AN UNIQUE TUNNEL

Back in the days of steam, Cascade Summit had a wye for turning helpers for their return trek down to Oakridge.  Fitting the wye into the geography at Cascade Summit, placed between Odell Lake and the summit of the Cascades, required a bit of creativity.  Specifically, the tail of the wye had to go back into the mountain.  This required a tunnel--a very unique one with only one portal! Adding to its unique nature was that the wye tail track tunnel was fully wood lined and had a wood portal.  All of the tunnels on the mainline above Oakridge had concrete portals and entry liners.  For reasons as yet unknown, the SP and its contractor chose to build the wye tail track tunnel using wood-only.  

The limited photos I have seen of the wye tunnel indicate it follows SP Standard Plans for a wood tunnel and portal.  Fortunately, the relevant plan sheet was reproduced in Volume One of the Southern Pacific Lines Common Standard Plans, published by Steam Age Equipment Company of Dunsmuir, CA, in 1992.  I adapted the SP C.S. 1750 plan to my model use with 36-inch radius curves leading to the wye switch.  I chose a portal width of 2.5-inches, which was the standard I used on my concrete portal masters.  This turns out to be quite close to dimensions specified in the plans for tight radius curves.  I drew my own tunnel profile plan and then built a simple assembly jig on that plan.

Armed with these standard plans, I built my model of the tunnel liner and tunnel portal using Evergreen styrene strip and scribed sheet.  I chose to build only the first (actual) foot of the tunnel liner to the SP plan and will line the rest of the tunnel with my usual foam core board liner used for previous tunnels.  

Tunnel plans, assembly jig and sections of portal.

The tunnel portal uses a simple post and crossbeam with diagonal corner braces matching the top corner bracing of the tunnel liner.  Another detail just showing in the plans in the photo is the diagonal braces for the front of the tunnel portal.  With additional side sheathing, these form wing walls for the tunnel portal.  

Once the portal pieces were built, I started building tunnel liner braces. The five pieces were fit around the assembly jig and glued.  I began liner construction by gluing scribed sheeting between end liner braces. Sides, top and top corner diagonal liner pieces were attached to form the basic structure.  Once this set, I began inserting liner braces at four-feet spacing.

Initial Liner construction.

Installing liner braces.  Wood clothespins make a great clamp for holding styrene joints for gluing.

Completed, but unpainted, tunnel liner in place around the summit wye. This unpainted view shows the diagonal front braces for the portal and the nut-bolt-washer detail applied to the specified joints.  The rear half of the tunnel liner will remain removable for maintenance access as will the yet-to-be-built foam core tunnel liner.

Completed tunnel portal and liner assembly.

As seen in the photos, the tunnel portal was located at the wye switch points.  The mountain geography forced a very tight installation.  Most steam helpers on the Cascade Line were cab-forward articulated locomotives.  Light helpers would be backed into the tunnel, keeping the crew close to the tunnel face and clear air.  In spite of that, there are tales of cab forward locos trying to lengthen the tunnel, usually as a result of a brake system failure.

O TANNENBAUM!

Befitting the season (December), I have begun making trees. The Cascades are blanketed by a carpet of Douglas Fir.  Harvesting those trees and processing them serves as a foundation for the forest products industry which long served as the base of the Oregon economy.  Modeling those forests involves both two-dimensional (backdrop paint) and three-dimensional trees.  With the base terrain created for my railroad, it is now time to begin filling in the scene with trees.

Contrasting with the airy pines of other regions, Douglas Fir has a branch and needle structure that is fairly dense.  Surveying tree modeling techniques, I have elected to use "furnace filter" trees.  These use a trunk (shaft) on which disks of "filter" material are placed and glued.  Some trimming and shaping usually is needed.  These filter disks are sprayed with adhesive and confer green ground foam sprinkled on them.  The result can/should be a fairly full tree shape that rises toward a cone at the top. 

Although there are other makers of beautiful models of individual trees, my search for materials led me to Coastmans Scenic Products (http://www.coastmans.com/), located along the southern Oregon coast at Port Orford.  Coastmans produces trunk shafts tapered from Port Orford Cedar dowels. Much earlier in life, I knew Port Orford Cedar as an excellent arrow shaft material, so these trunks will remain straight and strong.  Coastmans also supplies the other key component--the "filter" mat. What they actually supply is coconut fiber mats similar to mats used with hanging flower baskets.  Coastmans' mats are dyed green and have a layer of conifer green ground foam glued to the surface.  While my internet search for suitable furnace filter material came up blank, Roger Rasmussen's clinic at the NMRA PNR convention in June, in Portland demonstrated his complete package of supplies for these trees.  This is one good place for me to spend some money in exchange for time.

It has been almost twenty years since I last made "furnace filter" trees using different materials.  As with any artistic endeavor, it can take a little time to develop one's technique.  Bear that in mind when looking at photos of my first trees in the current crop.  

Tree production.  

Roger Rasmussen wisely advises working over and within oven roasting pans.  This captures much of the ground foam and other material that falls off during the course of construction.  A similar bit of advice places the spray adhesive operation within a dedicated cardboard box.  

Completed trees with ground foam attached with spray adhesive.  Trees can be enhanced with a few bare branches (included in the Coastmans kit) below the main foliage.

Decorated tree at the Eugene Depot.  'tis the season!

Tree production has begun.  My layout likely will consume thousands.  I figure on producing some number a month, much as I produced most of my switches during the track-laying phase of construction.  

As a final note, this is my two hundredth blog post!

OPERATING SESSION PLANNING - LINE-UPS

As I prepared for the next operating session, I found myself further developing my planning system.  A couple of years ago, I developed a master line-up of train symbols for my mid-1980s operations.  The twenty-four hour line-ups for east and west traffic provided a framework for planning individual operating sessions.  The master line-up was based on both John Carr's website listing of Southern Pacific train symbol history (http://www.carrtracks.com/Southern-Pacific.htm) and on recollections of my former SP Dispatcher friend and mentor.  While I have tried to follow this master listing closely, I always find reasons to diverge.

RR-West Master Line-Up

Time at EUG	Symbol	BR  Time	Notes
1201 a	01-BRLAT	600 p	Former TOFC Special
	OAKRG Turn		On duty 1230 am at Oakridge for return to Eugene
100 a	01-BROAT	100 a	Carr lists Portland call as 1 am
200 a	01-CZLAT	1159 p	Carr notes TOFC plus other traffic
230 a	01-EUMFY		Via RSV and WC some TOFC
300a	EUG City SW		City Switcher goes on duty
330 a	01-EULAY		Former EUHOY
400 a	SPRG-A		First Springfield Turn
530 a	01-EUOAY
645 a	01-EUWCY
730 a	01-EURVY		Carr lists an EURVW at 400 am
930 a	01-EUKFY		Could be anytime plus or minus
	AMTK No. 14		1028 am Departure for Portland
1130 a	02-EURVY		Carr has one at 1 pm  --delete????
200 p	OAKRG Turn		Eastbound to Oakridge
300 p	03-EURVY
400 p	01-EUNPY		Ogden to UP
430 p	MARC Turn		Marcola Turn
500 p	02-EULAY
530 p	SPRG-B		Second Springfield Turn
615 p	AMTK No. 11		642 pm departure at Eugene Depot
730 p	02-EUOAY
900 p	01-EUCIY		City of Industry  (EULAY)
1005 p	01-EUESF		Via Roseville and Ogden
1100 p	01-EUWCY
1130 p	01-BRRVY	600 p	Another Roseville train-

RR-East Master Line-Up

Time at CJ	SYMBOL	Notes
1215 a	01-WCEUE
1230 a	OAKRG Turn	On Duty at Oakridge for return to EUG
100 a	04-RVEUY
200 a	01-OAEUY
300 a	01-LABRT
500 a	02-OGEUY
630 a	05-RVEUY
815 a	AMTK No 14	1028 am at Eugene
900 a	02-LAEUY
1100 a	02-OAEUY
1215 p	01-OABRT
100 p	01-RVEUY
230 p	01-KFEUY
410 p	01-WCEUY
600 p	01-LABRF
700 p	02-RVEUY
800 p
930 p	01-RVEUE
1030 p	03-LAEUY
1130 p	01-OGEUY

A key point for me to remember when using my master line-up is that it is just a guide.  Times on duty and trains run on any given day did vary. The latter point -- the trains run often needs to be edited to fit the actual conditions experienced on my miniature railroad and the crew-size  available for any given session.  One key adjustment has been spreading the three Springfield-area locals throughout the twenty-four hour day.  Best practice has only one of these in Springfield at any given time, which frees up a siding for use by the Dispatcher.  

Another adjustment to the master line-up has been planning for the expected crew-size for the next operating session.  For smaller crews, I might run only one local freight.  For large crews, I might run two or even three locals.  Part of this also depends on the amount of local traffic accumulated and classified at Eugene in the classification yard.  I had several low-count crews over the summer, ran only one local, and then found I desperately needed to call the Eugene City Switcher, as it had not run for some time and the yard was becoming choked on cars served by that job.

Over the past year, I have taken to plotting out the crew use as a means of adjusting train call times and ensuring sufficient crews for the trains on the line-up.  We have found most RR-East trains take three fast-hours, while RR-West trains take four fast-hours due to adding helpers at Oakridge and taking them off at Cascade Summit.  Allowing 1.5 fast hours for a light helper to return to Oakridge has proven a useful planning factor as well.  Using these planning factors, I have fallen into a pattern of using five road crews and two helper crews for most operating sessions.  As noted, the expected crew-size impacts the number of locals run.  There also is one point in the master line-up--in the early morning hours--when the RR-West fleet of three priority trains run in fairly quick succession requiring a third helper set.  We have managed so far with me occasionally needing to take up a throttle to run that third helper.  That is a rare event for the layout owner, who usually is called away to trouble shoot some issue.

Planning for the next session prompted me to articulate a new planning factor.  This session will begin at noon on the twenty-four hour line-up. As such, the OABRT (Oakland to Brooklyn--Portland Trailers) "should" run right away.  This ran into conflict with my desire to get a late returning Oakridge Turn out onto the line plus handling other trains that included cars destined for on-line industry on the modeled railroad.  As I worked to resolve this issue, I finally recognized that my planning for an operating session needed to use an inverted priority scheme.

Ordinarily, railroad management prioritizes train movement based on the value of the freight rates earned for different types of traffic, regulation and law (Amtrak legally must be given precedence), and a general desire to keep the long-distance traffic moving expeditiously.  This results in Amtrak getting top priority (1), trailer traffic getting the top freight priority (2), ordinary long-distance freight traffic getting a modest priority (3), and local freights and some long-distance freights getting low priority (4).  

Model railroad operations are different, though.  Many model railroad operators enjoy very much local switching.  The "fun" factor of such work overrides the "management" set of priorities.  Further, some local switching needs unobstructed blocks of time on the mainline to complete the work.  A prime example of this on my railroad is the returning Oakridge Turn, which switches the sawmill complex at Westfir on its way back to Eugene.  

Recognizing the importance of the local freights and their needs (mainline track and time and a steady supply of cars to be switched) I recognized I needed to begin session planning with an inverted priority set--the reverse of that used by management for governing Dispatcher decisions.  

As I planned the next operating session, I began with the returning move of the Oakridge Turn. This led to loading RR-West moves with a pair of trains "in-process" at Oakridge and Cruzatte and just a single RR-East train, perhaps delayed, originating at Crescent Lake at session start.  I started creating a mainline occupancy block for the Oakridge Turn by calling the next RR-East train out at 2pm. Originally, this was going to be the OABRT.

My initial placement of the OABRT with a call at 2pm at Crescent Lake created problems, however, as I had two RR-East trains at Crescent Lake left over from the previous operating session.  Both contained traffic that needed to get to Eugene to begin classification toward forming locals for the next day.  I planned one to start at session start-up, but the other one would be delayed by both the "operating hole" for the Oakridge Turn at Westfir and then by the OABRT.  The solution became that of slipping the OABRT to a later slot in the afternoon. The needs of the local traffic took precedence over "ordinary" management priorities--indeed, just the inverse priorities.

Using these planning factors and the crew use train graph, I was able to put together the line-ups for my next operating session.

Crew Use Graph for December 1, 2018 operating session.

Time at EUG	Symbol	Track	Lead Loco	Notes
1201 p	01-EUOGY	CRZT-SDG	SP 8283
1201 p	01-EURVY	OKRG-2	SP 7474
1201 p	SPRG-B	CY-1	SP 6673
130 p	02-EURVY	AD-9	SP 8251
330 p	02-EULAY	AD-7	SSW 9057
515 p	01-EUNPY	AD-10
615 p	AMTK No. 11	AD-1	AMTK 375	642 pm dep. Eugene Depot
700 p	OKRG TURN-W
830 p	02-EUOAY	AD-11
900 p	MARC TURN
945 p	01-EUCIY	(AD-7)		City of Industry  (EULAY)
1100 p	03-EURVY	(AD-9)

RR-West Line-Up for December 1, 2018 operating session.

Time at CJ	SYMBOL	Track	Lead Loco	Notes
1201 p	LT HELPER	Beattie Spur	SP 5314
1201 p	OKRG TRN-E	OKRG-4	SP 5348
1210 p	02-LAEUY	CJ 11	SSW 9264
200 p	02-OAEUY	CJ 10	SP 9363
300 p	01-OABRT	CJ 9	SP 9325
430 p	01-RVEUY	CJ 8	SP 8572
600 p	01-LABRF	CJ 7	SP 9180
730 p	01-KFEUY	CJ 3	SP 7480
1000 p	01-WCEUY	CJ 6	SP 9236
1130 p	01-RVEUY	CJ 5	SP 9232

RR-East Line-Up for December 1, 2018 operating session.