Week 447

Sun, Feb 19, 2023 thru Sat, Feb 25, 2022

Sun, Feb 19, 2023

I need to try some repairs tonight...

I was having some trouble with the middle pieces.

So I removed them and repositioned them to give
them more room along the rails.

Hopefully, after this sets we'll be all set. :)

Mon, Feb 20, 2023

Train Day!

w/Rob Fair, Jordan Osborn and special guest, Marcus Thorsen

6-8pm 2 hrs.

Our Meet & Greet session...

...where we talk more than just trains.

Time to get started. Let's go to the Train Order Board.
Rob will put together the Unit Coal Train heading
back to the Powder River Basin from MPPP.
Marcus (MaTh) and I (CuBe) will run Mixed Freight Train 5A.
Jordan (JoOs) will be the dispatcher for the operations tonight.

Rob cleared out the Melrose Park Power Plant yard.

Marcus picked up the Road Power (C2) for
Mixed Freight Train 5A.

Train 5A left Proviso Yard UP Tracks WB and now,
after 5 laps, sits EB in PYCNW tracks 4, 5.

These are the PYUP tracks vacated by Train 5A.

Rob was able to take 1 lap around the layout with
his Unit Coal Train 2A WB.

We had a lot of fun tonight.

Our biggest challenge was the road power selected for Mixed Freight 5A.

It would start and stop periodically and each time that happened a different part of the train would disconnect. Very discouraging. I will figure out which cars separated and either change out the couplers or glue them together. More to come...

Tue, Feb 21, 2023

I want to figure out how to MU locomotives using the UT6...

So...

We got this locomotive running fine. It is leading
the current Unit Coal Train 4A.

This locomotive was not as cooperative.
It is still on PYUP Track 6 waiting for MU instructions.

I found the UT6 manual.

The index says to turn to page 12 for MU consisting.

This will be my fun reading tonight :)

Wed, Feb 22, 2023

I figured it out...

How to add a locomotive as a MU to the TOP locomotive

This LED display shows the TOP locomotive

Successful attempt to MU locomotives using UT6

Duration: 00:00.32 sec.

Here's the paperwork that shows what locomotives
are MU'd and when that actually happened. The dates
on the right are when I remove them from the MU consist.

Thu, Feb 23, 2023

No Train Activity today.

Fri, Feb 24, 2023

Clearing out for the Harvard Station Platform installation.

First, I need to cut out the base coat.

My workbench for the Harvard Station Platform Installation.

Now to secure the base coat with glue.

As usual, you've heard this one before,
we wait for the weights.

Sat, Feb 25, 2023

Now it's time to put on the top coat.

Cut out the "asphalt" and glue it down.

Wait for it...yep, "Wait for the Weights." :)

In the meantime...
I will prepare this parking lot for line painting...

Put down the tape and start to paint.

Remove the tape - here are the remains.

AND! Wahlaa! It is beautiful!

Since I'm in the line painting mood, let's go to Harvard
and paint the lines on the platform.

Tape it out and then paint it out.

This is very cool...check this out...

Duration: 00:00.32 sec.

The tape remains.

AND..."Wahlaa" another beautiful scene emerges.

I'm not sure if I will use this freight station or build
one similar to the existing Harvard station.

We'll just need to wait and see...

One more hour on the layout...

I finished making four more laps with Unit Coal
Train 2A WB. Here are the Road Power Locomotives (B4).

I had to reset the cars to be in this position for movement
into the Powder River Basin East Yard (PRBEY).

And here's what that same train looks like when fully
into the Powder River Basin area.

The Central Control Tower shows how long I've been
on the job for this stretch.

And here's the paperwork which tracks
the switching that needs to happen once
the mainline train enters the PRB.

This sheet records the laps taken by
the same train on the ML.
Cars in Consist which tracks 
minutes On The Job (OTJ).