Roy's Folks Clip

Forgot to post this, but I did a segment for WGHP TV In High Point several months ago. Thanks to Roy Ackland and Producer David Weatherly.

Clip is here.

More Work On The M-Line

In the last month, I completed the benchwork for the M-Line (as well as the Thomasville Beltway), added fascias, lights, splines, track, the crossover across the pit and connection into High Point Yard.

Have also started scenery to hide the higher branch behind the NS mainlines as they pass by Thomasville. I think the generic undergrowth helps the scene a good deal.

NS M-Line

So, after the May session I had the bright idea to fill in the old dispatcher's corner with a branch line. But what to model?

Marcus suggested that I look at the line running thru Asheboro as it included a plastics plant that supposedly had a lot of traffic. Did some Maps Live work and WOW! The plastics plant is called Starpet. On one satellite photo I counted over 125 hoppers setting in the plant and showed their own switcher.

I talked Tammy into riding that way one Sunday and took pictures of several places along the way. There's a Georgia Pacific plant, Chandler Concrete, Dahalia Plastics, CMC Metal recyclers, Metals USA and several more.

These are cumulative from beginning construction on May 02 until May 18.

May 09 Ops Session

The 3rd formal operating session included around 15 guys. Lunch was BBQ chicken. Maybe that's what they really came for. Oh well, they HAD to stay and run the trains anyway.

This was the first session with 2 dispatchers: Charlotte, manned by Josh Blevins and Danville manned by Tim Heckman. We also used 2 separate radio channels to cut down on traffic.

Dispatcher's Office

After the March Ops Session, it became obvious to me that I needed a seperate location for the dispatcher and that we may need to have 2 dispatchers in the future.

I cleaned out the front of the barn and started walling off a 8 x 18 section. A friend came by and in just a couple of hours, we had the stud wall done and door hung. I just had to finish the paneling.

These pics show part of the room with all the boards needed to run the session. One for the train schedule and the others for the 2 dispatchers, Charlotte Dispatch and Danville Dispatch.

March 2009 Ops Session

We had a test run in Oct 08 and a second test in December. As of January 09, The CCSB will have Operations Sessions every two months. This is the second full time session and there were about 14 people attending.

This was the first test of the Linwood Hump. Larry Keller and Jeff Lindstrom were scheduled to be the first yard operators, but Jeff came down with the flu just before the session. Josh Blevins filled in for Jeff. Reports were that the hump worked well.

Time Off For Snow

Sorry, this is NOT my model but I thought the recent snowfall made for some pretty good scenes. These are from station name Lee just north of Linwood Yard in Linwood.