Basement Train Layout: Week 379

Sun, Oct 31, 2021 thru Sat, Nov 6, 2021

Let's see what happens this week...

Sun, Oct 31, 2021

No train activity today.

Mon, Nov 1, 2021

Train Day!

w/Rob Fair, Milt Feryance, Jordan Osborn

6pm-8pm 2 hrs.

Our assignment table. Here's our assignments:
Milt will engineer and be the conductor on the 1960s train (3A) led by 4 GP38-2s (C5) 5 laps
Jordan will run the Chicago to Geneva Commuter Train led by F40PH #157 (A3) and train 1C from Chicago Terminal Track 1.
Rob Fair will tackle two projects tonight. First, he'll run the Northwest Line Train A1.51A from Chicago Terminal to Harvard. Next, he'll classify the unit coal train from the East Yard to the West Yard.

Here's the first activity of the evening.
Rob's Northwest Train A1.51A Chicago to Harvard has arrived on time!

Next order of business is Milt grabbing his power from CNW Engine Facility Track 5.
He will proceed to PYCNW Track 3 to pick up 1960's Train 3A.

Milt keeps a keen eye on his locomotives as they make their way to the beginning of the train.

The first lap for 1960's Train 3A

Duration: 00:00:28 sec.

Rob Fair is also working on the maintenance crew tonight.
Here he is helping out with Train 3A and a coupling issue we were having on the mainline.

Jordan pulling out his train from Chicago Terminal

Duration: 00:00:19 sec.

Train Meet: West Line Commuter with 1960s Train

Duration: 00:00:19 sec.

Train 3A 1960s uses Mainline Crossover to approach Proviso Yard UP side

Duration: 00:00:21 sec.

Nice view of Mars Light Train A12.51A West Line to Geneva

Duration: 00:00:27 sec.

Final approach to Geneva - uses crossover to return back to Chicago left hand run

Duration: 00:00:23 sec.

Milt and Rob comparing notes...

Here's what Rob accomplished tonight.
He switched out the unit coal cars from the East Yard to the West Yard and put them in train order for the return trip back to the Melrose Park Power Plant.

I also noticed one of the towers was knocked over.

I hope Rob disciplined the worker who caused that accident.

Tue, Nov 2, 2021

No train activity today.

Wed, Nov 3, 2021

Tonight I'm updating the paperwork from the operating session held two days ago.

Here is the paperwork for the three trains we ran last Monday night at our operating session.

The paperwork gave me some assignments so I carried those out as well.

See below...

For Commuter Train 1C the directives were to move this train to CAMF for repairs.

So here's the CT Switcher taking it out of the Terminal and will park it at CAMF (California Avenue Maintenance Facility) where it will be inspected and corrected.

Milt's Train 3A had some cars where the couplers were misaligned.
I removed these three cars and placed them at the WBI (Workbench Inspection)
for a quick maintenance check.

Good catch Milt.
He found these at the end of the run after checking his train upon arrival at Proviso Yard UP side.

Finally, ready to call it a night, the Commuter Train at the California Avenue Maintenance Facility ready for inspection and correction.

Thu, Nov 4, 2021

6 cars went thru inspections tonight...

7:07-8:34pm 1 hr. 27 min.

Check this out...

Checking the coupler height.
This one looks pretty good.

One down two more to go...

Close up view of the Inspection Report.

The coupler height was too low so I will be adding these washers and switching out the wheels from plastic to metal.

These are the Inspection Reports that will accompany the engineer during the test run.

A quick video of tonight's results

Duration: 00:00:29 sec.

Drone view of the 6 cars waiting for their test run from the west.

Drone view of the 6 test cars from the east.

Fri, Nov 5, 2021

Just a few minutes after subbing and before we leave for the C24/7 Night of Hope Fundraiser tonight...

3:48-4:30pm 48 min.

Working on the RR...

Adding more cars to our fleet.
This one is an older version, but still in service. I will need to weather this quite a bit more to give it the feel it has been around the block a few more times than the others.

Another car goes through inspection - Passes - and ready for test run.

These two more cars were added to the test fleet tonight.
I had to move the cabooses out of Track 1 to make room for these cars.

Not sure if I'll be able to do it, but I'd like to finish these cars this weekend and add them to our test run for Monday night. That should complete our freight train rolling stock.