the climb from Cascade to Farron, we reinstated pusher service! We tested in- dependent pusher operations with very positive response. With one engineer in charge of the lead units and a second controlling the pusher set cut in either before or after the caboose, the crews now had to pay close attention to train handling to the assure cars didn’t end up on the ground. This operation in fact sparked the conversion of the layout from IR wireless to duplexing radio DCC control to help avoid dead spots in response, which could be tragic. To accommodate flexible train sched-
ules we looked again to the prototype. Ideally we should use a dispatcher and timetable and train order operations (TT&TO) but what was involved with implementing TT&TO “after the fact”? On the prototype, train order opera- tors relayed the dispatcher’s orders to crews and “OS’d” passing trains, but there wasn’t room for train order opera- tors. (OS stands for “On Sheet” and is the reporting of the time when a train passes a station which the dispatcher enters on their train sheet to keep track of all the locations and progress of trains out on the line.) To divide up the train order operator’s jobs, a dispatcher located in the crew lounge could pass written orders into the layout room and crews could do their own OS’ing. Scott Calvert’s Boundary layout worked well this way. To indicate to the crews the status of the train order boards I made fascia-mounted indicator panels using LEDs for the signals. The dispatcher
controls the LEDs with JMRI/Panelpro software on a laptop computer inter- faced to the Loconet. Each train order panel also has “acknowledge” buttons so the crew can acknowledge they have their orders. At a future date the panels will drive working semaphores. I added a central pigeon-hole board above South Slocan at the entrance to the layout room. The dispatcher puts train orders and clearances into the ap- propriate slot so crew waiting for clear- ance or orders just go to the pigeon hole board and pick them up.
After trying and rejecting radio
Extra 4104 East (above) is on its way to Paulson and Farron where it will rest before de- scending the 25-mile long 2.2% grade into Castlegar. Plow Extra 8606 (below) drifts down- grade through McRae canyon (at M62) on its way to buck slides which are reported down on the west side of Farron Hill between here and the foot of the hill at Cascade.
headsets for the crews to OS the dis- patcher, I installed wireless telephone handsets which are used in intercom mode. The phones were installed in un- der an hour (no wires!) and there are no coiled phone cables hanging down from the fascia (but the handsets do need charging monthly). It has been a great project. After six years the C&W is 100% operational and more than half scenicked. The use of CAD dramatically sped up the wood- working, as did performing all major construction tasks at one time: i.e., all framing, followed by all track laying, followed by all wiring, all fascia, etc. If I could do it now I would use LED lighting in place of CFL’s due to their thinner profile and lower heat. Thinner lights may have permitted a narrower deck-to-deck height and reduced the mainline helix from two turns to one. Less hidden trackage on the mainline is always preferable! The CFL lighting adds about the same heat to the layout room as six or seven operators and, even with a high volume fan in the ceil- ing, it does get warm in the garage in the summer. I should triple the 150 cfm capacity now in place, so plan for heat load when you plan your layout! If I had more room I wouldn’t do
much differently. I would first add dis- tance between Nelson and Castlegar, then figure out a way to add the sawmills of Grand Forks and/or Midway to the western end of the layout. Other than that I would just spread any addi- tional space between the stations. The next and final installment in this series on CPR’s Boundary Subdivi- sion will feature Scott Calvert's previ- ous HO scale version of the Boundary Sub set in the early 1960’s and will touch briefly on his new layout.
RAILROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN 61
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