Building and operating the Atlantic Inland

 I controlled traffic on AIR1 with TTTO. While I was not the first model railroad to bring TTTO to local model railroads I was a big promoter of TTTO in the metropolitan Los Angeles area. When I was building my crew, very early on I became friends with Paul Grayless, who was very knowledgeable in TTTO operation. He and I introduced TTTO to pretty much all the rest of my operators. Every session brought several hotly debated questions to our groups forum and the OPSIG. From the OPSIG we relied on three major contributors, Dave Husman, Mark Amfahr, and Dave Sprau. Since then I have made contact and corresponded with several others.  I used and will continue to use the Western Maryland July 1, 1939 rule book, and all questions that come up during op session are referred to and filtered through that rule book. If it’s permitted or prohibited by that rule book, that’s the rule on the AIR. if it is not in that rule book it’s not in ours, for example there is no provision in the WM b...

 I got the idea for the auto ramp from Chuck Hitchcock, but I’m not sure I operate mine the way he operated his. On AIR 1 I had an industry I called the auto ramp. The idea was based on Chuck’s model, and a railfan visit I made to the Ford Distribution Center, or a mixing plant, in Wentsville, MO. This idea almost made me want to model contemporary railroading instead of 1952 because it allows modelers to switch auto racks instead of simply run them across the layout. Auto racks of finished automobiles come in, are spotted, unloaded, then the racks are respotted and reloaded, and moved to their final destinations with automobiles bound for that destination. It’s important to keep Bi-level and Tri-level auto racks segregated, and spot them for loading as needed. My 1952 version does the same thing but with automobile boxcars. These cars arrive and are spotted at the auto ramp’s dock,  where unloading is simulated between sessions. When I modeled the dock, there are lots of Clas...

 On AIR 1 i modeled a couple warehouse’s. A rail served warehouse company is a large storage building that leases space to tenants. Along with the lease of space the tenant gets access to a rail siding and often equipment to load or unload your car, like fork trucks. Many warehouses also maintain a small fleet of trucks that, for a fee will move your product from the warehouse to your place of business. Warehouses lease space to any business that needs the extra storage space, either long term or short.  The list of tenants is as varied as business itself. My friend Jon Cure sent me a map of all the tracks and rail served businesses in greater Los Angeles circa 1925. It is an astounding map, but there are a couple features Germaine to my current discussion. The map lists a warehouse, the Overland Terminal Warehouse Company with 89 different tenants. So how did I operate my version of the Overland Terminal Warehouse (OT), and how do I plan to operate warehouses on AIR2? On AIR1...

I believe passenger trains should do a lot of switching. I think they should not be “Publicity Shots”, all matched, streamlined, beautiful. My passenger trains look like a dogs breakfast. On AIR 1 there were eight passenger trains on the schedule: #1-2; #15-16; #27-28; #35-36 The freight house foreman, in addition to his other duties, did all the terminal switching in Littlerock for these trains. He was also responsible for bringing passenger trains in and out of Lower ( or West) staging (The crews handled all moves into and out of Upper (or East) staging).  Directly associated with Passenger Ops was the REA and the Post Office. These were switched along with each passenger train. The East-West passenger trains exchanged cars with the North-South trains, so these connections needed to be made. There was a Pullman set out track at Littlerock. On AIR 2 the design of my passenger trains have changed. They still have the same, unkept, look, but due to ten years experience with running ...

 On AIR 1 I built a model of the “P.E. Frantz Milling Co.”* flour mill, a completely freelanced industry. The idea was to receive boxcar loads of grain and produce flour for local consumption as well as a bi-product of the milling process “ Mill Feed”, a livestock feed. Additionally the mill had a coal fired powerhouse, so it got a couple coal hoppers as well. The way I set up mill operations was heavily influenced by my experience operating on Dan Munson’s layout. His small elevator was brilliantly conceived and executed. I believe Dan is now with BNSF in Kansas City, visit and operate on his layout if you can. ANYWAY… loads of various grains are billed to the elevator. There is a small associated yard, where these inbound loads are stored. Each session the mill will unload and mill a particular grain: Wheat, Corn, Barley, Rice, rye, etc. The switch job must classify inbound loads, spot the correct loads at the mill’s loading track, and pull MTYS. Additionally in my era, flour is ...

 The Atlantic Inland layout is a large “X” with the center of the cross in Western Central West Virginia, about 65 miles Southeast of Charleston, WV.  My main city, and the center of the “cross” is Littlerock, WV. One Leg of the X, the main East-West line,  goes from St. Louis to Newport News The other leg of the X, the Northwest to Southeast line, goes from Chicago to Atlanta (Then on south to Savanna and Tampa/St. Pete) Traffic to the Northeast US (Baltimore, MD., Philadelphia, PA., New York City, Boston, MA) gets interchanged with the Western Maryland ( And the rest of the alphabet Route) at Chatsworth, WV.  Traffic to Pittsburgh, PA. and the eastern Midwest goes over to the WM in Chatsworth, up the WM to Cumberland, MD., then, still on the WM, up to Connellsville, PA., where the P&WV takes over to Pittsburgh, PA. We reach Washington DC via a connection with the RF&P at Richmond, VA, and we reach Norfolk, VA by handing traffic off to the N&W in Richmon...

 LCL is a huge source of revenue, car loading, and tonnage for railroads of the steam era. By the end of WWII numbers dropped fast, mainly due to trucks and roads. But to be honest LCL continued to be a big part of railroading. Today all that UPS traffic is LCL. There has been a lot of discussion of late about how to implement LCL  on a model railroad. My feeling is I do not want to perform a function by simply standing and counting off the seconds, pretending to off load LCL packages. What I did on AIR1 was to print up Waybills that simulated packages of LCL.  The peddler car was placed in the consist of a local, the car card for the peddler car had multiple bills in it, and as the local got to each depot, the train crew would check their LCL bills to check for a set out. You did not set out the car, you set out the BILL.  I extended this procedure for REA packages, US Mail, passengers, and now I plan to add this function for loaded milk cans, but more on all that l...

 Because I lack nearly any self control,  over time I purchased large fleets of hoppers painted and lettered for the Western Maryland and the Clinchfield Railroads*. The theory behind this on AIR1 was that there were connections between these two lines and the Atlantic Inland. Over time I came to the realization that the Clinchfield would not, nor could not build this connection,  and when planning AIR2 the space for the Western Maryland evaporated*(a). This left something in the neighborhood of 200 coal hoppers with nothing to do and no where to go. On the prototype the Clinchfield was landlocked and always handed off their coal trains to other roads. There is a lot of video of Clinchfield coal hoppers being carried to tide water by N&W steam engines. I am going to continue this interchange on AIR2. The N&W will carry Clinchfield traffic up to the AIR who will forward it on. The AIR has always been a proud member of the “Alphabet Route”** and is the direct connec...

 On AIR1 I planned but never built a prep plant. The Prep Plant is a facility that cleans impurities from coal; rock and dirt that is mixed in with some coal during the mining process. Larger tipples often perform this cleaning process or coal seams are large enough that very little additional “spoil” is in the run of the mine coal.  However when this is not the case coal companies will transport coal either by conveyor, truck, or train to a plant that cleans the impurities from the coal and reloads it into hoppers for transport to its final destination. A prep plant might take in all the coal from one area, several mines and loaders feeding the plant, or it might be associated with one large mine operation. On AIR 2 a major feature of my coal operations is the Prep Plant. I hope that it will produce 90-100 coal loads a sessions. To over simplify the operation of a prep plant it is as follows: 1) Dirty loads in 2) MTYS out 3) MTYS in 4) Clean loads out Additionally the “gob” o...

 The main business of the Atlantic Inland is to haul coal. On AIR1 there were eleven (11) tipples or loaders around the layout. In addition there were four branches that headed off into off-layout staging tracks, each had a 25 car coal train staged there. Finally several coal trains came on layout from connecting roads. The goal was to originate between 125 and 175 coal loads a session.  Mine runs, Branch trains, and loads from connecting railroads all ended up in Pettigrew Yard, my main coal marshaling yard. MTY’s returned to Pettigrew from off layout. Mine runs originated there. The basic procedure was several coal loads were staged at a Tipple, during staging I wrote a movement request from the Tipple and placed it with the paperwork at Pettigrew. Each mine also presented an MTY car requests. If the Pettigrew Yard Master (PYM) had enough MTYS to fill all his requests, great. Otherwise he was instructed to short the mines evenly. Mine runs were made up based on the tipples r...

 Often cars might need to be diverted from the base routing directed by their primary Waybills. A Reefer may, for example, need to be iced, top iced, have salt added, have ventilator hatches opened or closed or have heaters installed and lit off or removed. How do we direct a car to the Ice Dock for five and a half additional tons of ice and 600 Lbs of salt? I used what my friend Al Daumann and I came to call an “Action Bill”. An action bill is a bill I place in the card pocket, in front of the primary waybill, which will direct the car to do a specific function. Once that secondary function is completed the action bill is removed. These “functions” might be weighing, a trip to the RIP track, resting stock, as well as icing. One major problem with “Actions” is the layout owner, the person who staged the layout, is probably the only person  who actually understands the “action”. Re-directing a Reefer from a through train to the ice dock is all the regular crew recognizes: an ex...

My main influences behind the concept of the Atlantic Inland were, in the beginning, Allen McCelland ‘s V&O and Tony Koester’s AM. Over time I have developed a lot of my own ideas, mostly to do with operations and the procedures needed to perform a layout job. The AIR is a freelanced coal hauling, bridge route running from Newport News, VA to East St. Louis, IL. set in 1952. The modeled portion represents only a few miles in Central West Virginia, set around the fictional town of Littlerock, call it about 65 miles east-southeast of Charleston, WV. What a novel, original, imaginative concept for a layout! While it is not an original idea, I’ve, and I hope those who’ve operated with me on it, had a lot of fun. I strongly recommend going to other layouts to operate. Make every effort to “Get around”. In several regions of the country it’s fairly easy, in others it’s a plane ride. But get out, see how other people are doing it, copy what you like, make adjustments to fit your layout’s ...

 I personally “think” problems through much better if I “Talk” them out, I doubt I have any serious insights to offer other modelers, but this blog will help me, I think, designing the Atlantic Inland. This will be the second version of the AIR. AIR 1, as it has come to be known, lasted for ten years in a purpose built building at our previous home in Burbank, Ca. AIR 2 is the next version, planned for the basement space in the new home we are building in Virginia. My wife and I are building the house ourselves. We wanted to hire subs to help, but no one wanted to work or they wanted an amount of money we simply felt we could not or would not pay. So in the end we have driven every nail, every screw, installed every shingle and siding board, all the wiring, plumbing, drywall, tile, hardwood, paint, etc, etc… It’s been slow going. The initial plan was to build a building for the trains, but to be honest, we simply could not face building another building! The decision was made to le...