A regular Milk Train will now be part of the operations on the BS&T after receiving a couple milk station kits and 0-8-0 locomotive for Christmas. I’ve been working on the milk stations off and on and have them pretty much complete and in place on the layout.  There is a bit of scenery to be done around them.

The station in Kenville is a Tichy Train Group plastic kit.  It is a simple Milk Shed/Station but really adds to the area around the passenger station. The kit came with dozens of milk cans that I will be able to use as detail bits at all the milk stations.

The kit also came with a handcar shed and accessories that I placed to the left of the milk station.  It’s hard to get a clear photo through the trees and buildings.

The milk station is Derwin’s drop is almost across from the passenger station.  It is a Banta Model Works laser cut wood kit.  This kit was a real pleasure to build.  There was lots of strip wood – I didn’t have to worry about errors in cutting and wastage.  The walls were notched on both the sides and bottom to assure a good strong glue joint and squareness.

Because this structure is out in plain view I will be sure to add some extra scenery around it.

The power for this train is two Proto 2000 0-8-0 locomotives.  One of them has sound (Loksound).  I had hoped that the two of them together would have enough power to pull the 4 milk cars up the grade between Kenville and Derwin’s Drop.  Unfortunately they do not have quite enough weight to provide the required traction.  They start spinning about 1/2 way up the grade.  So the Kenville local switcher will provide helper service over The Ridge.

The milk train is heading through Stevenville on it’s evening return run from the dairy in Wholinthall.  The Transfer from Tidewater is waiting on the siding to get into Bayside.

The two locomotives rumble past G-Mac Transfer.  The crew will have to wait for the Transfer to clear the siding before they can back their train into the station to drop off some empty milk cans.

After dropping empties in Stevenville it’s off to Derwin’s drop.  No backing into milk stations  since it has drive up service!

The train will leave Tidewater at the start of the session and stop at the Freight Station in Chappellton, the milk stations in Kenville and Derwin’s Drop, and the passenger station in Stevenville to pick up full milk cans.  Then it will head to the dairy in Wholinthall.  Toward the end of the session the Milk train will come back and make the same stops dropping off empty milk cans and tie up in Tidewater.

Scott

We had another operating session on the BS&T last evening.  Derwin, Barry, Ewen, Chris, Ken, and Greg made up the crew.

Derwin chose to run the new Milk Train which also got him the CN Interchange and Transfer jobs.  He’s bringing the Transfer out of Bayside in this photo.  The previous guy in the yard had made a bit of a mess and Derwin had a lot of tidying up to do so he was a little late leaving.  Ewen says he’ll pay more attention to track diagrams next time.  I’ll point out something in another photo in this post that we will refer to as the “Incident”.

I’ll have more detail on the Milk Train and The Incident in a coming post.

Barry decided to try solo ops and chose to switch Kenville and Derwin’s Drop since it would be an easier task for a newbie. When I was describing the job to him I said “You’ll be really busy if both wayfreights arrive at the same time.  No need to worry because that rarely ever happens”.  HA!  It happened – twice in the same session!  So I gave him a hand in Derwin’s Drop when the wayfreights arrived.

I think he handled the task quite well.  At the end of the evening he said he had a great time!  He also said something about it’s nice to know that there’s something more to model railroading that building a layout and watching trains go around in circles.

Ewen thought he’d also try a less hectic job that local switching and took the West Bound Wayfreight. After break he became the East Bound #2 for the return to Bayside.  He’s just pulling into Kenville with that train.  I had to put the camera down shortly after this because the West Bound #2 arrived in Derwin’s Drop.

Chris, for some reason, jumped at the chance to switch in Stevenville. He’s watching Derwin bring out the Transfer in the first photo of this post.

Greg ran the East Bound Wayfreight  He is also running the second have of his job as East Bound #2.  We finished exchanging cars and he’s just leaving Derwin’s Drop.

Ken did the local switching in Chappellton, as usual.  He got off to a slow start due to a power glitch (more below) so was behind for most of the first half of the session.

I ran the Coal Peddler and helped out (I hope I was helping!) where needed.

I mentioned a power glitch in Chappellton – the whole industrial district lost power early in the session.  It took a while to track it down to one of the turnouts from the main line into the industrial area.  It decided that it was not going to route power to the whole industrial district.  I didn’t have time to install new feeders (I should have done that years ago – anticipating a turnout failure!) last evening so Ken had to keep the turnout set for the siding.  He also had to watch traffic coming into town in case a train ended up on the poorly maintained industrial tracks.  It made for a hectic evening for him.  Sorry Ken!

Ewen is backing up to connect to the rest of East Bound #2 as he prepares to head for Derwin’s Drop.  You can also see the tail end of the CN Interchange as it heads into Wholinthall.  Wait a minute!  This is the 50′s – why is there no caboose?  I’ll have more details about the “Incident” in a future post.  Stay tuned!

Between fixing a power issue and working in the car shops I’ve got some work to do before the next operating session in two weeks.  I’m going to try to reform my procrastinating ways and get things done in advance.  Hmmm… I hope.

Later!

Scott

We’d been planning a trip to Moncton to operate with the Codiac group there for a few weeks now.  Planning a trip during the winter is a risky business.  You never know when the weather will good for traveling.   Fortunately the weather cooperated and Derwin, Tom, Ewen, and I were able to make it to Moncton yesterday, as planned.

We left my place a little after 7:00 am.  I must say this in my own defense and before anyone else mentions it – I was distracted with conversation as we came to then end of my street and, by force of habit, I turned right as I do 95% of the time.  There were a few (3 to be exact) comments about “Where are you going!” at about the same time that I realized I should have turned left.  A quick turn-around got us on the right path.  Fortunately the rest of the day went quite a bit more smoothly.

Our first stop was at 9:00 at John S’s.  We had to have a pit stop at the Tim’s down the road from John’s so we were about 5 minutes late.  John, Milne, and Jim were waiting.  After a brief verbal overview of the layout for the benefit of the new guy we got underway.  I had worked in Riverview on previous visits and liked how it operated so I chose it as my job.  The work pace there is just enough to keep you busy, but not swamped.  Plus you’re not in the way of other operators so it is easier to get work done.  It wasn’t until near the end of the session that I managed to get a few pictures.

Tom has just finished his task and hands the throttle off to John.  Milne is just about finished working in Coverdale.  As you can see the layout is multilevel (3 if you count the lower staging fiddle yard).

It is always fun working with the Codiac Operating Group.  They like to joke around and have a good time while they “play with model trains”.  Jim, of course, was very quick to point out that he was not the latest recipient of the Golden Demerit Award and pointed out John’s achievement (which was prominently posted on his bulletin board).  John seemed proud, and Jim was relieved not to have received the award for once.

I apologize for the quality of this image.  I had to sneak up and take it quickly so he wouldn’t get up to avoid the embarrassment.

This was a common pose for Derwin on a previous trip to Moncton Please note photos 4 and 10 in that post.  Photo 3 of that post is a variation on the theme – I think it was the reason he took the job.

I was worried it would be a trend again this time.  My intention was to catch him in this position at each of the three layouts we visited, but oddly enough I was unable to.  I think he actually worked on the other two layouts!

The first 2 photos in that post show a very happy Jim presenting the first Honorary Golden Demerit Award to Derwin.  It is quite rare that Jim does not receive the award.

We left John’s for Dave W’s basement empire and got there, in his words, “early, but on time” and caught him in the middle of cleaning up.  John and Milne came with us and Doug C. and Ben O. joined us shortly after we started operating.

After a brief into to the layout and his operating procedures we got underway.  No one else volunteered for the job so I took the Riverview Yard job.  The location had the same name as John’s but the level of effort was nowhere near the same!  It’s really a task for two people.  I’ve worked there before and the experience did help but unfortunately not enough.  I struggled through, but I’m afraid I left things in a bit of a mess.  Sorry Dave!

Derwin, as usual asked which job was the easiest.  I don’t think he got his wish.  I could not catch him sitting down.  Ewen worked with Jim in West Riverview and Tom helped John in Baltimore.  Doug and Milne ran mainline trains to keep traffic flowing.  It was very enjoyable and the time flew by.  It was lunch time before we knew it.

After lunch we went to Chuck’s (Don’s HO) to shop, spend money, and chat.  We were able to leave on time to stay on schedule and arrived at Doug C’s right on time.  It was the first time we operated on Doug’s layout.  It was a real treat!  Thanks Doug!

Neither John nor Milne could make it to Doug’s so there was just the four of us plus Doug, Dave, and Jim.  Murray joined us not long after we started operating.

I picked another yard job – Moncton, but Dave offered to help out. I’m not sure of the location names where Tom, Ewen, and Derwin worked, but they were as busy as I was.  Again, Derwin did not have time to sit down during the op session.

Doug’s layout is a fairly large multi-level layout.  There is quite a bit of separation between the levels making the upper level high.  Ewen worked a yard on the upper level which was quite funny since it was almost above his eye level.  Doug has lots of step stools and platforms around so Ewen found the tallest one to stand on.

Tom even felt more comfortable using a stool.

Derwin worked a job on the lower level.  He was quiet and kept out of trouble so he must have been working hard.  (highly unusual!)

Before I show the next photo I must show this one to demonstrate that Jim actually did work during the session.  I’m not sure what he’s doing but I’m sure it’s important.

Murray is keeping an eye on his train as it leaves the Moncton Yard.

I couldn’t catch Derwin sitting, but I caught Jim having fun twirling the throttle cord.  HA!

It was a long day but well worth getting up early on a Saturday and driving to Moncton.  The Codiac guys are always great hosts and really do like to have fun.

Thanks guys!

Scott