Adding Tracks For Staging Trains
Required Some Modifications
To My Model Railroad.

During Spring '09 I decided to experiment with manual car card operations instead of the computerized Ship It switch lists we had been using during our Wednesday night operating sessions on my Utopia Northern Railway.

It quickly became apparent that we were short of staging tracks to act as destinations "off-the-layout" for staging trains. The yard and staging tracks at Underhill North are hidden beneath North Point and there isn't a lot of headroom. This makes it difficult to locate and move cars. Additional track at Underhill North had partly alleviated the problem, but a better solution was needed.

I didn't have a lot of options because I wanted open staging tracks to make it easier for the operators. The answer was to give up the surface of my general purpose workbench.

Workbench surface for staging trains.
South Point and North Point are above on peninsula.

The new staging area is an extension of the Fort Eerie "fiddle tracks" at the end of Underhill North. This still leaves a problem at Endaline, but storage drawers will have to carry overloads for the time being.

The extension for staging trains from Underhill North.
Note the new car card boxes on the right.

The areas for staging trains will now be:

• Utopia East for connections to Canadian railroads
• Endlaline for connections to U.S. railroads serving the east and south
• Fort Eerie for "off-line" industries that are still served by my fictional Utopia Northern
• Bordercross (staging from Underhill North) for U.S. railroads serving Chicago and west
• Valleyview harbor "fiddle track" for overseas
• Blueshores harbor for the Great Lakes
• Port Feron harbor for overseas (dual gauge HO and HON3 tracks (in development)

The set-up now allows for bridge traffic across the Utopia Northern as well as locals and through trains. Average length of trains is held to 12 cars. Southbound trains that are descending the grades to Underhill North can take more tonnage. The ruling grade from Underhill North to Colling's Woods Tower limits the number of cars unless front-end helpers and rear-end pushers are added to the train. If there are still too many cars on the railroad, then cars can be moved to the storage shelves and rotated back onto the railroad via the captive coal or general merchandise freight train that operate in opposite directions from main tracks #2 and #3 between Underhill North and Underhill South. Track #1 is always kept open. Track #4 (the inside track) is normally used as a reverse loop although it can also pass trains through to Underhill North from Underhill South.

If this all sounds a little complicated, it is! As of April '09 we have yet to test out the traffic flow. On paper, it does now seem that the computerized switchlists were not moving many of the cars due to the lack of staging, train length, and possibly due to overcrowding of the layout.

Another possible solution will be to arbitrarily rationalize and group freight cars by era, that is, separate modern cars from older cars. A simple cut-off might be cars with roofwalks compared to those without. Or take some arbitrary time-points such as the introduction of covered hoppers for grain or the introduction of specific locomotive types.

We're not sure what to do with the fast clock yet. We may use it initially as a static clock and release one major train from staging on each hour. This would allow us to experiment with working the local yards and industries first so that cars can be blocked preparatory to trains arriving from staging.

Cork has been laid. Note the Fast Track paper turnout templates.
The aisle separating staging from Utopia is on the right.

I'll update this page as we gain operating experience. The plan is to switch over to the car cards in May as soon as I have the hand-laid Code 83 track installed. All the turnouts are being hand-laid using Fast Track jigs and templates. My general observations about handlaying turnouts is on a separate page that you can reach using the link below. Add my website to your RSS feeds if you're interested in learning how we make out in the months ahead.

Go from "staging-trains" to the handlaying turnouts for the open staging yard.

Return from "staging-trains" to my Home Page.

Return to Top