Flow

 I’m designing the layout. I’m involved in several projects at once. When the weather is good I’m out front working on the front porch. When the weather is bad I get into the basement where I have to frame in walls, do wiring, drywall, and I am contemplating my next big project, T-Bar Ceiling. In addition I have any regular maintenance around the house, and the normal diversions of my attention as directed by my wife. Finally there is the biggest obstacle to my progress, my laziness.

But I digress…

I’m designing the layout. I have it all planned out, then I submit my drawings to my friends and after their input I must re-design.

Almost all of the suggestions for changes are good ones. 

This brings us to “flow”. What I mean is the flow of traffic between the layout and Littlerock yard, my main yard. Between Littlerock and the rest of the layout is my passenger depot. The potential of switching the passenger trains MIGHT interfere with the flow of trains and transfers to and from Littlerock.

If the person who takes the “Passenger Terminal Foreman” job is efficient, there will be no interruptions. If this person is inefficient there WILL be interruptions. I do not think there is any way around this. What I mean is I can design the perfect physical plant and a bad operator will screw it up. I believe you CAN design things to set operators up for success, but I have seen guys do some pretty dumb things.

My compromise was to add a third through- track through the depot area, coupled to a promise that the Passenger Foreman will be instructed, firmly, to leave at least one through track open.

My current design has three “main” tracks through the depot area: Main, siding#1, and siding #2.

In addition there is a fourth through route, which passes through the make-up tracks. It is a circuitous route, but a clear path can be traced through nonetheless.

To illustrate, I recently operated on a layout in Tulsa that had a large depot astride the main track, and this depot was placed at the mid point of my area of responsibility. My job was to switch the local industries on both sides of the depot;  assist the passenger trains with set-out’s and pick-up’s; build my transfer to the main yard; and assist through freights passing through the passenger terminal, I controlled all turnouts and dictated routing through the depot area.

There were a lot of restrictions as to which tracks freight trains could use. No freight trains were allowed through the depot tracks at all. In any case I completed my tasks without delays to passenger or freight traffic. I thought there was PLENTY of track to get my work done, get freights through, and take care of the passenger traffic. I made up and ran my transfer, and completed my tasks for the session.

At the end of my session the “Helper” came up and told me the last guy who worked this job had blocked every through track with cars. Through traffic was blocked for most of the session. I asked if he had a lot more work than me? The helper said no, in fact less.

I looked at the physical plant and for the life of me, I could not figure out how or why anyone would have blocked every track, but it happened.

No track plan survives first contact with a visiting operator.

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