Model Railway
a. Layout
b. Locomotives
c. Cars
d. Operating
e. Summaries
Photos
Daley Train Log
Page 99
The last couple of weeks have been very rewarding. I now feel that I have an operational layout.
As I began looking at the Ship It! reports I was reminded that I had set up the unit coal train to be run by my steam locomotive. This engine has amazing sounds but it also has the most difficulty maintaining a smooth running, particularly at very slow speeds over numerous switches. I will try running it at the head of train #200 (eastbound from Black Diamond to Coaldale) and again for train #201 (westbound from Coaldale to Black Diamond). I am anticipating some problems with the switching at Black Diamond but will see how it works.
I still need to clarify the actual routes for some trains. For example, Train #100 Super Continental leaves Jasper heading east to Coaldale. Facing north, east would be to my right, therefore east-bound trains travel clockwise (and west-bound trains travel counter-clockwise). Thus Train #100 would head out of Jasper and across the wooden trestle to join up with the outer mainline. It would then complete 6 circuits clockwise on the outer mainline before heading into the Coaldale Yard.
Train #101 Super Continental leaves Coaldale heading west to Jasper. This is now a counter-clockwise outer mainline route. There are two ways to get the train turned around. One way is to use the switcher locomotive in the Coaldale Yard to rearrange the cars. The other way (much simpler) is to leave Coaldale and travel past Jasper and Black Diamond then switch onto the inner mainline and take the reversing loop through Pine Ridge and Prairie Dog and back onto the outer mainline, now travelling counter-clockwise. This will work well when it comes to switching the cars onto a spur siding as they will simply back onto the spur tracks.
Exactly the same routes will work for the unit coal trains (#200 & #201) called the Black Zephyr. All four of these trains are straight forward runs with no switching. I should be able to arrange meets with the Black Zephyr on a siding near Jasper or Coaldale and the Super Continental passing by (being a passsenger train, this has higher priority).
When train #201 has completed its outer mainline circuits travelling counter-clockwise it will take the reversing loop around Jasper and then cross over the wooden trestle and then back the empty cars into the Mercoal Mines spur tracks.
I could arrange for one meet when both trains #100 and #200 are travelling in the same direction and then again when train #101 is travelling west and train #200 is still travelling east.
I now have two activities that I can try when I am on the layout: one is to try running the steam locomotive with the coal cars. The other is to try running both trains #100 and #200 on their routes eastbound to Coaldale, and then trains #101 and #201 back westbound to their home yards of Jasper and Black Diamond respectively.
If I understand the reports on orphan shippers/consignees properly, I had a shipper (Husky Refinery) which was prepared to ship both gasoline and propane but that I did not have any consignees that wanted these products. I have just added two new consignees (Big Pine Lumber for gasoline, Coop Propane for propane).
The Jasper Coaling Tower wants coal, but there is no shipper for this. Strange. Mercoal Mines ships coal. Got it. I only had Mercoal Mines shipping coal via hopper cars (AAR type HD) but the Jasper Coaling Tower wanted to receive it in a gondola car (AAR type GB). I have now added this type of car to the shipping information for Mercoal Mines.
The 36th St Warehouse in Jasper wanted furniture, clothing, fruit, office supplies, and produce but there was no shipper for any of these products. I have added Queenston Cartage in Queenston to provide this. The diagnostic reports for orphan shippers/consignees are now blank. I do not have to rerun the Session 1, but assume that when I run Session 2 this will be rectified. I am not aware of any other problems at the moment.
I have just ran the steam locomotive (CN 8414) with the full consist of 6 coal cars. It ran perfectly on the outer mainline track and there were only a couple of minor stalls when backing the cars into a couple of the spur holding tracks at Black Diamond. Excellent.