The Great Searsport Flood

For the first time in days I was not working on the railroad. I was woodworking a project for a donation to a fund raiser. In the process I needed to go down and find the dust pan from the train room. Lo and behold there was water on the floor. At first it appeared to be coming from the floor and closer inspection of wet boxes said otherwise. The regulator shown in the first picture was weeping out of the bell cap.
Searsport got a little wet. Some dripped to the floor. Once dry I will turn everything on and find out what, if anything, needs to be done.
I know that no electronics was impacted. I believe only one Tortoise possibly got wet. Some buildings got wet and boxes below the benchwork got a little wet on the bottom.
Stay tuned.

Portland is ready for ops

Portland has been wired up and tested. When you open the swing gate the tracks on either side are protected by a tortoise wire between the rails. Now it is on to the supporting paperwork.

Portland updates

From the last session I did the necessary fixes. Now it is on to Portland. I needed to run wires from the current layout across the bridge. That would require seven wires, two for DCC, two for Accessory power, two for the CMRI power and a CAT-5 for the CMRI. I checked that I could fit those wires in a protective case for the floor and they would fit so I went ahead and started.
The DCC on this section will be powered from the booster, so I had to run wires from it. The CMRI is only needed for a few items. Mostly for protection when the swing gate is open. Unfortunately I spent a lot of time with this yesterday and something was not right. I'm sure I'm forgetting something, so I will get back to that shortly.
Today I wanted to make positive progress, so I ran the DCC wires for Portland. I made and connected all the drops for the current track. I also connected the swing bridge up. Tomorrow I will have to connect all of that to the power bus. At least that way I can run trains across the bridge.
The other day I also printed out a lot of new waybills and changes to existing waybills for the new track in Northern Maine Junction, Belfast and Portland. So I will be able to get that going also.

Follow up on yesterdays test session

Today I already removed the troublesome turnout and two signals in Belfast. It is now a single track main line connecting to the wye. The old main is now one long siding. For now I will put in the dairy, but if I believe I can handle another siding on this section of single track, I will split it into two sidings.

I also added another temp track in Northern Maine Jct., so I can add another train there to alleviate the stuck traffic in the yards. I already have spare tracks in the other locations, so I only need to add the trains. So I will add one train out of both Rigby and NMJ and two trains out of St. Albans. One going to each yard.

This and Portland coming online will clear out some of the yards. Portland it self will add 2 to 3 trains once we get it up to full potential.

One more thing that will help is more industrial spots for Wood Job traffic. That will take some time.

Another Test Run

Today we're not as bad as I expected. I had a lot of track tweeting issues over the winter and I found them late in preparation for the next session. I got most of them corrected but did not have enough time for testing. We did decide that in Belfast at the wye I will remove a passing track that would eliminate at least one troublesome turnout. We never used it for a meet anyway.
I should be able to add a siding in its place. I need a couple more dairies for the milk train anyway. We shall see on that.
Due to a miscalculation by me I had way too many cars for Northern Maine Junction and St. Albans. They showed up badly in the yards today. It is time to add one more train in NMJ and Rigby, with two more out of SAN. Changing some waybills for what is all ready on the layout and getting Portland finished will help with that. AND getting enough engines for those trains.
It is either sit in an easy chair or have the Joys of Model Railroading.

Chuck

The Woes of Inactivity

Looking toward another op session and I find kind of late that the winter was not kind to the railroad. I had been adding new areas to the railroad, but not looking at what I had. Now working toward another op session and the track was found in spots to have expanded. Some of these issues were hidden in the back of the yard behind the cars in the yard. In one case the fix happened to destroy a turnout so add that to the mix.
The helix area needed some mods to the turnout throws and some leveling. Hopefully this will work in the short term, but a change will have to happen to make it right. I just need to figure out what that is. Belfast might end up not having a passing siding. This could eliminate two turnouts. OR it could be a shorter siding that could work for a runaround but not much else. The only change for the only industry would be to make sure deliveries come from the same direction.

Chuck

Portland So Far

A little overview of Portland, ME. The first pic is the Swing gate while closed

Now you can see the Open Swing gate .

The first industry you come to is Dragon Cement. It will hold 4 cement hoppers on on track and 2 boxcars on the other track.

In the back you can Ice Plant #1. This can hold 5 reefers. It was recently in Brunswick but I could only fit in the racks and not the building. The two front tracks are Terminal #2 and #3. One is for bulk loading and the other will hold boxcars. Each is expected to hold 3 cars.

Next we have JB Browns Barrels in the back. It will have 2-3 spots. In the front there is a warehouse. It will hold two cars per track.

Finally we have the Maine Port Authority and another shipper. This will be 2-3 cars. The track in the front going nowhere is the connection to the barge and yard. The barge holds 12-15. The yard will be slightly bigger.