I closed out the year hosting an operating session on the HO scale B&O Wheeling Freight Terminal. Crews worked hard to move the inbound freight to awaiting customers and pull the outbound cars.
Mark Wallace and Steve Wysowski worked as the freight house crew. Here they are spotting the track one inbound cars in the proper order for unloading. This was Mark’s first time on the railroad.
Charles Kadyk and I worked as the team yard crew. Charles is caught here just before he pulls the throttle to shove a string of outbound cars back to the main yard. The team yard is to the right.
Many of the tracks have specific locations for freight cars. These sure spots reflect prototype practices and add a layer of complexity to the work. Not all tracks are filled to capacity, so crews can use empty space to stow incoming cars and pull outbounds. Then the inbound string of cars can be spotted.
Paperwork is helpful in organizing the work. A simple blank table is printed out so a conductor can pencil in the cars in proper order before the string of freight cars are sorted. Another sheet offers tips on the work process. All uncoupling is done with wood skewers. Cabooses are used because the crew needs a place to ride from the main yard to the freight house or team yard. The layout has compressed the distance between the locations, but I remind operators that the weather could be nasty along this Ohio River location. Crews shouldn’t need to walk a long distance. It’s not a scene from The Bridge Over The River Kwai.
The team yard is full of an assortment of freight cars. Space is left open between strings of cars in order for wagons and trucks to access the area. A prototype team yard is paved but scenery is not a goal of the Wheeling Freight Terminal project.
In this photo, all the outbound cars are in the yard and a crew is jockeying around a string to start sorting cars by destination. There are five ways out of Wheeling on the B&O, plus the clean out track. Each of these freight cars was assigned to a destination before the op session began by using a random number generator.
It was great to see the layout come alive again. Crews wrapped up their shifts just after 3:00 pm and headed home with their brains buzzing with spot locations and destinations. It’s not a large model railroad at 10×16 feet, but it does keep crews thinking.
2025 was a busy year for me and a few more updates are coming. It’s been a real joy to see the Wheeling Freight Terminal operate again, and I’ve been able to operate on several area model railroads. I learn something new each time I visit and/or operate on a layout. Here’s to a New Year with more trains built and painted, and more opportunities to operate on layouts.
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