Last Railfanning Day of 2011!

For an outing horribly interrupted by a failing camera and an accident in Hollywood, the pickings here are not bad at all.

Another New Plan

For the new year, I revised the plan up a bit. It allows more lineage due to the use of four corners instead of U-curves, maximizing the area I have. I'll be working on two boards ASAP getting the studs nailed on to them, then getting the supports. The challenge is one of them will be 4' high and the other will be 2'6" high.

Segment 1 is the lower horizontal, 2 is the right vertical, 3 is the top horizontal, 4 is the vertical (and I extruded some of it from the shelf that will go over it) and 5 is the Deerfield section.

BIG Model Railroading Tip

When planning your layout (long story on why it was delayed), never go with 180º Us. I made this mistake in the old plan and am reworking it. With my S-shape, I only have three lineal segments. I tried something different, using the allowable footprint. I made a lollipop design. Kinda like a swirl but it has five lineal segments. The more lineal segments, the less is wasted to your curve tracks. Also, by the minor warping, I may be able to incorporate a gradient on segment three that will allow the track to go below segment two.

With my new plan, I will be able to have a portion of South Dania, then on to Allsteel, City of Lauderdale, Cross Dock on an independent spur, Amerigas lead next to it (I may use the nearby curve to illustrate the spotting operation), then Fast-Dry, Bonsal, Boise, Home Depot, then Publix/Sun-Sentinel, then even Rankin. Lots of work. BrickAmerica, due to its incredibly low frequency, is being omitted from the layout.

My Local

This time I caught him working Fast-Dry Courts. He had an interesting cut once finished; 1 tank from there, 1 scrap gon, 5 Amerigas, 1 scrap gon, and 2 Cross-Dock reefers.

Welcome to Miami, once again...

Merry Christmas

The BEST O721 I have Caught in a While

One GP38-2, a covered hopper, centerbeam, gravel loads, and limerock empties. This is the mere shell of a classic O721 consist, in 2011. How nice for it to piece together my second to last BikeFanning Series from South Miami. (well, the handle is clearly visible) Why am I so up about the centerbeam? It's nostalgic. K&A Lumber used to receive it in hordes, and Stock too, with Stock getting similar Bulkhead Flats. I hope these two fallen soldiers will be active industries in the near future.

CSX O721 through Hialeah

These chases are FUN. A midnight chase through Hialeah where you're battling a speeding rock train. Nothing like it.

Speaking of Winter Break, I will also be working heavy-duty on the layout.

FEC and the Fort Lauderdale Airport Expansion

FEC big-wigs are currently negotiating a business contract to send trillions of tons of rock over from Medley to the future site of expanded Runway 9R/27L, an engineering feat, of Fort Lauderdale Hollywood Int'l (KFLL).

When I was on the mailing list, FEC fans and employees were talking about how the deal would work, and it was noted that Dave (ECH) put in that IF and WHEN the deal is done, that so-and-so figures of rock would be moved 6x a week for three years.

The current provisions are as follows:

• 300 carloads (30,000 tons) of rock to be moved
• 6x a week
• Would require two unit trains
• A spur track to be constructed in Fort Lauderdale 
• (Already) the double track is being expanded south of the airport

Why am I posting? To speak for the "IF" factor. Look at the numbers. 30,000 tons a day means that it would take, as cited by ECH, 1,000 dump trucks to do three round trips. For this, I simply do not understand why the deal is not done. It simply does not add up to know that businessmen are willing to fathom the clog-up of Interstate 95, Florida's Turnpike, and the like with gas-guzzling dump trucks.

Locomotives can run much more efficiently than dump trucks as well. Simply even on diesel engines, the triple round trip is not needed, even though I could see the function for two unit trains of 150 cars. But trains are not stop and go, and have more efficiency simply on steel wheel on steel rail. I am here to question why it is still possible with such a consideration that trucks do the job. We have trains for decent physics properties that allow the pooling of bulk material. Rock is a bulk commodity and shipping trucks around does not do the job. But I hope as time progresses people understand that this is a job for the train to do. Motorists would be happier to be stopped at a railroad crossing, a traffic control device, than a "freeway" that allows "free" motion.