The finished yard backdrop

 It's finished and back in place.

Interlocking signals at Ruston

I got the Iowa Scaled Engineering "Interlocking in a Box" system installed and working.  

There are several different ways of setting this system up in regards to different types of delay settings for the signals to change.  All of which can be seen in their manual that's on their website.

I opted to use two Momentary On push buttons to control the signals to hopefully give my crews a more immersive feeling when operating the layout.    While the ICG trackage that my trains cross is basically a dummy track with no trains crossing, the system is designed to make it feel and act like the crews have to stop and call the dispatcher for a green signal.

The way I chose to set up the delays is fairly simple.  You push either of the buttons and you will wait for a green signal anywhere from 30 to 60 seconds.  Once the signal turns to green, you can choose for a 15, 30, 45 or 60 second delay, I chose to have a 15 second delay to start moving before the signal drops back to red.  After that, the system is reset and is ready for the next train.

Here is a quick video showing it in operation.  I shortened the video so you wouldn't have to wait for the full length of the delay. 

 

Crossing the Ouachita River

 Rock Island GP7 1201 is in charge of the SB local, #775 as it crosses over the rain swollen and muddy Ouachita River. 

 

Op Session: Jan 25th, 2025 time lapse

After getting the basement and layout cleaned up I decided to hold another session, one it was time and two I wanted to make sure things were working properly.

One of my colleagues from work wanted a closer look into our mad little world of model railroading so I invited him over to give him a first hand look.  He set up his phone and took a time lapse video of the first half of the session.

I think it turned out pretty good, and I think I may do this again for the next session?

A KCS detour over the Little Rock Line

 

The Winnfield local with the 1201 on point

 

Complete revamp of the ICG tracks at Ruston, LA

I had always planned to have the ICG tracks disappear between the backdrop and a tree line at Ruston.  The more I thought about it and talked with some friends, the more I thought about redoing the entire area.

I had always thought about putting a farm scene or Mobile home court between the ICG tracks and the Rock's mainline, but the trouble starting showing up when I wanted to install a small siding/run around on the ICG tracks to help improve operations.

With turnouts to throw and couplers that would need to be uncoupled, having a tree line that would semi conceal the tracks, I would have to reach over the tree line or scenery and have to reach to the backdrop, about 18", which wouldn't be bad.  But I could see a constant scenery repairs being needed.

A friend suggested that since I removed the short siding earlier on the Rock main near Tioga Jct. that I move the ICG track out away from the backdrop and "Hide it in plain sight" close to the Rock's trackage?  So I started doodling some plans and came up with this:

 

Once I found something I liked and thought could work I played around with some older turnouts that I had on hand.  When I decided it could work, I ordered some new turnouts and got after it.

Here's a quick video I made of how it'll work.

 

 

 

Rock Island GP35 #301

Tonight, Rock Island GP35 #301 joins the fleet.

I never knew much about this Maroon Dip scheme and wasn't aware that it was ever applied to the GP35's until I started researching paint schemes for the 35's?  It's a Plain Jane scheme but I like the simplicity of it.  I know a lot of the U25B's wore it.

I weathered it pretty much the same way that I did the last GP35 and the U33B's so I won't bore you with the details.

 

For comparison with the #325

And this time a quick video of the pair crossing the bridge.

Let's follow train #34 SB from Biddle yard.

Today we're going to follow train #34 SB from Biddle yard in Little Rock, AR. south to Whitewater Creek, just north of Fordyce, AR.  Today’s power has 5 U33B's.  

Although 16,500 hp might be a bit of overkill for this train, it sure is neat to see.

Growing a forest, the easy way.

 

"Can a I get a little help?"

 A buddy stopped by the other day to chew the fat and run some trains.

Matt brought his BN equipment over to stretch their legs a bit.  He ran my FPPX coal drag (37 cars) and his two Deuces could barely pull it so we tacked one my U30C's on the rear to help shove it.

His units were consisted but my U30c wasn't. So we ran it old school, each were on a separate throttle.  Not once did we stringline the cars.  I don't have grades on the layout which probably helped.  But it was still a fun time.  

He captured it on video.

Just another quick video...

 ...to prove I've actually been working on the layout.

Nothing much special.

Big Boy! July 12th, 2019

Was lucky enough to catch the Big Boy today!

We found a spot just East of North Bend, NE  at milepost 48.25

What treat it was to see such an iconic locomotive, something that I never thought I'd ever see running under its own power in my lifetime.

What a treat...

This time I caught the NB Winnfield local #774 at Haskell

After catching the SB #773 at Haskell the other day I caught up with the NB #774 at the same location the following day, but this time it was working at Gavilon Fertilizer and swapping cars on the W&OV interchange track.

Two days, two trains, a good catch in my books!

I caught the SB Winnfield local at Haskell, AR

The morning forecast told of more stormy weather headed my way around noonish, so I grabbed my gear and jumped in the truck hoping I could catch up with #773 before the floods came again.

Shortly after grabbing my morning foamer snacks at the local Quicky Mart, I heard'em calling out track warrants for work in Haskell!  Just as I got set up I seen a headlight peeking around the curve as they reached the North end of Haskell siding, perfect timing.  

Todays power consisted of three old Warhorses: two GP18's - #1351 & #1346 and F7 #120.

I took a bit of a break from scenery and got the tracks cleaned up and decided to run a few trains to see how well things worked.  While I was at it I figured it would be a good time to shoot a video and play around with the new editing software I picked up a while back.  

After getting a new computer built last December and installing Win10 I realized much to my dismay that MS had decided not to include their Movie Maker program with this version of Windows.  So I did a little research and picked up the Power Director 17 software.   So far it works better than Movie Maker.

 

Preparing for the new session

I've got the layout all staged for the new reduced Ops, but I gotta find a better word for this, starting to sound redundant.

While doing so I knew I wasn't going to be running the W&OV, the ICG or the yard in El Dorado, but I wanted to setup cars to pick up in Haskell that came from Malvern, and seeing how I just got a new phone I wanted to play with the camera, so I shot a couple of videos.

The first one is just following the Winnfield local as I was testing the train and consist.

The second one is of the W&OV Switcher going about gathering up the cars in Malvern.

This picture shows the overall view of the area, Malvern is on the left and Haskell is on the right.

This is the track plan of Malvern.

I can see that I will need to replace the three little fluorescent lights above Malvern with LED's now.  It's really yellow compared to the rest of the layout!  Ugh...

TOFC's on the new track.

The proof's in the pudding!

I was able to get some video action over the new trackage this weekend.

Please forgive the clutter on the layout, I plan to move right along to another one of the projects that I noted in a previous thread. 

What is that?

With some to kill this afternoon, I jumped into the truck and headed south Ruston, LA.  Earlier today I heard some chatter over the Squawk Box about a MOW train working it's way north from Alexandria, LA?  The clouds have rolled in but I figured I give it a shot since it's been a few months since I've been trackside.

Not long after I got settled in near the Ruston crossing and cracking a lid on a cold Dew, I heard the familiar rumble in the distance. About 10 minutes later a headlight came into view!   

I snagged a shot and quickly packed up the gear and headed North hoping to catch it again in DuBach.  As luck would have it I was able to get some shots and keep ahead it all the way North to Haskell.

It was nothing to write home about, but at least I got something!

*****

It's been three weeks or so since I stuck a fork in the kitchen project and getting the house back into order.  I had some time to kill so this afternoon I descended to the laboratory to start getting the layout ready for the next operating session that I scheduled for Oct 8th.

Luckily I chose a Saturday night where the precious Huskers didn't have a game!

I still plan to do all the work on the layout that I listed on the previous post, but first we need to play a little...

Easy switching at Crushmoore

Hadn't been up to Malvern in sometime, since it was a nice day I took a break from my cabinet shop, grabbed the cameras and slipped up to see if anything new was going on.  The first order of business was to stop at the local Kwiky Mart to get a foamer snack and a soda before running over to the W&OV's shop.

As I walked out the door I was greeted with a big plume of smoke which could only come from an ALCo!  I jumped in the truck and headed towards the smoke.  I was just in time to see the newly acquired S-2 getting ready to switch out some cars at Crushmoore!

Couldn't have timed it better, I had just enough time to get the video camera setup.

******

I'm in a holding pattern on the cabinets at the moment, waiting on some plastic laminate to show up so I can cover my countertops.  Which is why I jumped on the closet cabinets.

The other day Doug had asked if he could come over and work on some more chip installs on a few of his locos Friday night since he had some spare time on his hands.  I also thought it might be a good time to get downstairs again and get the layout cleared off and cleaned up some more.  So while Doug worked on his chips I dove into cleaning up the tracks in Malvern.  They were just as I had left them last May after adding the static grass, damn I can't believe it's been almost a year!!!

Of course I needed to see if I could get them cleaned enough to actually run something, and since I had the new Atlas S-2 chipped and sitting in the facility, why not?

Much to my surprise the S-2 sprang to life and after a few swipes on the main tracks in town it was running like a dream.  Then I went after the tracks where I had planted the tall weeds....ugh!

I had to scrape the railheads with a sharp blade, then I used a brightboy and finished the job off with a good eraser.  But I still needed to go in after the insides of the rail to get some of the static grass of them.

Several minutes later things were pretty smooth.  I still need to touch up a few spots, but it was clean enough that the cars were rolling smoothly so I tried the    S-2.  Ran in, ran out!  Awesome!!!

I also grabbed a few of the Bluford Woodchip hoppers that I had recently picked up to see how they looked and ran..... they are nice cars!  Might have to get a few more of them?

The only issue I had was with the tractive effort of the S-2.  It seemed to slip a lot as evident in the video while pulling out the string of 5 loaded chip cars with factory weights.  I'm kind of thinking that it needs a bit more break-in time to get the blacking off the wheels and I also need to check the wheel gauge.

All in all it was good to scratch the itch!!!

Looking forward to getting an op session going again here before the end of April I hope?

I might even have the kitchen close by then...

Is that better Rod?

Video layout tour, Aug 2014

I finally got a chance to get a video of the layout.  We had another operating session the other night and while it was clean I grabbed my camera.

We start with a overview from the bottom of the stairs and then skip over to the main yard.  Leaving the yard we follow the mainline north from Alexandria, LA to Haskell, AR.  After Haskell the line ducks through the backdrop and returns to the main yard which at this point from the trains perspective is Biddle yard in Little Rock, AR.

At Haskell the lines that lead into Malvern, AR [which is the first town on the line].  In the real world the line continues west to Hot Springs. AR.  The tracks stop at Malvern due to lack of space.  At the end of the video you will see two tracks that end up against the wall.  This is suppose to be a siding, I use these to park cars on that are bound for points west of Malvern on the W&OV.