to 6-8 crew members including myself on the old layout. Thankfully, everyone seemed patient and understanding if they had some down time between assignments while I scrambled to put people on trains.
There were 40 trains planned for the six-hour session, including three pusher calls. I did not intend to run all of those trains, and we did not get through the entire lineup. With larger crews on hand, I wanted to be sure plenty of trains were available in case we got through the lineup faster than I expected. That did not turn out to be the case. If my count was correct, we ran 32 of the 40 trains during the six-hour session.
I split the work into two shifts, with a morning shift and afternoon shift separated by a lunch break. Most people chose to stay for the entire day, but some attended only half the session. This seemed to work out okay, and when the crew got lighter I simply annulled trains that are not critical. The positions for each shift this time included:
East End Dispatcher
East End Assistant Dispatcher
Lewisburg Yardmaster
Lewisburg Yard Crew
K&N Dispatcher/KN Tower Operator at Meadow Bluff
Road crews (8)
I began the session by assigning road crews to pools. I had three "extra board" crews that would take jobs on the west end of the railroad from Lewisburg to Charleston (a short run into staging) as well as jobs on the Kessler & Northern coal district. Those crews would also be pressed into service on any other job on the division if needed. The other five road crews were assigned to the Lewisburg-Roanoke crew district. The majority of trains swapped crews at Lewisburg, meaning two crews would have to be lined up for most trains.
Although the crew district concept added a lot to the realism, it also added a lot to my workload and confusion as I tried to remember which crew was assigned to which pool. Several operators had longer than acceptable (to me) down time as they waited for trains on the appropriate end of the railroad even when trains could have been run on the other end of the railroad. As a result, I scrapped the concept after lunch and I do not think it will be repeated. In the future, I believe we will simulate a crew change at Lewisburg for all trains by building a pause into the train's schedule. The exceptions will be trains going to or from the K&N District, which will swap mine run crews with road crews. That is an element of realism that I am not willing to drop.
In celebration of the one year anniversary of operations, we ran a steam excursion powered by CR&E 4-6-2 #622. The excursion ran from Roanoke to Lewisburg, where the cars were tied down on Main One at the passenger station while a K&N crew took engine 622 to Kessler, WV, for turning on the wye. Upon the engine's return to Lewisburg, it took on coal and water for a few hours on the west yard lead, all the while with the passenger train tying up Main One. This turned out to be quite a challenge, and the double-track railroad through Lewisburg was single-track for several fast hours. The yard crews and dispatcher managed though and would often use the Kanawha Pull-In track as a second main for trains arriving and departing Lewisburg. You could hear the collective sigh of relief when the eastbound excursion departed Lewisburg, allowing everything to get back to normal.
Lewisburg has become a two-person job with the additional responsibilities of handling mine run power in and out of the yard, working local industries, and running the Brushy Mountain Railroad Turn. Although I didn't spend much time in the yard, one person seemed to mostly work the east end classifying cars while the other person worked the west end and industries. Both operators in the yard on both shifts seemed to stay busy as far as I could tell.
The East End Dispatcher job was also run as a two-person job to help with some of the radio calls between the yard, trainmaster, and operator at KN Tower. It may not always be a two-person job, but it seemed to work okay this time and helped break in some new dispatching talent for the railroad.
I also assigned a K&N District Dispatcher/Operator at KN Tower. The duties of this position included writing train orders for the K&N, routing trains through the scale track at Meadow Bluff, keeping up with the hopper yard inventory at Meadow Bluff including shipper car needs, and switching the Sam Creek Prep Plant facility using former Shoreham Railroad VO1000 #20. Larry Keller graciously took this job for the first half I very unintentionally buried him with work. At one point I remember seeing three train movements waiting to come off the K&N while two others were trying to get over to the yard at Meadow Bluff on the mainline. Talk about hectic. Todd Arnett took the job for part of the second half, but there was very little activity over there then. Obviously some resequencing is in order!
Steve Holzheimer and David Ward were the first shift dispatching team, while Josh Blevins and Dave Koss handled the yard at Lewisburg. On the second shift, David Ward and Tim Heckman were dispatching while Steve Holzheimer and Kevin Beck ran the yard.
Attendees of the session included Todd Arnett, Kevin Beck, Josh Blevins, Cooper Dwiggins, Steve Holzheimer, Larry Keller, Dave Koss, Terry Harrison, Tim Heckman, Jeff Lindstrom, Mike Pennie, Tony Sissons, Scott Teague, and David Ward.
My thanks to everyone for their participation in the session. It was the biggest yet and I hope to continue making things better!
Marcus
I also hosted my biggest crew ever, with 13 operators plus myself during each half of the session. A total of 14 operators were on hand during the day, with a few leaving after the morning portion of the session was complete. It is definitely different hosting a crew of that size, especially when I was accustomed to 6-8 crew members including myself on the old layout. Thankfully, everyone seemed patient and understanding if they had some down time between assignments while I scrambled to put people on trains.
There were 40 trains planned for the six-hour session, including three pusher calls. I did not intend to run all of those trains, and we did not get through the entire lineup. With larger crews on hand, I wanted to be sure plenty of trains were available in case we got through the lineup faster than I expected. That did not turn out to be the case. If my count was correct, we ran 32 of the 40 trains during the six-hour session.
I split the work into two shifts, with a morning shift and afternoon shift separated by a lunch break. Most people chose to stay for the entire day, but some attended only half the session. This seemed to work out okay, and when the crew got lighter I simply annulled trains that are not critical. The positions for each shift this time included:
East End Dispatcher
East End Assistant Dispatcher
Lewisburg Yardmaster
Lewisburg Yard Crew
K&N Dispatcher/KN Tower Operator at Meadow Bluff
Road crews (8)
I began the session by assigning road crews to pools. I had three "extra board" crews that would take jobs on the west end of the railroad from Lewisburg to Charleston (a short run into staging) as well as jobs on the Kessler & Northern coal district. Those crews would also be pressed into service on any other job on the division if needed. The other five road crews were assigned to the Lewisburg-Roanoke crew district. The majority of trains swapped crews at Lewisburg, meaning two crews would have to be lined up for most trains.
Although the crew district concept added a lot to the realism, it also added a lot to my workload and confusion as I tried to remember which crew was assigned to which pool. Several operators had longer than acceptable (to me) down time as they waited for trains on the appropriate end of the railroad even when trains could have been run on the other end of the railroad. As a result, I scrapped the concept after lunch and I do not think it will be repeated. In the future, I believe we will simulate a crew change at Lewisburg for all trains by building a pause into the train's schedule. The exceptions will be trains going to or from the K&N District, which will swap mine run crews with road crews. That is an element of realism that I am not willing to drop.
In celebration of the one year anniversary of operations, we ran a steam excursion powered by CR&E 4-6-2 #622. The excursion ran from Roanoke to Lewisburg, where the cars were tied down on Main One at the passenger station while a K&N crew took engine 622 to Kessler, WV, for turning on the wye. Upon the engine's return to Lewisburg, it took on coal and water for a few hours on the west yard lead, all the while with the passenger train tying up Main One. This turned out to be quite a challenge, and the double-track railroad through Lewisburg was single-track for several fast hours. The yard crews and dispatcher managed though and would often use the Kanawha Pull-In track as a second main for trains arriving and departing Lewisburg. You could hear the collective sigh of relief when the eastbound excursion departed Lewisburg, allowing everything to get back to normal.
Lewisburg has become a two-person job with the additional responsibilities of handling mine run power in and out of the yard, working local industries, and running the Brushy Mountain Railroad Turn. Although I didn't spend much time in the yard, one person seemed to mostly work the east end classifying cars while the other person worked the west end and industries. Both operators in the yard on both shifts seemed to stay busy as far as I could tell.
The East End Dispatcher job was also run as a two-person job to help with some of the radio calls between the yard, trainmaster, and operator at KN Tower. It may not always be a two-person job, but it seemed to work okay this time and helped break in some new dispatching talent for the railroad.
I also assigned a K&N District Dispatcher/Operator at KN Tower. The duties of this position included writing train orders for the K&N, routing trains through the scale track at Meadow Bluff, keeping up with the hopper yard inventory at Meadow Bluff including shipper car needs, and switching the Sam Creek Prep Plant facility using former Shoreham Railroad VO1000 #20. Larry Keller graciously took this job for the first half I very unintentionally buried him with work. At one point I remember seeing three train movements waiting to come off the K&N while two others were trying to get over to the yard at Meadow Bluff on the mainline. Talk about hectic. Todd Arnett took the job for part of the second half, but there was very little activity over there then. Obviously some resequencing is in order!
Steve Holzheimer and David Ward were the first shift dispatching team, while Josh Blevins and Dave Koss handled the yard at Lewisburg. On the second shift, David Ward and Tim Heckman were dispatching while Steve Holzheimer and Kevin Beck ran the yard.
Attendees of the session included Todd Arnett, Kevin Beck, Josh Blevins, Cooper Dwiggins, Steve Holzheimer, Larry Keller, Dave Koss, Terry Harrison, Tim Heckman, Jeff Lindstrom, Mike Pennie, Tony Sissons, Scott Teague, and David Ward.
My thanks to everyone for their participation in the session. It was the biggest yet and I hope to continue making things better!
Marcus
Saturday, December 11, 2010
K&N District Clear Fork Branch is in service
Effective this evening, service can begin to the K&N District's Clear Fork Mine complex along Big Clear Creek east of Kessler, WV.
The Clear Fork Branch, extending from Kessler to the Clear Fork Mine, has been completed. The wye trackage at Kessler is also complete, with only the wiring of the north leg (reverse section) to be done.
The first loads will soon be able to roll out of Clear Fork, as a 24-car unit train of loaded Top Gons has been spotted on the branch.
The Clear Fork Mine is "up the hollow" from Kessler and is represented with a stub-ended staging track that extends into the K&N staging area inside the peninsula. The track was made long enough to handle a typical 24-car unit coal train, plus a few car lengths for good measure.
I'm happy to have this slowly progressing project finally completed!
The Clear Fork Branch, extending from Kessler to the Clear Fork Mine, has been completed. The wye trackage at Kessler is also complete, with only the wiring of the north leg (reverse section) to be done.
The first loads will soon be able to roll out of Clear Fork, as a 24-car unit train of loaded Top Gons has been spotted on the branch.
The Clear Fork Mine is "up the hollow" from Kessler and is represented with a stub-ended staging track that extends into the K&N staging area inside the peninsula. The track was made long enough to handle a typical 24-car unit coal train, plus a few car lengths for good measure.
I'm happy to have this slowly progressing project finally completed!
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Two Year Rewind
Tonight, while putting together my progress report for the previous post, I found a photo taken exactly two years ago, on the evening of November 14, 2008.
The photo shows the very first piece of benchwork that had been installed that evening for what is now the east end of the yard at Lewisburg.
Two very short years later, CR&E Version Two has been operational for 11 months, has hosted five operating sessions including the February 2010 NC Rail Run N Scale Edition, and has been the source of a great deal of fun for myself and others. A lot of hard work by a number of friends helped us get where we are today on the CR&E, and I will be forever grateful.
The photo shows the very first piece of benchwork that had been installed that evening for what is now the east end of the yard at Lewisburg.
Two very short years later, CR&E Version Two has been operational for 11 months, has hosted five operating sessions including the February 2010 NC Rail Run N Scale Edition, and has been the source of a great deal of fun for myself and others. A lot of hard work by a number of friends helped us get where we are today on the CR&E, and I will be forever grateful.
 |
| The first piece of benchwork on CR&E Version Two was hung on 11-14-08 and is pictured here in a photo taken that evening. We've come a long way! |
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