This last weekend, I attended the LDSIG/OPSIG meet in San Jose, CA. as I’ve done for a number of years and ended up on Sunday operating on Dave Parks’ Cumberland West. The Cumberland West occupies a 1200 foot room and is not just one model railroad, but two, the Western Maryland and the B&O in the vicinity of Cumberland, MD in 1953. The WM is single track, dark territory, operated under TT&TO. The B&O is double track with heavy traffic and is oriented to mainline running with some passenger train switching at Cumberland, some coal train marshalling at Keyser, and merchandise switching at the yard at Cumberland. There’s virtually no local work on the B&O and trains are controlled by tower operators. This Sunday’s session was a Western Maryland op. Lots of switching.
Here’s a video of Cumberland West taken a couple of years ago. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYfqpA4uUko . Things have been upgraded a bit since then. The three stations between Knobmount and Elkins on the WM are now equipped with working train order signals. IIRC, so is Elkins, but the Thomas Mine Turn doesn’t go that far. As you enter the layout room and turn left, Knobmount yard is on the right below the B&O and Elkins is will be on the left. Passing Elkins and walking down the aisle, Douglas mine is on the left and then Thomas. There’s a branch up the hill that splits into the lead to Davis Mine (not modeled, it’s actually staging for coal loads) and the Francis Branch (also staging for coal loads). There are three tracks at Fairfax Mine, which can take around 20 hoppers. Davis and Francis can take 7or 8 each.
Near as I can figure, it’s about 2 scale miles or so from Knobmount yard, where you go on duty, pick up your train get your orders and clearance, so it actually takes a while to get to Thomas at a reasonable train speed. There are 2 train order stations between Knobmount and Thomas
When I lived in WV I visited Thomas and Elkins many times. I built a model of Thomas at one point before tearing it out and rebuilding it as Morgantown. The Western Maryland RR is a great prototype. Elkins yard was a very interesting relatively small yard that would make a good model too.
Got a question for you. On the layout, Elkins is a stub yard off a wye. It makes for an interesting yard to operate, but what was the prototype Elkins yard like? I’m looking at Google Maps as I write this.
I do see a wye going into Elkins on Google maps and, on a WV Commerce aerial pic, I can see what appears to have been a roundhouse and turntable just in outline (the buildings are long gone). OK, I can see the same on Google maps. I guess the Durbin & Greenbrier Valley Railroad is a remnant of what was the WM in Elkins.
You’re right, the WM is a neat prototype. A WM session on the layout is a kick to operate. Next time, I’m there, I’ve got to bid in on a different job. The Thomas Mine Turn is a blast, but it’s probably time to do something else, like be the yardmaster at Elkins or Knobmount.
You’re probably right. OTOH, I’m not a professional railroader. Because of the distance of the layout from my home, I can only attend 1 op session/year on this layout, the one that coincides with the LDSIG/OPSIG meet in Silicon Valley… If I could do the same job at least once a week or even once a month, I’d probably get more efficient very quickly. Then there are constraints on the layout that might not be there with the prototype. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if there was a lot more maneuvering room at the real Thomas. I’d have to see a track diagram of the prototype to see how it varied from the model. I think at least some of the “unnecessary” work comes from space constraints.
Now that I think of it, I just realized how I could have done the job more easily. It would have involved fouling the main from time to time (which I didn’t want to do during the session - my bad), but I had a schedule in hand, some handy-dandy pop-em on the track flagmen, and the phone to the dispatcher was within arm’s reach. I’ve got a hand drawn track diagram, and I think I’ll go through the exercise of trying it a different way, if only mentally.