Following the Freight

ge_rik said:
I've been making the most of the weather over the last couple of days and put together a short video showing how I operate a typical pick-up goods train on my railway. Hope you enjoy .......

Rik

PS - No music this time, Alan
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You have the knack of just the right length of video to keep the viewer interested. Just the right amount of shunting clips to show what you were doing, with getting boring.
Your garden gives plenty of great backgrounds to the train action. I especially like the views which have something else, away in the background. From Peckforton I can see a house (or maybe a station at Bulkely?) 'over the hills and far away'.
And that 'hump' as the train enters Bickerton gives great atmosphere.
 
ge_rik said:
I've been making the most of the weather over the last couple of days and put together a short video showing how I operate a typical pick-up goods train on my railway. Hope you enjoy .......

Rik

PS - No music this time, Alan
Click to expand...
Superb Rik, many of us that do run like you will appreciate the time you have taken explaining what is occuring. I wish that I could use your labelling system, would make things much easier for my guest running teams. However my line goes around a loop part way and they would be lost to view at Lindenburg and Stiegge Stations. Great pity as it is a superb system and so much like was used on the real thing.

In the past on my old line I used to use Coloured Map Pins as a quick reminder each station having a different Colour with that being reflected on the Station Name Boards. The pins went into small holes in the buffers, many of my Wagons and even Locomotives show up these holes to the wonder pf visitors. I also used the holes for a Tail Lamp. But I am now using Magnetic Wagon Cards of Credit Card Size with Waybills that fit into a pocket on the card. Works quite well but still get errors! But it is fun the day after to sort out the problems left behind when they have gone home! Tail lamps are Map Hooks that hang onto the rear of the last wagon and mostly get moved on during shunting or reversal of direction, but sometimes get forgotten to the chagrin of the line Superintendent.

I wonder how the rules of Single Line Working Operate on your line, does each Station have a Box with communication and Token Working or do you run with Staff and Ticket as the SR did? I expect you have explained it all in your Blog, must have a look.

Mine works on Train Order as is the norm in German NG Lines with Trains Timetabled to pass at locations with no variance. Quite how they sort out problems of severe late running in East Germany I am not sure, but each Station had in the 80's an SM and phone communication so I expect things were sorted out between them with new (revised) orders being given to the Train Crew.
JonD
 
gregh said:
You have the knack of just the right length of video to keep the viewer interested. Just the right amount of shunting clips to show what you were doing, with getting boring.
Your garden gives plenty of great backgrounds to the train action. I especially like the views which have something else, away in the background. From Peckforton I can see a house (or maybe a station at Bulkely?) 'over the hills and far away'.
And that 'hump' as the train enters Bickerton gives great atmosphere.
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Thanks Greg - I assume you meant withOUT getting boring ........;) .
I do like to take a while framing a shot but sometimes it's almost impossible not to get the house, the garage (or even the bird feeder) in it. You may notice also that I've had to rotate a couple of the shots because the camera was tilted by a few degrees. These tended to be when the camera was positioned somewhere I couldn't see the viewscreen clearly.

I was considering trying to even out that hump at Bickerton - the platforms are on concrete slabs cemented to brick pillars but the approach tracks are on breeze blocks which over ten years have settled slightly. I'll ease the hump a little for the sake of the pointwork, but it does make an interesting shot when using a longer lens.

Rik
 
dunnyrail said:
In the past on my old line I used to use Coloured Map Pins as a quick reminder each station having a different Colour with that being reflected on the Station Name Boards. The pins went into small holes in the buffers, many of my Wagons and even Locomotives show up these holes to the wonder of visitors. I also used the holes for a Tail Lamp. But I am now using Magnetic Wagon Cards of Credit Card Size with Waybills that fit into a pocket on the card. Works quite well but still get errors! But it is fun the day after to sort out the problems left behind when they have gone home! Tail lamps are Map Hooks that hang onto the rear of the last wagon and mostly get moved on during shunting or reversal of direction, but sometimes get forgotten to the chagrin of the line Superintendent.
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Thanks Jon. Sounds like an interesting system. Like you, I try to keep things simple but even then mistakes creep in. I sometimes find I complete the run of the goods and still find I've forgotten to pick up a wagon somewhere.
dunnyrail said:
I wonder how the rules of Single Line Working Operate on your line, does each Station have a Box with communication and Token Working or do you run with Staff and Ticket as the SR did? I expect you have explained it all in your Blog, must have a look.
JonD
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Nothing anywhere near as sophisticated, I'm afraid. Because I tend to run these sessions on my own (I don't know anyone else as geeky as me to share the sessions), I am omnipotent o_O - I'm the one with the handset! Generally, I follow each train from one station to the next and so it's sort of one loco in steam at any one time. Hence, by default, each train clears a section before another is run. Sometimes, I do run two trains at the same time, when I know the track ahead is clear (even so, it has been known for the road not to be checked beforehand and the train run off into a siding).

Rik
 
Having had the pleasure of visiting Rik's line it is even better in the flesh. Most definitely a functioning railway rather than a trainset (like mine)!

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Andrew B. Middleton said:
Thank you, I really enjoyed that shunting! It all seemed logically done, and made more sense than continuous running around for no apparent purpose.
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Hi Andrew
Thanks. I don't always run timetabled passenger trains or rostered freight trains - from time to time I just run a train for the fun of it. It's great just sitting in a deck chair in the garden on a summer's evening watching a train chugging or chuffing its way round through the vegetation. I'm thinking of programming a couple of my locos for auto-station stop so they will stop and start as they meander around. But I do also enjoy running sessions with a purpose to them - and the challenge of figuring out freight movements thrown at me by the computer program. I've never had a chance to talk through with anyone 'in the know' how it was done on a real branch line but I imagine my simulated freight runs must be similar to those contended on real railways.

Rik
 
Thomas Lambo said:
Beautiful railway showcased with a nicely balanced video...great motivation for first time GR builders like myself :)
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Thanks. Hope to see some videos from your railway sometime soon. We do like seeing each others' railways. :) :happy:

Rik
 
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