Week 480

 Sun, Oct 8, 2023 thru Sat, Oct 14, 2023

Sun, Oct 8, 2023

Finishing up prep work for the parking lot.

Adding foam pieces for fill.

Cutting "asphalt" for parking lot.

Lots of little cuts around the station.

Adding the yellow safety line to the platform.
Safety First! 

Weathering the platform

Finished cutting the "asphalt" pieces and ready to glue.

Laying the pieces out to make sure they fit.

Tools of the trade today.

As quick as that, the parking lot is all glued in!
Love that glue gun!

Finally, weathering the parking lot.

Another 30 minutes tonight - adding a fence.

Laying out the fence pieces.

Cutting the middle piece to fit with the others.

Almost there. I need to level them out a bit.

Mon, Oct 9, 2023

Up early to install fences on Bellwood platform...

Fences installed to the right of the station...

...and to the left of the station.

Now to finish off the project with parking spaces marked off with yellow lines and lighting.

Next up...

TRAIN DAY!

w/Rob Fair (6-8pm 2 hrs.) 

Jordan Osborn (6-7:30pm 1.5 hrs.) & 

Marcus Thorsen (6-7:30pm 1.5 hrs.)

Our opening discussion...

Jordan welcomes all to our session!

Getting to work...

Rob is trying to figure out how to switch the four
cars left on the Industrial Park transfer track to the industries.

In the meantime, I will work on changing out the 
coupler (Rob brought a long shank coupler from home)
to try on the AC6000. Hopefully this will fix some 
of our uncoupling problems.

After switching out the cars at the Industrial Park
Rob begins the job to fill the coal cars at the
Powder River Basin East Yard.

Getting paperwork together and starting the job.

I went back to take a look at the job Rob did at the
Industrial Park.

The last two cars at the other industries.

I'm getting the AC6000 ready to hook up to the 
Intermodal Unit Train 2B.

It appears Rob is about half way finished switching.

Interesting photo.
Looks like the focus has changed.

The other side of the intermodal
train 2B coming out of Global 1.

Full train leaving Global 1.

Rob finished switching the Unit Coal Train 2A into
the East Powder River Basin Yard.

This photo shows the Intermodal Unit Train 2B
ready for departure.

Tue, Oct 10, 2023

Ran two laps of the Intermodal Train 2B

The is the location of the 
Lap Counter. At the western
part of the Proviso Yard throat.

Wed, Oct 11, 2023

After subbing today, I had some time to finish running the Intermodal Train 2B WB

Intermodal Train 2B heading WB into
the South Power District.

I like this shot of the Intermodal Train silhouette on 
the elevated tracks heading WB at Lombard station.

Another neat view of the train snaking through the layout.

Oops! Major mishap on the RR.
One of the containers was askew
and hit the top of the platform roof
which sent the entire 5 unit cars
into the abyss. 

I've put the well cars back 
on track. Still need to put the
containers back together again.

Finally arrive in the UP Proviso Yard WB tracks.

And that almost wraps up the Train Order Board.
Just one more thing to do.
Run all the Commuter Trains.
Should be a fun project to finish this month.

Thu, Oct 12, 2023

The last trains to run on the Train Order Board. Commuter Trains...

Commuter Train 1A arrives at Harvard Station
on the UP Northwest Line.

Chicago Terminal Track 7 is where Commuter
Train 1A originated.

I also ran Commuter Train 1C and Chicago Terminal
Track 3 is where that train originated.

It ran WB to Geneva Station. It did a crossover 
to EB Track 2 for its return trip back to Chicago
Terminal. I will try to finish that tomorrow.

Fri, Oct 13, 2023

My brother, Bill, and his wife, Linda, stopped by for pizza and a visit to the train room...

Bill & Linda checking out the basement layout.
Linda said, "Your attention to detail is incredible."

Thank you, Linda! :)

Sat, Oct 14, 2023

Today I will finish the Train Order Board including the Commuter Trains.

Next Train Order Board Session will be different.

Some of my anytime trains will be put into Train Priority Order.

I will include all the trains in the game plan for next session.

Here we go...on the finishing touches.

Commuter Train 1C heading into Chicago Terminal

Click here to view YouTube Video

Duration: 0:37 sec.

We started Commuter Train 1D from
Chicago Terminal Track 4 (now empty)

I also ran Commuter Train 1B bound for Harvard
on the Northwest Line. It started here at the
Chicago Terminal Track 6 (now empty)

Here's the end of the West Line at Geneva Station.
This is Commuter Train 1D which has already crossed
over to Track 2 for the return EB trip to Chicago Terminal

And the end of the Northwest Line where Commuter
Train 1B awaits the return trip to Chicago Terminal.
This last of the line station stop is Harvard, IL
(my birth place - not the station, but the hospital in Harvard:)