Building and operating the Atlantic Inland

 Over the last 15 years Al Daumann and I have been aggressively adding procedures to our respective operations to enhance them. How many of you have, upon the start of the op session, drawn a passenger train? This has nearly universally been a big disappointment to me. I have to say TTTO operations has saved me, in general, in this respect.  The process of negotiating a layout while operating under TTTO rules has brought the fun of just “running a train” back to me. Having said that with the vast majority of passenger train’s on layouts across North America, the process is very dull. You depart and upon arrival at the first station you stand and dwell a specified time. The idea is you are standing and pretending to let passengers on and off. At least with TTTO you compete against a clock. So Al and I looked at this and created passenger tickets. I went to a great deal of trouble, reading Bill Darnaby’s article based on operations at the Batavia MRC.  This is a demand driv...

 First let me take a second to wish every one a Happy Thanksgiving. I think the entire gist of Mark’s clinic, as far as blocking goes, is that in the steam era, railroads did not “distant block”. By this I believe he means that no train is built with SPECIFIC blocks destined for locations beyond the division point. Yes there might well be a large block for “Points West”, but not specifically a “Denver” block. Railroads simply pushed cars bound for destinations beyond the next division point IN THAT DIRECTION. If you keep moving cars TOWARD their destinations they eventually get there. I believe traffic in the steam era was subject to delays due to dwell time in yards,  that in more contemporary eras railroads worked hard to eliminate. All this seems obvious, a car goes that way-so send it that way. Now I get to the topic of trains with dedicated purpose. A expedited LCL train or Perishable Produce for example. On the model railroad a train leaves the yard heading for EAST stag...

 What I need to discuss with Mark Amfahr is the following.  Your Railroad prepares a train for points East. The next Station East is “B”. In “B” you have several interchanges with other railroads.  When you make up this train do you block cars for these interchanges? Or do you simply create a dogs breakfast and let the next yard pull out all the cars for interchange? Could this be interpreted as some sort of union rule? That is, by blocking the cars for these foreign roads in town “A”, when the train gets to town “B” you have taken the work away from the switch crews in B. -NOW- After speaking with Mark, here is his take on this question. The yard crew at “A” would include the interchange cars into the block for town “B”. At “B” the crews there would break down and classify the block into the cars for local delivery and those cars going to foreign railroads via the interchanges located in town “B”. However, what Mark also implies that the switch crew at “A” would PROBABLY...

 This is in response to a clinic given by Mark Amfahr. If anyone reading this does not know Mark, he has a long history working with the prototype, both nationally and internationally. He is very knowledgable in many aspects of our hobby. So basically what Mark is saying is that in the Steam Era railroads blocked freight trains differently than they do in the diesel era. The blocking procedures were, in large part, dictated by the technology of the times. A Steam engine could only really travel a short distance before it required maintenance, so railroads worked yard to yard. (What follows is a gross simplification) let’s say for example the railroad had a west bound train. It starts in Yard D and travels west. It carries cars for yards C, B, and A.  At C the railroad sends the engine into the round house, the caboose into the caboose track, and yards that train. It pulls out all the cars for C, and adds all the cars for B & A. This train might look like this “B,B,B,A,A,A,...

 Let me start by saying I wish I really knew how to convey information. What I mean is how to convey information to a crew. How I want a job accomplished.  I recently, last night in fact, received an e-mail which contained the YM instructions for a yard on a large model railroad. Thirty-One (31) pages, single spaced. No pictures. For that one job on that huge railroad. (There’s something like 36 other positions on that layout, each, I presume, with equally complicated job briefs). Thirty-one pages?! The next amazing thing was I read them. It was loaded with interesting information.  And it was, in fact, all describing how to operate a rather complex job.  A great deal of thought went into this document. After reading it what I thought didn’t go into it was the fact that who ever takes this job isn’t being paid and isn ‘t going to be working this yard 40 hours a week, 50 weeks a year. Early in the document it notes that the railroad is short of covered hoppers in ceme...