Thursday, November 3, 2011 Lethbridge
6:30 am
The temperature is +2 C, with a high predicted of +11 C. From the Environment Canada website: Today A mix of sun and cloud. Wind becoming southwest 20 km/h gusting to 40 this afternoon. High 11. Tonight Clear. Increasing cloudiness overnight. Wind southwest 20 km/h gusting to 40 becoming light this evening. Low minus 4. Normals Max: 7°C Min: -5°C.
2:00 PM Model Trains
With snow forecast for tomorrow I am beginning to shift emphasis from Geocaching to Model Trains.
It is important to keep priorities clear. Running trains is the goal. Thus I am, at least for the present, and maybe for all time, adopting a compromise stance with respect to the Ship It! software program. I will use it to determine the movement of the freight cars using 6 trains (#s 400, 401, 600, 601, 700, 701). But I will run a pair of passenger trains and a pair of unit coal trains independently of the schedules for the six freight trains. These latter 4 trains do not require any switching. They are simply mainline trains that add a degree of realism to the overall operation of the railroad.
I have printed out a timetable for all 10 trains (using Excel spreadsheet) and have prepared a written set of statements that detail the actual order of operation and the specific routing of each train over the layout.
I have used Ship It! to prepare a "Car Starting Locations" report as well as detailed "Switchlist" for all switching activities involving the freight cars for January 2, 1950. Finally I have printed a "Shipper/Consignee Activity Report" that describes the actual requests and movements of cars to meet these requests.
Next steps:
1. Place the freight cars on the layout.
2. Use my switcher S-4 diesel locomotive (CN 7985) to form the consist in the Coaldale Yard for Train #601, a General Freight train.
3. Begin the run of Train #601 from Coaldale to Jasper, with stops at Wild rose, Queenston, Prairie Dog, Pine Ridge, and Black Diamond.
[3:30 PM Addendum]
All of the cars have been placed on the layout.
I have used switcher CN 7985 to pick up caboose CN 78447 and move it to the composing track for Train 601. This worked very smoothly. Good.
Before I begin forming the consist I need to do some reading about blocking cars on a train (i.e. placing all cars that are to be dropped off at a particular town together, and to determine the appropriate order of these blocks on the train - which depends on the order that the towns are visited.
Okay, that was easy. The first block behind the locomotive is for cars being dropped off at the first town to be visited, and so on for the remaining blocks: 2nd town, 3rd town, etc.. It is generally better to pick up cars at a town before dropping off (this frees up track space for the dropping off activity).
Since Train #601 leaves Coaldale with 4 cars for Queenston, 1 car for Prairie Dog and 3 cars for Pine Ridge, and since the cars are first placed in reverse order onto the rear of the train, the first step is to locate the 3 cars for Pine Ridge and place them next to the caboose. Once this is done, I will locate the car for Prairie Dog and push it onto the consist. The final step is locate the 4 cars destined for Queenston and attach them to the train. Once the consist is complete, I will attach diesel locomotive CN 1720 to the head-end and the train will be ready to leave.
[5:00 PM Addendum]
The consist for Train #601 is blocked and ready to roll.
I then attached my tank cleaning car to the switcher and ran it over all the switches in the Coaldale Yard. Boy did that ever make a difference in the operation of the locomotive. No more stalls, after just a single pass. I am impressed!
This has been a very satisfying day with the model trains. I learned about blocking a consist and am becoming reasonably proficient at the necessary switching moves to create a consist. Operationally, everything is running very smoothly. I really like the yard work for getting the trains ready for the mainline.
8:30 PM Technology
It has taken a little over 2 hours to update my iPhone to the latest version (from 4.3.5 to 5.0) plus update and synchronize my various apps.