In common with many operating model railroads,
my railroad must be re-staged between operating sessions. Re-staging involves getting freight cars and
trains into their starting positions for the next operating sessions. Modelers use many different techniques to
prepare their railroads for an operating session. Active “moles” constantly
restage trains in a back-stage area that then enters the modeled railroad at
either end of its run. Others use
staging yards that must be re-staged (loaded with appropriate trains) between
sessions. My SP Cascade Line falls into
the latter category.
My SP Cascade
Line attempts to capture the traffic patterns that existed on that line in the
latter half of the Twentieth Century. Two
features about the SP traffic stand out.
First, Western Oregon was a raw resource center for forest products—an
originating point. Trees were harvested
and turned into a variety of forest products.
These products usually travelled south over the Cascades to points
geographically south and east. A prime
freight car movement implication of this is that empty cars are delivered to
Oregon shippers and then sent as loads off of my modeled railroad. In general, cars are drawn from a pool of
empties at Eugene for loading. The
loaded cars come back through Eugene to be gathered up into trains sent off to
major destinations—mostly south or east.
A key
implication of this for my SP Cascade Line is dealing with open car loads. Empty flat cars and wood chip gondolas are
sent out to the on-line industries.
Loaded versions of these cars return to Eugene in the local freights. Somehow, the empties need to be turned into
loads. I have not committed yet to fixed
loads on the flat cars. I may yet work
this mostly with separate loads. The
wood chip hoppers have semi-permanent loads.
The chip loads fit very snuggly into their cars. I do not want to destroy freight car detail
by constantly exchanging loads, so the chip cars need to be re-staged.
The second
feature of the prototype SP Cascade Line was the composition of RR-East and RR-West
trains. The RR-West trains were of mixed
composition with many car types for traffic both on the railroad and that
passing through. Though lumber drags
were quite identifiable, the various car types were intermixed freely in train. On the other hand, the RR-East traffic coming
toward Eugene from California or Utah featured only a modest amount of the
general freight mix and a number of trains of lumber empties. The lumber empties were known as “XMUG” for
empty manifest EUGene. The return of
lumber empties to Eugene was expedited on the SP, as forest products provided
the highest revenue to the SP throughout most of the period of interest. Yellow
door and yellow stripe box cars were so marked to get those empties back to
Eugene as soon as possible!
In many ways,
the SP in Oregon was at the loading end of a transportation conveyor belt
taking forest products to market.
Fortunately for the SP, major markets were in California—completely served
by the SP. The major hump yard at
Roseville and yards in Southern California (Taylor Yard in Los Angeles and then,
later, West Colton to the east of L.A.) each sent full trains of lumber empties
north to Eugene. These trains were made
up by major classification yards so they tended to feature major blocks of
similar cars. Indeed, an entire train of
flat cars departed the Los Angeles area nightly, as well as full trains of
lumber box cars.
I try to capture
these traffic features in my operating plan, beginning with staging the layout
for operations. My staging plan has been
developing over the past year as I have built up the car fleet and added track
features to support the operation as I have long intended. The computer-printed waybills have been in
use long enough that the expected traffic patterns have emerged with cars
making a full cycle to on-line industry-back to Eugene-on to the off-layout
destination and back to Eugene.
My latest
restaging effort was done on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend when I had five
operators join me for a “casual operating session.” They were quite willing to do moves that were
the reverse of a normal full operating session.
The photos are from that session.
My first staging
task involves getting the loaded wood chip gondolas out to the five mills on
the layout. Jerry B. and John D. took a
train of loaded chip gons out and returned with an equal number of
empties. The empties are then assigned
to the locals that serve those mills.
Meanwhile, I had
Gene N. make up two XMUGs using lumber empties in the Eugene Arrival Departure
Yard. Once these were made up, Gene took
the first out on the road, headed to Crescent Lake. At Oakridge, Jerry B. added the helper and
they continued up the hill.
Gene N. guides
his “reverse XMUG” up-grade beyond Oakridge as Jerry B. watches slack action on
his helpers.
Jerry B. watches
closely as the “reverse XMUG” climbs around Salt Creek trestle.
As the XMUGs (lumber
empties) were staged at Crescent Lake, a pair of mixed freights were brought
back down to Eugene. I’ll use some of
those cars as empties going out to the on-line industries. Others will be “filler” for road freights.
While all of
this activity was going on on the mainline, Rodger C. and Bill M. worked in the
Eugene Yard. They did the work of the “night
shift,” classifying cars that had been brought back to Eugene by the local
freights during the last operating session.
Five blocks are made for the major off-layout destinations: Portland (and other spots in Oregon),
Roseville, Oakland, Los Angeles and Ogden.
Staging for the next session, I make sure appropriate cuts of cars are
in the Eugene Arrival Departure Yard to fill out full trains to the four South
and East destinations. A regular task in
a full operating session has the Eugene Yard crew complete making up those four
trains.
Rodger C. and
Bill M. work the Eugene Yard. They are
doing the work of other shifts (overnight) not part of a regular operating
session. Oh yes, I “just” tolerate the
car cards on the layout for this function.
I do not normally allow that during a formal operating session.
With these
actions taken, the work remaining is mostly shuffling waybills in car
cards. My “casual” crew had a good
opportunity to experience jobs on my railroad without the self-imposed pressure
of a regular ops session. Each did jobs
on the railroad they had never done before.
This was a great way for me to take advantage of a small operating crew—doing
work I needed done, but just not a regular ops session. I finally figured out a staging system that
gets the work done fairly efficiently.
It was a happy circumstance I could use that system to provide
meaningful work for my modest-sized holiday weekend operating crew.
