Last night, I glued down some new farmland in the corner at Bureau. That reminds me, I need to come up with a name for this farm. Hmm...
This morning, I worked on ballasting a short section of track on the mainline in front of Farmer's Grain in Bureau. It was only about two feet long, but spread and glued.
This evening, I worked on the farm scene some more. I painted and added grass for the base scenery. While at it, I decided to add grass to Joliet, Rock Island, East Moline and West Kelly Yard. I would say the layout is 90% covered with a base grass coat. I went back and added some bushes and brush along the farmland in Bureau.
No photos tonight as there is literally grass everywhere! I will snap some photos tomorrow to post. Scenery has been fun. It really changes the layout's appearance.
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So, during lunch I read the article provided by Steve Holzheimer on the J-740 job (Ottawa Local). The article pertains to operating modern day as it references CSX and the Iowa Interstate. Still, a great article for reference to give me some insight into what it was like for the ROCK 30+ years ago. If I ever had to move and chose to model a smaller section of railroad, this would be it. Ottawa would make for an awesome 1-2 person job. There are enough variables in the operating scheme to mix it up so that the job wouldn't become learned and boring. This article provided many ideas if there was an Ottawa v2.0.
Now back to the present layout. Due to the current benchwork confinements on the upper level, there is no way a major reconstruction could occur in Ottawa. If I ever consider such a task, please commit me.
There were two things I would consider adding to Ottawa:
#1) a scale track for weighing the sand
#2) a RIP (Repair-in-Place) track for repairs of cars.
I definitely have room for the RIP tracks at the east end of the yard. So, a few Code 55 turnouts and this could be completed pretty quick. The flaw in the slaw is the C55 turnouts are pretty hard to come by these days due to the Chinese factory issues. I just checked on eBay to see what might be available. Two Code 55 #5 Turnouts are going for $40 including shipping with over a day left on the auction! Ouch!
There is most likely room for a scale track, but I would have to ponder where to install it. Again, this would require some turnouts unless I converted an existing yard track (probably track #4 furthest from the mainline) to be utilized for weighing. I think the yard crew might get upset if I removed one of their storage tracks though. Ottawa yard can get quite full at times.
When thinking about it later today, I would suppose the sand coming out of Belrose Silica would also need to be weighed even though it is only moving across the track to Philadelphia Quartz (for the most part). If that was the case, the LaSalle local would have to gather up all the sand loads from Belrose Silica, take them to Ottawa to be weighed, and then deliver them to PQ as required (or where ever they might be going to).
So, I have a few things to ponder.
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