Manifest Freight Operations Parts III & IV

Here are the final two parts of the manifest freight operations video series. Part III is 25 minutes long so you may want to fast forward through parts of it. But, it does show all the steps needed to complete switching operations in Franklin Grove, IL. Switching Fulton and the Rochelle interchange track take a similar amount of time. Part IV shows the train, MCLYC, traveling from Franklin Grove to Chicago Yard Center.

Manifest Freight Operations Part II

Manifest Operations Part I

More Intermodal Operations

Here's part II and part III of intermodal operations featuring train ICOIPR.

Operations on Completely Ballasted Track

I finally pushed through and completed track ballasting!  All track on the layout is 100% ballasted.  I am so glad!! To celebrate I decided to take a break from working on the layout and get back to running trains.  Here's Intermodal Operations Part I.  More to follow shortly.  Check out all the ballasted track!!!!!

More Progress on Global III

Rochelle Global III is coming along nicely.  With the parking lot installed and painted, I turned my attention to ballasting the track.  In addition, I sanded the asphalt parking lots giving them a more faded/washed out look.  I also build a second Mi-Jack crane (Thanks Garth!!!!!) and attached the cranes to both Mi-Jacks.

Rochelle Global III Paved and Painted

The paint dried fast enough for me to mask and paint the second color still today.  I ended up painting the asphalt first and the concrete second.  I painted in this order thinking that the paint would hold to the Smooth It surface better than the styrene and, therefore, chip off less when removing the masking tape.  Worked out real well as just a bit chipped of in a couple of places.  The chips were easily repaired with some additional asphalt paint.  One other thing, I added a bit of the concrete paint to the asphalt paint to lighten up the asphalt paint and not make it look like it was freshly poured yesterday.   Tomorrow I will sand the paint a bit to weather it up some and then I'll be all set to ballast the track.

Rochelle Global III Parking Lot Ready for Paint

Concrete is in place and all asphalt has been poured.  I sanded the Smooth It plaster with 220 grit sand paper, vacuumed and then cleaned up the styrene sheet.  I also used brown latex paint to cover up excess plaster that did not end up on the parking lot.   The Rochelle Global III intermodal parking lot is ready for paint.  I will paint the concrete today using Woodland Scenics' Road System Top Coat Concrete (ST1454) paint today.  Tomorrow, after the paint has had plenty of time to dry, I will mask the concrete and paint the asphalt using the TOP Coat asphalt (ST1453).

Global III Asphalt

All the tape forms are in place and first batch of "Smooth It" poured.  I divided the big patch of asphalt into two narrow strips for better troweling with a piece of styrene.

Global III Concrete Paving

Ended up using .030 styrene sheet cut into 4 scale feet wide (.296") strips for the concrete between the rails.  Time to move on to asphalt paving using "Smooth It" from Woodland Scenics.

Paving for Rochelle Global III

I've been doing a ton of ballasting this summer.  So much that the only ballasting left to do is the Rochelle Global III Intermodal Yard.  Ballasting in the yard will look better if done after the paving of the intermodal lot.  So, it looks like paving Global III is the next project for the layout.  The prototype lot has both concrete and asphalt paving as shown in the photo below.  There is concrete paving in between and next to the loading/unloading tracks and asphalt elsewhere.

On the layout, I am using styrene sheets for the concrete and Woodland Scenics "Smooth-It" for the asphalt.  The styrene sheets are .030" thick.  At this thickness the sheets lay just below the rails when setting on top the plactic spikeheads of the ME code 55 flextrack.  I then used a second .030 sheet underneath the the top sheet so that the sheets slope ever so slightly away from the rails.  .030 sheet was also used between the tracks.  Next I will be using .040 sheets for between the rails.