Notes on Designing, Building, and Operating Model Railroads
A hobby adventure
The Wheeling Freight Terminal has monthly operating sessions. A message is sent to several interested modelers and operators in the area about a week beforehand. I’ve typically been operating on the fourth Thursday of the month and a layout in nearby Las Cruces hosts a session on the second Thursday. August was busy for the usual crew and only Robbie was able to attend the recent session.
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”
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.
Continue reading “B&O Wheeling Freight Terminal operations – Pt 2”
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.
Continue reading “B&O Wheeling Freight Terminal operations – pt 1”