| Author |
 Topic  |
|
hunter48820
Fireman
Premium Member
|
 Posted - 05/11/2012 : 9:46:43 PM
|
Hi All,
I'm posting some pics from the ProTrak Weekend that we held last week. I'll post them in the next message since I already screwed up once and had to delete a bunch after a premature thread launch!! 
|
Best, Andy Keeney
Look out for #1, but don't step in #2! |
Country:
| Posts: 6029 |
|
|
hunter48820
Fireman
Premium Member
|
Posted - 05/11/2012 : 11:29:34 PM
|
I'll give you a little tour of the areas that I did happen to catch in the camera. Most of the attendees are not members of RR-L so I'll just make note of any that are. You will notice that I still have very little scenery in place. I'm getting close to having all the track in place so the scenery should start in earnest in the near future!! Honest!!
===================================
This is a shot of the main aisle with Gresham Yard on the middle (main deck) to the right with North Gresham Interlocking on the middle to the left and the town of Hunter (end of the branchline) on the lower left.
South end of the main classification yard at Gresham. The mainline is elevated along the back of the yard and then crosses the yard to the outside at the south end to make the turnback at the end of the peninsula.
On the upper right is the mainline at the end of the Gresham Yard peninsula. On the main deck to the left is Ribo Yard and below it is Cedar Hill Yard. Although one yard is directly above the other, the placement of the crews work locations has worked very well with no interference between the two yards. The upper deck that you will see in many of the pics is all country and very small towns and industries.
On the main deck to the right are the two passenger terminal leads to the mainline (against the fascia) and behind them is the coach yard. The last two tracks to the far right is the mainline. The passenger terminal is around the bend to the right out of camera range. On the lower deck is the main and passing siding at Springfield.
Looking the opposite direction along the aisle with Ribo and Cedar Hill Yards (on the right).
Hickory Junction, which is still in Cedar Hill Yard limits and also the start of the Hunter Valley Branch (second track in - immediately in front of the station). All the industry track here is dedicated to a paper mill which is still in the planning stages. I need to perfect both the track layout and buildings that will be needed.
L&N power on a northbound Nashville Road freight just north of Guthrie.
A Cincinnati bound B&O freight train just south of Gresham Yard. The B&O uses Nashville Road trackage until reaching Bowling Green (staging) where it reaches its home rails.
Fellow Forum member Mike Corley (red hat) oversees operations at the south end of Gresham Yard. The Nashville Road engine facilities (both steam and diesel) are located in the peninsula blob at the end of Gresham Yard. You can see the roundhouse construction is in progress. I owe a lot of thanks to Cliff Powers for sharing his construction techniques with the Forum members. It has really been very helpful.
Engine servicing facilities at Ribo Yard. Ribo gets its name from the two railroads that terminate there, the RI and B&O.
Jim Moir, second from camera is the designer of ProTrak, the computer based operations program and he is also a member of this Forum.
Gresham Yard aisle looking from the peninsula end.
Same area.
Gresham classification yard. The string of cars are being pulled from an A/D track (one of 3 along the back of the yard) and is on the switch lead. The cab track is just behind.
Here, you can see the north end of the classification yard to the left and the local yard to the right (in the background) where all local customer traffic is switched and blocked.
The northbound B&O freight from the earlier pic has now passed Gresham and is just by North Gresham Interlocking, the entrance to the north end of Gresham Yard.
John has just brought an L&N transfer into Ribo Yard. In awhile, he will be returning to L&N's Radnor Yard (staging) with a full train.
A view of eight trains sitting at Columbia, TN (south staging), waiting their turn to enter the railroad. The Nashville Road has reduced steam operations to the districts between Nashville and Birmingham. Steams last stand for sure!! If you look close, the steam loco on the left has a second steam engine behind it. When we doublehead steam engines, we put two crews on them. There's no consisting in steam operations!! It does take some getting used to to have the engines work together and can be alot of fun!
Stevo, is sitting in the nerve center handling all the reports and keeping the railroad up to date in the computer. The dispatcher's desk is to Stevo's left in the background.
Some people don't like the idea of using a computer but I am sold on it when the alternative is a car/card system considering that I will have at least 1200 cars on the railroad!! I'm not knocking car/cards, they are just not for me.
Last but not least is Jack, our mascot. Jack is doing what he does best, BEG!! A fellow Forum member, Karl Scribner is busy keeping Jack happy!. To the right, Hank is busy studying his paperwork before proceeding to his train.
It can get a little noisey in the crew lounge when we have a large crew. I plan on walling in the dispatcher to give him some peace and quiet and also keep him separated from everything that is going on to help replicate what a real dispatcher would be doing. Stevo's position, (we call him the Trainmaster), is also the crew caller. Since he has a fair amount of contact with the crews during the sessions, we plan on keeping his position in the lounge area, separate from the dispatcher.
Well that's it for now, hope you enjoyed it!!
|
Best, Andy Keeney
Look out for #1, but don't step in #2! |
Edited by - hunter48820 on 05/12/2012 5:32:15 PM |
|
Country:
| Posts: 6029 |
 |
|
|
MarkF
Engineer
|
Posted - 05/12/2012 : 01:11:51 AM
|
I always enjoy your operations posts Andy. I can't get enough of your layout and it's size.
Did you say 1200 cars??? Good grief man! Everytime I get a little overwhelmed with my comparitively small layout, all I have to do is look at pictures of your monsteer and it puts it all back into perspective!  I don't know how you do it, but you've done a great job so far.
Any videos this time around?
|
Mark
See my homepage at http://home.comcast.net/~prrndiv/
|
|
Country: USA
| Posts: 9329 |
|
|
|
Dutchman
Administrator
Premium Member
|
Posted - 05/12/2012 : 06:56:34 AM
|
Thanks for sharing the pictures, Andy. How many guys showed up over the weekend?
|
Bruce
Modeling the railroads of the Jersey Highlands in HO and the logging railroads of Pennsylvania in HOn3 |
|
Country: USA
| Posts: 23277 |
|
|
|
Neil M
Fireman
Premium Member
|
Posted - 05/12/2012 : 07:17:11 AM
|
That looks like a fun Andy. How many people do you have over? It looks like quite a lot!
|
| Built a waterfront HO layout in Ireland http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=22161 but now making a start in On30 in Australia |
|
Country: Australia
| Posts: 2173 |
|
|
|
Red P
Crew Chief
|
|
|
desertdrover
Engineer
Premium Member
|
Posted - 05/12/2012 : 08:35:57 AM
|
Thanks for sharing and posting the pictures for us Andy. That looks like a happy crew.
|
 Louis
Pacific Northwest Logging in the East Coast |
|
Country: USA
| Posts: 11333 |
|
|
|
friscomike
Engine Wiper
Premium Member
|
Posted - 05/12/2012 : 08:43:47 AM
|
Someday, I want to operate on that railroad...
Andy, thanks for hosting again this year. I can't wait for the tenth anniversary ProTrak weekend.
BTW, your layout ran smoothly and ProTrak did a nice job of simulating a real railroad. Congrats on all your hard work and a fantastic weekend.
Best,
Mike Corley
|
|
Country: USA
| Posts: 483 |
|
|
|
rhpd42002
Crew Chief
|
Posted - 05/12/2012 : 09:28:50 AM
|
That is one LARGE layout. I knew it was big, but not that big!!
Thanks for sharing some pics. Looks like one fun railroad to operate on.
Mike O.
|
| Ya Ain't Gotta Like It, Ya Just Gotta Do It! |
|
Country: USA
| Posts: 698 |
|
|
|
hunter48820
Fireman
Premium Member
|
Posted - 05/12/2012 : 10:03:07 AM
|
Hi All,
Thanks for the kind comments. Bruce, we had about a dozen out of staters who are ProTrak operators and when you include the locals, we had between 20 and 24 crew members most of the time. At times, there weren't enough crews for the jobs and trains had to wait!! I really enjoyed the weekend. Over the last 9 years, we have become good friends and I know it is one of my highlights of the year.
|
Best, Andy Keeney
Look out for #1, but don't step in #2! |
|
Country:
| Posts: 6029 |
|
|
|
Orionvp17
Fireman
Premium Member
|
Posted - 05/12/2012 : 10:11:34 AM
|
Andy,
Nice pix of what sounds like a great weekend! The layout cleans up pretty well!
One question, though.... I noticed Stevo had his head on a computer; what happened to his iPhone?
Pete
who's sorry he missed the festivities
in Michigan
|
|
Country: USA
| Posts: 2847 |
|
|
|
maandg
Engine Wiper
|
Posted - 05/12/2012 : 10:40:51 AM
|
Hey Andy! Thanks for the shout-out in regards to your roundhouse...it looks awesome! The thing that really stands out to me about your layout is the amazing amount of aisle space. Even with a large number of operators working throughout multi-level locations, there is plenty of room to move about comfortably and without interference of one another. Very nice job of not only constructing and executing your vision, but creating a first class design. Boy would I love to attend an Op Session someday!!!
|
Cliff Powers
The Mississippi Alabama & Gulf
Please visit my layout website at
www.magnoliaroute.com
|
|
Country:
| Posts: 370 |
|
|
|
CBQ Guy
New Hire
|
Posted - 05/12/2012 : 2:30:20 PM
|
Very nice, Andy. Continued success and enjoyment! - Pk
|
--
"Paul - The CB&Q Guy"
Spending most of my time and money on trains...
(...and basically wasting the rest.)
-- |
|
Country: USA
| Posts: 13 |
|
|
|
hunter48820
Fireman
Premium Member
|
Posted - 05/12/2012 : 5:28:52 PM
|
Pete, we didn't let Stevo leave the computer all weekend!! But I think he liked it! By the way, I just downloaded the app for my iphone. I'll wait till Stevo can help get me going on it!!
Cliff, Thanks for the kind words. I would love for you to attend a session or just visit! You don't know what an inspiration that you have been to so many of us and what is really nice, through the forum, we have been able to really perfect our skills from your photos, videos and written words. I'm really excited to get the roundhouse finished and scenicked!! And now I'm actually looking forward to tackling all the buildings that I have waiting to be built and detailed!
Paul, thank you much.
|
Best, Andy Keeney
Look out for #1, but don't step in #2! |
|
Country:
| Posts: 6029 |
|
|
|
Michael
Engine Wiper
Premium Member
|
Posted - 05/13/2012 : 12:32:26 AM
|
Hi Andy:
Looks like a really fun layout operate. With 1200 cars on the roster, you would certainly need a computer to keep track of everything!
Nice posting of pictures. My simple 8x12 N scale layout certainly pales in comparison.
Thanks for posting.
Michael
|
|
Country:
| Posts: 394 |
|
|
|
Mike Hamer
Engineer
|
Posted - 05/13/2012 : 08:32:01 AM
|
Hi Andy, Wow! So nice to see more pics of your fabulous layout in the midst of an ops session. You are doing so much for the hobby by welcoming many folks into the environment for your sessions.
Nice to see a pic of Jim as well. It must be so rewarding for him to witness and be a part of an ops session using his software.
Great seeing those colourful diesels sharing some space with their steam brethren. The scenicked areas of the layout are coming along nicely as well! Thanks for taking the time to post the many happenings from the session! 
|
All the best, Mike Hamer
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
http://craftsmanstructures.blogspot.com
http://bostonandmaine.blogspot.com
http://fridaynightgroup.blogspot.com |
|
Country:
| Posts: 9409 |
|
|
|
Topic |
|
Home
Forums
Events Calendar
Sponsors
Guestbook
FAQ
