Model Railroading > CSX/NS prototypical Ops for Single Main

My layout is going to be a single main with a siding a small yard and a industrial town. I would like info on how CSX or NS would handle this so i can build a layout plan. Thanks. ~IC1026 (Steve). P.S. Also Priority for different types of trains.

Well, this could be most any line in the eastern half of the country. To give better answers, we'll probably need to know more about the region/era/scale/size you have to work with to help you with what you're looking to model. From there, people can give you a better idea of some prototype options to go after.

- Jeff Carlson

For NS, hold thought freight on the main and run multiple trains though the siding. Would be 100% prototypical. :)

Eng.Shadetree

shadetree Wrote:
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> For NS, hold thought freight on the main and run
> multiple trains though the siding. Would be 100%
> prototypical. :)
>
> Eng.Shadetree


Better yet, place an inbound Oil train on track 2, have an outbound empty oil train working its up the secondary so it can join the main and crossover to track 1 and have an empty ethanol right behind it WITH a fresh crew. And why stop there? Throw in a loaded CSX oil train sitting on track 1 just east of where the secondary connects to the main, waiting to crossover to track 2 just to get back onto home rails between the secondary and the loaded inbound oil train. Oh, can't forget to add one more intriguing layer to this, make sure the crew's hours of service for the inbound and outbound oil trains are less than half an hour from dying on the law and that the loaded oil is an hour from its previous crew change point and the empty is only 20 mins out of the refinery (and don't forget that the inbound still has to disassemble their train once it gets to the refinery). Wait a sec....don't forget about that fairly high priority intermodal less than 10 miles behind the loaded oil train bearing down on. Oh and did I mention that a bridge on the secondary just got hit by an over-sized truck, two miles east of the junction?

Sounds like a fantasy? Saw this happen at least twice this past month on the line I railfan. ...now that would be prototypical operations that include BOTH CSX and NS.

You could even throw in Amtrak and send out your choice of already departed extremely late train with a crew running on only a handful of minutes left of service and instruct them to tie it down on the main and wait for a re-crew which is only a few hours away, that is if Renzenberger can find the spot that the dispatcher told Amtrak to tie it down at. So allow another 2-3 hours for the van to get lost, and re-find it's direction, only to realize it went 80 miles in the wrong direction. Imagine the hours (literally) of endless fun watching trains pile up and wait! :^)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/23/15 18:31 by rwa14.

Beyond the snarkiness.... Typically, intermodal trains get priority over general-freight trains, which get priority over coal and other unit trains, but some unit trains can be 'hot' depending on what they're hauling -- such as the oil trains when they were first running, backups at the East Coast unloading terminals were rare, and short tank-car supply meant cycle times were critical. While any train can be 'hot' if its crew is about to expire, that's a fairly rare event on a model railroad....

The main thing to avoid if you're trying to be faithful to the prototype is unnecessarily complicated trackwork. Some modelers can't resist setting up switching "puzzles," and sometimes such trackwork is accurate because of confined spaces, but for the most part, keep it simple -- and if you do have a need for tricky track, be sure you have a run-around track nearby that can hold a decent-sized train.

Thanks guys i appreciate it!

toledopatch Wrote:
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> Beyond the snarkiness.... Typically, intermodal
> trains get priority.

Wasn't trying to be snarky rather I actually don't mind the puzzle 1 or 2 crews getting close to the hours of service creates. The puzzle it creates sometimes makes a single track line more fun where you have to use some creative thinking to run trains past each other by tying something done on the main. While it would be pretty difficult to run afoul of the 12 hour limit on a model railroad, the difficulty that can create on a model railroad can actually add some fun to it. I've been to operating sessions with 20-25 car trains and the one thing I missed was the "chaos" of the railroad. Things went too smoothly! :)

Posted from Android

rwa14 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> toledopatch Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Beyond the snarkiness.... Typically, intermodal
> > trains get priority.
>
> Wasn't trying to be snarky rather I actually don't
> mind the puzzle 1 or 2 crews getting close to the
> hours of service creates. The puzzle it creates
> sometimes makes a single track line more fun where
> you have to use some creative thinking to run
> trains past each other by tying something done on
> the main. While it would be pretty difficult to
> run afoul of the 12 hour limit on a model
> railroad, the difficulty that can create on a
> model railroad can actually add some fun to it.
> I've been to operating sessions with 20-25 car
> trains and the one thing I missed was the "chaos"
> of the railroad. Things went too smoothly! :)
>

I don't consider all snarkiness to be a bad thing, either! ;)

I occasionally dispatch a fairly realistic model railroad (complete with CTC panel), and I'm just glad nobody has come up with an operating hi-rail truck yet - it's hectic enough without them....

A scale operating hi-railer would be very welcome! Especially those who operate in the winter, ie: the Chicago Line and their "cold patrols". Imagine the disaster of a two track main getting shut down to one track for the "cold patrol". The possibilities are endless, but for me that's what I believe is fun as well, the unpredictable. Like I said in the previous post, running 20-25 car trains on a point-to-point layout without a major hitch took just about 20-25 minutes maybe a little more when you added some local set-offs or pickups, but busting a Kadee coupler enroute really made things interesting. I remember another time a auto switch controlled by dispatch burnt out, so it backed things up quite a bit while the "track dept/dispatcher" fixed the problem!

Posted from Android

Bachmann actually makes a plausible DCC-controlled hirail truck with a crane (like a Prentice truck). I have one, and we do break it out occasionally.

rwa14 Wrote:
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> A scale operating hi-railer would be very welcome!
> Especially those who operate in the winter, ie:
> the Chicago Line and their "cold patrols". Imagine
> the disaster of a two track main getting shut down
> to one track for the "cold patrol". The
> possibilities are endless, but for me that's what
> I believe is fun as well, the unpredictable. Like
> I said in the previous post, running 20-25 car
> trains on a point-to-point layout without a major
> hitch took just about 20-25 minutes maybe a little
> more when you added some local set-offs or
> pickups, but busting a Kadee coupler enroute
> really made things interesting. I remember another
> time a auto switch controlled by dispatch burnt
> out, so it backd

So 80 trains on 1 mainline I see alot of trouble brewing....Amtrak's dying on the main.