t’s taken a long way to get here. Our HO B&O Chicago Terminal layout was promised to be a major attention-getter at our club, drawing a huge wave of HO guys into our membership. But then the clique lost enthusiasm and quit, leaving us with our own version of the I-4 eyesore, a big expensive thing nobody knew what to do with.

Jim T worked on it, adding industries (possibly too many industries) to the line. Bob K helped him with scenery. But that ended with us having (for all practical purposes) a very long engine test track. Again, interest waned.

The Alex was assigned ownership of this white elephant (where better to be railroaded than a train club?). And Bruce M, no stranger to ops, helped him organize a session. Since Greg W and I were going to be there for the inaugural run (chains around our ankles) we agreed to attend with others. Bruce gave us a thoughtful (and well laid out) briefing, handed out switch lists, and off we went.

Luke Skywalker prepares to attack the Death Star in his… Geep X-wing? (Photo: Alex B)

Okay, amongst the bad – the trackwork needs a lot of track work. Lots of stalling and some broken turnouts. Further, there are too many cars on the layout. Barr yard is flooded. Most of the sidings have too many spots.

But at least we have a base for operations, something that can be developed further. And that’s a lot more than the three Caballeros left us with.

So I started with a Jim T steamer for my goat down in the industrial area between the lower mid-run bridge and the helix. I had a lot of cars, some coming off the layout for an interchange, but a lot (according to JMRI) moving from industry to industry. I studied the paperwork for a bit, trying to logically arrange my moves to not work the same area multiple times, but efficiency escaped me and finally I just had to pick a place and start working, car by car. Yes, I moved a lot of stuff in and out of the same sidings. So it goes.

Once I finished up there, I went topside to build a little local and work Thornton. This proved to be a pain in the butt since JMRI had me pulling five cars off two tracks at Barr, and blocking was apparently not a thing on the B&O. Since it seemed that everyone was topside, I had time to look for my cars. I only found two, and one of those was a boxcar on the end of a twenty car string. So yes, I was yard-switching a cut that dwarfed train-lengths on the LM&O.

A long train leaves the yard… no, I’m just switching. Really, the boxcar I needed was three from the very back! Greg W grouses on the lower deck. (Photo: Alex B)

Anyway, we survived the first run (and like all first runs, it was loaded with issues but, hey, that’s why we do it). The crew jumped in and made it work. I am starting to see the possibilities here. We might be able to make something really unique out of this.

Well, unique but in a good way.

Big thanks to Bruce and Alex for making this happen.

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Post-script: I was going to send ideas to the hosts but I’ll do it here to share with the readers. Some concrete thoughts on improvements.

• Barr Yard should be organized to have one arrival track (where all cars coming onto the layout come in) and one departure track (where all cars leaving go). Arrivals should be pre-blocked for trains. At one point we had three guys on the top deck and two working underneath us on the lower. We need to cut down yard delays.
• As Bruce mentioned, the locals need a more centralized method for work. Cars should be delivered from Barr, and injected as a group into the industrial areas, allowing smoother switching. Having everything that needs to go in on the exchange track would allow the crews to organize their cuts and build an organized string to make a single run at a spur, not a bunch of small moves. Industry to industry shuffling is a real killer here.
• As to the point above, if you decide to ditch JMRI, I could write a waybill program to run the railroad off our own traffic flows, and not struggle with Skynet. We could even adapt the club’s LM&O waybill generator for this railroad. This is nothing more than yard-to-industry-and-home-again, which we already do. Anyway, it’s an offer.
• I told the initial stooges this and I’ll repeat it – the helix is too boring. You enter, then go off to have a pee, go outside to look at the stars, talk Midway with Greg, then pick it up as you finally come out. Covered helixes are boring. Let’s smash all that plasterwork out and make sceniced shadowboxes, just little scenes that you can watch your train pass for the purposes of location and entertainment. A grade crossing or a commuter station is preferable to a gray wall of rock that is a bit out of place for “Chicago”.

Anyway, those are my thoughts. Maybe we can discuss further if you are interested.

The hoe crew, weary yet triumphant after the first HO run.