Carolina, Chicopee & Central Illinois

GP30 Nov 11, 2013

  1. GP30

    GP30 TrainBoard Member

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    I decided it was time to dismantle the Gulf & Ohio Midland a few weeks back. The layout, as it currently exists, is crammed into a 4'x10' closet. We really need the storage since the rest of our house has tiny closets, so down it comes. This has been easier than I had expected. The small space was really frustrating to work with, so I'm looking forward to an organized house.

    With the decision to dismantle the existing Gulf & Ohio Midland, I've been reconsidering the whole concept of the G&OM. Before I go into why I am abandoning the G&OM, I created the freelanced Class I carrier with the idea of a Tallahassee, FL to Lake Erie/Western PA route with several interchanges and sources of traffic. Of course I would only model a portion of this, but every "great" railroad has a theme and a story behind it, right?

    I decided that I probably over-thought the G&OM concept and created a system that was actually larger than a typical regional railroad of the late 1960's. I really want a regional road that would both originate and terminate within a region of the country that I am familiar with and can go out and visit and say "Hey, I like that! I'll incorporate that on my railroad".

    So without further ado, I announce the formation of the Carolina, Chicopee & Central Illinois. "The Chicopee Road", actually originates in Norfolk, VA area and runs west to Southern Indiana where CC&CI trains run through on trackage rights over the Illinois Central to Chicago. The route will be similar to both N&W and C&O routes but will run across Central West Virginia in old B&O country and then down along the Ohio River for the remaining trip to Evansville, IN. In the future, a layout will depict the CC&CI between the WV/VA state line westbound to Southern Ohio.

    So how did I come up with the name? Well, the CC&CI, like many other railroads is named for the regions it serves and includes some regional native american history. The CC&CI also serves northern North Carolina over the secondary main from Norfolk to Charlotte area and interchanges with a few prototypical railroads in that area (SAL, N&W, SOU, etc..), so that regional connection is how "CAROLINA" is included. The CC&CI also serves Southern Indiana and "CENTRAL ILLINOIS" via it's long-standing trackage rights agreement with the IC. (The IC is a minority shareholder of the CC&CI). I was not quite satisfied with the Carolina & Central Illinois name, as it still seemed to be missing something in its name that would make it stand out. I researched some indian tribes in the eastern US and ended up with the "CHICOPEE" name. The word is actually an Algonquin Tribe word describing a river in Massachusetts, but I liked how the Chicopee name rolled off the tongue so I bent history a little bit and relocated the term to a made-up native american tribe in the WV/KY/OH tri-state area.

    The Carolina, Chicopee & Central Illinois Railway will be primarily a coal hauler with destinations in Norfolk and onto barges on the Ohio River. The route through the eastern part of WV is probably the most treacherous route across the Appalachian Mountains, thereby putting the CC&CI at a disadvantage for moving through trains over its route. The CC&CI wil remain in the late 1960's like it's predecessor the G&OM was, due to my fondness of first generation power and the freight cars of the period. The CC&CI also plans to offer custom Accurail freight cars for purchase in the future.

    Locomotive paint scheme: Nickel Plate-inspired paint, with C&O influence on the long hood.
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    The CC&CI Logo.
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  2. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    You certainly have a good imagination! :) Will look forward to your future developments.
     
  3. JNXT 7707

    JNXT 7707 TrainBoard Member

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    Pat - I love the concept, really looking forward to seeing you model this. of course I am a little partial to WV mountain railroading. Good luck with it!
     
  4. GP30

    GP30 TrainBoard Member

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    Thanks for the kind words.

    Jerry, you are going to have to visit and run some trains if I ever get the CC&CI built.

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  5. Pacodutaco

    Pacodutaco TrainBoard Member

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    Cool concept. Keep updating this thread so we can see the progress you make.
     
  6. GP30

    GP30 TrainBoard Member

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    Made some progress over the last couple of weeks. I have a few things up on evilbay to help generate some funds for building construction. The holly tree is a large tree in a very small back yard. I've been trimming on the holly tree (ahead of its removal) in the backyard that is priority #1 before construction begins. Adding the proposed extension to the back of the garage will reduce space and this tree kills the grass and takes up room without providing any benefits.

    Please excuse the crudity of this sketch, just threw this together to get an idea of what I'm going to do this spring.
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    The plan is for an extension to the back side of the garage that will provide a 6'-6" x 23'-6" floor plan. This is the maximum space I can get out of the backyard without eliminating the use of it. The layout will be a two-level switching layout with a helix at the end of the room. Benchwork will vary between 18" and 30" depth. Two 18" x 80" sections of the existing layout (Ravenswood yard and unnamed Tunnel & tower scene) will be transferred to the new layout and extended. I have a 2'x4' completed wood desk that I'll be placing directly across from the 18" benchwork, this will leave 4 feet of aisle space... plenty of room for relaxation and kit building.

    I am working on preliminary track plans for upper and lower level, those will be posted for opinions in the future.
     
  7. GP30

    GP30 TrainBoard Member

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  8. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    This all seems to be evolving nicely. Is the garage a free standing building? The house somewhere behind it, out of view? That is a neighbor's home at right? If so, looks like you are quite closely spaced!
     
  9. GP30

    GP30 TrainBoard Member

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    The house is to the left just out of picture. The structure to the right is the neighbors garage and her house farther to right, all free standing. Might be 6 feet between garages, all free standing.

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  10. GP30

    GP30 TrainBoard Member

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  11. Colonel

    Colonel Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Looks great look forward to seeing progress
     
  12. GP30

    GP30 TrainBoard Member

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    Upper level!

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  13. GP30

    GP30 TrainBoard Member

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    I've completely redesigned the bottom level track plan. I was going to use an existing section of layout, "Ravenswood", I already have scenery on and all. However, the functionality of that yard is extremely limited with the capacity of 30-some cars total over 4 tracks. This section will probably be reused on a branchline to the cement plant. I'll rip out 2 or 3 tracks and squeeze it in there somewhere. Perhaps over the area of the desk on the upper level. I'll have to reballast most of the yard tracks as black slag ballast wouldn't stay black for long around a cement plant.

    I wanted to use Tony Koester's "Coal Fork Extension" as the basis of the new layout However, after I recreated it for my space, I found several fatal flaws in its design. Tony wrote in his articles that the CFE could operate as a stand-alone layout, but it is so severely limited in its function as all one could do is simply trade hoppers between on mine and the other. No trains were actually going anywhere without staging. New design has an A/D track with crossovers to the main at each end, 4 yard tracks capable of holding 20 cars each, yard lead, 3 track service facility and a caboose track. Open staging for the most part, but I may have a smaller section of staging to hide 2 or 3 trains just below the bottom level.

    I want two coal trains to originate east of Elizabeth, so I need at least two mines. Maybe one large one and a small one with an extra truck dump to generate more cars. Unfortunately, the redesign of the bottom level forced the elimination of one mine. Not sure if I can squeeze two 15-20 car coal mines on the upper level without them visually and operationally running into each other.

    I have around 180 cars, but only 30 of them are coal hoppers, so some investment will be needed there. However, I would like to be able to use all the difference types of cars on the layout but it is starting to look like my boxcars will spend a lot of time stagnant in staging. I will have a team track and a warehouse at Elizabeth but we're looking at 2 cars at a time.

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  14. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    In theory, what sort of daily car load generating capacity would be typical for mines of the size you propose? Is one train out pretty much normal? Or is more possible, if efficient, etc?
     
  15. GP30

    GP30 TrainBoard Member

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    I would like to see each mine produce 20-car trains, the yard at Elizabeth is designed on that concept.

    It just occurred to me that I could place a mine on top of the helix and another mine at the far right end of the layout. Ill have to go xtrackcad and doodle on the top level later. A long run around track, mountain side and a broad curve could provide a visual divide between the two mines.

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  16. GP30

    GP30 TrainBoard Member

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    Two mines, each one would get a train in and a train out in.

    Empty train depart Elizabeth and crawl up the mountain (helix) to a mine and leave the empties on the run around. Power goes up to the mine and pulls all the loads off the hill and leaves them on the main. Cross over to the empties on the run around and shove them up to the mine and spot them.

    Get loaded train together, make an air test and glide back down to Elizabeth or onto staging below.

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  17. GP30

    GP30 TrainBoard Member

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    Weather has kept things slow around here, so I made a short teaser video. The actualy video clips are a couple years old before we got a new video camera, so quality will be much, much better in the future.

    [video=youtube_share;yLwTtOnuRY4]http://youtu.be/yLwTtOnuRY4[/video]
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 28, 2014
  18. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Cool! And right up front is a MILW ribbie box car! :)
     
  19. GP30

    GP30 TrainBoard Member

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    Latest version of the upper level plan. At least three scenarious can work on this level:

    #1. Empty Coal extra for Bryner's Run departed Wirt Yard in Elizabeth and climbed the hill (helix) Eastbound thru Creston. The Operator at Tower 431 has the switch lined for the siding to the mine. The train clears the main and the power cuts off the head end when he reached the mine at Burning Springs (at the far right) and hops back over to the main after clearance from the tower operator. The power runs all the way back to Creston and slides back over to the rear of the train and clears the main, and will use the branch line running to the left as a lead track. All cars are shoved to the mine and spotted on each of the tracks. Trains to Bryners Run are "turns", so the power and crew stays to load the train. When the train is loaded, they collect all cars and return to Elizabeth.

    #2: Empty coal extra for Avery Coal Co's mine mine departed Elizabeth and climbed the hill (helix) eastbound to Creston. The Operator at Tower 431 has the switch lined for the siding between Creston and Burning Springs. The train clears the main and with Tower 431's permission, return to the main at the far left to run around its cars and access the loaded hoppers at Avery Mine. The power may have to collect it's caboose off the end his empty train to save extra work later. With the power sandwiched between it's caboose and the loads, an air test made and pulled out to the main track. Back at the Burning Springs switch, the power cuts off the loads (with the caboose) and crosses back over the the empties waiting on the siding, these cars are shoved into the Avery Mine tipple and spotted. The power leaves the caboose on the siding to the East of Tower 431 and pulls the loads past the crossover at the tower. The train is shoved back to pick up the caboose (or the caboose can gravity drop) and make an air test before departure for Wirt yard.

    #3. An local train with mixed cars departed Wirt Yard and climbed the hill (helix) and crosses over to the siding at Tower 431 in Creston. The local will make a reverse move, shoving its train down the branchline, behind Avery Coal Co and behind the helix through a tunnel. At the other end, the local will shove into the run-around at Phillips Cement & Supply. The branch line is both literally and in the full scope of the design is a dead-end spur, an old main cut off and partially pulled up years before. No outside communication with dispatcher or tower operated is needed until the work is done and ready to go home.

    Covered hoppers of cement are delivered as well as empty open hoppers for limestone are spotted. There may also be a bulkhead flat or a boxcar for the sawmill at the beginning of the branchline. With at least 4' of aisle space available for a 12' run left of Phillips C&S, I can place a 12" shelf for that run with a couple of background buildings and flats. Likely to place a natural gas industry at the very end with a small rolling mill part way down. When all work is completed, the train will contact Tower operator and get clearance. After permission granted (remember, this train still holds it's "work-between" warrant), the local will runn the siding to Burning Springs, power cross over to the main and run around it's train back to Creston and return to the siding. After making the air test, the local can return to Wirt Yard.

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  20. GP30

    GP30 TrainBoard Member

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    Smartphone picture, not that great but it is enough for this update. I've been applying numbers to numberboards this past week. From L to R: GP30 #3285, SD45 #4533 and U23B #2061.

    The GP 30 was actually a Nickel Plate unit. Patched over numbers and lettering with black trim film. I discovered the magical powers of Solvaset, I love decal applying!

    The SD45 was a PRR unit, once again, lettering keystones and numbers patched over with black trim film. I haven't applied numbers to the battery boxes yet like I have one the others, that will be coming. Still have 4 more that need same treatment.

    The U23B was an undecorated unit from the start. I've had it nearly 10 years, added a decoder in it. In 1967 these were a very early production from GE so these will be "brand spanking new". I really need to find a satin clear finish so it will have a slight shine to it. Not thrilled with how the paint came out, might strip and start over. Maybe I can clean up color lines without stripping.

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    Important to get my DCC units done first as they will be the first units on the new layout.

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