The ROCK 3.0: Progress Report 11.20.13

Today, management met with the CEO of the Charleston, Roanoke & Eastern Railroad Marcus Neubacher for lunch to discuss ideas for the Blue Flag (light) control as well as signaling.  We then toyed with the idea of a few acquisitions over at the local hobby.

This afternoon, I worked on the layout.  I cut and shaped the track for the remaining trackage at Ottawa Silica.  I had to change up the location for the equipment/dynamite receiving track.  I reviewed the articles on Ottawa Silica and found that I should try to move it back to where it originally was.  I didn't think it would fit originally, but it worked out.  So, now it's located up by the bagged sand loading which is more prototypical.

After dinner, I glued down the track finishing all of Ottawa Silica and Libbey-Owens-Ford (LOF).  That's awesome news!

The ROCK 3.0: TWC, ABS, Signaling and PQ Update

I've been thinking about signaling and details on the layout lately.  I've re-entered into conversations with Richard over at Custom Signal Systems.  He has been great to work with to discuss the various options.

Here's a drawing I came up with that will outline the desired signals on the layout.  I have listed the BLMA cantilever bridge kit, but have decided to go with TrainCat instead.

The RI Illinois Division was Track Warrant Control with Automatic Block Signaling (ABS).  Track warrants will be issued by the dispatcher and crews will adhere to block signals out on the road.  We're still discussing the details, but it appears the signals at the double crossover will be controlled via toggle switches.  A crew will line their route and hit the appropriate toggle switch to match the signaling.

Here are the basic signal rules that crews will need to follow:

Custom Signal Systems

http://www.customsignalsystems.com/

In other news, the glue has dried at Philadelphia Quartz (PQ).  The track arrangement is pretty darn close to the real thing.  The left track will hold 10 sand hoppers plus one spot for chemical unloading at the end.  The middle track has a total of three spots (one spot covered inside a building) for chemical loading, and the right track has a total of 8 spots for tank car loading.  The middle track on the prototype has a dog leg as seen in the photo below.  There will be bushes and general overgrowth between the sand loading track on the left and the mainline.  Again, I'm very pleased with the gentle sloping ramps made out of cardboard strips down from the mainline ballast height.  

This evening, I worked on the tracks in the back of the Ottawa Silica plant.

The ROCK 3.0: Progress Report 11.18.13

This morning, I installed the track between the crossover at Mill Street up through the turnout for Philadelphia Quartz (PQ).

After dinner, I cut and shaped the tracks for PQ.  Later this evening, I glued it all down.  It looks good and much like the prototype.  I'm absolutely thrilled so far with the ROCK rebuild.  Everything I have been studying is slowly starting to come together on the layout.  I'm very pleased!

The ROCK 3.0: Weekend Progress Report thru 11.17.13

Saturday, I went up to the local hobby shop that had a "fire" sale with 50% off all N scale locomotives as well as Micro Trains cars.  I picked up an Atlas P&LE GP7.  I have long had a love for the P&LE and it's paint scheme (probably because it has nice contrasting colors for my colorblind self).  Anywho, the ROCK obtained some NW2s from the P&LE.  In my world, we also acquired a couple one P&LE GP7s.

Here's the model....

Here's the prototype...

Saturday afternoon, I started work on building the ramps down from the mainline to the industrial spurs at Peru Power and Philadelphia Quartz.  On 1.0,  I just let gravity do the work transitioning between the two with the intent of filling in will ballast underneath.  This time, I'm taking my time to build gradual ramps down.  I'm really happy with the trackwork on this layout.  Everything is nice and smooth.

After dinner, I painted all the fascia board black.  It's looking good!

Great Northern hopper on the scale....weight is good.

Later in the evening, I cut and shaped the track on main one from the end of the layout up to the first crossover in LaSalle.

Sunday, I glued down the track for Main one, Peru Power and down to the crossover.  

Looking East toward Ottawa Yard (around the corner on the back wall)

My mobile cart for storing ground throw screws.

Westclox - Looking west to the end of the layout.

The ROCK 3.0: Progress Report 11.15.13

After further review, I have decided to go with the #6 double slip for the yard.  The yard crew can access class tracks #1-4 from the new lead.  I will use track #5 as an A/D track.  The yard crew will have to run out on the main with a limited lead to move cars in and out of this track.  It's the best solution for the space I have available.

I completed the paperwork for the first op session which I must say is pretty heavy with traffic.  Make that real heavy.  Check out the stats for the first op session below.

1st Session Stats:
#217 Ottawa Local will depart with 20 cars, move 11 cars between Ottawa Silica and LOF, and pickup 28!! to return to the yard.

#118 LaSalle Turn will depart with 19 cars, move 13 cars between Belrose Silica and PQ, and pickup 17 to return to the yard.

BN Local will arrive in town with 4 cars and depart with 5.

For the yardmaster, he will start off with 60 cars in the yard including today's #217, #118 and yesterday's pickups from the same locals.  After clearing his yard of the 39 cars for both outbound locals, during the day he will receive in 24 cars and send out 18 to the Joliet Turn (east/west).  He will receive in 17 from #118 around evening time and another 28 from #217 late in the day.  Wow!  That's a lot of freight moving on my little portion of the ROCK!

I might need to provide a bottle of scotch for operators!

Here's an updated track plan of the yard.  The only thing I don't have a spot for is cabooses, but I'm guessing they could just be on the loco track.  Thoughts?

This evening, I completed installing the fascia boards except for the short section in front of Peru Power.  I'm going to try to model the river in this area so I will hold of on installing the fascia until I figure the scene out.  

I then cleaned up the room.  Not exciting, but definitely a necessity as the room was in complete disarray.  

Late this evening, I returned to the room to patch all the holes and imperfections on the fascia.  A little sanding tomorrow and I'll be ready to paint.

The ROCK 3.0: Progress Report 11.14.13 + Yard Design Change

This afternoon/evening, I began to really focus on the yardmaster running through his daily duties in my head.  One thing I underestimated was the lead track.  I know....that's like yard design 101.  I was thinking that the yard could share the track into Ottawa Silica to use as the yard lead.  Two factors prevent this from working.  1) The Ottawa Local is a beast.  They will have cars scattered everywhere.  That would interfere with the yardmaster's lead to classify traffic.  2) More cars are moving in and out of the yard at Ottawa than I originally planned.  It needs a longer lead to work properly.

So, I have a problem.  I surveyed the landscape at the west end (left) Ottawa Yard.  No dice.  The lead would be short and encroach on PQ's property.  Plus, the track is further away as it goes in toward the corner to make the turn back down into Utica.  It would be hard to read the car numbers from that distance.

I moved my attention back to the east side of the yard.  How can I make this work to give me a longer yard lead?  I came to the conclusion I could add a parallel track to the lead into Ottawa Silica running along the rim of the sand pit.  This would allow for a trim job to pull out a cut of up to 15 cars or so and classify into the individual yard tracks.

I found the best way for this to work is to install a double slip on the yard ladder so I still preserve the original yard design.  I sent an email to my eBay contact to get pricing on a double slip.  I'm not the biggest fans of these (mainly because operators often don't set the correct route creating confusion), but I much prefer it over the alternative of adding another turnout to the yard ladder shortening my track capacity.

For those that might not know, a double slip turnout looks like this:

This evening, when reviewing the overall yard plan and projected operations, I decided to calculate the individual track capacities.  Here's what I found:

• Track 1 - 8 cars 
• Track 2 - 11 cars
• Track 3 - 14 cars
• Track 4 - 18 cars
• Track 5 - 21 cars
• Run around track 

So, roughly my yard will hold 70 cars.  That would definitely work for my plans.  

In other news, I installed two more panels of fascia (about 3 feet long each) in front of LOF.  My work was cut short due to the kids going to bed.  I will resume work on fascia in the morning.

The ROCK 3.0: Progress Report 11.13.13

This morning, I worked on installing some telephone poles to get an idea of their overall appearance.  I'm using Showcase Miniatures telephone poles.  I purchased a few a while back to test.  I like them much better than the Atlas ones.  The crossbeams on the Atlas telephone poles are as wide as a freight car.  These look more prototypical in size and style.

I googled how far to space the telephone poles and found this article.
http://cs.trains.com/mobile/forums/thread.aspx?ThreadID=90146

I decided to space mine at a scale 100 feet apart or roughly every 7.5".  Between this morning and evening, I installed 15 poles (mostly along the mainline behind Ottawa Yard).  They look great (and not even painted yet)!

Ottawa Ave sanded and ready for paint.

A fresh load of frac sand out of Ottawa Silica in a Trainworx RI gon.

The test loading building at Ottawa Silica.  Note, this will be raised up above the track using concrete arch supports that come down.  The sand hoppers move under the structure to be loaded.

Another view of the loading building

Showcase Miniatures telephone poles spaced a scale 100ft apart (7.5")

Telephone poles added along Ottawa Avenue

A comparison of Atlas and Showcase Miniatures telephone poles.

What the fascia?

Inspired by reports of fascia installation progress on my friend Marcus' Charleston, Roanoke & Eastern (CR&E) layout, I thought maybe I should get busy too.  I had all the fascia panels from the old layout.  I would simply need to trim them down and install.  I only had about 15 to 20 minutes to work this evening, but I managed to install all the fascia in front of Ottawa Yard.  1/3rd of the layout is done.