Never skimp on staging tracks

When I built the layout I figured that a single staging track for the Peoria & Eastern would be plenty, based on the one freight and one passenger train I planned on run each direction in sequence.  I was smart enough to make the path into the P&E staging wide enough for two tracks, but sadly didn't lay a turnout and a second track.  The reasoning at the time was that the P&E played a minor role on my layout.  Now that I'm hoping to make the operations on the P&E more realistic I'm really regretting not laying that additional turnout and second track.  Now I need to plan to rip it up and lay two staging tracks in a rather narrow and hard to get at space.

The ATSF staging yard was built as a temporary staging yard, with four tracks.  Luckily some of the tracks are long enough to hold two locals.  Now it's been in place for a while, and four tracks is proving to be constraining as the ops plan for the layout has evolved.  I'm planning on trying to squeeze a fifth track into the yard.

Changes to car card boxes

Up until now my card card boxes at each station have had a slot for each major industry, or a slot per two or three minor industries.  Cards facing outward were considered ready for pickup, and cards facing inward were holds.  Delievered cards went into the slots facing inward.  Locals working the town would have to inspect each card ready for pickup, to figure out if it was headed in their direction.  This has proven to be tricky, particularly for newer operators who may not be familiar with all of the stations on the layout.

In an effort to simplify things for operators I have relabeled the car card boxes with slots for Eastbound Pickups, Westbound Pickups, and one (or two) for Deliveries / Holds / Off-Spots.  The plan is for holds and deliveries to go facing in into the Deveries / Holds / Off-Spots box, with the off-spot cars facing outwards.  The direction of cards in the pickup boxes doesn't matter.  Hopefully this will make things easier for those working the towns.

Which setup do you prefer?

Old box labels.  With a slot for every two industries.

New box labels.  With an Eastbound Pickups slot, Deliveries / Holds / Off-Spots slot, Westbound Pickups slot.

Improvements to station signage

In an effort to make the layout more operator friendly I've been working on improvements to station signage.  Hopefully this will make things easier on new and old operators.  The new signs include:

• Station name
• Milepost
• Direction arrows
• Name of next station to the East and West
• Track map, colorized for each railroad involved
• Industry names
• Spot identifiers

Pekin Junction (MP 36.7 on the ATSF), where the Santa Fe leaves trackage rights on the Toledo Peoria & Western to head to Pekin.  Next station on the Santa Fe is Washington IL.  The TP&W heads into East Peoria staging here.

Roanoke IL (MP 24.5 on the ATSF)

Operating Session 11

Operating Session #11 took place on Sunday 8/25/2019.  I had 5 operators in addition to myself.  I had to leave the P&E Pekin switcher and the P&PU yard switcher unmanned, focusing on crewing the ATSF.  This works for a while, but by the afternoon the layout started to clog up a bit when the traffic wasn't flowing smoothly between the ATSF/P&E and ATSF/P&PU. We still had fun.

With it being a Sunday schedule all of the ATSF passenger trains are still scheduled, but none of the freights are.  Any ATSF freight that ran did so as an extra.

The crews are getting better about signing the registers at ATSF staging and ATSF Pekin East Yard now that all of the train instruction sheets mention it.

Here were the assignments for the session, from memory due to poor record keeping that day, Sunday 9/13/1959:

• 6:45am ATSF/P&E/C&IM/P&PU Dispatcher on duty.  Dan J, all day job.
• 6:45am ATSF Pekin switcher on duty. Mark G, all day job.
• 7:00am PPU yard switcher on duty.  Mostly uncrewed, occasionally crewed by Dan J.
• 7:00am PE switcher on duty. Mostly uncrewed, occasionally crewed by Bill A.
• 7:00am ATSF#14 Eastward passenger from Pekin.  Charlie S.
• 7:15am ATSF Eastward extra local freight from East Yard. William A.
• 7:45am ATSF X203L West Westward green fruit express from ATSF staging (Streator).  Bill A.
• ~ 8:00am P&PU Transfer job.  Bill B.
• ~ 9:30am TPW Westward coal extra from ATSF staging (Streator).  Annullled
• ~ 10:00am ATSF X203C East Eastward through-freight from East Yard.  Bill B.
• ~ 10:00am PE Morning Corn Products job.  Bill A.
• 10:15am CIM #6 Northward freight from CIM staging.  Dan J.
• 11:00am ATSF #17 Westward mail and express from ATSF staging (Streator).  Charlie S.
• ~ 11:00am PE Morning American Distilling job.  Bill A.
• Mid day ATSF X707 West local freight from ATSF staging (Streator).   William A.
• 12:05pm PE #11 Westward passenger from PE staging (Bloomington).  Bill B.
• 12:50pm PE #95 Westward freight from PE staging (Bloomington).  Dan J.
• 1:00pm ATSF #18 Eastward mail and express from Pekin.  Delayed, did not run before end of session.
• 2:15pm PE #12 Eastward passenger from Pekin.  Delayed, did not run before end of session.
• End of session
• 3:05pm CIM #7 Southward freight from East Peoria.  Did not run before end of session.
• 3:15pm ATSF #13 Westward passenger from ATSF staging (Streator).  Did not run before end of session.
• ~ 3:30pm ATSF extra Eastward way-freight from East Yard.  Did not run before end of session.
• 4:30pm PE #90 Eastward freight from East Peoria.  Did not run before end of session.
• ~ 4:45pm ATSF extra Westward way-freight from ATSF staging (Streator).  Did not run before end of session.

Train orders issued during the session:

1.  To: C+E X203L WEST at Streator, C+E X721 EAST at East Yard.  At: 6:40A.  Body:  X203L WEST MEET X721 EAST IN MORTON.  X203L WEST TAKE SIDING.
2.  To: C+E X203L WEST at Streator, C+E No 14 at Pekin.  At: 6:40A.  Body:  X203L WEST MEET No 14 IN ROANOKE.  X203L WEST TAKE SIDING.
3.  To: C+E ENG 203L at Streator.  At: 7:05A.  Body:  ENG 203L RUN EXTRA STREATOR TO EAST YARD.
4.  To: C+E ENG 721 at East Yard.  At:  7:09A.  Body:  AFTER No 14 DEPARTS EAST YARD ENG 721 RUN EXTRA EAST YARD TO STREATOR.
5.  To: C+E X203C EAST at East Yard, C+E X721 EAST at Morton.  At:  9:08A.  Body: X203C EAST MEET X721 EAST AT MORTON.  X721 EAST TAKE SIDING.
6.  To: C+E ENG 203C at East Yard.  At:  9:10A.  Body:  ENG 203C RUN EXTRA EAST YARD TO STREATOR.
7.  To: C+E X203C EAST at East Yard,  C+E X721 EAST at Morton.  At:  9:50A.  Body: X203C MEET X721 EAST AT ROANOKE.  X721 EAST TAKE SIDING.  TRAIN ORDER 5 IS ANNULLED.
8.  To: C+E ENG 707 at Streator.  At:  12:20P.  Body:  ENG 707 RUN EXTRA STREATOR TO EAST YARD.

Some progress on scenery work

I'm finally making some progress on scenery and structures.  For the last few weeks I've been building structures in Washington, IL, and finishing the scenery there.  Next up will be Roanoke, IL.

Looking north (railroad west) towards Washington, IL

Looking south (railroad east) towards the Washington, IL lumber yard, elevator, and depot.

Operating Session 10

Operating Session #10 took place on Thursday 8/1/2019.  This time I had 7 operators in addition to myself.  While things still run fine with 7 operators, the P&E Pekin switcher ends up overloaded, due to not being able to call spare crews to run the P&E American Distilling job or the P&E Corn Products job.  I may end up trying to still call crews to run these two industrial jobs and have them abandon those switch jobs when they get called for scheduled trains.  Since both the American Distilling job and the Corn Products job are out of the way in their own switching area, abandoning those jobs in place for a while and returning to complete it shouldn't be a problem.

The Digitrax duplex radio throttles continued to work well for the most part, although I'm planning on moving the radio receiver to a more central location to try to get rid of an occasional dead spot on the east end of Pekin.

Many crews forgot to sign the ATSF train registers in ATSF staging and at Pekin East Yard.  This is problematic when operating using TT&TO.  I plan to modify all of the ATSF train instruction sheets to remind people to sign the registers.

We ran into the Digitrax Zephyr "FULL" error message once and had to run the slot clearing procedure.  All signs point towards it being a good idea to upgrade to a more capable command station soon.

Here were the assignments for the session, Saturday 9/12/1959:

• 6:45am ATSF/P&E/C&IM/P&PU Dispatcher on duty.  Dan J, all day job.
• 6:45am ATSF Pekin switcher on duty. Greg B, all day job.
• 7:00am PPU yard switcher on duty.  Frank S, all day job.
• 7:00am PE switcher on duty.  Mike A, all day job.
• 7:00am ATSF#14 Eastward passenger from Pekin.  Charlie S.
• 7:15am ATSF Eastward extra local freight from East Yard. Bob H.
• 7:45am ATSF First #47 Westward green fruit express from ATSF staging (Streator).  Bill S.
• 8:15am ATSF Second #47 Westward through freight from ATSF staging (Streator).  Bob M.
• 10:00am ATSF #48 Eastward through-freight from East Yard.  Charlie S.
• 10:15am CIM #6 Northward freight from CIM staging.  Bill S.
• 11:00am ATSF #17 Westward mail and express from ATSF staging (Streator).  Bob M.
• ~ 11:30am ATSF Westward extra local freight from ATSF staging (Streator).   Bill S.
• 12:05pm PE #11 Westward passenger from PE staging (Bloomington).  Charlie S.
• 12:50pm PE #95 Westward freight from PE staging (Bloomington).  Bob M.
• 1:00pm ATSF #18 Eastward mail and express from Pekin.  Charlie S.
• Afternoon TPW Eastward coal empty extra from TPW staging (East Peoria).  Extra train did not run.
• 2:15pm PE #12 Eastward passenger from Pekin.  Bob M.
• 3:05pm CIM #7 Southward freight from East Peoria.  Dan J.
• 3:15pm ATSF #13 Westward passenger from ATSF staging (Streator).  Bob M.
• 3:30pm ATSF #50 Eastward way-freight from East Yard.  Charlie S.
• 4:30pm PE #90 Eastward freight from East Peoria.  Train did not run before end of session.
• 4:45pm ATSF #49 Westward way-freight from ATSF staging (Streator).  Train did not run before end of session.

Train orders issued during the session:

1.  To: C+E Eng 203L.  Body:  Eng 203L display signals and run as first 47 Streator to East Yard.  Complete: 6:00A.
2.  To:  C+E Eng 715.  Body:  Eng 715 run as second 47 Streator to East Yard.  Complete: 6:10A.
3.  To:  C+E No 14, C+E First 47.  Body: No 14 meet First 47 in Roanoke.  First 47 take siding in Roanoke.  Complete: 6:15A.
4.  To:  C+E Eng 707.  Body:  After No 14 departs East Yard Eng 707 run extra East Yard to Streator.  Complete: 6:50A.
5.  To:  C+E X721 West, C+E X707 East.  Body:  X721 West meet X707 East in Roanoke.  X707 East take siding.  Complete:  11:29A.
6.  To:  C+E Eng 721.  Body:  Eng 721 run extra Streator to East Yard.  Complete:  11:32A.
7.  To:  C+E No 7.  Body:  No 7 run 1 HR early.  Complete:  1:55P.

Operating Session 9

Operating Session #9 took place on Thursday 7/18/2019.  I had 9 operators in addition to myself.  This was the largest crew I’ve had yet.  The conclusion is that 8 operators is a more optional crew size.  With 9 some people ended up waiting a while between trains.

The Digitrax duplex radio throttles generally worked well, although at the east end of East Yard the reception didn't seem to be the best.  A second UR92 radio receiver is probably a good idea for the future.

During the session I ran into a slot limitation problem with my DCC command station.  I’m still running off of a Digitrax Zephyr DCS50 command station.  It has 12 control slots, and somehow we ran out.  For a while it seemed like we could only have 6-7 throttles with a locomotive assigned to it.  When doing some research afterwards I discovered that if locomotives aren’t dispatched with all functions (including headlight) off, then the slot isn’t released.  Additionally, old consists defined in the system may be holding onto slots.  During the next session I plan on running the slot release procedure, and then have each operator make sure they turn off all functions before dispatching their locomotives.  Do note that the clearing procedure also wipes any consists you may have configured.  If that doesn’t do the trick then it is time to upgrade to a more capable command station.  I’m still a bit amazed that the oldest most basic Digitrax Zephyr has managed to do the job so far.


Here were the assignments for the session, Friday 9/11/1959:

• 6:45am ATSF/P&E/C&IM/P&PU Dispatcher on duty.  Dan J, all day job.
• 6:45am ATSF Pekin switcher on duty.  Greg B, all day job.
• 7:00am PPU yard switcher on duty.  Kurt V, all day job.
• 7:00am PE switcher on duty.  Frank S, all day job.
• 7:00am ATSF#14 Eastward passenger from Pekin.  Peter A.
• 7:00am PE Corn Products AM job.  Mike H.
• 7:45am ATSF #47 Westward green fruit express from ATSF staging (Streator).  Bob M.
• 8:15am ATSF Westward extra local freight from ATSF staging (Streator).  Mike A.
• 10:00am ATSF #48 Eastward through-freight from East Yard.  Charlie S.
• 10:15am CIM #6 Northward freight from CIM staging.  Peter A.
• ~ 10:30am ATSF Eastward extra local freight from East Yard.  SEVERELY DELAYED DUE TO DELAYS FROM OPPOSING EXTRA.
• 11:00am ATSF #17 Westward mail and express from ATSF staging (Streator).  Bill S.
• ~ 11:00am PE American Distilling AM job.  Mike H.
• 12:05pm PE #11 Westward passenger from PE staging (Bloomington).  Peter A.
• 12:50pm PE #95 Westward freight from PE staging (Bloomington).  Mike A.
• 1:00pm ATSF #18 Eastward mail and express from Pekin.  DELAYED 1HR.  Mike A.
• 1:42pm TPW Westward coal extra from ATSF staging (Streator).  Peter A.
• 2:15pm PE #12 Eastward passenger from Pekin.  Charlie S.
• 3:05pm CIM #7 Southward freight from East Peoria.  Bill S.
• 3:15pm ATSF #13 Westward passenger from ATSF staging (Streator).  Charlie S.
• 3:30pm ATSF #50 Eastward way-freight from East Yard.  Delayed 1 hrs, Mike H.
• Session ended 4pm.
• 4:30pm PE #90 Eastward freight from East Peoria.  Run after session.
• 4:45pm ATSF #49 Westward way-freight from ATSF staging (Streator).  Run after session.

Train orders issued during the session:

1. To: No 14, No 47.  Body: No 14 Meet No 47 in Roanoke.  No 47 take siding in Roanoke.  Complete: 6:40am.
2. To: x707W.  Body: After No 14 arrives in Streator engine 707 run extra Streator to East Yard.  Complete: 7:30am.
3. To: x401W.  Body: TP&W engine 401 run extra Streator to East Peoria via Pekin Jct.  Complete: 1:05pm
4. To: No 18, x401W.  No 18 run 1HR late.  Complete: 1:42pm
5. To: No 13, No 50.  No 50 run 1HR late.  Complete: 3:30pm.