According to this article, the Clinchfield Railroad Museum opened June 3, 2011. As a long-time fan of the CRR, I can’t wait until my next visit to the Erwin area to visit this museum!

You can visit the xkcd web site to see this comic and many others, but I’ve also embedded the comic here:

This xkcd comic embedded under the terms of the xkcd license, which is a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License.

NOTE: When reading comics on the xkcd.com web site, be sure to hover your mouse over the comic long enough to see the alt-text pop-up for the image. There’s usually additional humor there as well. You might want to see the alt-text popup for this model railroad comic by visiting the xkcd website.

For more about Randall and xkcd, visit the about page on xkcd.com.

I’ve been very happy with the VTech phones. We use them as our regular house phones when not operating. The intercom ring is different from the incoming call ring, and the system does not have to connected to your home telephone network. The base unit does need to be powered using the included wall wart.

When I researched wireless phones, I knew that I wanted an easy to use intercom system. I looked at several different types of phones, but I decided on the VTech phone because of the straightforward operation of the intercom system. These phones are simple to use, especially with the station number cheat sheet I put on the back. To initiate a call, you simply press the INT button followed by the number of the station to call (1-6 in my case). To answer an intercom call, you simply press the INT or TALK button. To end the call, you can either push the INT or OFF button.

I’ve never encountered any interference on these handsets, either as an intercom or as a phone. I’ve also experienced no interference between the phones, the FRS radios, the wi-fi network, and the Digitrax radio (simplex only) network.

I investigated many wireless alternatives, and the VTech phones seemed to have the best balance of features, price, and ease-of-use. The only negative thing about these phones (and it’s a quite minor negative for me) is they do not have a headphone jack. Not having the headset jack has been fine during op sessions, but a headset would be convenient at times when used as a regular phone. This particular VTech model is expandable up to 12 handsets, which would likely be sufficient for all but the largest of layouts.

I got my phones from the OfficeMax web site when they were on sale just before Christmas 2009. The phones have also been available from warehouse clubs and online retailers, such as Amazon. I’ve seen the 5 phone set priced between $79 and $99, depending on the vendor and any special pricing.

These phones supplement the existing FRS radios used during an operating session. The dispatcher and train crews still use FRS radios to communicate, while the “management” positions (the Supervisor of Train Operations, SD Dispatcher, North Salem Yardmaster, and Superintendent) use the phone/intercom network to communicate. Having the phones available has reduced the radio traffic for the road crews. The fifth phone from the original set serves as the crew call phone for the “crew lounge” (i.e. family room) when we have enough operators present to have off-duty train crews.

Since my initial purchase, I added one more phone at S.E. Catawba, which gives me a total of 6 VTech phones now. This additional phone represents a call box at the south end of the Catawba passing siding. The crew of southbound trains that terminate in the North Salem Yard use this phone to call the North Salem Yardmaster for yarding instructions.

After having lunch with my parents, Cherie and I headed over to her folks’ to have supper on Christmas Day. Rain, sleet, and snow had been forecast for the afternoon of December 25. Nothing actually fell during the afternoon, but we kept an eye on the sky. The rain started after we ate supper at Cherie’s parents’ house. We took my sister-in-law and my nephew home, and while we were saying good-bye in their driveway, the rain changed to snow.

We headed towards home, and as we got closer, we noticed the snow started sticking to the grass and trees. By the time we went to bed, there was a light dusting on the ground. However, there was enough accumulation to record 0.4 inches at the airport’s official weather station.

We woke up on Sunday morning to find the storm had dumped quite a bit of fluffy white stuff from the sky. There was roughly another 6 2/3 inches on December 26, giving us a grand total of about 7 inches. That’s a fairly significant amount of snow for us, and we usually don’t get any significant snowfalls outside of January, February, or early March. This storm was our fourth “winter event” already in December–the prior three didn’t really have any significant accumulation, though.

What does this have to do with the Shenandoah Division? Not much, other than this: I never thought I’d see snow on Christmas at Shenandoah Division World Headquarters!

Bruce standing in front of Shenandoah Division "World HQ" on December 26, 2010.

Here's how the back yard at Shenandoah Division "World HQ" looked on December 26, 2010.

…a crew safety training film shown to new crew members on the railroad.  It discusses train orders, signaling and radio discipline, in addition to showing a run of a train on the railroad.

This training video provides an excellent overview of Crandic operations, and it also covers several introductory topics about operating on a model railroad. I’ve operated on Pat’s Crandic Route several times over the past few years. Still I did learn a new thing or two, especially what to do after a dangerous situation occurs.

Watch it when you have a spare 10 minutes. Be sure to stick around at the end for the credits.

The clip is a little less than 4 minutes long, and I found Rod’s commentary quite interesting—especially where he tells the audience to quit laughing about model trains! He and Jimmy discuss Rod’s cover article from the December 2010 issue of Model Railroader, which just arrived in the mail today for me. Rod also mentioned that he and Roger Daltrey share model railroading ideas via email, and he discusses how he builds models while on the road.

A look at the Salem Terminal during backdrop repair and wiring installation.

After the conclusion of NC RailRun 2010, I’ve been working on some infrastructure projects over the last several weeks. These projects have been  on the to-do list for quite some time, but I’ve lacked the motivation to start them until this fall—I need to finish these projects so I can move on to more interesting projects. I’ll have more to write about these projects later.

In any event, when I walked into the railroad room this past Sunday evening to continue working on these projects, I thought to myself “this is not my beautiful railroad.” [1] I turned around and got my camera to record what is the usual state of the Shenandoah Division while I’m working on the layout. Maybe other layout owners succeed in staying organized while working on the railroad, but I don’t.

[1] Apologies to Talking Heads.

Dave, one of the regular operators, appears to be having fun helping out the NC RailRun visitors.

On Saturday, September 4, 2010, four members of the regular CSX Shenandoah Division crew helped me host nine visitors for an all-day operating session as part of NC RailRun 2010, a three-day Operations SIG operating weekend. The nine visitors came to North Carolina representing five different states: California, Colorado, Georgia, Maryland, and North Carolina.

Chuck has climbed on board Norfolk Southern train Z233 at Shenandoah Junction before beginning to head southbound on CSX. Norfolk Southern trains use trackage rights over the Shenandoah Division in an arrangement based on prototype CSX and NS practice in southwestern Virginia along the former Clinchfield.

While I’ve hosted operating sessions on my current layout since 2005, I had never before attempted an all-day session. Steve Benezra, the organizer of NC RailRun 2010, asked me to host two sessions for this year’s event. I agreed to his request, so I held my two operating sessions back-to-back on Saturday with a lunch break in-between. NC RailRun 2010 presented the opportunity for a couple of personal firsts: (1) I’ve never run two sessions in the same day on the Shenandoah Division, and (2) I’ve never hosted a session beginning in the morning—we usually operate on a Saturday afternoon with occasional evening sessions.

The day started with the arrival of crew members (regulars and boomers alike) around 9:00 a.m. with a crew briefing at 9:15 a.m. followed by an orientation tour of the Shenandoah Division.

Before starting to operate the CSX Shenandoah Division during NC RailRun 2010, the crew assembles for a group photo. Clockwise from front: Bruce (kneeling), Rodney, Chuck, Travers, Bill R., Rich (behind Travers; Shenandoah Division regular crew), Seth, Barb, Al (behind Barb; Shenandoah Division regular crew), John, Bill W., Doug, Dave (Shenandoah Division regular crew), and Jan (Shenandoah Division regular crew)

After the briefing, we took a group picture including both the regular crew and the boomer operators. I began taking group photos at the start of operating sessions after my first visit to my friend Pat Lana’s Cedar River and Iowa Central Railway (the CRANDIC Route) in 2006. [Pat jokes that he takes group photos so he'll have a list of "suspects" if any of his locomotives are missing. But it is nice to know who attended a session when looking back years later.]

I followed my friend John Parker’s lead by having crew members draw numbers to select operating assignments. Once the visitors selected positions for the first half of the day, the session got underway a little after 10:00 a.m. and was proceeding smoothly until a mysterious short occurred. With some much-appreciated help from Dave (one of my senior operators helping out for the day), we isolated a short-circuit in the turnout at the north end of New Castle. Dave and I replaced the turnout just in time for the lunch break between the morning and afternoon sessions around 1:00 p.m.

After everyone chowed down on grilled hamburgers and hot dogs, the visitors selected positions again in the reverse order from the morning. We resumed operating, and the session was proceeding quite nicely. Unfortunately another mysterious short happened; Murphy definitely decided to pay a visit to the Shenandoah Division on this day as the railroad usually runs well. Following some additional attempts at isolation, we found an autorack which had lost the bolster pin on its lead truck. The truck was being dragged along under the autorack, causing an intermittent short when its wheels would rub against the metal underframe.

On the head end of train R496, Rodney has a steady hand on the throttle as his heavy tonnage train attacks the northbound Rich Patch grade.

In spite of the delays caused by these issues, the visiting crew did an awesome job moving traffic over the division. At the end of the session, we had completely run 24 trains with 6 others out on the road; we did annul one assignment, the Eastman Switcher. We stopped running trains at 6:00 p.m. (real time) for a group supper at a local restaurant where we enjoyed good food and good company.

Holding the Mason Creek Switcher assignment, Bill R. works the north end of the North Salem Yard. The Mason Creek Switcher works under the direction of the North Salem Yardmaster to classify cars and hostle locomotives as needed.

At the end of 2009, I revised the sequence of trains to have the railroad constantly re-staged to reduce the time I spend preparing for sessions. While I had run three op sessions earlier in 2010 with the revised sequence, this all-day session served as the biggest test as there was only a slight bit of re-staging needed during the lunch break. In fact, we began operating again at 2:30 p.m. rather than the planned 3:00 p.m. I’m quite pleased with how the sequence of trains allows minimal re-staging work.

With assistance from CSX regular Al (on right), Seth dispatches the railroad using CATS during the second shift of the session.

I really enjoyed the session, and the visitors did a great job running the Shenandoah Division. A big thanks to Al, Dave, Jan, and Rich for helping me host John, Rodney, Bill W., Doug, Barb, Bill R., Chuck, Seth, and Travers!

[Click on any of the images in this post or other posts on the CSX Shenandoah Division blog to see a larger image.]

Bill W. works New Castle, Va. on train B718 during the second shift. B718, the New Castle Shifter, runs from North Salem to New Castle and return. This train works Catawba Yard along with industries in Abbott and New Castle. It's not unusual for B718 (or its counterpart B717) to return to North Salem with 25 or so cars.

During first shift, Jan (facing the camera) is helping Bill W. (on left) with the Mason Creek Switcher. On the right, Chuck is climbing on board northbound E726. And, in the background, John is hard at work running the Covington Shifter.

Depending on circumstances at each session, I usually take pictures throughout the session. At this session, I didn’t get the opportunity to take many, mainly because I was working with Dave to try to debug the short at New Castle. Travers Stavac sent me some of the pictures he took during the session and graciously agreed to let me use them here.

Rodney watches as he runs R496 northbound at Rich Patch, Va. Photo courtesy of Travers Stavac.

Chuck brings a northbound E726 hopper train into the south end of New Castle, Va. while northbound R496 grinds upgrade around the Corkscrew at Rich Patch, Va. Photo courtesy of Travers Stavac.

On the right, John's working the Covington Shifter at Covington. In the left background, Barb appears to have everything under control as the North Salem yardmaster. In the left foreground, Jan helps Bill W. (out of sight) with the Mason Creek Switcher (the north end yard job). Photo courtesy of Travers Stavac.

Seth observes as Doug and Al confer about the next move for the dispatcher. Doug served as first shift SD Dispatcher in Jacksonville, while Shenandoah Division regular Al helped. Photo courtesy of Travers Stavac.

About two fast hours into the session, first shift dispatcher Doug confers with Al, a regular Shenandoah Division dispatcher, about the lineup for the session. The Shenandoah Division uses a 3:1 fast clock, and the clock started at 18:30 for this session. Photo courtesy of Travers Stavac.

When making resistive wheelsets, I attach the surface mount resistors to the wheelsets with this glue.

After one of my clinics at the NMRA National convention in Milwaukee this past summer, an attendee asked me what glue I used when making resistive wheelsets. Unfortunately, I could not remember the exact name, so I told him I’d post it to my blog. So here it is—better late than never.

I use Loctite® Super Glue ULTRA Gel™ as shown at right. You can buy this glue at various big-box discount and home improvement stores.

I prefer this glue over epoxy as I can better control the application of the glue, while I prefer it to other super glues (CA glues) because it has better elasticity.

Prior to the May 2010 operating session we used FRS radios on two separate channels: the dispatcher used one channel to talk with road crews, with the supervisor of train operations, dispatcher, North Salem yardmaster, and superintendent used a second channel. When crew size warranted, the STO used a third channel to call crews from the crew lounge.

After operating several times on the BNSF Fall River Division, and using the intercom system there, I decided to use cordless telephones with intercom for communication between the STO, dispatcher, North Salem yardmaster, superintendent, and crew call. The dispatcher continues to communicate with trains crews via FRS radios.

Here's an example of one of the VTech 6229 phones in use as an intercom at North Salem yard.

After doing some  investigation, I decided to use the VTech 6229 wireless phone system (note: link to Amazon for convenience). This phone system allows up to 12 handsets to be used, and it has an easy to use intercom system.

I initially bought the 5 telephone set to cover the locations I needed, and I later added an additional phone at the south end of Catawba so train crews inbound to North Salem can call the yardmaster for arrival instructions. To assist crew members, I made a list of the intercom stations and attached it to the back of the phone as shown in the photo above.

One of his recent updates explains how he’s constructing a scene on the SNE based on a prototype photograph. His report particularly interests me because I enjoy learning how owners of other prototype-based freelanced railroads develop signature scenes which represent the locale they’re modeling. When I return my focus to building scenery on the CSX Shenandoah Division, I plan to include several such scenes based on favorite spots along the Clinchfield/CSX Blue Ridge Division.

When first added to the operating assignments, this role was known as the Trainmaster, partially because I had used a similar title on the previous version of the Shenandoah Division. I also wanted the crew member holding this assignment to assist in actively managing the session. After a discussion with friend who hosts op sessions on a large layout, I later changed the name to Traffic Manager to reinforce the management portion of the role.

On a recent Clinchfield railfanning trip, another friend reminded me about the position of  Supervisor of Train Operations (STO). In his article Men Against Mountains (October 2001 Trains magazine) Ron Flanary discussed this job, which was used on CSX’s former Clinchfield line to maximize throughput by assisting dispatchers located remotely from the railroad.

While some elements of the job on the Shenandoah Division are not related to the prototype position, I’ve decided to once again change the name for this role to Supervisor of Train Operations. While the basic duties of the STO role remain the same as that of the Traffic Manager, the new title more accurately reflects the importance of the position to smooth operations on the Shenandoah Division.

I first encountered the CRR in person in October of 1982, shortly before the railroad ceased to exist as an independent entity. Three other railfan friends and I made our first trip to the CRR to photograph trains and observe operations of this railroad first hand.

At the time I only had a Kodak Instamatic 126 camera borrowed from my mother. I couldn’t afford much film or processing, so I didn’t take many pictures, which was probably just as well since most of the ones I took aren’t that great. No matter how much I’ve forgotten in general, I still have plenty of images from this trip embedded firmly in my mind.

The power on trains was painted predominantly in the CRR black and yellow scheme, but there were still gray and yellow painted units to be found. The French gray paint scheme of the Family Lines System had appeared on plenty of locomotives as well, including the infamous Clinchfield F-units. Cabooses, including some of the ATSF style offset-cupola cabooses, still provided a punctuation mark at the end of trains. Many of the depots were still open with agents still working in them. In fact, conversations with the agents at the Clinchfield’s Marion, NC depot provide some of my fondest memories of railroading.

A railfan friend had provided us with a letter of introduction to one of the CRR officers at the railroad’s headquarters in Erwin, TN. When we arrived we found out this officer was on vacation, but we were allowed to walk around the inside of the headquarters building. We even had a brief visit in the dispatcher’s office, where we saw the Clinchfield’s CTC machine in action. We spent the better part of a three-day weekend exploring the CRR between Erwin, TN and Bostic, NC.

I made another trip to the CRR in April 1983 to explore again from Marion, NC to just north of Johnson City, TN. However, this trip occurred after the CRR disappeared into the Seaboard System (SBD), and at the time the railroad didn’t seem quite the same to me. Looking back, I wish I had been able to make trips to the CRR more often in the 1980s, but I generally railfanned closer to home on other CSX and NS (NW and SR) lines because funds were tight while I was in high school and college.

After graduation from college and getting a “real” job which paid “real” money, I started making more frequent trips to the CRR when time allowed. Of course, now the railroad was being run by CSX. Locomotives and rolling stock reflected a rainbow of CSX and predecessor paint schemes, making the late 1980s and early 1990s a very interesting era to model. The CRR railroaders were still moving coal and merchandise traffic as efficiently as ever, and I attempted to observe the CRR in action as much as possible. Of course, I’ve never been able to go the CRR as often as I’d really like, partly because of the distance from my home.

After the Clinchfield was folded into the Seaboard System, the route has been part of several different SBD and CSX divisions over the years. Immediately after the merger, the railroad was the SBD Clinchfield Division. During the CSX era, the CRR has been part of the Corbin Division, the Appalachian Service Lane, the Appalachian Division, and the Huntington Division.

Erwin, Tennessee was the home to the CRR corporate offices and main classification point. Erwin served as the division point between the North End and South End. During SBD and CSX operations, the CRR has been split into two subdivisions. The North End is the CSX Kingsport (KP) Subdivision and the South End is the CSX Blue Ridge (BR) Subdivision.

For a while in the early and mid 1990s, the CRR was part of the CSX Blue Ridge Division, with headquarters in Erwin. The name of this division, along with the division HQ in Erwin, revived my notion of the CRR operating as its own entity rather than as part of a larger CSX division. The CSX Blue Ridge Division consisted of the Kingsport Subdivision, the Erwin Terminal, and the Blue Ridge Subdivision, along with several other adjacent subdivisions. The CSX Blue Ridge Division was relatively short-lived, and the CRR was folded once again into larger CSX divisions.

While the Clinchfield Railroad has been gone since December 31, 1982, I have continued to make one or more trips to the CRR in most years since the early 1990s. I still refer to the railroad as the Clinchfield or the CRR even though CSX now runs the route. Regardless of what company has run it or what paint scheme is on the motive power, operations on the Clinchfield Route have inspired my model railroading for nearly 30 years.

Once the mountains and railroading gets into your blood, it’s hard to resist the siren’s call of railroading on the Clinchfield. Trips to the current day CSX Kingsport and Blue Ridge Subdivisions are always enjoyable, and observing the former CRR in action never fails to provide inspiration for my CSX Shenandoah Division layout.

This theme allows me to add a footer, so some of the items which were in the sidebar on the right side of the page have been moved to the bottom. The location and layout of some of these items may change over time. And, I’ve also added a custom header image which I may update from time to time.

In fact, here’s a great article from his blog on how to build a modern highway. Jamie has done an excellent job of replicating the Interstate look.

Paul Downs models the L&N in N scale, and he has a tutorial on his web site showing how to use the New London Industries stencils to paint an Appalachian backdrop with fall colors.

The first benchwork was attached to the wall in March 2002, which I consider the start date of the layout.

I hosted the first operating session on this layout in March 2005. For the March 2010 operating session, I inserted a passenger special into the lineup to help commemorate the occasion. It’s hard to believe we’ve now been operating this layout for 5 years!

I really appreciate the help from everyone who has participated in constructing and operating the layout. I’m looking forward to continuing to make progress on the layout and to hosting many more operating sessions.

As I searched for open-source alternatives to traditional web site publishing software, I decided instead to use WordPress. I also decided to reduce my software administration overhead by using a hosted site at WordPress.com rather than my own installation of WordPress. I may change my mind later, but for now the blog will be hosted at WordPress.com.

I hope to make updates to this blog more frequently than I have been to the existing Shenandoah Division web site. I plan to leave all the existing content on that site for now. All new content will be posted here on the blog.

Blogging will provide me the opportunity to post smaller items in addition to (or instead of) larger progress and operating session reports. You may also notice some changes in appearance to the site as I decide how I want to structure the content and the appearance.

You’ll notice there is now search available directly on this blog, as well as the ability to receive updates via email or RSS.