Model Railroading > Busy afternoon at Caliente

Sunday, April 11, 2021, had some good meets on the La Mesa Model RR Club's layout in the San Diego Model Railroad Museum. Here are some shots of my train waiting at Caliente for another westbound freight. Both freights would wait there for a priority passenger train to pass.

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Nice SP scenes!

Hello, CE921,

Photo 1 shows a DPU.  Neat!  That's the first one I've seen on a model railroad.

How well does distributed power work on model railroads?  Is the horse power synchronized between the units (as I assume it is on the prototype)?  Can the DPU be trusted to not push too hard and derail the (relatively light) cars in front of it?

Thanks, Jack 

In my few operating sessions at La Mesa the helpers are "manned" as we are in the late steam era.  The helper engineers have their own controller and keep an eye on the null point in the slack ahead of their engine.  I have not seen a jackknife or stringline derailment there due to helper operation.  
Of course they have wonderfully broad radius curves.

This particular train was set in the late seventies. At that time SP used manned helper locomotives. I had set the train up with four locomotives on the head end, but ran into train handling problems as the train proceeded up the grades. So, I moved this particular engine to operate as a mid-train helper while still part of the locomotive consist. I watched the couplers ahead of it to make sure it wasn't going to cause cars ahead to be pushed up and off the rails. 

CE921 Wrote:

> Here are some shots of my train waiting at Caliente for another westbound freight.

Why would your westbound freight wait at Caliente for another westbound freight to run around it?  In the real world, the speed of freights descending the Tehachapi grade probably doesn't vary that much.

Note to Caliente modelers: Regarding the first photo, the actual water tank depicted by La Mesa at that location in Caliente sat on round, cast-iron legs, not on steel legs as has been modeled.
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/13/21 23:24 by johnsweetser.

johnsweetser Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> CE921 Wrote:
>
> > Here are some shots of my train waiting at
> Caliente for another westbound freight.
>
> Why would your westbound freight wait at Caliente
> for another westbound freight to run around it? 
> In the real world, the speed of freights
> descending the Tehachapi grade probably doesn't
> vary that much.
>
> Note to Caliente modelers: Regarding the first
> photo, the actual water tank depicted by La Mesa
> at that location in Caliente sat on round,
> cast-iron legs, not on steel legs as has been
> modeled.

Ever thought the crew might be on short time and they want him in BK before dying?
>  

> Ever thought the crew might be on short time and they want him in BK before dying?

No, I'll admit I never thought of that.

johnsweetser Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> CE921 Wrote:
>
> > Here are some shots of my train waiting at
> Caliente for another westbound freight.
>
> Why would your westbound freight wait at Caliente
> for another westbound freight to run around it? 
> In the real world, the speed of freights
> descending the Tehachapi grade probably doesn't
> vary that much.
>


La Mesa may not be operating yet along the entire route from Bakersfield to Mojave, due to Covid-19 restrictions on staff size.  Instead, they may be using the turnaround loops at West Ilmon and Cable, as is typically done during the majority of "regular" operations for the public, when TT&TO and CTC controls are replaced by "See and Be Seen".  In those cases, westbound trains typically hold at Caliente until they are certain that there is no other train traveling in either direction between Caliente and the West Ilmon turnaround.

I am guessing here that the passenger train is westbound behind the westbound freight.  So both freights will hold at Caliente for the varnish to proceed westward from Caliente to West Ilmon and return to Caliente.  The now eastbound passenger train will then proceed up the hill ahead of the eastbound freight holding at Caliente, and the westbound freight will then proceed to the turnaround loop at West Ilmon.  Otherwise, that westbound passenger train might have to hold for a LOOONG time at Caliente waiting for the westbound freight ahead of it to travel to the West Ilmon loop and back to Caliente.

Hakk
>  



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/14/21 14:58 by chakk.