Late last night while chatting with a friend about adding a RIP (Repair in Place) track, I started to ponder more about Carrie Ave Shops on my layout. Carrie Ave Shops just hasn't worked out as planned. With the tracks running through the buildings, it is difficult to clean the tracks or access rolling stock on the far side of the structures. The entire facility was derailment prone. This along with issues from the turnouts coming off the yard ladder made me start considering alternatives.
It is always a bad idea to start thinking about layout design before going to bed. I couldn't fall asleep due to running track scenarios in my head until the wee hours of the morning.
This morning, crews moved in and ripped out the tracks and Carrie Ave Shops buildings. Engineers started formulating a plan to rebuild with a more simple track alignment allowing for a locomotive fueling pad, RIP track, caboose track and thoroughfare. The existing Carrie Ave Shops will be cut down to building flats to be used in the background. In addition, the #3 Class track, will be double ended allowing for the Grain train to pull into the class track, cut off its power and roll into the fuel pad from the West.
This evening I used the palm sander to completely sand down the area for the new and improved Carrie Ave Shops. The previous version has been erased from existence.
Operations Change
For the next op session, I plan on using four crew members plus myself. I will then utilize a person for dedicated yard service. The yardmaster will be able to pre-sort cars for the locals, move pickups to the A/D track, classify incoming set offs by trains and work the supply tracks at Carrie Ave Shops. This should reduce the time greatly on the Peoria and Grain locals plus through freights where as now the crews have to perform the work themselves.
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