Operating Session Analysis

Eric D. and I did get a chance to run trains last week. He noticed right away the scenery changes I had made in West Staging - very rewarding! I walked him though my ideas for how we would operate the trains and overall things went well. I had done a lot of ballasting along the mainline since the last operating session so there were a few rough spots that required the pick to dig out the errant stones. Both of us seemed to have a problem running through switches  that were turned wrong. At one point, I pulled the PRR wrecker I have and placed it on the maintenance of way (MoW) track. I don't recall Eric or I dumping another train after that.

Eric drops some cars on the P&LE Interchange before heading to Irwin, PA.

 To start, I had cars at all the industries except May Stern Furniture and I had 2 empty tracks in each staging yard. I had decided to only have one through freight from Greensburg to Pittsburgh, all the other trains would be locals stopping in Irwin or East McKeesport to drop off cars for the P&LE. I had the Irwin yard at about 1/2 capacity and could set out a train for either east or west at any moment. I continued my role as Irwin Yardmaster and also the local tuns for the Herminie mine run and exchanging cars with the Heinz factory and LAS Fabrics. After we were operating, I realized I did not have any plans for exchanging cars on the Irwin Industrials track. Operating these 3 sections of the layout was probably the biggest glitch we ran into. Below is a schematic showing this section of the layout. I was able to squeeze in H-1 and H-2 local runs to the mine in Herminie but because the mine tracks were full, I had to run light to pull all the cars from the mine then make another run to place them. I need to determine a scheme where I send a train out there a couple of times an operating session to pull each siding rather that service the entire complex (3 tracks) at once).

Irwin Yard and surrounding tracks that in theory are serviced by locals originating in Irwin

Eric was responsible for all the local trains including the traffic from east or west staging, which we basically alternated. This actually worked out very well except for the engine shortage. Since I only have a few DCC engines, I told Eric to turn them once he reaches his destination. OK, train lingo for a newbie! He literally picked up the engine, turned it 180 degrees and placed it back on the same track. I meant to take the engine from the arrival train and place it on one of the outbound tracks to complete a train. Once we worked out the communication glitches, we were humming along.

The P&LE run continues to be a sort of whatever-whenever deal. I had a short train staged, only four cars but they were all heading to interchange with the PRR. This meant that I had no room to pull the cars from the P&LE industries - Dailey Coal & Fuel, Pgh Brewery, Keystone Sand, and A&J Tool & Die.

Tracks in East McKeesport, red indicates the P&LE sidings with the staging off to the upper right

So I ran the engine back light until Eric had a chance to collect the cars, then I ran back down and pulled all the cars from the sidings - of course, all going out to the PRR so again I ran the engine back to Eric light. Ultimately, we never delivered cars to those sidings.

So we had a good time and I think some of the ideas I tried in this session - trains on 3 staging tracks, locals ready to leave Irwin, no or limited thru trains - I will keep. Next I will concentrate on the traffic patterns around the Irwin yard - maybe the west bound local from Greensburg staging so handle the Heinz factory exchange with the eastbound doing the same for LAS Fabrics. Once I get those settled down, I will turn my attention to East McKeesport.

Oh, and I found two engines waiting for DCC conversion. Both are Atlas SW1200s that I have hesitated because of warning I read on potential shorts. I did not want to burn out a $20 board but then it occurred to me that I've had it for about 4 years so maybe it was time to take the plunge! Looking over the engines, I had started to convert one but forget where I left off. So now I have to trace everything! I REALLY need to stop procrastinating and finish the jobs I start!