New Waybills for the GR Terminal

GRT Waybills
Originally uploaded by conford4

Here are the revised waybills on the Grand Rapids
Terminal. After I read an article in the Opsig
Journal, I got to thinking about the model railroad as
an information system. Most users (operators) really
don't know much about your particular railroad, so one
of your jobs as owner is to make sure the information
that is needed to run the railroad is clear and easy
to understand. This is especially true if somebody is
going to be sorting and spotting cars.

Rubber stamps for train destinations. It seemed to me
that the routing instructions on the Old Lige Graphics
waybills were a good idea, but that there was not
enough room for them, and it would have to be in some
sort of code. Then I remembered the tickets we used to
buy when we took the train and the little rubbers
stamps the tickts sellers had for just about every
common destination. Rubber stamps!

I figured color coded rubber stamps could be used to
identify the train that would carry each load to its
destination, and I got a bunch of rubber stamps made
up at the Stamp Connection in Gresham.

Here are the color codes:
Red -- PRR
Blue -- C&O
Green -- NYC

Now each "train" has a rubber stamp that marks the
waybills it will handle. For instance "PRR Fort Wayne"
is for southbound traffic on the PRR; "C&O Local
South" is for C&O local traffic for South of the West
Side Yard. There are about 12 stamps in all, 6 for
PRR, 4 for C&O and 2 for NYC. We'll see how this
works, but it looks good. I only wish I'd gone for a
12 point font rather than 10 point.

Reformatted car cards: I'm on the car cards list, and
somebody posted a modified version of the Excel
spreadsheet used by Wolfgang Dudler, on his Westport
Terminal RR. This was posted by Gerry Hopkins on the
Car Cards Yahoo List. I took a look at the output from
this and recognized that here were car cards that were
easy to read and looked good. I copied these and
revised them for the GRT, removing the colors, and
using a more industrial looking typeface.

You can see from the picture what the revised cards
and waybills look like.

Improved Waybill Box on the GRT

GRT Waybill Box
Originally uploaded by conford4

Here are the revised waybill boxes for the Grand
Rapids Terminal. Each section of the box is marked
with the railroad that switches each siding. Most
sidings are served by only one railroad, except
interchange tracks and a few sidings that are jointly
switched. This particular box, located near downtown
Grand Rapids, holds the cards for three different
sidings.

From left they are:
1. the PRR team track and Elston Richards storage, a
long sidings that runs alongside the curving mainline
approach to the bridge.
2. The Consumers Power siding. This sidings is jointly
servied by the PRR and the C&O, thus both railroads'
herald is displayed for this siding. Each railroad
only sets out and picks up its own cars (or the cars
of connecting railroads) from this siding.
3. The C&O freight house siding. The freight house is
still invisible, but it will be located near the Union
Station platforms. It is only switched by the C&O.

I have also increased the font size on the boxes to
make things more legible. I wish there was more
contrast between the heralds and the boxes, but for
now that's what we have with a dark green fascia.

Staver's Locomotive

P1010105
Originally uploaded by conford4

Here is a photo of Larry Staver's new locomotive, a Lima Berkshire. We were at Staver Locomotive last Friday night, and it was cold, but the trains were running. And of course live steam looks better in cold weather. So the Berk was puffing away, pulling the heavyweight passenger train. It looked great. You can see in this photo (from December 2007) what a fine looking locomotive it is. Staver Locomotive is worth a visit if you are in Portland Oregon the first Friday of the month. Chek www.staverlocomotive.com for details.

Staver's Steam Up!

Last week I mentioned one of our favorite train attractions, Staver Locomotive, at www.staverlocomotive.com. They have a First Friday steam up which we recommend to all steam enthusiasts. It's in a wearhouse in NW Portland, near Montgomery Park. The benchwork is set up at eye level for a 5 year old, and there is usually a group of little boys chasing the trains around, especially the big steamers. January's steamup is on January 4th, 5:30 p.m. - 8 p.m.

A railroad in hibernation

The GRT is pretty inactive right now. I have been working on a few projects to improve the layout, which makes it unlikely that we will operate until the projects are wrapped up. Here is what's going on:

1. Electrical rearrangements, including moving Easy DCC command station to under Hughart Yard and rewiring the phone system. Command station moved, but phones still down.

2. More DCC engines: PRR now has a Baldwin DS-4-4-1000 and the NYC has a new GP7. Still working on a couple sound engines and a C&O GP30.

3. Sound. I have a couple sound engines now, but I don't think the layout will be going all sound anytime soon. The sound systems draw more current than plain DCC engines, and require very clean track. Plus they make noise, which some people find irritating. Oh, the cost of progress.

4. Car Cars. I read an article in the Ops Sig journal about "Raybills", which treat intergate a model railroad's operations. I am copying some of the ideas from the article, since it helped me grasp that the waybill system is an information system, and therefore it has to be easy to read and present user relevant information. Tha t means I had to rework everyting from the Old Line Graphics systen formerly used, although it really doesn't look too different. This tast is mostly complete, but there are a few new cars to add to the system due to expansion.

5. Backdrop. This is the big project right now, as I am trying to complete the backdrop between the Grand River Bridge and Pleasant St. This is about 18 feet, more or less. I have some 060 styrene sheet to use as material, and am putting up the framework for it. This is an irregular part of the railroad in terms of having windows and other obstacles, so it's slow going.

6. Other projects. Assembled a little oval of Atlas True Track as a portable layout and a test track. Even the simplest stuff takes me a while. Not to mention the wonderful kids, spouse and the rest of my life.

7. The future. After watching kids chase trains in circles at Staver Locomotive, I think the layout would benefit from being a big oval. (Change of Philosophy!) Have plenty of left over plywood from the meetinghouse remodel. But first I have a few little projects to complete.

Chasing the Train 5/12/07

UP 844 came to town this weekend, and Martin and I were waiting. And waiting. I think we waited for over two hours on that bridge in Troutdale. But finally, a signal turned green, we waited, there was a puff of smoke on the other side of the Sandy River Bridge, and here came the 844, looking just like it does in all the photos. And what a beautiful train trailing it, 18 Union Pacific Armour Yellow streamlined beauties, including four domws and two (yes, two) observation cars. Don't see a train like that very often.

We took off after it and chased it up into NE Portland, near 11th and Killingsworth, where they greased the engine while it sat and sat on a siding. Then here it came again chuffing through the crossing and making the earth shake.

We headed up to Vancouver to the Amtrak station. Made a pit stop along the way and called home, as the train was 2 or 3 hours late. Lots of people at the Vancouver Amtrak. Coast Starlight pulled through for a station stop. Then pretty soon we heard from people that it was coming, double heading with the SP 4449. This is how the train looked coming across the bridge. It was a cloudy day, so I have brightened this picture a bit.

The train stopped at the platform while a few people got on and off. Martin wanted me to take a picture of the 844's elephant ears. The picture he requested is below. A couple of toots from the 844, then the 4449, and off they went. What a sound! This is why I am a railfan.

Progress report, May 07

Here is a picture Martin took of the layout:

This is a view of a C&O passenger train blocking the Bridge Street crossing. I'm still working on the road, but this is probably the most complete scenery on the layout. It's interesting that Martin took this picture.

Ops session 4/29/07
We had an operating session on Sunday afternoon, April 29th. Ken and Alan were the crews. We ran: West Side turn, C&O passenger, C&O outbound freight, Fisher turn, and GR6 (right at the end). Have installed Blue Points at the throat of the North Yard. Ken brought over some brackets for low clearance mounting of the Blue Points too, still have to figure out where/how to use them.

I haven't been making much progress on the layout since the opeon houses in March. Am perhaps a little burned out. Also trying to sell a few things on ebay, to raise money for decoders and other things I can't afford. Am selling surplus cars, since I can see now that I have way too many. Not that this will make me rich, or empty out the basement.