Sugar Beet Plant - Planning

One of the focal industries on "The Clair" is a sugar beet production plant at Upper Huron. This industry will be a heavy kitbash of Walthers buildings from 6 different kits. To ensure I measure twice cut once I patterned each main piece from the kits on foam board this allows me to figure out the best fit.

The entire industry will be built on mdf board and then installed.

Traffic

Inbound: coal 

Outbound: sugar, beet pulp, molasses

The L-BAUH "Sugar Turn" will focus on serving this customer and then returning to Bay Yard.

Friday Followings #1

In an effort to post weekly, Fridays posts will consist of operations photos from around the layout.

T-BABW-07 "Transfer MCIS Bay Yard - HESR Wenona Yard" led by MCIS 4008 (GP40-2) heads east over the Saginaw River swing bridge and will soon turn north on HESR rails for a quick run up to Wenona Yard to make its interchange. In a couple of hours the train will return with trailing MCIS 3816 (GP38-2) on point.

MCIS 4571 (SD45-2R) sits on "DSF 2" awaiting its next assignment at Bay Yard. The facility hosts a covered fuel, sand, and inspection pad. 

Station Diagrams

Just like the prototype it is important that operators on my layout be properly orientated to online industries and track layout.

To help this I have begun creating Station Diagrams that each operator will have in their layout packet but will also be mounted on the fascia.

Here is a draft of the Bay Yard Diagram. Never realized how complex the trackage was until I sat down and put it into words for the operators.

Diagram for Grays Lake which hosts a local based switcher due to the online traffic base.

Encouragement to build

So my son was attempting to encourage the construction "kitbash" my sugar beet plant, guess its time to start.

To help plan I have created foam board pieces of each piece so I will know exactly how to build the structure. More updates to follow.

Late 2013 Motive Power Deliveries

The back half of the 2013 year came complete with delivery of 4 modern locomotives to the MCIS roster.

New Builds
EMD SD70ACe (MTH Proto 3.0 Sound / DCC) numbers 7050 and 7051 (7052 / 7053 on order)
  These are the first two of a four unit order that is bringing 4300hp and distributed power capability to the fleet. Units are assigned to the linehaul pool and set up to run as a 8600hp pair in either a 2-0 or 1-1 configuration. With these 2 units online, 4 GP38-2s have been re-assigned into the local service pool.

MTH has done a fantastic job with the details, body / frame, lighting, and sound effects. Looking forward to the next 2 units arriving late 2014.
Detailed, painted, and decaling by Fred Fogelsinger of Bay City, Michigan

  MCIS 7050 and 7051 at Bay Yard after arriving off M-GRBA-31  
                                                                               "Manifest Grand Rapids (Kent Yard)- Bay City (Bay Yard) of 12/31 departure"


Rebuilds
Two EMD SD35s that had departed back early in 2013 for 710 ECO rebuilds at the Virginia Midland Shops also returned.

EMD SD22ECOs (Atlas SD35 core) numbers 2290 and 2291.
 These units are based at Bay Yard assigned to the general service pool and have wound up on various locals to Port Belle, Upper Huron, and Mount Pleasant. Operating as a 4300hp pair the have been upgraded with the most modern controls (AESS, roof mounted A/C for those muggy Michigan summers, 710-V8 primemover, and micro-processor).

On the model detail / sound side - Shannon added a GP60 stack, RV A/C, anti-climber, ditch lights, sinclair anteanae, M.U. hoses, snowplow, all-weather windows, horn behind exhaust, plated over the small middle rear fan,and Soundtraxx Tsunami EMD 710 to each engine.

Detailed, painted, decaled, and weathered by Shannon Crabtree. The following link will take you to his blog post about the units arriving and departing from their rebuild.
http://virginiamidlandrr.blogspot.com/2013/03/outside-rebuilds-for-virginia-midland.html
http://virginiamidlandrr.blogspot.com/2013/07/new-operating-session-partner.html

  MCIS 2290 and 2291 at Bay Yard awaiting on duty crew for L-BAGL-01
                                                                "Local - Bay Yard to Grays Lake Turn or also called The Bagel Job of 1/01 departure"

As you can see from this and other posts I work with two great modellers who I both recommend for detail, paint, decal, weathering work. Any questions on there contact info please leave me a comment.

Christmas 2013 Arrivals

So what did Santa bring this year..... 5 rail cars actually, caught all of them on December 27th, 2013 already in service at Upper Huron, MI heading east toward Port Huron, MI / Sarnia, ON on the M-BAPH-27

 Athearn Genesis 57' Mechanical Reefer (with Soundtraxx) in BNSF marks
   - What an awesome addition, the dimension that the reefer unit sound provides is a nice change compared to what we are use to hearing from our diesels. I look forward to seeing if any of the other manufacturers release the larger 64' Trincool reefers with sound.

These units in prototype service have been retired from the BNSF at current press so its safe to say a patch job may be in the works to make it a "Cold Train" NRDX car.

Atlas Type 10 and 20 Saddle 20,700 Gallon Non-Insulated Tank Cars in GATX marks
   - These cars will be in service moving raffinate by-product from the sugar beet production process.

Intermountain Railway Trinity 19,600 gallon Tank Car in TILX marks
   - Car will serve in molasses or corn syrup service depending on leasee.

Walthers Trinity 6351 4-Bay Covered Hopper
   - Car is leased by Saginaw Valley Sugar Cooperative for Sugar Beet Pulp Pellet service.

Saginaw River Bridge Part 2

I wanted to focus on getting one particular scene of the layout completed and considering its a layout design element or LDE I decided on the Saginaw River Bridge Scene.  

December to do tasks:
- Cut in foam terrain and weather bridge abutments
      (A.I.M. Products Abutments for Central Valley Bridge)
- Assembled the two kitbashed bridge 1/2s into one solid structure
      (Atlas Code 83 Truss bridge - 2 kits + Plastruct parts)
- Built the center bridge pedestal
      (PVC drain cover wrapped in Chooch Flexible Stone Wall)
- Painted Foam Core base that will be the "river" - Installed the backdrop - cutoff the sky
      (Sceniking - Eagle Lake Scene)

                                                   Roughing in the bridge and abutments

 

                                                               Riverbed masterpiece

To the left and below are progress photos as of this point - we threw in a few Timberline Scenery Trees to see how they would look to get an idea. As this bridge crossing models an active river that is transited by "Lakers" off the Great Lakes you can see the background river and shoreline in both views. 

January to-do tasks:
- Put up clear styrene along backdrop for resin dam
- Scenic around river (ground, trees, etc)
     (Transition to west staging)
- Add wood piers to river for bridge safety
-  Finish detailing and paint / weather bridge
- Scenic river (riverbank talus / rip-rap)
- Set and seal iver bed for resin pour
- Pour "Magic Water"
- Install bridge structure with rail track
    (Removable for maintenance of area)