Real Estate Market Heats up in Cumberland...

That title ought to drive the search engines a little nuts...
I'm starting to get excited about building out the Cumberland section of the layout.  Urban scenery presents a fair amount of challenges, and for me one of those is getting some unique flavor out of the buildings.  Design Preservation Models and Walthers Cornerstone are good models to start with, but frankly, I get weary of seeing the same buildings on everyone's layouts...  You can personalize them a little with some paint and other details, but the variety has become a little limited, especially if you're planning a reasonably large urban area.


Fortunately, over the years, I've never thrown anything away.  I've done a lot of kitbashing, so there's gobs of leftovers, everything from whole wall sections to sprues of windows and doors.  I also keep a good stock of strip and sheet styrene, so in a pinch, I can fabricate whatever I might need.
So I dove head first into the parts bin... and came up with this:

I should first explain that I had some help from my friend Paul Hutter, who lives in Cumberland, and who went on a mission to get some pictures of buildings along Baltimore Street, the old main drag through town.  He provided some outstanding examples, several of which are far beyond my modeling capabilities...  But with a little smoke and mirrors, and plenty of stuff accumulated over decades of model railroading, I don't think I'll have a problem breaking up the monotony of the usual DPM parade...

Downtown Cumberland has some magnificent examples of late 19th/early 20th century architecture, and many of the main street buildings are very well preserved.   Here's the pair I'm simulating...

Baltimore Street, Cumberland, Maryland.  Photo by Paul Hutter

I love the faux stonework on the one on the right, and the bold arch of the hobby store building is awesome.  I'll be trying to get the flavors closer as I paint and further detail the buildings, but obviously, I'm not trying to build inch for inch replicas.  While DPM structures are pretty versatile, they're also quite "vanilla".  While they offer several footprints, and a some halfway decent larger buildings, the window patterns, the details and the overall styles of the models are pretty similar.   Like today, architects of that era often pulled their details from a catalog, so in a sense, this approach can be prototypical.  But in larger towns that found themselves in a "boom" of prosperity, you'd be more likely to find the kind of bold architectural statements such as the ones shown above.

Anyway, I scavenged parts for a couple of kits, rounded up some DPM modulars for the side walls, and otherwise filled in textures and shapes to get close to the flavors shown in Paul's shot.

I'm still working on them both, I'll come back and drop in a more finished view when they're ready.

Bear in mind that my main street will be about 3' long, so there will be quite a clutter of buildings once it's done.  My goal is to do a couple key buildings that capture the essence of Cumberland's streetscape, then use the usual suspects to fill in the blanks.

I'm giving most of the attention to the facades, because as you can see, the buildings are pretty much cheek by jowel.  These will back up to the curved skyboard that encloses the Thomas sub helix, and will be placed closer to the rear of the scene.  I like their three story elevations, and the arched windows.

To make the facades, I started with half of an old Heljan engine house to get the big single arch.  I clipped out the pockets designed for the door "hinges" and simply shortened the opening as such.  I used the doors to build up the arched windows, adding some strip styrene to fill in the gaps.  A couple of Gloor Craft dual windows sufficed for the second floor.  The first floor is all scratched out of strip styrene, with a couple of door and window frame castings to finish it out.  I used DPM Modular walls cut in half to make the side walls, and blank sheet styrene to make the unseen rear of the building.

I just started the second building this evening, but I'll be adding the storefront next chance I get.    You may recognize the twin arch windows as coming from the back wall panel of the Walther's Union City Roundhouse.  (Recall that I accumulated about a half dozen of these kits to build the bones of my 22 stall roundhouse at Ridgeley, so odds are, you'll be seeing these windows again!)

There are several "signature" buildings on the street that I want to include, which will help viewers familiar with Cumberland to feel at home.  This big bank building, for instance:

Photo by Paul Hutter

Having the first floor squared and the remaining stories rounded on the corner make this immediately stand out.  It will be fun to experiment with different materials to see if I can get that effect to work in N scale.

Another would be Peskin's, which I assume was a department store.  The variety of window styles, and the big Art Deco sign board give evidence of both the building's original vintage as well as one of its commercial revivals.

Photo by Paul Hutter

The more modern buildings to the left and right will add more authenticity to the scene.  Afterall, a downtown isn't a static thing.  There are always buildings being built, torn down or remodeled as the fortunes of the neighborhood ebb and flow.  My 1970 era could be considered the end of the mid century boom for Cumberland, but before the hard times that followed the closure of several major employers later in the decade.

I'm looking forward to working with the Townbuilder Series from NZT Products and Stonebridge Models.  It will be nice if they move beyond the plain vanilla styles offered by DPM and Walthers, and provide us with some more interesting downtown buildings for our towns.  Afterall, in our smaller scale, we have room for a wider variety of buildings.


That is all for now...
Lee

Rome Wasn't Built in a Day

I was in MB Klein's old store in Gay Street, Baltimore when I heard a dad say that to his son.  Obviously the boy had eyes bigger than his dad's wallet, and Dad wanted to emphasize to the boy that model railroading is not a hobby for people seeking instant gratification.

As I look back through the enormous volume of photos and other bleatings I've posted over the years, I can't help but notice how many projects have gone unfinished.  My adult A.D.D. certainly has something to do with it, but it's safe to say that there are projects that were aborted due to bad planning, or a change in direction of my thinking, or the discovery of the proverbial "better mouse trap."  Having a lengthy to-do list has never bothered me. After all, I've been working on my 100+ year old house at the same time I've been building my layout, and my wife will be the first to tell you that I'm forever adding to THAT list.

So, while the yard on the layout remains to be ballasted, several main line turnouts remain to be wired, and the base scenery on some sections is still a dotted line, I've undertaken the design, layout and construction of the major city on the WM Western Lines: Cumberland, Maryland.

The focal point of the scene will be the grand WM station there, constructed in 1913, and still in service as the terminal of the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad.

Since I'm modeling 1970, the train sheds won't be there, and the building will have it's well-worn and threadbare appearance from that era.  The last passenger train passed its doors in 1956 or so, but the building carried on as a freight agent's office and as home to the CTC dispatcher for the Connellsville sub.  This is how it looked in 1989 before being refurbished for the tourist trains.

I started building a model of the station based on plans published in Model Railroader in the mid '90s, but got hung up on the windows.  The model is currently in the capable hands of David K. Smith, of NZT Products, being studied to find the best solution.  In addition to the MR drawings, I have a copy of the original blueprints of the building, so we're in the process of reconciling the original designs to the "as built" arrangements.

A key element of the scene will be the concrete channel in front of the station that was constructed in the 1950's to help control flooding along Wills Creek.  I've started framing up that area, including the interesting steel beam bridge that crosses the channel just west of the station.

You can see the station location, with the stand-in building, the creek channel in front, and the buildings of Baltimore Street, the main drag through town.  The industrial site on the left side of the creek isn't prototypical, there's a neighborhood there, but I wanted to add some more switching opportunities, so that will be the PPG Plate Glass plant, worked through a switch back located on top of the flood wall.  The other industrial tracks behind the station are also foobed in for my era, but there is a newspaper plant back there, a freight house and a couple of other players to be named later to provide more traffic for the railroad.  I'll also be adding the Queen City Brewery farther back and on the same side of the creek as the station.  I'll have to build that last, since I'm going to need to have access to the hole back there to build the rest of the town.

To try to capture the essence of the downtown, I had a friend who lives in Cumberland, Paul Hutter, take some photos of a few key buildings in town.  I'm going to try to model a couple of the more prominent ones then sprinkle in the usual Heljan and DPM kits around them to fill in the blanks.  The plan is to build a supporting frame, then construct the city block by block in a way that it can be dropped into place fully detailed, lit and ready to just plug in.

With budgets remaining tight, I don't expect this section to get finished any time soon, but alas, Neither Rome, nor Cumberland, were built in a day...

Quick Progress Report

Sorry I've been remiss in keeping this updated.  Fact is, I haven't had much time in the train room.  I'm still busy with fixing up other parts of the house, plus work, plus this, that and the other...

Anyway, I'm taking this week off to burn off some vacation days, and since the wife is back to work (FINALLY) I have some unsupervised play time.  Here's what we've been up to lately...


Put in some time on the layout today, mostly on adding fascia around the front side across the windows.

If you disregard all the rubbish below that narrow green band of masonite, you can see the progress.  The most interesting (read Pain the Arse) part of the project was figuring how to make the helix look a little better, yet still keep it accessible for emergencies.

This is what I came up with.

The portal on the left is the Connellsville sub going into the top of the helix.  I cut the portal out of sanded plywood and added some trim pieces.  The whole section from left to right was supposed to be one solid piece of plywood, but somewhere between the attic and the garage, I lost a half an inch, so I opted to just cut it in two and use some foam to fill the gap.

I'm going to make a "half dome of foam" to stick some scenery there next to the upper helix track, which is now, by the way, ballasted.  If nothing else, I can use this as a photo backdrop for rolling stock shots.

The primary access for the helix remains up the middle... the blue tub you see there slides out, leaving plenty of room for even us full-figured railroaders.  And I'm going to have to go under there tomorrow, because I've got three more bike cable/click pen installations to do to get the A/D tracks fully functional.

So at this point, I've got about 6' of fascia to do around the Cumberland area, and another 4 or 5' on the front edge of the yard.  Inch by inch, it's getting done!

How fleeting the summer has been...

Here we are just past Labor Day, and the only thing I can report is that I don't have much to report!  Since our camping trip back in July, I've been busy tending to lots of other business, some of it pleasant, some of it not so much.

For those of you living on the east coast, you know that in a one week period we had a little earthquake followed by a not so little hurricane, followed by a three day gulley washer thanks to a tropical storm named after me.

You'll be pleased to know that the railroad survived all of these catastrophes more or less unscathed, although I did have to go up and right some of the rolling stock that tipped over in the quake.

This was the worst of it.  There were a couple of other cars knocked over in the yard, but nothing major down in staging, which I was worried about.  At any given moment there's upwards of 150 cars stowed below decks, and I had visions of a major catastrophe down there.

After the shaker, Hurricane Irene came through, and the major effect there was the power going out for about 18 hours, which meant another weekend without getting some decoders done that I owe people...  No juice, no soldering!  Tropical Storm Lee had more impact on the west side of the Chesapeake and on up into Pennsylvania and New England, so other than a couple of stray showers, that left us alone.

A few weeks earlier, I finally completed a project that had been put off for quite a long time, a wagontop B&O caboose for the Brunswick Railroad Museum in Brunswick, Maryland.  They have a little N scale layout in the front window of their gift shop, and Tom Simpson, one of their directors as well as an old high school bud, asked me to whip something up for them.  I'm going to see if I can help build a more B&O appropriate layout for the front window.  The shot below was taken on my layout before I shipped it up to Tom to ride around on the Unitrak loop they've got there.

One other thing that I did get done was some work on a few commercial vehicles and pick up trucks thanks to a generous gift from one of my crew members.  He had stockpiled a bunch of cast pewter kits in anticipation of a layout that now likely won't be built, so he sent them along to me.  So I started tinkering.

There's more, but they're in varying stages of completion.  There's a whole gang of Chevy cabs that I thought would look good on one of the open auto racks, but that will strictly be for photos.  The cast pewter models add way too much weight to the car to be practical for running.  It might work on an N track run that's relatively flat, but the grades on the WM Western Lines would definitely cause the experiment to end badly.

That's all the news that's fit to print for now.  With the weather cooling down and outside projects tailing off, I'm hoping to spend some more time in the train room finishing a bit more of the many projects that I've started.  But I'm not in a big hurry.  I understand that if you finish everything on your "to do" list, you die!

Spending some time with an old friend

To provide a foundation for this post, I should explain that in 1959, my dad bought a brand new Plymouth Belvedere right off the showroom floor.  He had been home from the army since about 1954, and had a good job as a freight clerk for the Baltimore and Ohio.  Since he was as yet unmarried, and still living in his parents' house on Highwood Drive in north Baltimore, he could afford to splurge a little.  I should note that the car was Fire Engine Red, with a white convertible top.

When dad was in the Army, he was stationed in what was then known as West Germany and he reached the rank of Corporal as an MP "protecting the beer halls for democracy" as he used to joke.  It was a small joke he would cast out with a twinge of melancholy, as this was during the Korean War, and many of his friends from high school and the neighborhood were drafted and sent to more dangerous places, some of whom never returned.

While stationed overseas, Dad became fast friends with John Simons, of Cleveland, Ohio.  After his service in the Army, John went on to attend seminary and become ordained as an Episcopal priest.  While he became an upright man of the cloth, he was also a gregarious man of great humor.   Long story short, after Dad left the service, he remained in touch with the Rt. Rev.  It wasn't long after the big Plymouth was in the driveway on Highwood that Dad got the call from his old friend to invite him to his parish in Parma to serve as Godfather to his new son.  (John and his wife Nancy remained close to my parents, although both John and my dad have passed.)

My Dad

In so extending this invitation, the reverend set in motion a chain of events that led to today's adventure.  You see, my mom, Barbara, was John's parish secretary.  Imagine if you will, being a young woman of 26, and looking out your office window to see a long, red automobile sweep into the drive, tail-fins glistening.  With the top down, you see a splendid young man with wavy blond hair step out, and he politely greets you with a pleasant smile, sparkling blue eyes, and a strange accent that, at least in northern Ohio, might as well have been from South Carolina.  (Dad didn't really have an accent, at least not to our ears, but then we grew up in Baltimore, too!)  His face was tanned from the long trip up US 40 and the Pennsylvania Turnpike.  He must have seemed quite exotic.

So, anyway, one thing led to another, Barbara was swept away in the big red convertible, and they settled in Dad's home town.  Naturally, as we children came along, there evolved the annual ritual of traveling up to Cleveland to spend a week or so each summer with the cousins.  By the early 70's, Interstate 70 was gradually being completed, and we would speed along in a series of Plymouths, each gulping down more gasoline than the last.

Back in the days before the mind-numbing omnipresence of television, and this ridiculous modern philosophy that children need to be entertained every moment of the day, we did what came naturally.  This usually involved squabbling over who would sit next to the window, or complaints about the comparative proportion of this half a sandwich vs. that.  But for the most part, we would just press our noses against the glass and look out the window (provided, of course, that you were the one that won the window battle!)

Traveling west from Baltimore on I-70 in those days was a good illustration of why Maryland has long been referred to as "America in Miniature."  From the big city with the harbor and industry, you traveled to the Beltway, that most modern of conveyances that provided a gateway for massive suburban development.  Once on 70, you found yourself in rolling country dotted with dairies and horse farms.  Once you reached Frederick, you could see the first line of the Blue Ridge reaching up into the sky.  I remember imagining that it was really an enormous tidal wave ready to crash over the little town below.

After a couple of ridges, there was the broad Cumberland Valley, a tremendously fertile farming area marked by huge barns, hay stacks, and silos.  The silos always made this elementary school boy think of giant Thermos bottles for some reason.  Past Hagerstown, the more rugged  ridges of the Alleghenies began.  I knew my favorite part of the trip was close at hand when the two westbound lanes climbed high above the eastbound traffic, which afforded an excellent view of the railroad tracks that ran next to the highway just to the left.

How often it happened I can't recall, but I do have vivid memories of coming around that certain bend in the road just before Hancock, and seeing the headlight of an oncoming train.  I had no idea at the time, but this was the Western Maryland Railway.  I suppose my dad called this to my attention at some point or another, but at that age, I would have had no idea what he was talking about anyway.

There was a long siding there just east of Tonoloway Creek, which snakes down from Town Hill just east of Hancock.  My guess is that this was an important passing siding between Hagerstown and Maryland Junction, the two major terminals of the WM, so it wouldn't be unusual for a westbound drag of empty coal hoppers to be holed up in the siding to wait for the passage of a hot Alpha Jet going east.

As the 1970's wore on, and the Chessie System asserted itself as the new landlord over the WM, I noticed that I didn't see those headlights much anymore.  The main line was cut just west of Hancock in 1975, and all the WM's through traffic was diverted over to the B&O tracks at Cherry Run.  The line from there to Hancock remained in place to serve a couple of industries with local switching.  The long siding at Tonoloway became little more than a storage track for some of Chessie's decrepit fleet of poorly maintained freight cars.

With the passage of a few more years, business dried up for the shippers in Hancock, and the purpose of the line was called into question by Chessie's management.  In rapid succession, an application was filed with the ICC to abandon the route, followed shortly by an approval.  The scrap train was on hand before the ink was dry.  As a final insult, the handsome Hancock train station burned to the ground in a fire of suspicious origin.

As we got older, the trips to see the relatives became fewer and farther between, but I still had occasion to travel that way on business, or to go to a wedding or funeral.  But I still experienced the anticipation of possibly spotting a headlight, even after I knew there was no possibility of there being one.  Still, this remained a special place for me, and when I learned it had been converted into a "Rails to Trails" project, I knew that one day I'd have the opportunity to take a closer look at this stretch of railroad that so intrigued me as a child.

Today, well, Yesterday was the day.

My son and I embarked on a camping adventure earlier in the week after Laura and my youngest, Julie, went to Disney World thanks to the huge volume of Girl Scout Cookies that was peddled by her troop.  After spending the night in Brunswick, Maryland, we headed to Hancock for our second night.  So Thursday morning, we struck our tents, loaded the bikes back on the rack, and headed to downtown Hancock for lunch.  I decided to ride on the rail trail going east, then cross over to ride the C&O Canal towpath back to town.  The round trip was about 17 miles.

I managed about 8 miles out of 22.5 on the WM Rail Trail out of Hancock.  If you're a low level bicyclist like myself, this trail is a dream.  Fully paved, barely a grade (Thanks to the outstanding 20th Century engineering of the WM), and absolutely bucolic surroundings... save for the roar of I-70 most of the way going east. 

A few hours after dark with an extension ladder and some wire cutters would net a treasure hunter quite a few glass insulators...

The original WM era mile markers, sections of rail driven into the ground, have been restored.

another bag of rocks has been harvested for the layout...

Apart from one couple I encountered going west, this was the only other "hiker" I came across on my ride.  After I switched over to the canal for the trip back, she reappeared with her fawn.  I'm definitely heading back up there as soon as I can to ride the rest of the route.

Photo by Charlie Hill

While I would have probably enjoyed it more to see some speed-lettered diesels barrel through with a fast freight one more time, I have to say it was nice to get up close and personal with this stretch of right of way that was responsible for a whole slew of childhood memories.  And maybe, just maybe, for the rest of the stuff you've read about here...

Dream Big

So I've whipped up a tentative train schedule now that the layout is more or less complete. 

Train descriptions:

FIRST CLASS – FAST FREIGHTS

AJ-1/3  Alpha Jet fast freights originating at Allentown from west bound cars consolidated from the L&HR, CNJ, and Reading.  Interchanges to the WM at Lurgan, near Shippensburg, PA.  After being switched at Hagerstown westbound Alpha Jets would typically run through to Rook Yard near Pittsburgh, then on to Bellevue, Ohio for further classification.

On the layout, AJ 1 & 3 starts at east staging, entering the layout at North Junction.  At Ridgeley, set outs for local traffic and cars bound for other points on the railroad are made, and cars are picked up that are bound for the interchange with the N&W at Connellsville.

AJ-2/12:  Alpha Jet fast freights originating at Bellevue Yard on the N&W (former NKP) via Rook Yard, to Connellsville, Ridgeley, Hagerstown and Lurgan on the WM, destined for Rutherford Yard, and eastbound connections at Allentown (CNJ, L&HR, NH). 

On the layout, these trains originate in West Staging, entering the layout at Greenwood, proceeding east to Maryland Jct. then on to Ridgeley for classification to continue east to Lurgan.

GRAIN EXTRA – (Seasonal) Eastbound grain from the Great Lakes and Midwest for shipment to Port Covington for storage and/or export.  Connection from NW at Connellsville, through train to Baltimore.  

On the layout, follows main around Ridgeley, pausing for a power change and fresh caboose.

SECOND CLASS – FAST FREIGHTS with Intermediate Switching

BT-1  Originates at Port Covington (Baltimore), westbound to Connellsville to P&LE (Dickerson Run) to Pittsburgh, Youngstown and Cleveland.  From there, it followed the Nickel Plate to Toledo, Ohio, its terminus. 

On the layout, BT-1 starts at east staging, entering the layout at North Junction.  At Ridgeley, set outs for local traffic and cars bound for other points on the railroad are made, and cars are picked up that are bound for the interchange with the P&LE at Connellsville.  The train may also do pick-ups and set-outs at Maryland Junction.  If volume permits, it may also pick up cars bound for the Laurel Valley, which would be set out at Rockwood Jct.

WM-6  Eastbound counterpart to BT-1, operating from Dickerson Run Yard on the P&LE through Connellsville and on to Baltimore via the East Sub. 

On the layout, the train originates out of West Staging, entering the layout at Greenwood.  It proceeds east on the Connellsville Sub as far as Maryland Junction, where it may do pick-ups and set-outs of traffic from the Thomas Sub.  Proceeding east, it enters Ridgeley Yard to be reblocked for the trip east to Baltimore, via North Jct. into East Staging.

NW-12  Technically East bound from Roanoke, Va to Hagerstown on the Norfolk and Western.  Primarily traffic bound for the northeast via the Reading at Lurgan, and timed to connect with AJ-12 at Hagerstown.  Also carried traffic to go through to the N&W connection at Connellsville as well. 

On the layout, the train originates in East Staging, entering via North Jct. and terminates at Ridgely Yard (a westbound move on the layout).

NW-11  Technically West bound from Hagerstown to Roanoke.  Reverse move to NW12, with connections from the Reading and other points via AJ-1. 

Originates at Ridgeley, then departs for East Staging via North Junction (eastbound move).

WEST BOUND GRAIN EXTRA (MT) (Seasonal)  Empty grain hoppers being returned to the Midwest via Connellsville and the N&W. 

On the layout:  Originates from East Staging.  May pause at Ridgeley for a power/caboose swap.

THIRD CLASS TRAINS – Local Freights and Traveling Switchers.

Luke Digger:  Originates at Ridgeley Yard.  Turn to Westvaco Mill at Luke and return.  Departs westbound, works at Luke, then returns eastbound via Williamsport Jct.   

Handles all Luke traffic that originates from the Main line via Ridgeley.

West Local:  Originates at Elkins and moves eastbound toward Ridgeley.  Switches Thomas, Shaw, and Cumberland, and provides pick-ups and set-outs at Luke, and transfers through traffic to Ridgeley for connections.  Typically carries wood chip loads from the west into Luke. 

East Local:  Originates at Ridgeley and works westbound toward Elkins.  Also switches Cumberland, Maryland Junction, Shaw and Thomas as needed.

Union Bridge Traveling Switcher:  Originates Ridgeley, operating eastbound to North Jct. and East Sub (staging.)  Switches NC industrial tracks and PC interchange as needed.  Return train (from East Staging to Ridgeley) uses the same symbol.

Elkins Mine Run:  Handles delivery of empty hoppers to mines along the Thomas Sub, pulling loads and staging them at Thomas if space permits, otherwise returning loads to Elkins.

Coal Extras

(Train Symbol = Road Number of Lead Unit)

Connellsville Sub: 

GREY TRAIN:  Eastbound. Originates at Somerset, PA on the Laurel Valley, also picks up at Blue Lick at Meyersdale (all off layout).  Consists of Laurel Valley and WM hoppers, usually with Laurel Valley power through to Ridgeley.

FAIRMONT EXTRA:  Eastbound.  Originates Fairmont, WV(B&O) via Bowest Jct. and the Connellsville line.  Consists of WM and B&O hoppers.  May include B&O power through to Ridgeley.

ELKINS EXTRA:  Eastbound.  Originates at Elkins, with coal from the WM’s local lines in WV, as well as cars from Thomas.  WM hoppers, WM power through to Ridgeley.

Eastbound from Ridgeley:

ALLENTOWN EXTRA:  Eastbound.  Originates Ridgeley, with cars bound for Bethlehem Steel at Allentown.  Usually includes cars from Fairmont.

PHILADELPHIA EXTRA:  Eastbound.  Originates Ridgeley, with cars bound for Philadelphia Power electric generation plants.  Soft coal from the Grey Train, WM and Laurel Valley

BALTIMORE EXTRA:    Eastbound.  Originates Ridgeley, with cars bound for Baltimore Gas and Electric generation plants.  Soft coal from the Grey Train, WM and Laurel Valley

PORT COVINGTON EXTRA:  Eastbound.  Originates Ridgeley, with cars bound for Port Covington for export.  All 55 and 66 ton cars due to limitations at the rotary dumper.  Cars from the Thomas Sub.

Westbound from Ridgeley: (loads)

PITTSBURGH EXTRA:  Westbound.  Originates Ridgeley, coal for US Steel and other manufacturers via Connellsville/PLE connection.  Small numbers of cars may be added to BT-1.   

Train also includes ore loads from Port Covington.

Westbound from Ridgeley: (MT)

FAIRMONT EXTRA:  Westbound.   Originates Allentown (East Staging) proceeds through to West Staging.

GREY EXTRA: Westbound:  Originates Philadelphia and Baltimore, combined at Ridgeley.  WM Power into Ridgeley, LRV power west to Rockwood Jct. (West Staging)

ELKINS EXTRA:  Westbound:  Originates Port Covington, Baltimore, Allentown etc.  Combined at Ridgeley with cars for Shaw, Thomas, Elkins and points beyond.  Also includes westbound ore movements bound for Pittsburgh.

I either need more staging, a bigger yard, a longer main line run, fewer trains or more freight cars...  The eyes might be a little bigger than the stomach, not sure yet!

Arteries in Place, Time to Get the Blood Flowing...

So, now that the primary infrastructure of the Western Maryland Western Lines layout is in place, and the ceremonial last spike and first trains have been dispensed with, it's time to get down to the business of operating a model railroad.

This means the uproariously fun activities of inventorying the rolling stock, updating the car cards (these are actual cards that represent each and every piece of rolling stock on the layout) and preparing the multitude of waybills for each car.

Car cards and waybills begin to make sense of the mayhem.

I use a simplified 4-cycle waybill in my operations, wherein each car card is matched to a slip of paper that dictates four different destinations for the freight car in question.  The waybill slip is turned at each destination, revealing where it will be headed next.  Some of them are easy, such as some of the coal hopper fleet.  When loaded, they head east, when empty they head west back to the mines in the mountains.

One of the challenges of organizing the operations on my layout is to keep the "bridge" traffic as interesting as the on-line and local stuff.  The Western Maryland earned it's bread hauling coal, but it was the through traffic as part of the famed "Alphabet Route" that provided much of the butter.  At the west end, trains came to the WM from both the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie and the Norfolk and Western at Connellsville, while to the east, priority freight arrived from New England and the northeast via the Reading at Lurgan, and from the WM's own terminal at Port Covington in Baltimore.

On the real WM, Hagerstown was the nexus of the eastern routes, while Ridgeley Yard near Cumberland worked the traffic coming and going from the west.  Between the two yards lay the Cumberland Extension, a largely unpopulated route designed to little more than shuttle trains back and forth with virtually no on-line traffic along the way.

Coal traffic, meanwhile, was concentrated at Knobmount Yard, just south of Ridgeley, where coal drags from both the Thomas Sub and the Connellsville "New Line" came together to be weighed, marshalled and otherwise readied for distribution to the WM's many coal-consuming customers.

On the WMRY Western Lines, I had to pick and choose my operations focal points carefully.  Initially, my primary yard was to be Hagerstown.  This was driven by the relative importance of this yard compared to Ridgeley, as well as the desire to model the massive engine terminal there.  But I really needed to also account for the coal traffic at the west end, since I clearly don't have room to model both Hagerstown AND Knobmount.  So I compromised, building the large yard and engine terminal in the mold of Hagerstown, but naming it Ridgeley to be more reflective of the overall traffic flow.

A side benefit of this is the geographic proximity of Ridgeley Yard to Cumberland is a reasonable facsimile of reality on the layout.

Having spent the last few evenings riffling through the paperwork, the overall operations scheme of the layout is starting to come into focus.  I'm planning a little shake down session in a couple of weeks, so I expect to have a bit more to report once that's under my belt.