Port of Catoosa Railroad

dalebaker Aug 17, 2015

  1. dalebaker

    dalebaker TrainBoard Member

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    image.jpg image.jpg image.jpg image.jpg
    I don't think I have ever posted a full photo set of the POC. So here it is. Going from west to east. The layout is L shaped with the long leg 16' by 15" except it widens out to 24" at the west end. The short leg is 4' long and has a 3' lead to set up inbound trains. The east end will be the site for future expansion a further 8' or so. The east end of the POC is serviced by BNSF and represents the Tiger Switch at Catoosa Oklahoma. The west end ties to the SKOL and connects to Owasso Ok. Going from west to east the following industries are switched:
    Word Industries (steel) against the sky board. Hughes Lumber is at the front of the layout. These are shown in the first photo.

    The second photo shows HARSCO Whse (heat exchanger, oil field large equipment) parts. There is a port team track there between HARSCO and Gavilon Grain. Gavilon Grain (west elevator) takes in mostly winter wheat. It gets inbound cars from both BNSF and SKOL.

    Tthe third photo shows an open area between Gavilon and on the end is Terra Nitrogen Fertilizer plant. It ships liquid nitrogen fertilizer.

    The last photo is the track leading to/from staging.

    So there you go, thanks for viewing my small rail empire.
    Dale
     
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  2. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    I need to see what Google can tell me about your prototype. I have heard that name or something seemingly similar, but know nothing more.
     
  3. friscobob

    friscobob Staff Member

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    Ken- the real Port of Catoosa Railroad is located on the Kerr-McLelland Intracoastal Waterway near Catoosa, OK, northeast of Tulsa. From this port, barge traffic can move on the Verdigris and Arkansas Rivers to the Mississippi River. It's a fairly busy port, and something you would never expect a landlocked state like Oklahoma to have, which is water access to the sea. This railroad, plus the Port of Muskogee RR where I live, make for great subjects to build a layout around.
     
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  4. dalebaker

    dalebaker TrainBoard Member

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    Bob,

    Do you ever make it up to GCMRA at Sand Springs? It would be great to meet you there some Saturday morning.
     
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  5. John Smith

    John Smith TrainBoard Member

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    Very awesome! Looks like you will have a fun time switching your layout! Keep up the great work! JMS
     
  6. Colonel

    Colonel Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    great to see what your switching layout is like, the more I operate my layout the more I'm convinced a switching layout offers far more opportunities to run, keep posting updates please :)
     
  7. dalebaker

    dalebaker TrainBoard Member

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    We ran operations the other night, actually my son operated the layout and I did some work on things. It took a bit over an hour to run the nights switching. That included the drops and pick-ups. The only industries that were not switched were the team track and HARSCO Warehouse. That worked 8 inbound and 8 outbound cars. That also included bringing cars in from Tiger and Owasso.

    I had the nice oppritunity to operate with the Springfield MO. club a month ago, they use a switch list and I got the honor of running one of their locals and switched along the way. It took well over 2 hours to run the list through the layout. I thoroughly enjoyed the evening!

    Operations has added a great new deminsion to modeling railroading. It's simple to set up and I think you could set up operations on any layout you can have.

    Thanks for looking guys and I certainly appreciate all the ideas I see. This board alone is worth the price of admission!!!
    I will keep posting updates as I go.

    Thanks,
    Dale
     
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  8. friscobob

    friscobob Staff Member

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    I've been there once, but due to my erratic work schedule I'm fortunate to even make it to Claremore to the C&S op sessions on the second Saturday of the month. I get a supervisor's position, they give me a 40-hour raise in pay........

    Aside from Google Earth, how do you even get to see the Port of Catoosa run? Or is it pretty much closed off?
     
  9. r_i_straw

    r_i_straw Mostly N Scale Staff Member

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    I was able to tour the facility a few years ago.
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
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  10. friscobob

    friscobob Staff Member

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    Here's my shot of POC 555, sitting in Sapulpa at the TSU shops (possible repairs), back in 2009.

    [​IMG]
     
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  11. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Interesting spark arrestors. And the headlight.... What is the heritage of this unit?
     
  12. dalebaker

    dalebaker TrainBoard Member

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    Well I have a pretty good view of it from the street in front of my house.... The buildings are freelanced, as well as the motive power. The industry names are real as well as the traffic and interchange railroads.
     
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  13. dalebaker

    dalebaker TrainBoard Member

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    One of our inbound hoppers from SKOL. A patched ex CNW now owned by WAMX. I think she needs some off-layout travels if anyone is interested. PM me to discuss it. image.jpg
     
  14. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Last bath, about forty years ago. Ha ha.
     
  15. gjslsffan

    gjslsffan Staff Member

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    I will gladly take it on the QA&P for a bit. It might take a few days to get from the to the elevator loaded with barley and up to the brewery in Quanah and back.
    Will send you a message with info.
     
  16. dalebaker

    dalebaker TrainBoard Member

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    Hi Tom,

    I got your message, I'll get to the post office and get it headed your way shortly. I look forward to seeing some photos of it on the QA&P. I have 5 more of them that I painted up for BN about 1990 that made a set of 6. the other 5 are going to get the same treatment. you will see it soon.
     
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  17. gjslsffan

    gjslsffan Staff Member

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    OK. Thanks Dale
     
  18. dalebaker

    dalebaker TrainBoard Member

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    As I mentioned above the POC RR gets a good amount of grain traffic coming in from the SKOL railroad on the west end of the layout. In actuality, just outside the main entrance of the port there is a Y. Cars from the west come in there to be switched at the port. Gavilon grain has 2 facilities at the port, a east elevator and a west elevator. I model the west elevator that receives mostly winter wheat. I have seen quote a few covered hoppers heading north back to Kansas on SKOL. Many of these have WAMX reporting marks. I decided to patch a set of Athearn 54' covered hoppers I painted for BN back in my first stint at model railroading in the late 80's. I did some looking online and found that WAMX had a number of hoppers that had been on the CNW at one time and still had the CNW logo on the side. I decided to patch the 6 BN hoppers over to WAMX. WARNING: These are not the actual type of hopper in use. These are what I have and I am using them to represent the hoppers in use for my layout.

    Here is the original hopper painted for BN:
    image.jpg
    I have removed the road number in preparation of patching the reporting marks. Since the new reporting marks will cover the BN, I chose not to remove them. In the above photo I also have the new reporting mark for WAMX. These are decals I made at home using my computer, decal paper and my MS Publisher program. I also created the CNW logo that will be on the car as well.
    image.jpg
    First step is to add the reporting marks and the logo to the side of the car. I use MicroSet under and over the decals and allow them to dry. While I'm waiting on them to dry I added the yellow reflective safety stripes to the car sides. These are now mandated on all cars in revenue service. I used a 1/8" wide yellow tape I purchased that is normally used on RC cars. I cut the tape in half. The tape used is 3" wide by 36" and 18" long. There is a minimum coverage mandated by the government on cars. I only try to approximate to get the look of it.
    image.jpg
    I will add one more post tonight showing the car with the tape in place and the reporting marks drying. I will finish this up in the next night or two. Thanks for looking.

    Dale
     

    Attached Files:

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  19. John Smith

    John Smith TrainBoard Member

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    Great job on the hopper! Since I do hand painted graffiti... if you send it my way, it might came back with more "tags"! LOL! JMS
     
  20. dalebaker

    dalebaker TrainBoard Member

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    Thanks John! I'm sending one of the set up to Tom to run on the QA&P, I'll have him send it your way if you want after it runs there.
     
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