Mid-April Update 3

Finished all primary trackwork at Buhler as planned, hope to install the industry sidings and blue point controllers tomorrow.

Gotta love flowing trackwork - looking west from atop backdrop wall. The Elevator Facility in town will be a fictional terminal for "Cooperative Elevator" who has numerous facilities in Michigan's thumb.

             Track level looking west.

View looking east towards staging "Gerhard and beyond to Port Huron"

Sweeping curve heading west towards Grays Lake. Tracks left to right: "one track aka. Setout / pickup", passing siding which was the old main, and the mainline now consisting of concrete ties.

Mid-April Update 2

As promised I wanted to keep up on my updates as track goes in the upper deck at Buhler. Made great progress yesterday and I wanted to share the just a few photos of the almost end result.

Great progress has been made in the past few days - the switches in the background and foreground on the passing siding and "Long Lead" are installed along with the flextrack on the "Long Lead with connects as the continuous run for the upper deck.

Cab view of the switches - the connector track between the mainline and passing siding switch still need to be connected and is currently held in place with the red thumb tacks. Concrete flex track on the main will be installed tonight getting rid of the "kinked" looked that you see in the photo.

Weekly Ops. photo showing off one of the many fleet workhorses. Stay tuned; next week for a post about the EMD SD40-2 fleet.



M-BAPH-22 (manifest train Bay City to Port Huron of 22nd) led by EMD SD40-2 4052 and EMD SD45-2 4571 holds the main at Grays Lake awaiting the U-MYPB-21 (unit train Marysville to Port Belle of 21st) to clear the east wye switch heading back for another aggregate loadout.



Mid-April Update

Quick update on the trackwork being completed at Buhler. 

Roadbed has been installed for the mainline, passing siding, and storage siding. Beyond Buhler in East Staging roadbed work has also been completed for the connection to staging and continuous run / Upper Huron North wye track. The last two nights have been spent sanding the cork to ensure smooth transitions and level surfaces.

The main will consist of concrete flex track and the passing / sidings will be standard Atlas code 83 flew track.

My goal will be to get the mainline this week - stay tuned more updates to follow.

Looking down at Buhler - back to front mainline, passing siding, industry spur.



Tracklevel view from east staging looking into the station of Buhler.



Viewing the workarea facing west - we can see right to left the main, siding, industry track / storage siding.



Early April Update

For just being four days into the month it sure has been busy.

Modeller Visit:
On Tuesday fellow modeller Dan Munson stopped by while in town and took a quick tour and provided some great feedback on areas that have been completed or are currently in progress.

Capital Work:
Wednesday evening proved to be very productive with roadbed going in at Grays Lake and West Grays for the mainline, passing siding, and storage siding. The finalization of industry location at West Grays has really taken shape and should prove to be a very awesome customer to switch and provide a great view block for trains going into and out of East Staging. Enjoy the photo updates - plan to have more this weekend as the flextrack and switches are secured in place.

Looking east at Grays Lake - (L to R) Mainline, passing siding, storage siding. The siding in lower left foreground is the "Grays Industrial Lead" which leads to AmCan Salt, PolyPak, and Suburban Propane. A highway overpass will bridge the tracks in the curve so seperate the scenes between Grays Lake and West Grays.

Viewing west from atop the Cooperative Elevators conveyor bridge we see the (R to L) Mainline, passing siding, storage siding. The foreground switches lead off into staging where the mainline connects to the three track East Staging and the passing siding connects to a continuous run that re-appears at Upper Huron.

Same area now viewed east with the industry and car loading areas visible. You can see the mainline and passing siding which becomes the "long lead" and continues on a continous run track. The break in the backdrop will be concealed with the elevator and conveyor bridge that will cross the tracks.

West Grays has one customer "Cooperative Elevator Co." but there will be plenty of work for the L-GLBU-XX to work daily as the facility will loadout covered hoppers of wheat, soybeans, and corn and load boxcars with dry beans. I plan to have an update later this weekend with the completion of trackwork in this area. GM

East Yard / Helix Entrance

Last night was spent working on the east  side of Bay Yard where the yard lead and mainline come together before heading up the helix.

This area has been in flux between having a double track at grade crossing with Lake State railway or not modeling the diamond and instead focus on the connection track that also is used for continuous running on the lower level.

Looking west toward Bay Yard we see the main split to the yard lead on the left and main to right.

Same spot now looking east where the main disappears into the helix. Soon foam will be built up on both sides to help transition the track out of sight with a tree line.

Looking west again with the yard lead on left and main on right. Visible in the upper right hand is the "Essexville connector" track which is used simulate pur connection northward to Essexville and the Lake State Railway. I had originally planned to put in the diamond where the main is currently disconnected and run it into the background on the helix as Simulated crossing, but would a railroad have a diamond on a yard lead? CP and BNSF have a diamond at La Crosse, WI which in this case is located right on the east yard lead almost with the same layout. Then again maybe the fact of Atlas Code 83 65 degree crossing shortage at local hobby shop is driving my decision..

Please feel free to comment.

GM

Boxcar Fleet

Over the next two weeks I am going to be focusing on each of the Michigan Interstate railcar fleets. The first post below details all boxcars with MCIS and MCBT reporting marks. As 70 ton Plate C cars attrit due to age, we look to replace the fleet through new build or secondhand purchase of Plate F 100 ton 50/60' cars.

Thrall 50' 70 ton Plate C 

4397 cubic feet cap.

All Door

                 Forest Products pool.

   Rebuilt in late 90s with updated doors.

ACF 50' 70 ton Plate C 

5080 cubic feet cap.

Single Door

                General service pool 

ACF 50' 100 ton Plate 

5095 cubic feet cap.

Single Door - Precision

                General Service Pool 

    Rebuilt to 100 ton standard in 2000s

PS / FMC 50' 70 Ton Plate C

5277-5344 cubic feet cap.

Single Door

               General Service Pool

These cars are heavily utilized in bagged dry bean and corrugated board service.

Gunderson 50' 100 ton Plate F

6301 cubic feet cap.

Single and double door 

           Paper / General Service Pool

Following the industry these cars are used heavily in rolled paper moves and as a backup for any general service move as they displace the older 70 ton fleet.

Gunderson 60' 100 ton Plate E

6652 cubic feet cap

Single door

                 Paper Products Pool

Dedicated to Fort Michilmackinaw Paper.

Berwick 60' 100 ton plate F

7321 cubic feet cap.

Double door

      Automotive / Forest Product Pool

Cars primarily in use to GM moving parts from sequencing warehouses in Michigan to North American Assembly plants. Cars  have ability to be utilized in forest product service as necessary moving plywood and MDF board.

Stay tuned later this week for the open top fleet.

GM

Family Time Inspiration

L

MCIS 7050 running lead on the M-GMGM-16 past the Bay City Station. I use this symbol when I run continuous mode on the lower deck for my son. It's great that at just under 16 months old he loves going into the train room and points to the layout wanting to see what dad has been up and of course watch a train operate. We both crouched down to get this perspective and figured it would be a great photo to share.