Operation and maintenance

For TT&TO Operations - Mine Shifter Job
Ideally, I would prefer to have two person crews on Road Crew/Local Crew Jobs (i.e. non-yard jobs). For the Mine Shifter Job on a low traffic branch (where they actually would be the only train on the branch running), having a Engineer and Conductor seems rather foolish as would the Conductor actually do? Would one person suffice?
For those who operate using TT&TO I would like feedback. Thanks.
Ken L.
CMX Track Cleaning Cars
Any of you have any experiences with one?
I'm thinking about making the purchase, but it's kind of vague as to what solvent to use in the tank.
If I purchase one, I think I'll use it occasionally as an operational tool: Weed sprayer move.
Track maintenance
Want to open a discussion. We keep hearing about cleaning track. And how some things scratch the rails. How some stuff can harm plastic. Etc. Notice that the latest What's Neat/Ken Patterson video shows him using a file to clean points. Ouch. I suppose it depends on how often you need to, and how much you run. But I like to do a quick clean with some acetone, wipe just the top of the rails. Then wipe very lightly with graphite. Do this as often as I can find time to do it. Once a week? Try to run cars every day, or at least every other day.
Question on macro(-ish) freight ops ATSF (LA Division)
Hello everyone,
I have been looking at macro(-ish) operations over my prototype (ATSF, LA 2nd district between LA and San Bernardino), and i became curious over a few things. I am after what is more logical/realistic (although if someone has that ATSF specific info that would be golden!)
I know that there were 2 local freights daily (end to end locals), one EB and one WB. They switched industries along the line and returned back to origin on the next day.Freight-loads ratio has heavy in favor of WB over the district.

Running the Union Pacific Transfer at South Omaha
I thought you might enjoy watching a transfer run on my layout. This is the Union Pacific transfer, which exchanges cars to my shortline at South Omaha and is based on the prototype. The era is the early 1990s.
New ProtoThrottle Faceplate Color?
As we prepare for the next run of ProtoThrottle faceplates, we are considering another special run color. Would anyone be interested in an olive green faceplate? The photos below show how this olive green color would look relative to the standard grey/blue faceplates, in some different lighting conditions. We will still keep the standard grey/blue and probably do another set of black plates. These would be in addition to that.
Please let us know your thoughts, either way.
Thanks,
Michael
Employee Timetables-Station codes
Hi gang,
I do not have my Employee Timetables handy and I'd like to know the codes used at Stations to show things like operators, water tanks, etc. Does anyone out there have a list I could copy? Or know where on the web to find the list, my searches are coming up empty.
Thanks,
Gus
Micro Mark Truck Tuner in HO
My trusty Truck tuner has gone MIA so I ordered another that came in today. It looks different than the old one but as long as it works right. It was tight getting it in there so I thought the truck really needed to be turned. Went to do the other half of the same truck and SNAP went the truck. I knew it was tight but the truck shouldn't have broke. Grabbed another one of a different brand and the exact same thing happened! I put the tuner next to a wheel set and the tuner is noticeably longer. So, does this look right?
Operations on a multi deck layout
Hello all,
I'm still a ways away from the start of my layout. I'm currently working on the space it is going in. The layout will be going in a 16ft x 40ft section in my old shop that is about 25ft away from the side of our home. My intention has been to build a single deck layout, but now I'm considering a double deck so that I can use a small section of that space to use as a staging room and to have a ctc dispatching desk.
Private Car Routing - Empty
How are private road cars handled when empty? I understand how railroad owned cars and pooled cars (RBOX, TTX, etc...) are handled.
I purchased an ORER thinking that would help but I'm still a little confused.
>> Posts index

Navigation
Journals/Blogs
Recent Blog posts: