Next generation

I mentioned that in my last operating session with Eric, we did not complete all the trains that were on the timetable. I was getting ready to run the last couple of trains when I asked the twins if they wanted to help me move them. They both like to run the trains and Nicholas has been asking a lot of questions on how to create and use switchlists.

 Nicholas (yellow shirt) runs the P&LE trick from Erie (staging) to work the tracks in East McKeesport. Adam in the background will align the switches and uncouple the cars.

After exchanging cars in the Irwin yard, Adam takes train GRN-70 into Greensburg. Nicholas, playing my typical role of Irwin yardmaster, is waiting in the background to shift the inbound cars onto the yard tracks. I enjoyed just directing the traffic, fixing any maintenance issues, and of course training the next generation model railroaders!

Good operating session and Kadee magnets

The session last night with Eric went very well. We took our time so that both of us were on the same page with the current train and next step in the sequence. We also started defining some rules of operation, like stopping at the yard limit for clearance to work the Irwin yard lead track and exchange cars. In two instances, Eric waiting at the yard entrance allowed me to push just one more car on the train for him to deliver on down the line.

That worked until I put 3 Pittsburgh bound cars on the local trick that was going out to East McKeesport and coming back. In other words, it was not proceeding to Pittsburgh! Ugh. I caught the mistake before he assembled the train so I just had him leave the 3 cars and we were back on track.

The time table (sequence of trains) worked very well except where I listed the P&LE work, which was printed black characters on dark blue background and Eric skipped over it. OK, maybe make that row white characters on blue! I wanted to distinguish the P&LE work as separate (someday, this could be a dedicated operator) and by using the blue background it hopefully provides the trigger of the Erie bound waybills being blue.

Traffic was busier than usual in the Irwin yard which was good and I was able to try the 4 Kadee delayed uncouplers I added to the yard tracks that I had laying around from previous layouts. These worked very well on 3 of the tracks but one was too high and derailing some cars so I quickly removed it and used the Rix tool on that track.

Overall, the new paperwork was a success and at the end of the evening, Eric pointed to the clipboard with the timetable and asked, "How did you come up with all of this?" Lots of reading, a little experience from Dave Holl's operating sessions in the late 90s and some help from virtual friends on TrainLife and the CarCards group. Oh, and a flash of inspiration yesterday!

New paperwork

Based on the last few operating sessions with Eric and Jack, I've rounded out the paperwork for running the trains. In the past, I would point to a track in one of the offline staging yards or had them a packed of cars and provide verbal instructions what to do. This was because I was making it up as I went! Once we worked through some of the kinks, a sequence of trains and switching tasks began to develop and I feel I can finally create a documented process.

First, from the beginning I color coded the waybills to indicate where the car is headed. Plain waybills are set for one of the sidings on the PRR tracks:

• West Penn, Stetson Convention Service or May Stern Furniture in East McKeesport
• Irwin Industrials, Heinz, or LAS Fabrics in Irwin
• WCC Mine 4 in Herminie

Waybills colored blue are routed to the P&LE interchange track either for one of the industries (Keystone Sand & Supply, Pittsburgh Brewery, A&J Tool & Die Co. or Dailey Coal & Fuel) or to head north to Erie PA (P&LE staging track). Green colored waybills go east to Greensburg and pink waybills go west to Pittsburgh.

Color coded waybills show where the cars are headed

Today, I added two new forms to the operating session. First, I created train slips (not sure what else to call them yet) which provide the train number, description, and sequence of tasks. This is paper-clipped to the packet of car cards and tells the operating what to do with the train. The other form is a pseuo-time table that provides the sequence of trains and duplicates the tasks each performs to keep track of the flow and help the Irwin yard operator determine when to set out cars for east and west bound trains.

In the past, I have worked the Heinz and LAS Fabrics sidings from the Irwin yard which is pretty unrealistic so the next session will have these and possibly the Herminie mine run trains operated by the road crews (Eric or Jack).

Train slip (left) and timetable

Now the verbal instructions should be reduced to coordinate when a train comes onto the layout rather than what to do with the train. Tune in and we'll see how well this works!

Improving Operations

Jack came over last week and we ran the trains using the scheme Eric and I have perfecting. Basically, I have eliminated all through freights and focus on local trains servicing Irwin as they head west from Greensburg to Pittsburgh or east from Pittsburgh to Greensburg. It starts with a westbound freight and more or less alternates back and forth.

• Westbound freight stops in Irwin to pick up cars bound for Pittsburgh and leaves anything for the local work (cars routed to Irwin, E. McKeesport including traffic for P&LE there, and Herminie)
• Eastbound collects cars from the P&LE interchange in E. McKeesport, stops in Irwin for drop offs (d/o) and pick ups (p/u). Continues to Greensburg.
• P&LE comes from Erie (staging) and shuffles cars placing PRR bound traffic on the interchange before heading back to Erie.
• Eastbound collects interchange traffic and exchanges at Irwin yard before continuing to Greensburg.
• Eastbound p/u from West Penn Power and Irwin Industrials, exchanges in Irwin.
• Westbound exchanges cars in Irwin.

One of the westbound trains should have serviced the Stetson Convention/May Stern siding and placed the cars pulled from the siding on the interchange track to head back to Irwin. The yard in Irwin had two full westbound trains at one point - about 5 cars for P&LE and another 5 for Pittsburgh - so I called for an extra, getting a engine/cabin car to run light from Greensburg, get the Pittsburgh bound and pull them off the layout to west staging.

I ran the Irwin yard including servicing Heinz, LAS Fabrics and runs to the Westmoreland Coal Company in Herminie. Jack ran all the other trains including the extra and the P&LE trick.

What I am learning is that I need to keep a sequence of numbered trains and I am researching what would work best:  TR-49, TR-51, TR-52 where even numbers are East or something like PGH-53, GRN-12, PHILA-22 as better mnemonics. Also, traffic in E. McKeesport is too dense for the P&LE trick if I leave a car on every siding. Finally, I can do a lot with the car cards if I keep just the color coding and worry about specific industries sometime down the road. More on this later.

Now I just need to make a few adjustments and re-staging for an operating session this week!

Rounding out East McKeesport

My last post was about creating the 2D buildings along the sky board in East McKeesport, along with a three-quarters version of Stetson Convention Service. Last night I completed two 3D buildings to finish East McKeesport - at least for now.

East McKeesport with tent card industries

Prior to finishing the mock-ups, I had a extra piece of an old factory as a stand-in, but index card tents indicating where the industries were on the siding. The track closest to the front represents A&J Tool & Die Co. with the factory imagined in front of the track. The rear siding has 2 buildings: Keystone Sand & Supply Co. and Pittsburgh Brewery.

New building mock-ups and a shipping sign make the scene a bit more realistic

Well, the tent cards worked so that my engineers knew where to place the cars they were delivering, but hardly realistic. Since I don't want to do too much scenery work until I know for sure how I will relocate the layout to the new house, I decided just to build a couple of quick 3D mock-ups for the back 2 industries, and a simple Shipping -> sign for A&J. Turned out pretty good!

Building a city in a day

Since we decided to move - and I can't fit the 14'x24' layout through the basement door - I decided I would not work on any improvements, especially scenery. This week, however, I came up with the insane idea that I could cut up the layout, rearrange the modules and assemble a new layout with a similar operating scheme. Hoping to schedule a train session with my buddies Eric and Jack, I began to rethink things.

East McKeesport with signs for industries

Last Christmas, Lisa and the kids gave me Model Builder software. I was playing with it this week and it is really easy to use. Basically, you pick from a pallet of materials - brick, stone, cement, corrugated siding, etc. - and create a building. You print this, glue it to some cardboard or foam board and you can build 2D or 3D structures. I wanted this software once I built the sample from their website which is Vic's Bait & Tackle shop. Today, I built up the backdrop for the city of East McKeesport, including a faux 3D building for Stetson Convention Service which receives rail traffic from the PRR on the siding it shares with the May Stern furniture factory. Sweet!

The new and improve East McKeesport