7
out to the world (the original reason for the prototype). With
the limited space, modeling of the Guadalupe interchange
consisted of a single track with no run-around or yard track.
So, one day I got the idea for Dynamic Track Allocation. Sounds
complicated, but it’s not. It is just a way of saying that what a
physical track models can change throughout a session. Let’s look
at a session using this method. It takes about an hour to run.
The engineer goes on duty in the center of the railroad – the
original model. He services the industries. The tracks are
allocated as shown in figure 7. The numbers after a location are
the quantity of cars that can be spotted there. If there is a set-
out for the M&S Pipe, it needs to be off-spot just now.
While servicing Santa Maria, there will, no doubt, be cars for
Roadamite and Guadalupe. These cars are placed on the front
track where labeled.
Next comes the run to Roadamite with empty tanks and
cars hauling supplies. This is modeled by moving the cars
being held on the “To Roadamite” section as far to the right
DCC Impulses Column - 7
7: The Santa Maria track allocation
From Mr. DCC’s workbench
Making your small layout run bigger
I’m enjoying some limited operations on the HO shelf layout
discussed in this month’s column. However, initially I couldn’t
do all that I wished to bring a session full circle. I’m going
introduce you to an operations tool that I have used to increase
the fun on my SMVRR shelf layout. This layout is oriented as if
you were looking south, with East to the left.
There are three geographically different areas that the Santa
Maria Valley Railroad served:
The Southern Pacific (SP) interchange and yard in Guada-
lupe on the west
Industries throughout the valley
The oil fields at Roadamite in the hills 12 miles to the east
I started operations by setting up my shelf layout to represent
the industries in Santa Maria. That didn’t have the realism of
handling tankers coming from Roadamite to the refinery and
MRH-Nov 2013
