The railroad yard: track laying, a daunting task.

[JCitron]

I'm out of Waterville now and haven't ventured past Rigby for about 6 months, so most of the recent information on the Portland sub is from other employees and bulletins, and the like. The other day, I was working with an engineer off the Rigby board who is not a railfan hater (one never admits to being a railfan as an employee) and we had a good discussion on the improvements as we trundled up the Hinckley branch. Speaking of which, it is weird to fly through Belgrade along the lake at 40 past all those camps (camp is local parlance for a summer home or cottage). [EDIT] I forgot to add that there was a newspaper photo of the B&ML yard in Belfast that made the yard look terrible (low angle telephoto shot), and this was used as the main photo for a article on the state of Maine railroads back in the 1980's.

It sounds like CSX is returning the old MEC back to what it was before Guilford took over. The old MEC just like the old B&M had 40 mph freight and 60 mph passenger lines. Then GTI took over and that was the end of it all. I saw on a video recently that CSX is also putting back the yard at Barbers, a small yard just outside Worcester located next to I-290. This was a pinch point, due to the tunnel under the medical center located there, that has gotten worse since the "Worcester Main" between Ayer and Worcester became a busy route again now that CSX has taken over.

I remember seeing that photo. The unfortunate part is this yard ended up looking like this thanks to a developer and NIMBY wanting the waterfront for condos and expensive tourist traps that I don't think ever materialized.

 

[TSwenson]

I finally got my cute little yard right and it looks nice. I planted a few shade trees inside the yard where there was some spare space too so as to give the railroad a more civilized, cultured, image. Railroads aren't all diesel smoke and iron, you know. Even American military installations have neatly manicured green lawns and hedges so outside people visiting don't get the impression that the service is nothing but blood and guts. There is no greasy, junky-looking stuff lying around my yard. It looks neat and fit for a military-style white glove inspection.

It is a very small yard in a rural layout setting. It has only five parallel tracks in the body for a total of only about 6,700 feet of combined rolling stock capacity. In other words, this little yard only holds up to about a mile and a quarter of broken-up train. The yard also has a couple of extra sidings to park several cabooses and the Big Boy engine. There is also a large round house in the corner of the yard that holds about 30 engines or so. My yard also has locomotive service facilities as diesel fuel pumps, diesel storage tanks, coaling tower, sanding tower and water tank.

Sounds like a nice squared away place and a good place to work (as long as management is reasonable), hopefully the employees take as much pride in their yard as management does.
In Trainz, as well as in regular model railroading, there does tend to be a surplus of power. This is just an observation, I'm just as guilty of it as anyone, but it does seem that we tend to like to accumulate power (locos/engines/motors) and, of course, then show them off. No mater whether you are a "the way things are/were" or "the way things should be/have been" type, I have a couple of observation about full time revenue railroads (not tourist/heritage/museum lines). First, there should be one more operable unit than what you need on the property (or area for big lines). Second, steam runs about three units per a single operating unit, as the other two will be somewhere in their maintenance cycles.

 

[blueodessey]

I'm out of Waterville now and haven't ventured past Rigby for about 6 months, so most of the recent information on the Portland sub is from other employees and bulletins, and the like. The other day, I was working with an engineer off the Rigby board who is not a railfan hater (one never admits to being a railfan as an employee) and we had a good discussion on the improvements as we trundled up the Hinckley branch. Speaking of which, it is weird to fly through Belgrade along the lake at 40 past all those camps (camp is local parlance for a summer home or cottage). [EDIT] I forgot to add that there was a newspaper photo of the B&ML yard in Belfast that made the yard look terrible (low angle telephoto shot), and this was used as the main photo for a article on the state of Maine railroads back in the 1980's.

Disclosure, I am a Rail Fan since 4 yrs old, and you are correct, be careful who you admit too.

Also worked with several Railroads for 2 decades, best education I ever got.