SHABBONA RR is a point-to-point system. Since I still don't have the Mt. Zion dispatcher panel installed, main line trains are dispatched from MJ Tower. This works so well that I am tempted to pull out all intermediate stations. I can still see trains as they travel over the main line.
At last Spring's open house, held in conjunction with the Santa Fe Historical Society Mini-meet, I recruited a local modeler to prepare trains for an outbound trip. this worked well, because I could then focus on Mooar Yard and JW Tower. Trains were made up before hand, except for changing cabooses and head end power. Locomotives on inbound trains head for the service pit, then a yard engine adds a new waycar on the inbound end of the train, then goes to the opposite end and retrieves the inbound waycar and puts it away. Then the yard engine goes to the opposite end of the waycar track and ties onto the first-out waycar. It is now ready to service the next inbound train. For the open house, I kept a made-up train with power added and ready to go. This way, I could yard the train from Termminal District and start the outbound trip without a lot of switching. It worked well, there was no "downtime" between trains. Outbound trains at Mooar were controlled by the Terminal District Yardmaster, while I handled the line-ups at JW Tower. Passenger trains were a different story - the locomotive on inbound trains cuts off and goes to the service area to turn on the turntable. Meanwhile, the yard engine comes in against the rear of the train and switches out cars that must also be turned. When the road engine is turned, it pulls up into the South Main pocket so the yard engine can shove through the coach yard to reach the turntable and turn the single-ended cars. Once that is accomplished, the yard engine pulls the turned cars back through the coach yard and makes up the outbound passenger train. Then the road engine proceeds down the South Main to the coach yard and ties into the new outbound train and waits until time for its reappearance. At the Keokuk end, passenger trains pull into the KUD stub. When time for it to leave, it backs out of the stub and around the wye at Mooar Yard to turn, then pulls up to JW Tower to wait for the inbound passenger train the clear JW Tower, after which it proceeds to Terminal District. As with the freight trains, traffic moving towards Terminal District is controlled by the Terminal District yardmaster. If there was anything I would change, it would be to put a reverse loop beyond Terminal District so trains could pull through the yard, run around the reverse loop, re-enter Terminal District and park until time for their next appearance. Time and space constraints dictate that is not about to happen, so I am satisfied with what I have. It works well, even for "lone wolf" operations. boB Nicholson ______________________________________________________ --- In [email protected], Don Thompson wrote: > > Dear Earl, The CJSS did not have any loops at the end, just yards, passenger > stations or one time a barge (Vic Roseman's module) at the terminus. The > first time we set up as a point to point, we used three 90Ë corners and the > final module layout looked like a very large set of steps. Once the > attendees started to show up, they filled around the front of the layout and > operators at the ends could not see each other. They made up trains and sent > them out, once they cleared the curve, you could not see the trains. This > was different than our usual loops. We used radios with headsets to > communicate. At a different venue was the next time for a non-loop layout. > We added the dreaded "Y" module to the mix so we had three terminals. With > the Y, the setup took a bit longer than anticipated so the show started and > we were not ready for the point to point to point to be fully operational. > That is when show management stopped by and told us no more non-loop layouts. > We were running within an hour of when the doors open, but the management > never came back to see what we could do. We were not invited back. To be > fair, we rarely went to shows that we were not reimbursed for our expenses. > We had to rent a truck to move the modules, etc... So if they paid us.... > Don Thompson > > > On Jan 29, 2013, at 11:48 PM, Tennsgauge@... wrote: > > > > > > > But the disadvantage is that it the two or more loops at the ends require a > > lot more modules. A big club like Bill's CJSS could do it if they chose > > to, but smaller clubs would have a harder time. > > > > - Earl Henry, Nashville > > > ------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
