Category: Operating

B&O Wheeling Freight Terminal Operations – Pt 4

Mike is busy sorting out freight cars in the yard.
Mike is busy sorting out freight cars in the yard.

Another successful operating session was held on the Wheeling Freight Terminal. Mike visited from Las Cruces and ran the team yard job while I took the freight house work. A total of 75 freight cars were switched among the inbound and outbound movements. A description of the session processes was started a few months ago. The last operations update described using undecorated and partially completed models among the freight car fleet. It’s time to wrap things up with how outbound cars are handled.

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B&O Wheeling Freight Terminal operations – Pt 3

 

A look at some of the freight cars used in a recent operating session.
A look at some of the freight cars used in a recent operating session.

Another pre-Depression Era railroad modeler visited recently and operated the Wheeling Freight Terminal. Dave has a focus on the Toledo & Ohio Central line near Bellefontaine, Ohio, circa 1928. He has been building a multi-level HO scale layout in his garage but has had few operating experiences. We have been communicating via email for a few years, so I invited him to sunny El Paso for some throttle time.

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B&O Wheeling Freight Terminal operations – Pt 2

Harris & Ewing, photographer. U.S. CAPITOL. DOME FROM RAILROAD YARDS IN SOUTHEAST SECTION. Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <https://www.loc.gov/item/hec2008007160/>.

The Wheeling Freight Terminal layout hosted another op session recently, which prodded me to continue the freight car movement discussion. The photo above is similar to many team yard images I’ve seen from the Teens through the 1940s. These have inspired my layout work. Click on any image here to review a larger size.

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B&O Wheeling Freight Terminal operations – pt 1

A busy yard before an op session.
A busy yard before an op session.

The first B&O Wheeling Freight Terminal operating session of 2015 was held on January 30th. Mike came in from Las Cruces to participate. I think this was the fifth session since operations began in late June 2014. While the layout is not large, we did move 71 freight cars in a three hour session. Some of the operating methods have altered since the first session and I wanted to share these ideas. This will probably end up as two or three parts so I don’t bore anyone with too much detail in one sitting.

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Boomer Operator #5 – A local layout

An eastbound local crosses Main Street in Birchmont, Ohio, on the Kingston Southern HO scale model railroad.
An eastbound local crosses Main Street in Birchmont, Ohio on the Kingston Southern HO scale model railroad.

I moved to El Paso, Texas, in the summer of 2012 and began to seek out local model railroaders. I attended a local NMRA meeting and met Mike who was building an HO scale home layout in nearby Las Cruces, NM. His layout had progressed well and he hoped to begin operating soon. I offered to assist with any tasks to keep the progress rolling and ended up visiting a couple of times a month. Over the next year, the mainline was completed, a yard was installed, an industrial branch was installed, and operating sessions were set up. Mike now hosts once a month sessions on his layout and a few local model railroaders participate. Click on any image here to review a large size.

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