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Up the Creek Column - 3
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4: The previous yard with yardmaster Norm (black
shirt) and train crew Joe B. (left) joking about some-
thing. The grain elevator in this photo is replaced by a
turntable in the new South Jackson yard.
One of my Walthers GN heavyweight passenger cars had
some trouble with a turnout in the new staging area.
These cars have historically been a bit stiff and need good
trackwork.
The Oakhill Turn crew reported the wye at Oakhill didn't
run as smoothly as it should. This is old track that should be
working fine – I'll need to take a serious look at it before the
next session.
Things that worked out great:
The vast (compared to previous staging) space in main stag-
ing (5 and 6) on the lower deck of the peninsula at the bot-
tom of the helix will greatly increase the layout's ability to
handle more trains. And the new staging area is only half
built! I don't want to think about the amount of flextrack
there...
5: The main staging area after the layout was prepared
for operation. This area currently represents Pocatello
and the east end of the railroad. The tracks in this area
are so long it only took two tracks to hold the trains
that often required four tracks in the previous Pocatello
(Siskiyou staging was pressed into use as Pocatello
before the peninsula was constructed). The longest
track here can hold more than 60 40' freight cars.
The turnout control panel for lower deck staging was intui-
tive enough that nobody had too much trouble figuring out
how to get trains in and out of the desired track.
The separate depot (passenger) track in South Jackson really
helped with multi-train meets. It also meant that two trains
could meet there while a passenger train was making a sta-
tion stop at the depot. Score one for the good guys!
The new turnouts in South Jackson performed flawlessly!
Amazingly enough after 1-1/2 years of construction,
even though I didn't vacuum the track, a single pass of my
Masonite slider car got the track clean enough that most
MRH-Mar 2013
