Consists Length and Other Considerations

Planning the staging had me wonder how long would be the maximum consist length. As a matter of fact, most consists will need 2 units to pull them and a caboose (van). That means we can already allow 22 inches to them.

There's three scheduled trains on Murray Bay sub (my own version it is!): 1) 522/523 who handle traffic from Limoilou to Clermont; 2) 524/525 who moves cement hoppers between Beauport Flats (Pier 53) and Villeuve; and Limoilou Switcher who switches industries between Limoilou and Montmorency.

524/525 is an easy one to figure out. It carries only one commodity and works as a cement block train. It should be 12 cars long, most of them 40ft slabside hoppers and 50ft cylindrical hoppers or pressure hoppers. The worst case scenario involves 12 x 50ft cars, thus 12 x 7.5 inches = 90 inches + engines and caboose.

Option 1: Switcher Limoilou is a very important job.

The next question is to know if cars routed to Dominion Textile will be blocked on 522/523 or Limoilou Switcher. The to different graphics show both options. The first one is more prototypical but need you to run Limoilou Switcher in reverse up to Montmorency... But I can't hardly imagine 522/523 pulling Dominion Textile's cars more than 85 miles away before coming back to Montmorency. Feels awkward.

Option 2: 522/523 is now a more complex job.

Anyway, I used those worst case figures to determine the staging tracks length. Hope it will work, because I still have to fight this "reversing loop" issue. It is very hard to convince people you can actually run model train from point to point. The trainset oval is firmly rooted in people's mind.

Progress on October 31th, 2014

Also, I slightly modified the track plan to reflect modifications I made while building the trackage. The new track arrangement in Villeneuve is far better from an operation stand point. In red, the built trackage, in white what need to be done.