Notes on Designing, Building, and Operating Model Railroads
A hobby adventure
A recent discussion in a Yahoo email group centered on using prototype elements to slow down the pace of model railroad operations. I had a Wheeling Freight Terminal operating session on the calendar and wanted to add a twist for operating crews to work around. I recalled the above Jack Delano image that featured blue flag protection on several freight house tracks. A few of these markers were constructed and installed on the layout for the operating session.
It is spring here at my El Paso home in the Chihuahuan Desert. Spring in the desert means windy days and wind kicks up the dust in extraordinary amounts. The HVAC was recently serviced with a good scrubbing of the A/C coils and a new filter installed. Dust gets into everything here, even into closed cupboards. The Wheeling Freight Terminal had a coat of dust accumulation from the last couple of years. With an operating session set for this week, it was time to take action.
On recent operating session blog posts, I’ve mainly covered freight car movements from the inbound yard to the freight house or team yard. For some recent sessions, I’ve been playing around a little with an online function to assist in the outbound freight car destinations. So far, it’s been working well.
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.
Continue reading “B&O Wheeling Freight Terminal Operations – Pt 4”
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.
Continue reading “B&O Wheeling Freight Terminal operations – Pt 3”