After creating a small area for a freight yard for outside operations a few years back, we have finally started work again in the basement, to expand the freight yard, and start the inside portion of the layout… The ““Crew rest”” area of the basement was finished, when we built, back in 2005… However, the train area was unfinished…

Over the years, we have been gradually working on getting the basement walls studded in and insulated… Over the past few months, we have got it wired, and the north wall dry walled in… Jane has spent a few hours, with a paint brush, working on the sky area, and got the north wall done to the point where we could start moving some existing layout tables into position and creating some new tables…

Folks that have visited have seen the tables for the inside industrial area, sitting in the middle of the basement… I built that a few years back, to test out my track plan for it… The first step, was to move the 3 tables into position along the deepest part of the north wall…

In the below 2 pictures, you can see those modules against the far wall… The pink, and blue Styrofoam areas on the wall are to be a couple of the industrial buildings… The industrial area starts at the door on the left and runs all along that wall… it will make for a nice switching area, as there is room for about 12-14 freight cars at the industries… There will be 2 lift out bridges at the door for both the upper area and the lower area.

The table in front of the industrial area will be the basement upper level freight yard area, and the bottom level will be part of the Bluefield freight yard for outside operations… The table at the bottom right was installed years ago, and is part of the existing Bluefield freight yard… Currently, I am using the top area as a work area…

The above area looks at the same area, but from the other side of the utility room… Again, the tables on the left bottom were installed years ago…

In the below picture, this is taken along the north wall… Tables on the left have been exisiting… The wall on the right side, is the one we just got finished working on… The basement freight yard area is a full 4 ft wide, as it can accessed from either side… The table at the bottom right is 30 inches wide… Where this table sticks out from the larger table, I will install a diagonal brace plywood to swing the tracks out to line up properly…

The below picture gives a look at the same area, from the west side…

A lot of work, still to come… Cover the plywood with foam board, and lay tracks… Need at least 2 lift out bridges to reach the bottom areas… Trying to get the bottom freight yard somewhat operational before the first Ops session in May…

The below picture is taken from the south side, looking north… Tables in the foreground on the right and left sides have been installed for a while…

You can see the freights cars on the bottom freight yards, and the freight cars on the top left, which is currently the fiddle yard…

More to come, as the project progresses…

I just hope that the penguins are NOT inconvienced…

And now I wonder if you still need help?

Crap, I wanted to see a picture of Andy with a paint brush in his hand…

Ken Brunt said:

Crap, I wanted to see a picture of Andy with a paint brush in his hand…

I might have to search the archives…but I still don’t think that picture exists…

And every time I think about Andy’s RR, this song comes to mind.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ephmK-pbZJA

Bruce Chandler said:

And every time I think about Andy’s RR, this song comes to mind.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ephmK-pbZJA

Ooh… or if you want the graphics version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2qPJXCaQag

Jane

Very impressive.

Deb and I really need to get out your way sometime.

Stan

Sky looks awesome.

Bruce Chandler said:

I just hope that the penguins are NOT inconvienced…

Not inconvienced at all… Taught them to climb trees, and they are on their way to Virginia… Can’t wait for the reports… (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-sealed.gif)

Bruce Chandler said:

Bruce Chandler said:

And every time I think about Andy’s RR, this song comes to mind.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ephmK-pbZJA

Ooh… or if you want the graphics version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2qPJXCaQag

Second version is much better… (well, till the end)… (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)

Bruce Chandler said:

And now I wonder if you still need help?

Can always use train crews… (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-sealed.gif)

Glad to see progress on the basement. This is very timely and good for all of us. Should be back in area in a couple of weeks.

As an update, the yards have been in place and functional for the past 2 Ops sessions… Based on the Quantity of cars required for Ops, and the storage facilities, I have decided to continue on with my way of an Operating scheme, and not use Railop nor JMRI… This decision is made, based on 2 reasons: 1) car storage locations of the freightyards that prohibit having any kind of visual of the car numbers & roadnames…

2. The amount of each type of freightcar needed to fulfill the operational requirements…

As in the first series of pictures below, it shows the liftouts to the 2 separate yard areas…

The switch on the front liftout has 2 leads from it… The lead towards the bottom connects to the Covered Hopper 3 track yard, and the top lead off the switch goes to a 3-track 50-53 ft Boxcar yard…

The back liftout across the door, leads to another 3 track 50-53 ft boxcar yard ( which will be under the inside Industrial park)…

The below picture shows the boxcar yard area that will eventually be under the inside Industrial Park.

The above area will hold 25 50-53 foot boxcars…

The top deck on the picture will be the inside industrial park, which currently is holding freight cars that are not involved the normal Ops sessions…

The below picture shows the tracks under the wide area yard…

This shows the boxcar yard on the left, which will hold approximately 21 50-53 foot boxcars…

The Covered hopper side is also 3 tracks wide, in this location… The Covered Hopper track on the left will fork off to another track a bit further back…

These tracks bend around the wall corner and continue down the wall… Once past the bend/curve, a switch leads off the back track, to make a 4th track down the far wall… Currently, this yard holds 87 covered hoppers…

More pictures of the end…

And a reverse shot below:

The cars on the upper level need to be worked on before being put into the Ops schedule…

wow Looks like it could be a train store.

Shawn Viggiano said:

wow Looks like it could be a train store.

I don’t think there are any train stores that size left Shawn.(http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cool.gif)(http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)

Man, its almost like a real railroad. (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-surprised.gif)

Saturday afternoon of the June Ops allowed me to have more “sunfun” than I wanted or deserved. Andy alluded to me spending sometime playing with the switching moves. At the end of the May OPs, I brought in 34 covered hoppers at one time. For my own well being, the Yardmaster, my lovely bride, said it would be best that I never do that again.

SOOOO, playing with the switching moves was to learn what a assistant yardmaster or a yard switching crew working for the Bluefield Yardmaster would have to do. To shove the grain cars in to the stub storage on the lower level, a number of turnouts and rather tight curves have to be negotiated. 5 or 6 grain hoppers at a time seem to be the maximum. But to do this, the secondary yard switcher needs to be able to run around the string of cars to get on the pushing end. One choice is for the Yardmaster to be constantly involved, while the secondary switcher hides in a pocket track, awaiting the next 5 or 6 cars. Another solution was to create a secondary yard lead under the industry tracks along the north wall, where some of the 50 foot box cars are stored. This allowed the secondary switcher to work on their own. It seems the number of operators available and the outside temperature or conditions may contribute to how the job is completed. It will probably change each day of Ops or maybe at only certain times of the day’s Ops. I just know, I’m not backing 34 covered hoppers into the yard again. Nope, no matter what Andy says.

Nice to see those photos. When we visited last year I thought the basement yards were in their own way as impressive as the outside layout

Jerry

I see no room left for Amtrak equipment so you might as well just pass it down to your son!