November Siskiyou Line Op session

Here's some "best of" photos from the just recently conducted op session on my HO Siskiyou Line.

Cam Cotrill conducts on the Coos Bay Hauler East

Three SD9s on the point of the Coos Bay Hauler East labor to pull their train upgrade out of Myrtle Point, Oregon. Here we see the train coming out of Tunnel 3 on the coast branch, and rumbling over King Creek as it approaches the gravel quarry at Remote, OR.

The track here is about 63" from the floor, making for a fabulous view of the trains as they climb up the 2.5% grade out of Coos Bay. These Lifelike Proto 2000 SD9s have sound and a fully operating set of SP gyralights and headlights.

Coos Bay Hauler East rolls over Tenmile Creek trestle

About a fast clock hour later (8:1 - so about 7 real minutes later), the Coos Bay Hauler East rolls over Tenmile creek trestle. Just ahead is Camas Mountain and Tunnel #2, as the train starts its last climb on its way to Roseburg, OR, the I-5 corridor, and Oregon's Willamette Valley.

This scene is only about 12" wide at the road, and 18" wide at the conifer tree along the fascia on the right. This scene was the focus of my scenery video volumes 4&5, where I show how I took this scene from bare benchwork to the finished scene you see here. We're looking down at this scene from the 15" raised floor at the west end of Roseburg yard on the layout's upper deck.

Coos Bay Hauler East reaches Roseburg

Another fast clock hour or so later past Tenmile Creek and Camas Mountain, the Coos Bay Hauler East reaches Roseburg yard on the Siskiyou Line main. The train has cars for Roseburg, so the tag-team yard crew of Jim Moomaw (face to us, reading car numbers) and Joe Brugger (back to us) work with the Hauler's train crew to cut out the Roseburg-bound cars.

With DCC, performing this cut out maneuver was so easy - and done prototypically as well. The cut of cars was at the rear of the train, so the Hauler just uncoupled at the front of the cut and pulled forward out of the way. Meanwhile the yard loco, SD9 4326, pulled out onto the main and coupled onto the cut. The caboose was uncoupled from the cut of cars, and the yard loco pulled the cut into the yard. Since the Hauler was headed for Eugene, the yard crew took advantage of this fact and loaded the Hauler up with Eugene-bound tonnage they wanted to get out of their yard.

With all of that maneuvering done, the Hauler pulled down to the east end of Roseburg yard to add water cars (required over mountain passes in the summer months on the railroads, by the order of the US Forest Service [absolutely true to prototype]), plus with all the extra added tonnage, the Hauler is now going to need helpers to get over Rice Hill on its trek to Eugene, OR.

All this extra shuffling is totally prototypical and adds a lot of interest to the run, as well as making it take longer - which never hurts! It was by railfanning and researching the prototype SP Siskiyou Line in southern Oregon that I learned of all these operating requirements like the water cars. I could never have come up with a better freelance technique for adding interest - this is one example where modeling the prototype faithfully paid off tremendously in adding operating interest to the run.

At the east end of Roseburg Yard, the dance is underway ...

While the Coos Bay Hauler makes its way down to the east end of Roseburg yard, the shift change occurs. Second trick (shift) yardmaster Jeff Shultz (barely visible on the left) is discussing with second trick helper engineer Paul Mack what's going on with water cars and the helper locos.

Paul's doing a little dance with some head end locos, water cars, and the helper locos to get ready for the Hauler to come through and get water cars added on the head end. Then Paul will couple in his helpers mid-train and the Hauler will be off on its way up over Rice Hill and on to Eugene!

With the helpers added in, it's off to Eugene!

The water cars have been added on the head end of the Hauler, the mid-train helpers have been added about two-thirds back in the train as per SP practice, and the train is off to Eugene, snaking its way across the North Umpqua river and on up the SP main.

On the extreme left is Conductor Mike Baynes, preparing to pick up a Seagull East, another Eugene-bound train that's about to leave Roseburg. I designed the Siskiyou Line to be able to handle 18 foot trains in HO, which is about 23 fifty-foot cars, plus 3-4 locos on the head end, plus two water cars, plus a two-loco helper lashup mid-train, plus a caboose (yep, the Siskiyou Line was still running cabooses up into the early 1990s - and I'm modeling the 1980s, so all trains still run cabooses). That's quite a train, and it takes a fine hand on the throttle by both the head end engineer and the mid-train helper engineer to keep from putting things on the ground.

Running these long trains with helpers is a lot of fun, and if you can make it over the road without mishap, you feel like you've really been railroadin' ...

Keeping the Siskiyou Line in business - the Dillard facility

We end this brief visit of the simulated September 8, 1988 Siskiyou Line op session with a look at the Dole Turn crew at work. That's conductor Brandon Thompson lining up the car cards on the fascia shelf here in Dillard as he works out the moves he and his engineer Cam Cotrill (not shown) will need to make in order to switch this massive facility.

This one industry is a model of the huge complex that keeps the Siskiyou Line in operation, and on my HO layout, this industry runs for 12 feet and can hold over 50 railcars in its many spurs and spots. Just switching this one industry can take half a session or more, depending on how familiar you are with the job.

It's the large industries like this that accurately reflect the railroads' strength as an efficient bulk transport method. Often modelers will put an industry down that's hardly larger than a couple of box cars, and then park 3 or 4 rail cars next to it ... where does that industry get the space for all the cargo in those cars? By trying to accurately model the prototype as I've done here with the Dillard Mill, you will get a model operation that's many times more authentic, and equally, several levels more fascinating to operate!

I hope you have enjoyed this quick look at my recent op session. I find that planning for realistic operation on my layout keeps my interest in the hobby high, and when the guys come over for a session, a great time is had by all!

P.S. I run my layout more or less 20 years behind the current date. The op session we just conducted here simulated September 8, 1988. With this op session there was some big news - the Denver and Rio Grande just bought the Southern Pacific! Looks like next year's op sessions are going to see some orange and black power showing up on the Siskiyou Line ...