Alice Springs operations report, and changes.

Hi All

Roger and Shelly stayed over on Friday night, great to a catch up as usual, I also set up an operating session for Roger.

We had a couple of hours to operate, so set up one train number 347.  No switch list at this time.  However I staged industry replacements.  So the shunting exercise would be to replace like for like wagons, vans for vans, concrete wagon, for concrete wagon etc.

 Staged 166 stands at Alice Springs arrival and departure road, the Locomotive Depot is slightly over populated.

 AQWY 6001 sits at intermodal one, east end.

 As Roger shunted, the two back roads from the intermodal crane roads, were useful for running around.
Operational rules include keeping truck access roads at either end clear.

 Eastern intermodal and the locomotive depot.

 Industrial branch, west end, includes freight forwarders siding, Adelaide Brighton Cement, and steel distributors.

 The industrial branch, East to West, Dairy, BP, Caltex, Mobil, Kleen Gas.

 The AOGF is in Kleen Gas siding.

 The AHGX is positioned at the end of the Goods Shed siding.

 An overview of the yard looking East.

 CLP11 sits on the mainline.

 As a result of Roger's operating session, a couple of points were observed, that I could do better.

1. Too much rolling stock on the layout, I removed 34 wagons, makes operations more realistic, easy.
2. Train lengths are acceptable at the moment, however any additional length would make things easier, especially when the Cattle and Oil sidings come online.
3. Manually having to reverse each locomotive set, is something I would like to remove, even with double ended staging there would be manual reversal of the power.
4. Reverse curves look great, but the only one of any great size is in Alice Springs Yard.
5. No Triangle, Something I would really need, in the ultra modern version, due to the removal of the Turntable (for operational purposes I would just remove the turntable and leave the concrete footings)

So to improve on items 2 to 5, I have looked at adding three additional boards which features:

• A more defined S curve, great for visual "pleasure".
• More logical location for the Oil sidings, with Triangle.
• Separate location for the Cattle sidings.
• Incorporates a Triangle, which should give Bow River a more "Kulgra" look, and help ultra modern operations.
• South bound trains are now reversed around a long loop, and staging is properly hidden.
• Power can be reversed, via the triangle.
• 4ft of additional length for each storage sidings, thus 23ft train length, three storage tracks instead of two.
• With trains stored in each road, there is still 12ft of yard, which is clear of stored trains, and will create more operational functionality.

Below are some shots of the mock up.

 The plan.

Enjoy

Scott