I was preparing to depart the main-level staging yard with an interchange train, I noticed sev- eral other trains departing from the middle-level staging yard that went off to other sections of the I&StL. They were mostly Santa Fe and Gulf, Mobile & Ohio passen- ger trains, GM&O unit coal trains and freights, or Santa Fe freights. Over the session, there were quite a few of these “other railroads” trains coming and going into staging. It started reminding me of the Thanksgiving Day parade I had seen on television just a cou- ple of days prior to the operating session. Of course, there were no Underdog or Peanuts floats, but the run of one passenger train af- ter another was very much like a parade. Add in a few “scenery” freights as well. Trains of all sorts of different colors that passed through the layout for a moment and everyone says, “Ooooooo… aahhhhhh.” And that’s it. No
picking up or setting out. Maybe a station stop, but that’s it. Just a quick look. These so-called “scenery trains” are supposed to be just that — scenery. They are foreign- road trains that encircle the base- ment on mostly hidden track. The usual array of AT&SF and GM&O trains does look nice for their brief appearances. I’m not sure how many there are in a giv- en operating session, but there had to be, what? Ten or more? Okay, Mike, your operating sessions are set up as three, four real-hour “tricks,” represent- ing a 24-hour day with a 2:1 fast clock. So there’s probably about 30 scenery trains in a typical day. Isn’t the point of an operating session to create an interesting model railroad, where the trains have some of sort purpose? Sure, there are through trains, and I&StL has some of those. But most, if not all, I&StL passenger
trains have cars set out or picked up at Peoria Union Depot. And how many trains do you run during a given operating ses- sion — 50? So why the parade of scenery trains that just run around the basement walls, with operators attempting to keep up with their train as it circles the basement on hidden track? I can appreciate a little mix of foreign road trains that can cause interference for other trains or just for the sake of enjoying a model of a given classic train traversing the railroad. But for the serious operator, how many of these “scenery” trains have to parade along the basement walls on mostly hidden track before it’s just running trains instead of attempting to simulate the op- eration of a real railroad? By the way, do you take that train set down after Christmas? Just won- dering… otherwise, it was an en- joyable operating session.
Bill’s world On Bill’s Chicago, Peoria & Southern, a trans- fer from the Chicago & Illinois Midland has joined CP&S tracks and is about to cross the diamond of the Peoria & Eastern. The C&IM train is not a scenery train, because it works along the way, but provides variety and adds to the Central Illinois theme of the model railroad. The P&E caboose is scenery. It is there to enhance the location only — the track ends a few inches from the wall in front of the caboose and just to the right is the edge of the benchwork. — Bill Navigato photo
FEBRUARY 2016 79
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