A short Lovelock local - Part 2

Continued from Part 1.

The next customer is Diamond Plastics.  The road switcher makes a run around move by going to the west end of the siding and then moving on the main line to the east end.  Anytime the main line is occupied, it is coordinated with the despatcher by radio.  Now being on the east end of the train, the covered hopper can be pushed into the Diamond Plastics spur.

After spotting the covered hopper at Diamond Plastics, the Railbox car and the caboose are swapped in position by using both the siding and the spur, and then left on the Diamond Plastics spur.

The last customer of the day is the Halliburton facility which is on the main line.  There is a loaded covered hopper to be picked up there.  After receiving clearance from dispatch, the whole string of cars is pulled out.

Leaving the loaded car on the main line, the remaining empties are pushed back into the spur, spotting the first one under the loader.  This facility uses a winch to pull the cars under the loader.

After finishing at Halliburton, the loaded covered hopper is moved over to the siding and pushed past the turnout for the Diamond Plastics spur.  The road switcher then makes another run around to get to the east end of the siding.

From the east end of the siding the road switcher couples onto the covered hopper left on the siding and then pushes it into the Diamond Plastics spur and coupled onto the box car and caboose that were left there. After pulling clear of the turnout, the train is now ready for the return trip back to Carlin.

This main line is the westbound line in the paired track arrangement.  The local will go back to Carlin to the east on this line but first must wait for a westbound UP intermodal train to pass

Now on the move back to Carlin through the Palisade Canyon.

Arriving back in Carlin there is another UP freight waiting on the main line as the local takes the siding.

A short 1985 Lovelock local - Part 1

The Lovelock local doesn't always go all the way to Lovelock.  Today we have just two cars to deliver and two more to pick up from customers in Battle Mountain.  The SP box car is an empty for Premium Choice and the covered hopper is a load of plastic pellets for Diamond Plastics.

This train will be assembled on the siding so the yard switcher has pulled the caboose out and with it has coupled onto the two outgoing cars and will move them to the siding were the road switcher waits.

With the train assembled and an air brake tests done, the local starts rolling to exit the west end of Carlin yard running long hood forward.  

Within just a few miles the train has already passed through the Palisade tunnels and crossed the Humboldt River twice.  It will cross the river a few more times before reaching Battle Mountain.

While all of the turnouts in Carlin are controlled from the tower, everything is manual at Battle Mountain.  Arriving at the east end of the Battle Mountain siding, the head end brakeman dismounts and aligns the turnout for the siding.  He will then get back on the locomotive and the rear end brakeman will re-align it for the main once the train has cleared the turnout.

The first move to get out of the way is at Premium Choice.  It's a simple exchange of box cars.

The empty SP box car is uncoupled from the caboose then used to pull the loaded Railbox car out from the spur and then it gets coupled onto the caboose.  Sometimes this customer wants cars spotted at a specific door.  They didn't care this time so the empty is being spotted a door 2.

To be continued in part 2.

Summer 2026 Layout update

Summer of 2026 is moving by fast so I thought I would put out the quarterly roundup of some of the things going on with the layout that have not already been covered in other posts.

Soundtraxx Econami DCC decoders have now been installed for the Lovelock local in both Carlin and Lovelock and for the 44 ton switcher at the EP Minerals plant in Lovelock.  Plus, the original Digitrax sound decoder that was for the Carlin switcher died and got replaced with the Soundtraxx model.  There are now a total of 5 sound decoders stationed around the areas of the layout where switching goes on.

Recently I added this small section house at the east end of Carlin yard.  This will provide a place where main line crews can wait out of the weather while the yard crew is moving cars and also some equipment related to re-fueling activity can be stored here.  I scratch built is structure from styrene with the door and windows coming from Tichy.  The roof was printed on plain paper from a Visio drawing.

I recently acquired a holder for my phone that allows me to record a video while running the throttles at the same time.  So for the first time in over 3 years, I have a new layout video up on YouTube.  In this one, instead of background music, the locomotive sounds are coming from the stationary sound decoders.

Link to the video: https://youtu.be/CFmkwDiLaUU

In June we learned that the 2027 N Scale Enthusiasts convention will be held in Sacramento.  This is only about 100 miles from me so I am looking forward to making it to this one.