June Operating Recap

An operating session was held June 9th. This was the first session since April, as the May session was canceled due to lack of previous proper planning.

A few issues were fixed from the previous sessions; the RIP cars were processed and the Dispatcher's panel was tweaked a bit to make it easier to understand. (If such a thing can be said about CTC)

The crew ended up being smaller than normal, but this gave everybody an opportunity to work hard and run multiple jobs.

Attending the session were:

Dick M: YM
Mike P: AYM
Doug B: Road Crew
Scott L: Road Crew
Rick: DS and other tasks as needed

One positive thing is that this showed it is possible to operate the railroad with a smaller crew. I think this foreshadows well for a weeknight session that would simulate the "Overnight" runs.

I did make a point to take as many pictures as possible during the session, so this actually might be one of the best documented session recently.

Q415 has dropped its cars and is continuing north from Acca to continue its run to Baltimore behind some foreign power.

Meet on the helix due to limited road crews being available

Looks like the engineer for F803 has the work well in hand today.

Apparently, the yard crew wasn't busy enough.

The yard crew sorts cars to keep the session moving.

The F803 job passes F805 on the main on the way back north to Acca. Both trains have 4 axle EMD power today; GP38-2 in the YN3 scheme holds the siding with F805 (closest to the camera) while a old school GP40 in Chessie colors rumbles by.

Very close action shot here!

Road crews meet in South Richmond as the Interchange jobs heads past F805 working the DoD plant.

The Interchange is very full! Sounds like a friendly Superintendent to Superintendent call is in order this evening!

The Autotrain is heading south over the helix.

Some throwback power today on the Autotrain, it seems. SCL E6 517 thumps north followed by Superliners and auto racks. The E6 is a Proto 2000 unit that could pull a house; the Kato F40PHs on the railroad don't have the grunt to make it up the helix with this consist. (4 Superliners and 2 articulated Auto-maxes [standins for the Amtrak specific models that have yet to be produced from what I can find, either in brass or plastic])

Upper Level Begins

Work has started on the upper level. The helix has made it to 60" above the floor, so this means that it is time to finalize the track plan and begin the benchwork.

The track plan is a fair amount of double track so that local trains will not cause the main line to be tied up during their work. The operational concept for this part of the railroad is CSX's RF&P Subdivision. In the era that I am modeling (1994), the RF&P has only been an integrated part of CSX for 3 years. There were not (and still isn't) many on line customers between Acca and Fredericksburg in this era. (Most of my research seems to indicate that the only industries were at Doswell and closed before the merger)

A look at the corner where the helix and upper level will join.

A longer shot looking toward that corner from closer to the shelf.

 This is another shot, from the YM's normal position at the middle of Acca.

The upper helix is only 1 track, so this will be a chokepoint for the dispatcher to work around. Operational design will take this into effect.

Here's where the helix subroadbed will meet the upper level shelf. In this picture, the shelf support to the far left has yet to be removed.