Sequential Ops with the New Layout Configuration

 Hello!

If you read my previous post you know that I made a significant alteration to my layout at the end of last year.  What was once a continuous long dogbone track plan is now an "out and back " plan ending at a decent sized staging yard.  (Seen below) I still need to color match the new fascia!

The previous post described my reasons for undertaking this renovation after running the layout in its previous form for over 25 years, so today I'll focus instead on how the new configuration is working for operations.

My original thought was to provide staging for several run-through trains passing by West Mill Yard while I worked the yard itself.  After further developing the new track plan it occurred to me that I can arrange many enjoyable ops such as transfer runs that will set out and pick up cars at West Mill, including exchanges of interchange traffic between the Penn Central and my freelanced Kings Port & Western R.R.   Cars that are set out at West Mill can be assembled into local trains like the Kings Port Turn that can perform actual switching, while the switching for other runs like the Bloomberg Turn going up the Catskills will be implied as they head "off layout" (i.e. into staging)

John and I have recently been discussing "Sequential Ops" in which a list of trains is created, staged in advance, and run in an organized fashion. John  is taking a more structured approach to this than I am right now but I'm pondering which elements to include in my own operations.  First, I wanted to create a sequence of trains and see how it works out on the new layout track plan.

So, without further ado, I'll present a number of posts following a sequence of trains facilitated by the news staging yard and the out-and-back plan.  The posts will mostly consist of videos of the action edited for time, but I believe they will still provide a sense of how much time, work, and most importantly, FUN it is to run these trains!

My sequence of train action begins with the West Mill Yard crew sorting cars that arrived overnight into blocks for various trains.  The "overnight cars" were randomly selected for today but I can imagine developing some sort of traffic generator that would determine which cars to place in the yard at the start of the sequential ops.

 WV-2 is the first train that will come out of the staging yard.  West Mill sets out the block for WV-2 for easy pick up:

 The switcher's next job is assembling a Southbound Local

After assembling the Southbound Local its time to off-load the car float.   The tugboat Robert R. brought the float in from Port Owen with eight empty coal hoppers from the Con Ed plant.

WV-2 leaves the new staging yard and arrives to make pick-ups and set-outs at West Mill:

The initial pick up/ set outs exchange is made:

WV-2 finishes the exchange and leaves for Selkirk with the pick ups from West Mill

After WV-2 leaves town, yard switcher #8951 pulls the cars the train left behind, takes them into the yard, and couples three of them to coal hoppers for the next KP&W transfer to Mayfield Yard.

The second train to leave the staging yard, a KP&W Transfer pooled-powered by RS3# #566 and an LV Geep heads out from another track that lines it up to arrive at the south end of West Mill.  

One of my favorite ops on the layout is the KP&W exchange of coal hopper loads and empties at West Mill.

The Transfer's consist does a runaround move to lead the string of cars back to Mayfield.  This requires a few moves.

The Mayfield Transfer leaves West Mill and returns to staging.

It took me a very enjoyable hour to complete all of the railroad action shown in today's videos.   Since the WV-2 and the Mayfield Transfer were already set up in the staging prior to the ops session I didn't need to spend anytime placing trains on the layout like I would have needed to do before redesigning the track plan.

The best part is that there are more trains in staging prepared for additional ops!   The seven track staging yard lets me run as many as six trains, simply picking up where I left off until the sequence of trains has been run.

This initial experiment seemed to work out pretty well.  I did learn that I need to be careful about how many cars I set in West Mill Yard to get things started to avoid congestion!   Around 20 cars seemed to be about right. 

I plan to continue posting about this first Sequential Ops in a day or two so check back to see what happens next!