Sequential ops part 2

 Hello again!

I'm continuing down my list, or sequence, of trains that I set up in my new staging yard to see how well it works for creating interesting model railroad operations. Once again I'll post several videos to convey the amount of time, work, and FUN involved in running these train movements!

Today, the next action in the sequence is for the yard switcher to prepare a cut of loaded hoppers to be set on the car float.  SD9 #6922 will manage the actual loading later but for now the hoppers need to be moved to a different track to free up working room in the yard.

More space is cleared at West Mill when the South Local serving Tri Mount Cement and Half Moon Wholesale Lumber Distributors backs out of West Mill and heads out of town (into the new staging yard.)

One train goes into staging and another is about to come out.   WiBi-4, a KP&W transfer run from Williams Yard for Binghamton will be dispatched from the new staging yard soon.  The train will stop at West Mill to pick up and set out interchange cars with the Penn Central.  In the video below, Switcher #8951 is seen pulling two cars for the WiBi to pick up.

The exchange of pick-ups and set-outs for the southbound WiBi-4 requires a number of moves, but its an enjoyable way to spend the time!

The exchange of cars completed, the switcher takes the KP&W hoppers into the yard while WiBi-4 continues on its way to Binghamton.

The next move sends cars to staging of a different sort. Space is freed up in the yard by setting the string of loaded coal hoppers from Mayfield on the car float for Con Ed in Port Owen.

The current status at West Mill has the car float ready to shove off for Port Owen....

....while a Yard Local is ready to depart with cars for nearby businesses: Sal's Salvage, Canton Box Co., and Empire Grain.

The short local powered by GP9 #7175 begins its work at Sal's Salvage.   The moves involved in making a pick-up/ set-out exchange at Sal's alone required several minutes of actual op time!

The Yard Local then works Canton Box Co. and Empire Grain.  These moves took several more minutes.  The video of the action edited for time is over four minutes long!  That exceeds the file size for uploading videos directly to the blog so I made an unlisted YouTube video.    If you have the patience for a segment that long, click on the link below: 

Yard Local Video

After the Yard Local returned there are still trains to dispatch; one is a Bloomberg Turn that includes the three covered hoppers just pulled from Empire Grain.  They will be forwarded to the Bloomberg Agway...

...along with other cars for the various industries in Bloomberg's Industrial Park.

The Bloomberg Turn doesn't affect the new staging yard as it disappears "off layout" on the West Mill side of the layout here....

The remaining cars at West Mill will make up a Kings Port Turn...

 ... that can serve businesses such as Reynolds Beverage Distributors, the Kings Port Team Track, Booms Ready Mix, Blue Ribbon Flour and Battaglia's Warehouse....

.....as well as the Gulf Facility and the KP&W interchange track.

All of this switching work can be completed without interfering with the new staging yard that is located to the right of the Gulf facility.

The Kings Port Turn will actually return to West Mill (perhaps with some tankers from Gulf, among other cars) so, like the Bloomberg Turn, it won't occupy a track in the staging yard when its run is completed.   This allows me to stage two additional trains that could either be run-throughs for my own enjoyment, an MOW train, or even a short passenger run.

That concludes my first experimental Sequential Ops.  I like the way its working and hope to develop more than one sequence of trains to stage and run.  All of the train action seen in the above videos included cars that were brought into West Mill Yard from staged trains, proving that the new yard is an effective source for car forwarding fun!

In order to simulate a customer driven operations scheme and to interject an element of randomness to keep things fresh, I'm thinking about resurrecting my old Car Movement cards and switchlists...

...that I created based on Penn Central prototypes I found a long time ago on the Penn Central Railroad Online website.   John and I used these in our original "virtual ops".  I could create a number of car movement cards specifically for my Sequential Ops and randomly draw some to create the manifests for my various staged trains.   The cards would determine destinations for the cars after they arrived at West Mill, which would direct me in assembling local trains, transfer runs, or cuts of cars to be picked up by passing trains like WV-2 or WiBi-4.

Thanks for following along with my thought process and the first Sequential Ops action!