First 2016 Ops session on the UPBNSF Joint Division

The first Operations session for 2016 on the UPBNSF Joint Division was held on 9 Jan. There were thirteen people in attendance and the night went very well. We commenced ops at 5pm and finished sometime after  9 pm. Everybody's legs were weary and yours truly was stuffed from 3 days of setup leading into the ops session. In the lead up to the ops session Trevor Phillips came over and helped clean the layout. We clean track and vacuumed. I have to be honest and say the amount of CRAP vacuumed off the layout was huge. It is obviously a long time since I gave the whole layout a big clean. 

The following sequence of photos were taken by Alan Shaw during the session. Many thanks to T2 for his help Pre session and to Alan for the great photos he took:

I'm holding the pre session briefing with all of the crew

BNSF M1 West manifest freight running along the Palouse River Canyon

UP Directors special, Westbound at Walulla

John Burt Switching Cheney

UP Maxistack Through Freight,  Eastbound, heading through the Trent Avenue area of Spokane

UP M1 Eastbound at Iron ridge, passing the UP Westbound directors special

UP M1 East at Summit. The manifest has just been given permission to enter the single track main and is 30 miles out of Cheney

UP is switching the yard at Atallia, whilst the UP directors special passes on the main

Darren is working Cheney to the Left and another train departs East Staging ( Chicago and Eastport) on the right

Jeff is running a train up the hill towards summit

UP Operation lifesaver C44-9w leads a Maxistack through freight crossing dry river near Summit

Ops lifesaver CNW C44-9W leads a  Maxistack train through Cheney

A quiet moment at Cheney

BNSF Unit Stack train rounding the S curve in Trent Avenue

Malcolm Jenkins is inspecting cars for his next move

Hands on action

Steve and Malcolm working out the moves afor another loacal at the spokane departure yard

The UP has had to seccond a MRL SD40 to help with switching duties in Boardman

2 cars are on the main as the Wallula yard is being switched

UP does the switching in Wallula

A BNSF West bound manifest passing through Attallia

West Staging Represents Brooklyn yard and Albina yards in Portland

Jeff is thinking about it all

Engines are in notch 8 as this BNSF manifest eastbound is climbing the grade through Palouse Canyon on its way to summit

The same BNSF Manifest reaches Summit

BNSF westbound at Palouse just shy of Joso Trestle

August 2015 Ops session

Well the August ops session is now done and dusted. 

Thanks guys for making it a great night. As operations go the layout ran pretty smoothly and as far as I'm aware the administrative side (paperwork etc) worked to a treat, justifying the hard work on the lead into the session to ensure all the rolling stock was in the right location. 

Last night saw the introduction of two way radios to the ops session. What started out as a trial, soon became a milestone event and I am very pleased to have finally had a go at this next level of communications. The result was very pleasing and rewarding. I truly felt a bit like a dispatcher last night which was kind of cool!! 

Whilst our use of correct train "LINGO" needs refining, the comms via radio traffic is really cool. 

We ran for 4+ solid hours non stop and realistically only moved 40% of the trains on the layout. 1 x manifest train took 1.5 hrs to go from one end of the layout to the other, however the operator was kept busy the whole time....guess this gives a sense of distance.....hopefully.

At the end of the session Jeff ran a single flatcar with a CUBE sitting on the deck around the layout. We will post the dvd footage to my youtube and blog site when it has been edited. 

On closing we had an excellent debrief session over a couple of beers before everybody wet home.

Observations :

• Cleaning track and engine wheels thoroughly before an ops session makes for happy operators
• More locations for holding the clip boards
• Turn the layout on and check the DCC system at least four hours before starting ops
• Can now start reverting to single operator crews
• Start an operator trainee program to be able to progress to solo ops
• Cheat sheets required on digitrax loco acquiring
• Yardley yard needs two switchers at times
• Yardley yard switcher needs preview switch lists
• Brakeman working ahead of the manifests preparing the pickups from the next location
• Introduce...engine hustler position, Track inspection / maintenance train (vacuum car)
• Introduce a derailment procedure (yet to be determined)

All in all I'm very happy with the session and you all can look forward to most of the above changes being introduced at the next ops session. Thanks to everybody

Laurie busy switching Walulla whilst Roger and Malcolm are sorting out there next freight run departing from West Staging 

BNSF Intermodal rounding a curve in Palouse Canyon

High up rounding a 180 degree curve nering Cheney is a UP MT coal train heading back East. At the same time a BNSF Manifest train is snaking its way down the Steep slopes of Palouse River Canyon

Some foreign road engines are a long way from home

Yardley Yard is a Hive of activity

Darren is in control a west bound ....checking his consist before departure from east staging

Jeff is checking out that his manifest train has the correct pickups before departing Spokane

Scrap steel gons to be interchanged with The Mud Bay and Southern

Marshal Canyon

I happened to be at Marshal Canyon today when a UP Westbound Manifest train came through. Luckily I had my Iphone camera at hand and I took some snaps!

The UP Manifest was headed by #8520, an SD70ACe. Here it is in dynamic braking as it rounds the curve deep in Marshal Canyon.

The last two photos were taken as the train rounds the curve entering the yard limits at Cheney, WA. Apparently the local road gang have just rectified a nasty road crossing. Here they have just poured a new concrete crossing to smooth the surface for vehicle crossing the main lines.