Tuesday, January 5, 2016

Early January Update

I had planned to post on New Years or over the long relaxing weekend. Guess I relaxed to much.... Nonetheless 2015 has departed so it is only proper to recap highlights from the MCIS St. Clair Sub:

- Added a daughter to our family crew board
- Consistent blog posts averaging1400-1500 views a month. December 2015 we surpassed with all time record 2000+ views. Thank You readers
- Quarterly Ops Sessions
  Jan 2015, Apr 2015, Oct 2015 am, Oct 2015 pm
- Founding layout in Fort Worth Layout Operations Day group 
- Added upper deck lighting / valiance
- 7 sound installs complete between in-house and contract shops
- 30 more railcars weathered by VMS
- Added blocking card car routing
- Had fun with my family and friends on the journey.

A lot of great accomplishments and progress in 2015, I even surprised myself. For 2016 here are my model railroad goals:

- Have fun and involve family to help
- Scenery... Itching to dive back in
- Structures... I know what needs to be there, time to build the story
- Quarterly Ops Sessions
- FWLOD 2016
- Locomotive sound installs (4-5)

Jumping right into a 2016 goal, the first ops session of the year is this weekend. Preparation has been in full swing as it takes around a week to get everything set doing just a little work each night. Enjoy the photos and captions of the prep.

Blocking cards by train ready to go. There are 14 trains lined up to operate.

East end of Bay Yard full while west staging trains are put together. Once built they will be backed into the 4 track lower level staging yard

M-MCBA and Q-GRPH ready to reverse into staging. 

Normally it takes 45 per staging yard and an additional 30 minutes to ensure online cars at industries are given their new block and load / empty status.

East staging with a lonely headlight ready to come online.

30 minutes later east staging yard full ready to go. 

Ops plan with sequence, slots, train ID, and power plan

I hope you have enjoyed a brief glimpse into the train staging piece that makes the ops session. There will be a full recap of the session in the Mid January Update.

Thanks for stopping through,

GM



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2 comments:

  1. Mike McNamaraJanuary 5, 2016 at 3:28 PM

    Looking good! I was working on restaging with waybill updates before Christmas. I always find it interesting to do this and evaluate how I can possibly improve things, but each session has its own life, Looking forward to your post-ops report!

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  2. GregJanuary 5, 2016 at 7:00 PM

    Thanks Mike - I have to agree with completely. Each session gets a little bit more refined if you will regarding traffic flows. For example my southbound Mackinac City to Bay City train carries boxcars of Linerboard, paper rolls, lumber products, and Canadian bridge traffic from upper peninsula. Just by looking at the train you know it's origin. Good things to come!

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