Nice Moves

Good video; enjoyed it. Noticed the "clouds" further back. If you put a touch of light grey underneath of the white on some, you'll notice that they will "pop." My artist friend Gary Mease did that to a few on his railroad and it gave a more dramatic sky effect. Try some on a practice sheet and consider playing with the grey both on top and in density to your liking.

We're coming along - - slow, but we're coming along.

Operations At Deer Hollow

Good job, looks like fun!!!  

Tony

Theory into practice...

Some one has been reading indeed,  .

Nice video Rick and I enjoyed it. 

TIP (Theory In Practice)

Mr. Jappe,

Busted!  Yes, indeed I did try and put in practice what I learned in my new book ("A Modern Era Switching Layout", by Lance Mindheim) - and I must admit that I'm HOOKED!  Just from the little switching I did I love it and plan on expanding.  One of the very important ideas I did learn from the book was multiple industries along the same piece of track can really add to the operational interest.  I'm now planning on adding two more industries in the Deer Hollow industrial area to increase the operational potential.  Like to write more, but I think I'll go down to the layout and do some switching..............

Rick

Clouds further back

David,

Thank you for your comments and input.  The artist that painted my alcove backdrop (with clouds) has offered to paint the other areas of my trainroom including the clouds.  Her work is much better than mine and she is very good and doing the shading that you suggested.  I have to decide if I want to wait until I can save my $$$ to have her do the entire job, or try some shading (after I practice off the layout) on my own.

Rick

Thanks, Tony!

Tony,

After two years of watching my trains "go round and round" and being in an operating group it's wonderful to actually do some operations even if it's very basic.  It just wetting my appetite for more!

Rick

Deer Hollow video

Excellent work??.

I am not sure work is the correct word, but you still did good whatever it is.

I especially like  to point out some good areas that others should emulate!!

The coupler height was correct on all that I saw, the speed was dead on, and you were not shy about us seeing some of your Plywood Pacific area.

The backdrop mountain was beautiful as well.

Doug Hatman

Thanks, Doug!

Doug,

I'm glad that you enjoyed the video and I appreciate your comments about the coupler heights and speed.  As a scenery guy I was hesitant about doing the video before I added scenery, but operating is such fun I didn't want to wait.

Rick

Nothing to laugh at here...

I don't think you have to worry Rich.  I enjoy switching operations more then main line running myself and appreciate the effort put into putting together a video like yours Rich.  Some of my favorite parts of our club layout are the isolated bits where you can spend an entire 2 1/2 hours doing nothing but breaking apart a train and  delivering goods to the appropriate customers.  The pay off is rebuilding your train and then heading out to the next set of industries.

You don't need me to tell you this however, your making some huge strides on your layout.  Keep up the excellent work!

 Mmm - is there some reason

Mmm - is there some reason why you pull outbound cars from both industries before spotting any cars?

I would think you could minimize the throwing of turnouts and runaround movements e.g. by doing something like this:

 

Smile,
Stein

Enjoyed the video Rick

Looks like what you envisioned as a nice switching area has become just that. Looks very smooth running too! Thanks for sharing.

Thank you, Stein

To answer you question why I did the pull / drop the way I did:  Beginner's inexperience!  I am so happy to have input on best practices and I like your method of doing the work at Deer Hollow.  I'm going to adopt your method for future session.  Thank you!

Rick

Pull drop

Hey watch out Rick, this guy sound like management, trying to get you to hurry up!!

Doug

On Lance and switching....

Truthfully, I'd handle the switching the same way you did (both Palmer and Wilson on one trip with the runarounds).  I like the complexity.  But Lance noted that the prototype will go to great lengths to *avoid* the complexity of runarounds, preferring to switch the facing point spurs on the return trip (see page 48).  He'd have switched Palmer here and Wilson on the trip back. (Maybe those were perishables in the car that had to be delivered today?)

And it makes sense, even with the siding right there. To pull a car from a facing spur and run around it  takes more moves and, therefore more time .   A round around requires: couple (three step*), pull, uncouple (three step), back up, throw switch, move forward, throw switch, back up, couple (three step), throw switch - just to get  the car in a position to join the train.

That said, the one thing I did laugh at (again, not that I'd be sharp enough operating my layout to do anything differently) - the pickups and drop-offs were left with half a car inside the buildings, but with their doors *outside* the plants.  Kinda hard to unload them out there, no? (That one is a reminder to me to remember where I drop my cars, now that I noticed where you dropped yours....)

Mike

* I'd never heard of the term "Three Step" before reading the book - just mentioning it is nothing but showin' off.....  )

Runarounds

Yup - minimize runarounds whenever practical.  I have several areas with spurs oriented in opposite directions, and the typical sequence is to switch everything that is trailing point one way, then do one runaround and switch everything that is now trailing the other direction.  There is no reason you would need to pull all the outbounds prior to spotting inbounds.  

Operating Puzzles

I don't know why you think we'd laugh Rick. That's just a fun afternoon of operating. I too thought that it was odd how you switched the two industries, but I also know that figuring out how to best do pickups and spots is half the fun. The layout I operate on has one switching puzzle due to lack of space, where you have to pull one car, in order to pull and spot at another, facing industry in a town called Muleshoe. Then you put the one car back where it was.

It takes time to figure out how to switch the industry, but once you've done it, you get this feeling that you can do anything on the railroad.

I'm also glad that you brought up the idea of more than one industry. I've been mentally working out ideas for industries now that I know I'm going to close on the new house in a week or so. I won't be able to do anything concrete until I finish the basement, but all these ideas for railroad industries gives me incentive to finish the basement as soon as possible.

Thanks, Kevin!

Kevin,

Thank you for your posting on my video.  I'm waiting for you to share a video of your excellent railroad - do you have anything in the works?  I really enjoy your work, my friend!

Rick

Shane, you are correct

Shane,

Operations really bring the railroad alive and as an operator one can feel what it's like to be working on the railroad!  I'm glad that you enjoyed the video and I'm leaning a bunch from the comments being posted on this thread.

Rick

Car drop off positions

Mike,

I never even noticed that I dropped the cars with the doors outside of the buildings!  That's one of the reasons I love the feedback from the posts - I learn so much.  I won't make that particular mistake again - but there will be others!  Thanks for the posting.

Rick

Doors and Drop off positions....

Actually, Rich, *I* should be thanking *you*.  After watching the video, I ran to the layout to see where I'd dropped the car and all I can say is I'm glad I don't take videos of my operation for others to critique....

BTW, it led to a whole train of thought (no pun intended - really... honestly... well, mostly) about how to pick up cars that really are positioned "correctly" (i.e, inside a building when we can't see them).  Rather than hijack this thread, I started a new one - a bit tongue in cheek but a bit serious, too.

Ops puzzles

Ken,

I'm glad that you are thinking about more than one industry on a spur as it looks like it adds lots of extra ops fun without adding more track.  It is also very prototypical as real railroads don't want anymore track than what is necessary to do the job.

Rick

YouTube great for Ideas

Nice video!  A great source of information is YouTube.  Type in terms such as "railroad industrial switching" and some good ones pop up.

Here's one of the best: 

These guys are total pros.  Watching the video gives you a real sense of speed and timing.  All you have to do is try to match on your railroad what you see in the video.

Lance

You tube ops videos

Thanks, Lance for the idea on using YouTube to look at ops videos to get ideas.  I never thought of that!

Rick

I like it, Stein

Stein,

I tried you method to switch Deer Hollow and really like it - thanks for the posting!

Rick