Building and operating the Atlantic Inland

 On my recent trip to Kansas City I operated on one layout that was very well documented. I, as Yardmaster, knew what was expected of me. Each train that arrived at my yard was clearly instructed as to what the needed to do. In short, it was very clearly organized. I had waybills that read CHICAGO, or OMAHA, or MINNEAPOLIS. It was very easy for me to KNOW precisely where these cars were going next. I like that very much. I want to accomplish my assigned tasks correctly and efficiently. These bills allowed me to do this. On AIR2 I plan to use white waybills for “normal” loads and pink waybills for “Preferred Movement”*.  Generally perishable commodities or expedited loads would use these bills. I have 2nd class time freights assigned to pick-up only preferred loads, but I allow them to fill their tonnage with like commodities, that are not billed as preferred movement loads. So how should I accomplish this? For example my Train #97 carry’s preferred perishable produce and prefe...

 In an expression I learned from my Father, which to the best of my knowledge was an expression from the US Army Corp from World War II, I have always called “Information” “Dope”. “What’s the Dope” is what’s new? On model railroads I have heard this expressed as “Soup”, or “Give me the soup on your train. On the Atlantic Inland operators give the dispatcher the “Dope” on their trains. When crews go to a local greasy spoon they get soup, but if they want to know something that ask for the Dope.

 As a general rule I do not like two man crews. I do not like administrative yardmaster jobs. I want to drive the engine, read the waybills and make the decisions. I think I work more efficiently, plus I enjoy myself far more. I see the need, however, in SOME situations for a two man crew. Twenty years ago on Patrick Pope’s layout at a town called Mesa, I think, I worked with my Friend Lee Walser, who at the time was a NS conductor. Mesa is long and spread out, twenty feet or more I think. It worked very well to have one of us at each end of this town. Additionally my friend conducted the radio conversation as if we were working on NS, and it did add to the enjoyment. I partnered with Rene La Voise while working a yard on Mike Peters late Wyoming Railink layout. That came off very well. I learned, from my work, that the administrative yard master is often the only way to get a yard worked efficiently. I was always a foreman who wore his bags, I always tried to build while leading. ...

 Pro Rail is the first of the Ops Weekend events. Pro Rail or Prototype Rail Ops is hosted in a different city each year. It alternates from the Eastern side of the country to the Western every year, along with places in between. It is invitation only. This year it was held in Kansas City. Kansas City is, on the surface, model railroading central. In reality this is not necessarily true, but that’s another discussion.  Due to my petulance I dropped out of Pro Rail a few years back, which to my regret was held in Tulsa. Tulsa has become an operational layout Mecca too, but again that’s a discussion for another day. I was surprised by my invitation to this years Pro Rail. Additionally I am recovering from the first of two knee replacement surgeries, but the timing worked out and I was able to stump, sometimes painfully through the events. Another change, for me at least, is that I can usually be counted on to be wearing the lampshade late into each evening, and waking early with...

 I thought I’d elaborate on the entire process I’m planning on asking my Passenger train crews to perform during op sessions. On the AIR, passenger trains are far more complex that at most other layouts. There is a great deal of terminal switching, performed by the Passenger Foreman job. It’s once the actual crew gets the train, that I’m speaking of.  They have a great deal of work to do over the road. The M&E trains (Mail & Express) are the busiest, but every train has some work to do, but let’s start with Train 27, The Westbound Mail. 27 exits east staging and pulls into Chatsworth yard, where there will be several head end cars waiting for pick-up. Additionally this train might have a passenger or two as well as a mail bag, and some express to set out at the depot. Passengers are represented by a paper ticket, a passenger ticket, that must be removed from the train packet and placed in the bill box at the Chatsworth depot. Mail bags are also represented by a paper b...

First let me start by wishing everyone a happy Easter.  I am trying to gather the ENTIRE fleet of Stewart F -units together, then begin an assembly line process of decoders, lights, details, paint, decals etc. What I need to know is what do I need to accomplish this. How many decoders? Horns? Lights? Couplers? Speaking of couplers I have a couple FT sets painted and lettered already. They did good service on AIR1. They are connected with a draw bar, and this was a problem. An A-B-A set of FT’s is very difficult to re-rail. I want to set them all up with individual couplers in the future.  As you’ve previously heard, I’ve helped liquidate several estates, as well as purchased a couple. The local model railroad club I belong to, the Winchester Model Railroad Club, often acquires estates and sells off the items to club members first at fire sale prices. Anyway, in order to find these F-units I need to open more boxes and in the process I found another treasure. A large cardboard ...

 I’m building a fairly large layout. I hope to occupy 15 operators. On AIR1 I operated using steam and diesels. It was supposed to be predominantly steam, I found that steam switchers could not stand up to the rigors. To be honest I wore out a lot of diesel switchers too. At my coal marshaling yard the main classification yard was built on a curve. The 0-8-0’s I used were not robust enough to push cuts of hoppers, in the numbers I wanted, around that yard. I ended up using diesels. Diesel models were simply more reliable. My coal trains were usually powered by P2K 2-8-8-2’s. These engines got a bit slippery as they got older, but they were still generally able to move 30 car trains  over the road.  Now I’m building AIR2.  AIR1 was double deck with a long grade between the decks. AIR 2 has a helix that will bring the trains up from deck 1 to 2 and from 2 to 3. You see AIR2 is triple decked. I am going with three decks to gain the long main line run that makes TTTO shi...

 The Atlantic Inland Railway (AIR)  is a fictitious railroad covering basically the same territory as the C&O. It is set in 1952. The area I model is a chunk out of the middle, starting in Charleston, WV, and moving east roughly 150 miles, or basically one steam era sub-division. The main business of the AIR is hauling coal, but we are also a bridge route for all commodities.  The AIR has minimal passenger service. I always describe it as “Your third choice”, so it’s not nonexistent, but it’s not first class Streamliner’s. Predominantly heavy weight equipment, the AIR owns NO light weight equipment, there’s a night train of mostly bedrooms and sections, a day train of coach seats, and a mail train. Our trains are dominated by head end equipment; we know where our passenger revenue comes from, mail and express. LCL is heavily represented and there are numerous freight houses originating and terminating LCL cars. The schedule is made up of first class passenger trains a...

 I just had knee replacement. I thought that when I was able to get up and down the basement stairs I’d be able to go downstairs and sit and sort boxes. Well while I was physically able to do that, it diverted me from the long, boring, routine of rehabilitation.  I THOUGHT I’d be able to sort boxes AND take exercise breaks. It turns out once I got interested in something I found in those boxes, I’d let a particular exercise period pass. My exercises were getting fewer and farther between. My measured improvement, the distance I am able to bend my new knee, began to decline each visit to PT.  My improvement plateaued. I was told that some trailing off was to be expected, but then people, my physical therapist and doctor started to get concerned. I let the task of sorting boxes get in the way of my PT.  My physical therapist increased my work load 3x.  I’ve abandoned the basement again. My measured improvement has increased. I have some catching up to do, but I’m ...

 Over the years a LOT of events have been created where the operational oriented layouts of a city or region get together and host an event where operators travel and operate at several layouts over a set period, usually three days. I have been traveling to these events for over twenty years. Prairie Rail, Rocky Ops, Minn Rail, Bay Rails, Hog Rails, Island Ops, or Pro Rail, there are a multitude of them. Pro Rail, the so called “Best Kept Secret” travels from city to city, setting up shop in a new host city each year; one year in the east, the next in the west, and so on. At first I just wanted to see and operate on new layouts, but rapidly it became a social event for me. The layouts became secondary to meeting and reconnecting with old friends. I learn something new, either a procedure or technique each time I go, often at each layout. I’m not going to lie, often what I pick up is something I don’t want to do, but often it’s something I really like. Very often it’s one of those p...

 I use Car Cards and Waybills (CCWB’s) to forward cars on my layout. My car cards are one position, as opposed to the four sided or multi position bills. I found these were the most flexible for me. Re-Staging of bills on AIR1 never took more than an hour.  Additionally if I need to divert a car from its primary path for some sort of additional service (RIP, ICE, VENTILATION, WEIGH, REST) I use an action bill. Once the assigned action has been completed these bills are removed, revealing the primary bill. My primary bills have features that, hopefully, will allow crew members of differing skill levels accomplish the job. Each station or destination has three letter station code. These Station codes are in text boxes that are either plain white, for destinations “On-Layout”, or they have a color fill associated with various destinations “Off-Layout” (In various staging yards).  So for example cars going to Chicago have an Orange text box; St. Louis is Blue; Newport News is...