Managing Layout Operations Part 4

Greetings All,

Welcome to Managing Layout Operations Part 4

Today we'll focus on the Long Island Railroad interchange at the Empire Belt RR's North Side Yard and the Penn Central Coal Job out of Terminal Yard.

Long Island Railroad Interchange 

1:40 PM: On duty at North Side Yard in Empire City. The E.B.R.R. engines organize the yard for the impending arrival of the Long Island Railroad. The freight cars to be interchanged with the L.I.R.R. are placed on track #3. 

 2:13 PM: The LIRR transfer run is at Bedford Tower. 

 2:15 PM: The L.I.R.R. passes the Hohman Ave Tower and enters North Side Yard.

 The L.I.R.R crew brings their train down track #3.

2:19 PM: The L.I.R.R. engine is coupled up to the outbound cars for their railroad and shoving them out of the east side entrance. 

2:21 PM: The L.I.R.R. train holds at the Hohman signal bridge.

2:24 PM: The L.I.R.R. caboose is tacked on by the E.B.R.R. crew.

 2:25 PM: The L.I.R.R. train comes around the west side as it leaves North Side Yard.

2:27 PM: The L.I.R.R. passes Bedford Tower.

2:29 PM: The L.I.R.R. heads "Off Layout". 

The "Off Layout" LI cars are placed in their LI slot.

The L.I.R.R. inbound cars  remain on track 3 at North Side Yard ready for the next op session. This concludes the L.I.R.R. Interchange operations. Total Time: 49 minutes.

Penn Central Train CJ-1 / The Coal Job

2:43 PM: On duty at Terminal Yard assigned to Train CJ-1, the Coal Job. This train will bring empty Coal hoppers to Hudson coal.

 2:45 PM: Train CJ-1 clears the Hudson Coal switch.

 2:47 PM: Train CJ-1 starts pulling the loaded hoppers.

 The last of the loaded hoppers are pulled out.

2:50 PM: Train CJ-1 is on the Bedford Secondary awaiting clearance from Bedford Tower to access the mainline to shove the empty hoppers back to Hudson Coal.

2:53 PM: The empties get shoved into Hudson Coal.

 2:56 PM: The last of the empties are spotted.

The car card for the train is left in the Hudson Coal waybill box. 

2:56 PM: CJ-1 is back together on the Bedford Secondary.

2:59 PM: CJ-1 arrives back in Terminal Yard and heads down track 9, a weigh in motion scale track.

3:01 PM: Car cards and waybills left in slot for track 9.

3:03 PM: CJ-1 engines arrive in engine terminal for sand and fuel.

 3:10 PM: Loaded coal hoppers are placed on track 6 for further movements to their respective consignees. This concludes today's CJ-1 operations. Total time: 27 minutes. Total time both ops: 1:16.

This wraps up four ops sessions that took the better part of the week. We started with a small inbound train of thirteen cars. Moving those cars around the layout to their respective consignees or interchange took several local trains. The three op sessions sessions were all in the two hour range. All four ops took over seven hours. 

Layout Status

Terminal Yard: Ready for next inbound train. One train to Selkirk with actual ops cars to be cycled off layout ready to go. One train of virtual ops cars on track 2. Can be stored until next virtual op or sent back to Empire Belt RR from where they came and spotted back at their respective industry locations. Two ops for the price of one!

North Side Yard: Ready to go with inbound L.I.R.R. cars needing to be worked and a transfer run to Terminal Yard.

Bedford Park Yard: Ready to go for next op.

Thanks for reading!!!!

See Ya Soon!!

  

Managing Layout Operations Part 3

Greetings All,

Welcome to Managing Layout Operations Part 3

Today I continue my quest to get my virtual ops, actual ops and time management of same into some semblance of order. Our focus for this actual op session will be the Empire Belt RR working  North Side Yard, Empire City industries and transferring freight cars to Terminal Yard in train EB-2.

In Part 2 Penn Central Train EC-3 transferred freight cars from Terminal Yard to North Side Yard for Empire City industries and interchange with the Long Island Railroad. Let's get started.

09:50 AM: On duty at North Side Yard. Car cards and waybills reviewed and organized.

09:55 The Yard Job gets to work blocking the cars for local industries and the Long Island RR interchange.

10:15 AM: Yard work complete.The Morning Industrial Job has departed North Side Yard and makes it's way to the industrial running track.

10:17 AM: Pulling GN boxcar from Neal's Lumber and Hardware to spot the PRR 50'er. 

 10:19 AM: Now working several midtown industries.

The M.I.J. makes a long shove to pull a loaded FEC RBL from Empire Produce and a flatcar with heavy equipment from Empire City Caterpillar.

10:25 AM: After spotting one PRR RBL at Empire Produce a Rock Island 40' boxcar is spotted at Prestage Gear. This concludes our midtown work. Total time in midtown: 10 minutes.

10:28 AM: The Morning Industrial Job arrives on the West Side. 

 A loaded NH boxcar and empty EBRR boxcar are spotted at Superior Furniture.

10:45 AM: The work on the west side industries and the storage track is completed. The five boxcars are all loaded with freight for Neal's Lumber and Hardware and are constructively placed. The NYC, Chessie and NH cars are just placed. The NYS&W and WM boxcars are racking up demurrage charges from a prior op session.  

10:47 AM: The Morning Industrial Job returns to North Side Yard.

10:55 The M.I.J. has sorted and blocked the incoming freight cars.

10:59 AM: Train EB-2, the morning transfer from North Side Yard leaves for Terminal Yard.

Train EB-2 with a mix of actual and virtual ops cars rolls towards Terminal Yard

11:10 AM: Train EB-2 arrives in Terminal Yard. 

The paperwork is dropped off.

11:14 AM: The EBRR engines head back to North Side Yard caboose lite as Train EB-3.

 11:17 AM: EC-3 arrives back in North Side Yard.

11:22 AM: Yard work commences as cars are pulled and sorted from track#1.

The NYC and NH cars were loaded via the team track and will head to Terminal Yard in the next transfer run. 

Empty EBRR 50' boxcar pulled from track 1 to fulfill an Empty Car Request from Red Wing Milling is shoved into the next local train.

11:34 AM: The Afternoon Industrial Job has left the yard and crosses onto the industrial running track.

11:36 AM: The empty EBRR boxcar is spotted at Red Wing Milling fulfilling the Empty Car Request.

11:38 AM: The A.I.J. engines are on the west side storage track pulling two loaded boxcars for Neal's Lumber & Hardware. These are the two cars with the mounting demurrage charges.

 11:40 AM: The A.I.J. has arrived on the east side.

 The two boxcars are spotted at Neal's Lumber & Hardware.

11:49 AM: The Afternoon Industrial Job is pulling loaded covered hoppers from Empire City Cargill.

The A.I.J. is now pulling and spotting cars on the Gervais Pipe and Ralph's Grocery Warehouse siding.

11:54 AM: the east side work is done.

11:58 AM: Empire City work is completed. 

12:05 PM: The yard and industry waybills are all in order and the Empire Belt is ready for it's next op session.

That concludes today's operations.

A little over two hours running this op today. At the conclusion we have a good sized Train EB-4, the afternoon transfer run, ready to go to Terminal Yard. 

Still pending in our ops schedule is the Long Island RR Interchange run to and from North Side Yard and the Coal Job. Also needing to be addressed are the freight cars in Terminal Yard brought in today on Train EB-2. I was hoping to get to them today but two hours of real time ops means I'm outlawed until next time.😉

Thanks for reading and watching!!!

See ya soon.