With a new job and other commitments, progress on the CR&E has been rather slow up until recently. During the past couple of weeks, partly due to some vacation time and partly due to the pressure of getting something done before people came to see it again, I have managed to get a little done.
Just prior to NC Rail Run in September, I did a little scenery around John's Creek, approximately a 16 foot long section of railroad between there and the east end of Paint Bank, VA. About half of that got some puffball trees, and the entire section was ballasted. That's where things ended until early December, when I got started again.
I have done some very basic preparations in Paint Bank itself, such as inserting a tree line behind down using some blueboard "tree panels" left over from Version One of the CR&E. Just adding a tree line behind part of this area has added a lot.
West of Paint Bank, I carried scenic base downhill to Forester, VA, another 12 feet or so. Plaster cloth was draped over cardboard strips and then painted dark green to kill the snow-white look of the cloth. I also did some preliminary backdrop painting in this area to help out the scene a bit. I'm pleased with what has been started, but it is nowhere near finished.
Over the holidays, I'll have some additional free time that I intend to put toward the layout. It remains to be seen what I will do, but the beginning of the signal project is a possibility. CR&E management acquired the signal hardware needed for the railroad's CTC project in recent months.
I hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday season. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Monday, September 5, 2011
NC RailRun 2011
The CR&E was one of the participating railroads in NC RailRun 2011, sponsored by the Carolina Southern Division and the Operations Special Interest Group. Attendees were able to operate on 10 railroads located in the North Carolina piedmont and foothills regions.
On Sunday morning, September 4, 10 NC RailRun attendees and five of my regular crew members brought the CR&E to life. I'm happy to report that even with nine people here who had never been here before, the session went rather well. I'm hopeful that the amount of information I sent out prior to the session was helpful in keeping things under control, but I am absolutely certain that the involvement of the five regular crew members made it much easier for everyone.
Special thanks go to Todd Arnett, Tim Heckman, Larry Keller, Jeff Lindstrom, and David Ward for assisting the guests and for helping me answer questions during the session. Todd served as our Trainmaster, assigning crews using the lineup for the day's session. Tim Heckman, Larry Keller, and Jeff Lindstrom all roamed during the session to answer questions, solve problems, and take a few assignments when the Trainmaster needed crews. David Ward dispatched the first two hours of the session while Tim Heckman assisted our guest dispatcher during the last two hours.
Steve Benezra, Donovan Lewis, Kenny Mann, Chuck Place, Bill Raymond, Calvin Reynolds, Steve Roberts, Tony Sissons, Andrew Stitt, and Carl Wessell were the NC RailRun participants during Sunday's session.
We started the session where there previous regular CR&E session had left off. Normally our regular sessions are six hours long, but I ran only a four hour session last time to ensure that we would have enough trains to run by the visiting RailRun crew. As it turned out, we only ran 14 of the 20 trains planned in that previous session, so we had 26 trains available to operate during RailRun. Only 17 of those trains got started during RailRun, 16 of which were completed. I'm never worried about not running everything, but I do worry about not having enough to run. Thankfully we did not run out of trains during RailRun.
Regular operator David Ward served as our first shift East End Dispatcher. Bill Raymond was our second shift East End Dispatcher, working with regular operator Tim Heckman after sitting in with David for a little bit of the first shift. Steve Benezra worked as the Lewisburg Yardmaster, with Cal Reynolds spending some time as the yard crew and Chuck Place acting as the yard crew for the rest of the session. Carl Wessell was the K&N District Dispatcher/KN Tower operator, responsible for all traffic on the K&N District branches. Everyone else worked as a road crew during the session.
I only had a little time to take some pictures during the session, but here is what I was able to capture.
Steve Roberts wins the award for coming the greatest distance for NC RailRun 2011. Traveling all the way from the United Kingdom, Steve said that the CR&E session was his first ever US operating session. Here he is running NS 456 departing Catawba, VA, after meeting westbound train 457.
Donovan Lewis came from Florida to attend NC RailRun 2011. He is seen here with NS train 457 pulling out of the siding at Catawba, VA, after meeting eastbound 456.
Steve Benezra, editor of the OpSig's Dispatcher's Office publication, served as Lewisburg Yardmaster for the entire session. He is handling classification work at the east end of the yard as priority time freight 132 (with Soo line run-through power) rolls by on Main One.
Carl Wessell, who currently resides in Charlotte, took on the duties of the K&N District dispatcher and operator at KN Tower in Meadow Bluff, WV. Carl's job was the least defined during RailRun, as the procedures for handling the K&N traffic are still being developed. It looks like CSX's Rainelle, WV, based H804 shifter crew has just arrived at Meadow Bluff with a train from Raders Run on the Nicholas, Fayette & Greenbrier.
Kenny Mann of Conover, NC, has southbound K&N District C75 coming across the CSXT/NF&G diamond at Raders Jct, WV, with raw coal for processing at the Sam Creek Prep Plant on the K&N, as well as empties for the Ajax #1 loader at Meadow Bluff. The track crossing the K&N at grade is the NF&G's Raders Run Industrial Track, where CSX H804's pair of GP30's have just spotted the empties that arrived at Meadow Bluff earlier in the day.
Thanks to everyone for your participation in NC RailRun 2011 !
On Sunday morning, September 4, 10 NC RailRun attendees and five of my regular crew members brought the CR&E to life. I'm happy to report that even with nine people here who had never been here before, the session went rather well. I'm hopeful that the amount of information I sent out prior to the session was helpful in keeping things under control, but I am absolutely certain that the involvement of the five regular crew members made it much easier for everyone.
Special thanks go to Todd Arnett, Tim Heckman, Larry Keller, Jeff Lindstrom, and David Ward for assisting the guests and for helping me answer questions during the session. Todd served as our Trainmaster, assigning crews using the lineup for the day's session. Tim Heckman, Larry Keller, and Jeff Lindstrom all roamed during the session to answer questions, solve problems, and take a few assignments when the Trainmaster needed crews. David Ward dispatched the first two hours of the session while Tim Heckman assisted our guest dispatcher during the last two hours.
Steve Benezra, Donovan Lewis, Kenny Mann, Chuck Place, Bill Raymond, Calvin Reynolds, Steve Roberts, Tony Sissons, Andrew Stitt, and Carl Wessell were the NC RailRun participants during Sunday's session.
We started the session where there previous regular CR&E session had left off. Normally our regular sessions are six hours long, but I ran only a four hour session last time to ensure that we would have enough trains to run by the visiting RailRun crew. As it turned out, we only ran 14 of the 20 trains planned in that previous session, so we had 26 trains available to operate during RailRun. Only 17 of those trains got started during RailRun, 16 of which were completed. I'm never worried about not running everything, but I do worry about not having enough to run. Thankfully we did not run out of trains during RailRun.
Regular operator David Ward served as our first shift East End Dispatcher. Bill Raymond was our second shift East End Dispatcher, working with regular operator Tim Heckman after sitting in with David for a little bit of the first shift. Steve Benezra worked as the Lewisburg Yardmaster, with Cal Reynolds spending some time as the yard crew and Chuck Place acting as the yard crew for the rest of the session. Carl Wessell was the K&N District Dispatcher/KN Tower operator, responsible for all traffic on the K&N District branches. Everyone else worked as a road crew during the session.
I only had a little time to take some pictures during the session, but here is what I was able to capture.
Thanks to everyone for your participation in NC RailRun 2011 !
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Stuff happens ... deal with it!
Operating sessions are the times when we are rewarded by seeing our carefully constructed, well-thought out model railroads come to life in a thrilling display of realism.
Sometimes though, things don't go exactly as planned.
Take for example my latest operating session which, taking everything into consideration, was actually a very good session. The crew members had a good time, I had a good time, and we did move a decent amount of traffic. The railroad ran quite well from a mechanical standpoint. We accomplished the goal that we all have by bringing this N Scale world to life.
We weren't, however, rewarded with a perfect session. Yep, stuff happened.
First up was some failed communication between the dispatcher and the trainmaster/superintendent (ok, that would be me) when a heavy loaded coal train's engineer made a valiant effort to walk his black diamonds up the mountain east of Glace, WV, without the pusher crew that was standing by at Glace ready to push him. For some reason, the information didn't get to the dispatcher that the train needed a pusher, and neither the head end crew nor the pusher crew said a word about it. "A" for effort though, because the engineer darn near made it up the grade until he stalled between Anderson and Ridge on the steepest part of the grade. After some discussion between all involved, the pusher crew eased up behind the stalled coal train and pushed it all the way to Catawba, VA, as would have been originally required.
The result was significant delay to a westbound merchandise train that was in the siding between Ridge and Coleman waiting on what would have been a routine meet. The ripple effect continued when another coal train suffered excessive delay in the siding between Glace and Cove Mountain waiting for the pusher to come all the way back from Catawba, VA.
That second coal train became a thorn in the dispatcher's side when he had a relatively important eastbound time freight calling that they were ready to depart Lewisburg, WV, after doing their work. The dispatcher's plan was a good one, get the coal train started up the hill into the siding between Ridge and Cove Mountain, where the lighter and higher priority time freight could pass it.
Except....
That coal train, operating with a two-unit pusher and caboose and therefore being just a little bit longer than expected, was about a half of a caboose length longer than the siding between Ridge and Cove Mountain. It wasn't looking good for time freight 136, as they'd have to follow this slow-moving coal train all the way up to the top of the hill at Paint Bank, VA.
No worries though, because 136's engineer eventually called from Coleman saying that their lead unit, a Conrail SD60M, wasn't loading and they had stalled on the hill. The eventual solution to that problem was to have the pusher cut off the coal train upon arrival at Paint Bank and drift back down the hill to tie onto the ailing 136. With that accomplished, 136 finally got to Paint Bank just in time for the first shift dispatcher to take his last Tylenol and turn it over to another victim.
Things went pretty well for awhile from there, oh, except for the yard at Roanoke being full and unable to take 136. After discussions between the trainmaster and second shift dispatcher, it was agreed to tie that ill-fated 136 down between Red Sulphur and Catawba where a yard crew would take it over when there was a track available.
You might think that all of these complications would have led to a "bad time" at an operating session. However, everyone seemed to be enjoying the added operational interest. In fact, it was the idea of several of the crew members to actually handle their problems in a prototypical manner instead of using the giant hand from the sky to push their trains up the mountain or make other unrealistic moves.
We have to look no further than the railroads we are trying to replicate to find examples of days when whatever can go wrong will go wrong. It's all in the business of railroading. Sure, if things like this happened every single operating session, it would get old. But I was happy with the reaction of the crews when they decided to do it the "right way" and err on the side of realism.
Marcus
Sometimes though, things don't go exactly as planned.
Take for example my latest operating session which, taking everything into consideration, was actually a very good session. The crew members had a good time, I had a good time, and we did move a decent amount of traffic. The railroad ran quite well from a mechanical standpoint. We accomplished the goal that we all have by bringing this N Scale world to life.
We weren't, however, rewarded with a perfect session. Yep, stuff happened.
First up was some failed communication between the dispatcher and the trainmaster/superintendent (ok, that would be me) when a heavy loaded coal train's engineer made a valiant effort to walk his black diamonds up the mountain east of Glace, WV, without the pusher crew that was standing by at Glace ready to push him. For some reason, the information didn't get to the dispatcher that the train needed a pusher, and neither the head end crew nor the pusher crew said a word about it. "A" for effort though, because the engineer darn near made it up the grade until he stalled between Anderson and Ridge on the steepest part of the grade. After some discussion between all involved, the pusher crew eased up behind the stalled coal train and pushed it all the way to Catawba, VA, as would have been originally required.
The result was significant delay to a westbound merchandise train that was in the siding between Ridge and Coleman waiting on what would have been a routine meet. The ripple effect continued when another coal train suffered excessive delay in the siding between Glace and Cove Mountain waiting for the pusher to come all the way back from Catawba, VA.
That second coal train became a thorn in the dispatcher's side when he had a relatively important eastbound time freight calling that they were ready to depart Lewisburg, WV, after doing their work. The dispatcher's plan was a good one, get the coal train started up the hill into the siding between Ridge and Cove Mountain, where the lighter and higher priority time freight could pass it.
Except....
That coal train, operating with a two-unit pusher and caboose and therefore being just a little bit longer than expected, was about a half of a caboose length longer than the siding between Ridge and Cove Mountain. It wasn't looking good for time freight 136, as they'd have to follow this slow-moving coal train all the way up to the top of the hill at Paint Bank, VA.
No worries though, because 136's engineer eventually called from Coleman saying that their lead unit, a Conrail SD60M, wasn't loading and they had stalled on the hill. The eventual solution to that problem was to have the pusher cut off the coal train upon arrival at Paint Bank and drift back down the hill to tie onto the ailing 136. With that accomplished, 136 finally got to Paint Bank just in time for the first shift dispatcher to take his last Tylenol and turn it over to another victim.
Things went pretty well for awhile from there, oh, except for the yard at Roanoke being full and unable to take 136. After discussions between the trainmaster and second shift dispatcher, it was agreed to tie that ill-fated 136 down between Red Sulphur and Catawba where a yard crew would take it over when there was a track available.
You might think that all of these complications would have led to a "bad time" at an operating session. However, everyone seemed to be enjoying the added operational interest. In fact, it was the idea of several of the crew members to actually handle their problems in a prototypical manner instead of using the giant hand from the sky to push their trains up the mountain or make other unrealistic moves.
We have to look no further than the railroads we are trying to replicate to find examples of days when whatever can go wrong will go wrong. It's all in the business of railroading. Sure, if things like this happened every single operating session, it would get old. But I was happy with the reaction of the crews when they decided to do it the "right way" and err on the side of realism.
Marcus
Monday, July 18, 2011
Scenery!
I was determined to have at least one small scene looking presentable for NC RailRun 2011 coming Labor Day Weekend, and I'm happy to say that as of 11PM tonight I have met my goal.
It isn't much, but the basic scenery and vegetation around John's Creek Tunnel #2 is in place. Tonight I took a test shot of an eastbound caboose hop entering the tunnel.
There's still plenty to do to make this scene better, but I'm pretty pleased with the preliminary results. It felt good to be "planting" trees again.
It isn't much, but the basic scenery and vegetation around John's Creek Tunnel #2 is in place. Tonight I took a test shot of an eastbound caboose hop entering the tunnel.
There's still plenty to do to make this scene better, but I'm pretty pleased with the preliminary results. It felt good to be "planting" trees again.
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