Operation and maintenance
Modern distribution of car types
There are often discussions about how many system cars or private cars or foreign cars one should have on the layout, what's a "proper" mix.
I got access to some data from one day in the summer of 2008 on a generally east-west class one railroad in the upper Midwest. I did some analysis to see how the cars broke out by system, private or foreign. I was also able to figure out general car type. There were about 141 trains in the measurement, with about 14,600 cars over a 24 hour period. Here is the breakdown of trains:
Track Cleaning
Hello fellow Railroaders.
I was just wondering if I'm the only modeller out there that is continually and constantly, and I mean forever cleaning my track!!!!! I have a great deal a track. It's a real pain in the you know what.
I use 99.9% Isopropyl alcohol with a cloth, also I use a 2 self cleaning box cars. However nothing except pure muscle power seems to work effectively.
Other than investing in a surgical "clean room" does anybody have some good advice to offer.
Cheers
Paul
Help with an interchange on my 1930s logging plan
As I often am developing layout concepts more than actually building a layout. My recent plan has stepped away from photo type NP and back into the freelanced logging layout. I am trying to fill a space on the outside of my helix with some form of interchange.
The concept I'm after is a track arrangement that would enable cars to be set out for interchange with a larger Road
ProtoThrottle with Black Faceplate ...Almost Gone!
If you've been holding out, waiting to get a ProtoThrottle with the Special Edition black faceplate, now is the time! The four we currently have in stock are the last ones remaining:
Phone system for layout operations
What type of internal "land line" phone system do I need to look for if I want to have 5 phones around the layout that can privately reach the disbatcher in his office.
I want a system so each train crews can pick up a phone at their location and either call the disbatchers office without the other phones located around the layout being able to pick up and interupt the call.
I have seen this used at club layouts but I have never set up this kind of phone system. heck I dont even know the proper term for the system.
Railroad Number Research
I have been doing a bit of research on waybill and watched a few videos. The examples shown in various forms shows an actual railroad number used in identifying a particular railroad. I would like to include these on my waybills. Is there a source to find a specific identifying number for each real life railroad ? The picture included shows where the numbers mentioned in the videos were located.
Control Points (CP) - how are they determined and placed?
I'd like to know how does one decide when/where to locate Control Points (CP) on their railroad.
From my limited understanding a CP would usually be placed at some junction/branch-off where a main would diverge, but diverge into what: a siding, an interchange, a yard, something else, any of those?
semi-auto: are stopping blocks a good idea?
A stopping block is a short block, a sub-block preceding a signal that should not be entered if the train stops appropriately for a stop signal. It is used to prevent a train from continuing through the signal by disrupting power if is becomes occupied and a stop signal is being indicated.
however, stopping blocks may no longer work with keep alives that allow a train to run past the block.
Car Forwarding Apps and Switch List docs
I have recently created some links to several operating documents and applications on my website, in the car forwarding section :
https://wnbranch.com/home/operations/operations-car-forwarding/
Operating Session Help
I am getting ready to have operations on my point-to-point layout and need some advice. Here are the basics:
1. The layout is 27 feet long divided into two "towns" with a number of sidings each.
2. These towns are separated by a bridge over a suggested river which has a passing track.
>> Posts index
Navigation
Journals/Blogs
Recent Blog posts: