1st Op Session-West Bottoms

Months go by; research, planning, benchwork, track, wiring, a little scenery. Then the moment of truth, is your operating scheme going to work. Today was the moment of truth with the first operating session, sort of since it was only me.

My layout models the Frisco West Bottoms, 28 feet along a wall going
up Santa Fe Street switching the Frisco freighthouse, Crooks warehouse, Rudy Patrick warehouse, Rudy Patrick elevator, Sunshine Biscuit, Weber Paper among others yet to be determined. At the north end of Santa Fe it turns left into Henning Street yard and switches Armour Packing, 12 feet along that wall. At the other end (south) is an off stage fiddle yard for blocking switch runs. It is a little different in that the yard lead is off stage, but the yard tracks come back onto the layout and function as tracks at the adjacent GM&O freightouse. So as the trains are being blocked off stage for operators in the on stage area it looks like cars being moved at the GM&O. The trackage and wiring is in for the first 28 feet and the fiddle yard. Armour in in the future although the benchworks is in place.

So the first operating session was set up like so. The only structure on the layout is a partially completed Frisco warehouse. There are six spots on two tracks. There were five cars spoted. Back in the fiddle yard there were seven cars. I made up a random number list and generated some rules to determine what work needed to be performed at the freighthouse. It came out four cars had to be pulled and three spotted. Cars not pulled at the freighthouse had to return to their original spot if moved. I made a switch list using the form posted on this site. I pulled a black FM switcher off the ready track and started blocking the train. I used the FM instead of the Proto 2000 0-6-0 because I am having problems getting 100% reliability not splitting the Peco code 83 switches at the freighthouse with the 0-6-0. (Another topic, trust me I've tried the obvious using my NMRA guage).

The switch moves at the freighthouse ended up being straightforward with no repostioning of moved cars required. It still took me 25 minutes to block, switch the freighthouse and return the pulled cars to the yard.
There were zero derailments. I would call my first session a success.

I spent 25 years drawing trackplans and getting nothing accomplished. A lesson I've learned is not to pay attention to the magazines. You don't need a basement full of track, "mushrooms" trackplans, multi-levels, switching puzzles etc. My track plan is very simple, was easy to build and appears to be satisfying. If you are an armchair modeler like I was, get out there and build something.

For my KC friends, not ready for prime time yet, but getting close. Be ready.

John

 

No truer words have been spoken/typed.

 

John -

This is great news to hear - good for you!

It sounds like you've got plenty of operating action. After operating on Rick's layout, I discovered that switching is a blast. With a good car card system, like he uses, it's even better!

My space is limited, like yours, to about 8' x 20'. So, one of these days, hopefully I can build a layout that is also based on a switching theme.

Perhaps we can look forward to an open house one of these days soon?

Bob McKeighan
Lenexa, KS

 

Bob:

Go to Lance Mindheim's site, don't have address I always just type in his name. He actually has two, from main site you can go to his company, shelf railroads. Some good ideas, a couplel of interesting books available and his blog comments, when talking about modeling, are generally good.
I check it every couple of days.

 

Thanks for the info John!

I've bookmarked the sites into my favorites. No doubt that I'll gain some knowledge from his sites. He's very talented, based on the nice pictures that he's posted.

Bob