EUGENE YARD OPERATIONS

At the center of individual car movements on my railroad are operations in the Eugene Yard.  The Eugene terminal area includes the Arrival-Departure Yard which is controlled by the "Santa Clara Tower."  https://espeecascades.blogspot.com/2019/07/santa-clara-tower-operations.html  Contained within the Arrival-Departure Yard is the still-developing engine facility which includes tracks for servicing diesels and now includes the turntable originally installed to serve steam locomotives.  https://espeecascades.blogspot.com/2020/02/eugene-turntable-2-turntable-bridge.html  Located in parallel with the Eugene Depot tracks is the Classification Yard, the subject of the current discussion.

My Eugene Classification Yard is double-ended and eight tracks wide.  It roughly corresponds to the historic Bailey Street Yard along the Coos Bay Line in the Eugene terminal area.  This yard served the local industries in Eugene while the hump yard classified cars for outbound trains and broke down in-bound trains for most of Western Oregon.  One of my layout design decisions was to choose not to model the major yard complex, but instead concentrate on serving the on-line industry of the modeled railroad.  That led me to my eight-track Classification Yard.  

A normal full crew working my Eugene Yard consists of a Yardmaster and two switch crews who work the Classification Yard.  They coordinate operations with the Arrival Departure Yard which is usually staffed with the Santa Clara Tower Operator who serves as the Yardmaster of that part of the yard complex and a switcher who assists in making up and breaking down the road freights.  As my engine terminal develops, I expect to add a hostler for locomotive movement duties.  

The Eugene Yardmaster plays a critical role in managing the overall activities of the yard, choosing classification designations for the eight yard tracks, changing those designations as needed for the current classification work.  With only eight tracks, the Yardmaster never has the luxury of permanent destination designations for the tracks.  Indeed, there are times when multiple destinations will be assigned to a single track.  The Yardmaster can use label tabs which fit between the rails.

Classification underway with Track 5 designated for Los Angles cars and Track 6 for Roseville.  These are the two largest destinations for outbound cars on my railroad.

The Classification Yard builds local freights and breaks them down when they return to Eugene.  It also classifies blocks of cars which arrive in road freights at the Arrival-Departure Yard. Activities ebb and flow as trains arrive or depart.  The photos below illustrate a typical cycle of movements.

The Eugene Yard at the start of a shift.  Two locals have arrived on the City Yard tracks and await break-down by the yard.  Small blocks of cars for local jobs are gathered on several yard tracks.

We will do most of our yard work with the RR-West Switcher, with SP3851 assigned today.  Full operations include an East Switcher as well.  Assignments for each are determined by the Yardmaster.

The first order of business for our switcher is to remove the caboose from each train.

The inbound local train's power pulls away from its train and heads to the engine facility for servicing.

Our switcher works the RR-West end of the Classification Yard, switching cars onto appropriate designated tracks.  

As the cars are placed on their classification tracks, the Yardmaster ensures their movement documents--the car cards and waybills--end up in the correct sorting box.  When the inbound trains have been sorted, classified blocks of cars are transferred to the Arrival-Departure Yard.  That yard has tracks habitually designated for the major outbound destinations.  The A-D Yard Switcher usually switches the sorted car blocks from the Classification Yard onto the proper destination tracks.  

An important move in and out of the Classification Yard is the wood chip traffic for the Halsey Branch.  Construction of the Branch is underway yet.  For now, the wood chip cars are handled as block swaps of loads for empties.

Another important block swap concerns the outbound classification blocks previously noted and the inbound block of local traffic.  The local traffic includes both loads and empties for the modeled industry on my railroad.  This move typically comes off of A-D Yard track 12, nominally identified for Eugene cars, but lumber empties are also gathered on that track by the A-D Yard crew.

The A-D Yard inbound cut has been split between tracks 6 and 7.  The A-D Yard switcher will couple to the outbound cut on Track 5 and will take it back to the A-D Yard to build trains for the major destination yards such as Los Angeles or Roseville.

An important task for the Yardmaster is to ensure all cars included in a local train packet have a "Spot Card."  A "Spot Card" ensures there will be a spot for that car at the designated industry spur.  If a car destined for an industry does not have a "Spot Card," it needs to stay in the yard until the next cycle--there is insufficient space at the industry for it.  This is a system I adapted from my friends in the Willamette Model Railroad Club.  They in turn adapted it from Lee Nicholas, a significant model railroad operations innovator in Corrine, Utah.

Finally, a pair of local freights have been built up and moved over to the City Yard tracks for departure.  The two trains there have their cabooses attached and are awaiting power and crews.

I have found a good balance of local train sequencing as well as road freights that fits the capabilities of my Eugene Yard and crew.  The yard crew is kept fairly busy for most operating sessions.