blueodessey
Well-known member
A blessed Sunday to all
Good Sunday, a blessed one to all,
Been busy preparing for a huge 75-100 long Trenching thru concrete to the main sewer, and why are we doing this, well, my old house has cast iron 1960 type Pipes, that after 56 yrs have basically rotten out. From constant use of a Family(s) over that period. Now we have to fill the old pipe in Cement partially, and plumb in ABS Black Pipe. Then after a couple of weeks, and hopefully a clear inspection report by the City, will be back to normal......We knew this day might come, so it wasn't a surprise, and luckily it didn't occur over the Holidays, that would have been hell to pay in more ways than one......
Alright now lets get too the fun stuff. Been working on the Desert and surrounding Quarry area, adding some more Tracks, and further connection points releveling some high Grade % points, do to my adding some stuff, and I didn't get the tracks set appropiate height relative to nearby Tracks.....It is easy to get out of alignment when you have several tracks in the area, and mountainous terrain.
And down in the Quarry, we found a nice Rock Quarry insert Asset, that allows us to do some underground mining operation with the existing track we have already in place, it took a few minutes to set it at the proper inset and height. And adjust(make a small hill to match the Rock texture of the Asset) allowint me to blend in texture points several times till I got the look I thought would be right.
In the small Rail Sort Yard, I added Engine and Car repair facilities including Sand and Diesel Refueling etc. So our little yard will help the crews for operational needs available when needed, including fixing Wheel and Journal problems etc, Light Engine repair, if it is more extensive, will drag the Bad Order Units out to City repair yards too......
Bottom line, our Crews won't get stuck in the desert, we'll have alternate Power in Reserve if a change out comes up, makes it easier on the Crew, easier on us, keep that Dwell and layover dead time down to acceptable minimums. Not everyday is perfect, but if you fail to plan, you planned to Fail, it is really that simple....Of course you have your bean counters and pencil pushers, to deal with, who in Theory, do not always see the human picture, or more realistic view of operational concepts......
So today will be another set of the latest set of pictures.
Our first picture is in Wire Form Mode. one of reasons for Wire Mode here, I use the Gridlines extensively as this whole area is already been textured out. So in Wire Mode, I use the grids to get my tracks lined up easily, or in Square proportional when possible, otherwise, I have to pull out the Rule and Tape Method, which I do a lot, keeps what I think I am seeing more accurate and symetric in view.
As you can see, I use an escape track or I think this might be called a Balloon Track, that allows a crew to drive in on the either side of the Yard, use the storage tracks to drop off transition cars, (cars to be resorted and shunted out to factories in this area) and they can get Loco Fuel and Sand here inside of the balloon Loop, Top right corner of the yard. It is pretty much finished less a few well placed Derelict Assets....
Ok, so this track that you see with loaded General Container Goods, it will continue on into the underground Mine here......I will need to add additional Spur Tracks on the right here, for Freight service, they be small, but it will work fine.
This Mining Pit is set at 40 feet below the Desert surface above, and it just works out from a lot of Trail and error.
Over in this side, Heavy load of Construction Equipment is going in for repairs along Talcum Plant goods production going to market. Grade here is about 2.5% to Max of 3.25% grade, since at the moment we are not working with heavy long Trains, so the steeper Grade works with my 2 dedication SW1500 in Tandem, and with Geep40, or heavier as backup.......Main thing in this plant area down here, Safety and proper Train Handling, with means, we go a break check before we come down the Grade with cars. If we lose our breaks and get a runaway, it will end up in a long mining Track, and we leave it at that.....I don't want to see that,, I probably will have a derail put in at the entrance to the mine, so the train will just run into a Rock Wall, I think much better, than puttin mine workers at risk.
Our second Train, is headed out now with Loads for other destinations. Its not too many cars, but they are carrying heavy Catapiller Grade Plates.
Since Ore Trains will be coming out from our new Mining operation, we have good track and bed in place too handle the weight.
Over on the other side of the mountain we have our Triple set of Alco's making another test run on the releveled Grade here, .50% or 1.00% less of Grade and it worked out like a dream come true, so happy now.
We came down the engineered Grade, and it is right on, now I can put that part of Route to completion mode, entering into the Desert area now. And the Crew is very happy with latest MOW work.
Here is lastest Track Map of Desert Quarry, mining and Sort yard operations......We have Cement, Brick, Distrobution Trucking, Power Plant, Bulk Gravel handling plant, lots of segrated Freight Service and support. I think I have what I needed and wanted for the area I have allocated.
I found some Iconic Rock Statues, Im not sure what you call these, but I put 3 of them in my Desert area, just in some spots, where I thought they would look Ok......In the front area we have lots of Gravel dug and piled up. With some spare Diesel Storage Tanks. This area is going to using a fair portion Fuel, coming into, and out of the Desert area, with up to 3% grades in areas.
Another Iconic Rock formation is positioned up on the Hill Side as our Train heads up and into Tunnel going to other points for Car Distrobution. This grade sets at 1.5-2.25% grades here....Originally, it was 3.5% in some spots, I was able to rengineer the Grades. For better performance, and hopefully less Diesel Fuel used too.? Time will tell.
A larger view of the River and Pond areas, And Creek wash area, I blended in 4 different Water Colors and Rock textures, I think I got the visual effect of Fast Running Water from the engineered Overflow areas. It is really nice to have some Water like this in the Desert area, and I think it gives a nice Contrast to Rocky, Gravely area I made for the Desert. I see I might need to reposition the Iconic Rock structure, doesn't quite look right at this angle, have to do some more fiddling with this big fella..
In the middle here, is our Bulk Materials handling Plant. It has 4-5 different types of materials.
I think this will do for now.....Have a good weekend all.......
Good Sunday, a blessed one to all,
Been busy preparing for a huge 75-100 long Trenching thru concrete to the main sewer, and why are we doing this, well, my old house has cast iron 1960 type Pipes, that after 56 yrs have basically rotten out. From constant use of a Family(s) over that period. Now we have to fill the old pipe in Cement partially, and plumb in ABS Black Pipe. Then after a couple of weeks, and hopefully a clear inspection report by the City, will be back to normal......We knew this day might come, so it wasn't a surprise, and luckily it didn't occur over the Holidays, that would have been hell to pay in more ways than one......
Alright now lets get too the fun stuff. Been working on the Desert and surrounding Quarry area, adding some more Tracks, and further connection points releveling some high Grade % points, do to my adding some stuff, and I didn't get the tracks set appropiate height relative to nearby Tracks.....It is easy to get out of alignment when you have several tracks in the area, and mountainous terrain.
And down in the Quarry, we found a nice Rock Quarry insert Asset, that allows us to do some underground mining operation with the existing track we have already in place, it took a few minutes to set it at the proper inset and height. And adjust(make a small hill to match the Rock texture of the Asset) allowint me to blend in texture points several times till I got the look I thought would be right.
In the small Rail Sort Yard, I added Engine and Car repair facilities including Sand and Diesel Refueling etc. So our little yard will help the crews for operational needs available when needed, including fixing Wheel and Journal problems etc, Light Engine repair, if it is more extensive, will drag the Bad Order Units out to City repair yards too......
Bottom line, our Crews won't get stuck in the desert, we'll have alternate Power in Reserve if a change out comes up, makes it easier on the Crew, easier on us, keep that Dwell and layover dead time down to acceptable minimums. Not everyday is perfect, but if you fail to plan, you planned to Fail, it is really that simple....Of course you have your bean counters and pencil pushers, to deal with, who in Theory, do not always see the human picture, or more realistic view of operational concepts......
So today will be another set of the latest set of pictures.
Our first picture is in Wire Form Mode. one of reasons for Wire Mode here, I use the Gridlines extensively as this whole area is already been textured out. So in Wire Mode, I use the grids to get my tracks lined up easily, or in Square proportional when possible, otherwise, I have to pull out the Rule and Tape Method, which I do a lot, keeps what I think I am seeing more accurate and symetric in view.
As you can see, I use an escape track or I think this might be called a Balloon Track, that allows a crew to drive in on the either side of the Yard, use the storage tracks to drop off transition cars, (cars to be resorted and shunted out to factories in this area) and they can get Loco Fuel and Sand here inside of the balloon Loop, Top right corner of the yard. It is pretty much finished less a few well placed Derelict Assets....
Ok, so this track that you see with loaded General Container Goods, it will continue on into the underground Mine here......I will need to add additional Spur Tracks on the right here, for Freight service, they be small, but it will work fine.
This Mining Pit is set at 40 feet below the Desert surface above, and it just works out from a lot of Trail and error.
Over in this side, Heavy load of Construction Equipment is going in for repairs along Talcum Plant goods production going to market. Grade here is about 2.5% to Max of 3.25% grade, since at the moment we are not working with heavy long Trains, so the steeper Grade works with my 2 dedication SW1500 in Tandem, and with Geep40, or heavier as backup.......Main thing in this plant area down here, Safety and proper Train Handling, with means, we go a break check before we come down the Grade with cars. If we lose our breaks and get a runaway, it will end up in a long mining Track, and we leave it at that.....I don't want to see that,, I probably will have a derail put in at the entrance to the mine, so the train will just run into a Rock Wall, I think much better, than puttin mine workers at risk.
Our second Train, is headed out now with Loads for other destinations. Its not too many cars, but they are carrying heavy Catapiller Grade Plates.
Since Ore Trains will be coming out from our new Mining operation, we have good track and bed in place too handle the weight.
Over on the other side of the mountain we have our Triple set of Alco's making another test run on the releveled Grade here, .50% or 1.00% less of Grade and it worked out like a dream come true, so happy now.
We came down the engineered Grade, and it is right on, now I can put that part of Route to completion mode, entering into the Desert area now. And the Crew is very happy with latest MOW work.
Here is lastest Track Map of Desert Quarry, mining and Sort yard operations......We have Cement, Brick, Distrobution Trucking, Power Plant, Bulk Gravel handling plant, lots of segrated Freight Service and support. I think I have what I needed and wanted for the area I have allocated.
I found some Iconic Rock Statues, Im not sure what you call these, but I put 3 of them in my Desert area, just in some spots, where I thought they would look Ok......In the front area we have lots of Gravel dug and piled up. With some spare Diesel Storage Tanks. This area is going to using a fair portion Fuel, coming into, and out of the Desert area, with up to 3% grades in areas.
Another Iconic Rock formation is positioned up on the Hill Side as our Train heads up and into Tunnel going to other points for Car Distrobution. This grade sets at 1.5-2.25% grades here....Originally, it was 3.5% in some spots, I was able to rengineer the Grades. For better performance, and hopefully less Diesel Fuel used too.? Time will tell.
A larger view of the River and Pond areas, And Creek wash area, I blended in 4 different Water Colors and Rock textures, I think I got the visual effect of Fast Running Water from the engineered Overflow areas. It is really nice to have some Water like this in the Desert area, and I think it gives a nice Contrast to Rocky, Gravely area I made for the Desert. I see I might need to reposition the Iconic Rock structure, doesn't quite look right at this angle, have to do some more fiddling with this big fella..
In the middle here, is our Bulk Materials handling Plant. It has 4-5 different types of materials.
I think this will do for now.....Have a good weekend all.......