Location: Todd Treaster's Open House
Date: Apr 12
Time: 10am - 8pm
Admission: Free - standard "open house" rules apply —
Sponsor: Todd Treaster and his amazing "NY,S&As Pittsburgh Division" layout
Details on FB invite: https://www.facebook.com/events/9121911924511164
As part of Todd's open house, he gave us room to set up a T-TRAK layout in his garage. Since this wasn't your usual US "Train Show" we decided it would be a good time to really dive into an operations setup. For operations, we ended up with 4 jobs: Class 1 mainline run, Coal Mine job, Yard Job, and the Branch line job.
Full details and resources used to create the operations are on a google drive folder: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1H-fKvo8vD6affrR9pXmb3RXuOzR-2gK5?usp=drive_link
Layout
The Burnham Division Overview
In the schematic above, Iron City and Bulwark Yard are the same physical modules. We treated the "yard" modules as both the starting point (Bulwark Yard) and the ending point (Iron City) of the Branch line.
Division Instructions:
The Burnham Division is a limited use, ‘bypass’ section of a Class 1 railroad. It remains in operations mainly to serve the active coal mine and the interchange with NY,S&As RR at Bulwark Yard. North of the mine is the rural town of Iron City. Most residents here are either farmers, or work for the mine.
- The Class 1 Main Line is represented by the T-TRAK “red line”, and runs East/West across the state. All Class 1 travel will be “complete the loop” in a clockwise direction.
- The Iron City Branch Line is represented by the T-TRAK “yellow line”. It runs North out of Bulwark, and terminates in Iron City. The local job is an “out and back”. (i.e. clockwise for the first time around loop, and then counter-clock for the ‘return back’ )
- The shared segment is controlled by a token - A train can NOT run on that segment without the token provided by the signalman at the W or E tower. (i.e. Stop your locomotives at the towers! )
- Yard speed (20MPH) should be maintained throughout the Iron City branch line (yellow line).
- Mainline speed (red line) is 30MPH from yard to W. Tower. 50MPH after W. Tower.
- The runaround at the Freight House should be thought of as part of the branch line (i.e. the Class 1 and Branch do not overlap here ‘in the real world’) - Therefore usage rights are simply “Mother, may I?” permissions.
