The Big Picture

Last week, I was talking about the first operating session with a co-worker, Vic. He enjoyed the stories I was telling but said he could not visualize the layout based on the blog entries ... so, here's the big picture. Fortunately, my basement is open enough that I can step back and take a couple overview pictures.

First, the layout is L-shaped running across almost the entire back wall (as you come down the staircase) of the basement, approximately 24' in length. The L is on the left as you face the layout and runs another 14' - enough for some mainline run but mostly I like switching trains. In fact, this is one of the things that Lisa keeps shaking her head - why don't I have a circle to run the trains continuously. Sometimes, I wish I did have a loop so I could break the trains in or run them in the background while I work on some scenery but for the most part, I like this configuration.

To help people orient, when you face the layout you are looking north - so, like a map, west is always to the left and east is to the right. Above is a picture of the layout from the closest part as you walk into the basement, the West Staging yard. This yard provides the trains that come from the railroads off the layout. Trains pass under the Route 30 highway bridge onto the layout proper and enter East McKeesport. One of the key points of interest here is the interchange with the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie (P&LE) railroad. This is also where the May Stern Furniture factory is located, a fascinating structure that I will blog about in the future.

As the trains passes around the curve onto the long arm of the L-shape, heading east, it passes through downtown Irwin and the Irwin yard. A branch line off the Irwin yard curves around onto a 2' x 4' peninsula that projects out from the layout and is the Westmoreland Coal Company (WCC) Mine No. 4 in Hermanie PA. The PRR mainline continues past the Irwin yard, passing over a railroad truss bridge (not sure if this will be the B&O or another line) and terminates in the East Staging yard.

And that ... is the big picture!

First REAL Operating Session

A fellow Cub Scout Leader and friend of mine, Jack, stopped over several weeks ago to drop of some scout papers and asked to see the layout. I showed him my embarrassing progress and he offered to help. Over the weeks I managed to get a second Digitrax DT-402 infrared controller, a little more scenery done (like around Dailey Coal & Fuel), create my own Employee Time Table (which I'll post sometime) and generally get the trains to run.


On Thursday, he came back over to run trains. It was a blast! We both had a great time. Jack thought "running trains" would be driving them forward and back. I had a plan to actually operate the trains. First he ran an eastbound train through the layout to get a feel for the throttle and then a west bound through freight. I had him take a local over to East McKeesport and spot some cars while I made up a couple of trains in the Irwin Yard and ran a couple of mine runs to Westmoreland Coal Company (WCC) Mine No. 4 in Hermanie. Jack was doing pretty well when I checked on him. He had a particularly difficult tank car to spot at the West Penn Power siding and I was impressed he was able to hook the engine up and push it back. He was a little sheepish when he said he pushed it back with his hand!

Below, Jack works the PRR-P&LE interchange in East McKeesport.

So Jack learned the game "challenge" of operating trains and I learned some really valuable lessons on the PRR Irwin district.

1. It works. Two people operated trains and rarely got in each other's way.
2. The P&LE crossing over the PRR mainline is confusing to novices - hard to tell how to get from one track to the other. Have to point this out before I send other newbies there to spot cars in East McKeesport or pick up or drop off an interchange.
3. The IR receiver is in the worst spot possible! I kept blocking Jack's line of sight, since the IR receiver is right where the Irwin yardmaster is always standing! 
4. Jack also had a great idea for my mountain problem which view block separating Irwin, the east staging yard and Hermanie.
   

Oh, and on the second local he took to East McKeesport, he spotted the hopper car behind the tank car on the West Penn  Power siding ... without using his hands!
Looking forward to another operating session or two before the end of the year!

Before And After

Earlier this year I figured an industry for the odd P&LE siding that appears to run right off the layout. In fact, once I get a fascia mounted, I plan to put a small piece of plexi-glass to be the "end" of the rail for that track.  Since I am modeling the late 1950s, I thought a coal and fuel oil company would be interesting, especially a little family run business. I came up with Dailey Coal & Fuel, named after my co-worker, Paul. This past week, I added a little scenery just to spruce up the spur a little. All I need now is a sign ... and that darn fascia!

Before ....

After

More Awesome Finds

Recently, I had a chance to stop into one of my favorite hobby shops, T&K Hobbies in Bridgeport OH. This fantastic store is pretty far from my house ... on the other side of the state! .... but on the way to my parents house so I try to stop in when I can. I always find a couple of car kits marked down to what I consider "train show" prices, and there is a huge selection of parts, details, cars, engines, and scenery materials. I could easily spend 3 hours browsing because there are so many nooks and crannies to the store ... not to mention the huge layout in the center of the store. T&K is where I found the Heinz Pickle Car that I like so much.

Anyway, this particular trip yielded a really special find - more detail parts. For less than $2 apiece (Ok, one was $2.50!) I got a collection of lathe's, drill presses, work benches, etc. to detail the interior of a couple of the industries on the layout. I already have a couple in mind for the ground floor of LAS Fabrics. Imagine a bandsaw shaped machine that looks like it could be an industrial sized sewing machine, with a piece a fabric draped over the table and a scale size woman standing in front of the machine. All of this visible through the large pane window with interior lighting.

Cant' wait!

Capacity Planning

Last week I decided I needed to determine the car capacity for each siding on my layout so I know how many cars would fit as I make up my trains and get my operations set up. I started to walk around the layout with a tape measure but then I came up with a stellar idea.

I created a train of 8 40' boxcars - the typical car on my layout and ran this train around the layout measuring the siding length. Of course, many of the sidings, as well as several tracks in the Irwin, East and West staging yards already had cars on them. So I had other engines pull those trains out of the way for the priority 1 CLC-1* train do it's job.

In a sense, I had my first operating session!

* Car Length Capacity

LogoNet

This weekend, I had mixed success. I have been struggling with wanting to be completed to a certain point but so much needed to be done! For example, I want to have an operating session with a couple of friends and I finally have a DT-400 and DT-402 so we can run 2-4 trains. But I really need the UP-5 panels to plug the throttles into. Yes, they are IR capable so we can walk around a little but you need to plug in to select a loco to run. And to attach the UP-5 panels, I need to put up the masonite fascia. Besides buying and cutting that, I need to paint it ... you get the idea.

Saturday it occurred to me that I could go ahead and temporarily put up the panels - so I did. I installed one at each of the offline staging yards and one in Hermanie. Brilliant! I got some phone cable and tried to make the 6 conductor connectors and that was an exercise in frustration. I only had to make 3 cables but it required crimping 2 connectors on each cable and I could not get them to pass the tester plug.

Finally, I used a pair of always closed tweezers to hold the wires and then I could fasten the plugs. I was able to build 2 of the 3 but finally gave up on the third - I will come back to it later. In the meantime, I have 4 plugs left from a package of 25!

Operations, Part 3

I found an article on the NMRA Operations SIG website, "Guide to Using Carcards and Waybills" by David Doiron. I have not yet read it, but wanted to pass it along to those interested.