A visit to John's Santa Fe Middle Division layout.

A few of us visited John C's Santa Fe Middle Division layout last night to do some test running. Since buying the layout from Rod John has reassembled it in a slightly different configuration that adds staging for the ATSF, and a branchline for the MoPac. The MoPac branch operates between a MoPac yard in Wichita and Belle Plaine, via trackage rights over a section of the SF mainline.

I operated the yard at Wichita (which was formerly the yard at Augusta).
Here, I'm operating the train on the rear-most track to spot three cars on an industry siding.

Paul and Rob operated the MoPac. In this photo they are assembling a local freight at a
small MoPac yard in Wichita, before making a run to Belle Plaine.

(L-R) Vic, Brendan and John C.  Brendan ran the yard at Oklahoma City (which was originally Flynn Yard.)

A general view of the yard at Wichita.

Vic operating a local freight from Wichita yard to Valley Center. Valley Center was previously Augusta East
(or was that Augusta West?) on the previous configuration.

Noel running a train between Oklahoma City and Wichita. The town in front of him
is Ponca City, and Red Rock is behind him.

Paul and Rob have run the MoPac local freight from Wichita to Belle Plaine (formerly Guthrie.)

Back at the Wichita yard again, John is explaining to Rob how to operate the transfer run between the MoPac
and the ATSF. The trackage on the bare plywood is the MoPac yard, and the tracks on the right are the Santa Fe.

Noel doing some switching at Red Rock.

Thanks for inviting us over John. The reconfigured layout has come together very nicely, and added some very interesting new operating concepts.

Regards,
Ron

Operating session for 27 March 2018

The guys came over for an operating session last Tuesday. There were eight of us including me, which is one fewer operator than I think is optimum for a session, but we had only a couple of very minor glitches and I was even able to run a few trains myself (which does not happen very often.)

Here are some photos that I took (between running trains and answering questions), as well as a bunch taken by Chris.

Dennis gathering cars for the Davis - Pauls Valley local freight.

Graham with the northbound "Ranger" at Ardmore.

John F (operator at Pauls Valley) and Chris, preparing to work southbound freight #37 at Pauls Valley.

Dennis at Davis, with the Pauls Valley local freight 

John C. and Peter operating the yard at Ardmore.

The Pauls Valley local freight setting out cars at Wynnewood.
(Photo by Chris.)

Chris with train #37, setting out some cars at Pauls Valley.

Graham, with a trainload of empty gons which he will swap for loaded cars
at the quarries at Dougherty and Big Canyon.

Bill, with the Ardmore local freight. After switching a couple of cars the train will return to Ardmore.

Bill with the Ardmore local freight, switching some covered hoppers at Big Canyon quarry.
Because of the direction of the sidings it's best to switch Big Canyon on the return trip.

This is me preparing to swap empty tank-cars for loaded cars at the Wynnewood refinery.
(Photo by Chris.)

Me still switching the refinery. In the background, John F and Dennis are working the
Pauls Valley local freight. (Photo by Chris.)

My job is done. The empty tank cars are spotted at the refinery loading racks. (Photo by Chris.)

John F preparing the Pauls Valley local freight for its return journey.

Graham and Bill watching the action, as Dennis gets the local freight ready for departure. (Photo by Chris.)

Ardmore operators John C and Peter in the distance. Dougherty on the left, and Davis on the right.
(Photo by Chris.)

Bill running the southbound "Kansas Cityan" through Big Canyon. (Photo by Chris.)

Peter and John C. working the yard at Ardmore.

Chris preparing an afternoon local freight at Davis.

The job is a big one today.

Chris's local freight at Wynnewood, awaiting the call to proceed to Pauls Valley. (Photo by Chris.)

Dennis has the northbound gravel train at Dougherty. The loaded cars ahead of the caboose came
from Big Canyon. The empty cars in the train will be traded for loaded cars still at the crusher.

Graham, ... doing something.

Graham with the afternoon Ardmore local freight at Dougherty.

The Crew Call Board for the day, showing that we've run all the scheduled trains. That's something that
we don't achieve very often. I even managed to get my name on it four times, which is unheard of.

Thanks for coming over guys - I think it was a great day!

Thanks Chris, for allowing me to share your photos.

Regards,
Ron

The Animas & Lobato Southern RR

Here are a few photos that I took last Friday, when I got to run a train on Bill's  Animas & Lobato Southern RR.

 

Bill's beautiful scenery is enhanced by matching photo backdrops. I wish that I had taken more photos of the layout, but I was too occupied with running my train which was hauled by a model of a D&RGW K-36 steam engine, fitted with a WOW decoder.  When I applied the brakes hard there was an excruciating sound of metal scrapping against metal. You can be sure that I applied the brakes often, and hard!

YouTube has several videos of Bill's layout, including this one by Gerry Hopkins:

That's it for now. Thanks for reading.
Ron

Operating session - 16th February 2018

Last Friday evening I hosted the first GC&SF operating session for 2018. We had a big turn-out of crew members, as (unusually) almost everybody I invited came along. The downside of that was that some of the guys got to run very few trains.

Nevertheless, it seemed to have been a great evening socially, and we made it through the complete timetabled session (which is also a little unusual.)

Here are some photos that I took before and during the evening on my Oppo phone.  (Sorry Dennis, but I somehow managed to not take any with you in them.)

This first group shows how things looked before we started the session.

The line-up at South Staging.
L-R: Train 6 (The Ranger), train 38 (a Fast Freight), train 16 (The Texas Chief),
train X2856N (a livestock extra), train 40 (a Fast Freight), and train 66 (the Ringling mixed local.)

A view of Wynnewood (left) and Davis (right) from the end of the peninsula. The yard at
Pauls Valley is on the far left, and Dougherty is on the far right.

The siding and storage sheds at the Ardmore Air Base near Gene Autry.

Johnstone Construction at Davis. Just behind the tree is Pitmon Oil.

Stillwater Milling (foreground) and Arctic Processing (distance) at Davis.

The tank-car loading racks at Kerr-McGee Refinery, Wynnewood.

Another view of the refinery at Wynnewood.

These photos were taken during the session.

Vic is preparing to leave Davis with the Pauls Valley local freight. In the background,
John F is switching Dougherty with the Ardmore local freight.

Rod, Peter and Bill (next photo) were waiting for the clock to count down so
they can run their next assignments.

Vic is switching Wynnewood with the Pauls Valley local freight, while Barry is watching for
the southbound gravel train to enter Wynnewood.

John F, with the Ardmore local freight at Big Canyon, where
a covered hopper loaded with sand has to be collected.

Barry, and the southbound gravel train en-route to Dougherty.

Darren, and Train 37 (a southbound Fast Freight) rounding the long curve at Big Canyon.

Greg, with northbound Fast Freight #38 at Ardmore.

Brendan, yardmaster at Ardmore, is switching cars for Train 38.

Train 38 approaching Wynnewood, with John C (background) preparing cars at Pauls Valley.

Darren brings Train 37 out onto the main, as it departs Ardmore.
Bill is operating the Frisco local, which operates between Ardmore and Hugo (OK.)

Vic and the Pauls Valley local at Wynnewood. The train has 'turned' at Pauls Valley
and is returning southwards with a long string of cars for Wynnewood and davis

Rod is switching tank cars at the Wynnewood refinery, while Barry acts at the brakeman.

John C, in his usual role as yardmaster at Pauls Valley.

 I think that everybody had a good time, despite a couple of minor problems (caused by my poor preparation).  Thanks for coming over guys.

I'm hoping for my next session to be on a Tuesday in March.

Ron