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Sierra, El Paso & Northeastern Railroad
The Sierra Central Route
Hograils 2010 Operating Philosophy
For Hograils 2010, the layout is fully operational between Vaughn,
NM and Alamogordo, NM including the branchline from Cloudcroft to
Alamogordo. With two exceptions, all trains will be run out of Vaughn as
turns. Vaughn has three staging facilities: the ATSF and SP yards at
Vaughn and the ATSF mainline coming from Willard, NM. Two staging tracks
exist at the other end of the layout: the A&SM branchline and the SP
mainline from El Paso, TX. All staging is prototypically correct.
Train Movement
Train movement is controlled by Train Order. Time Table operation
is planned for the future, but for Hograils 2010 all trains will run as
extras. A dispatcher (DS) will manage the operation, which will consist
of eight trains during the operating session. The DS is a typical ornery
son-of-a-gun: a continuous stream of verbal banter is typical.
Operating Scheme
Car movement on the Sierra Central is based
on the car card concept ... with a twist. An Excel spreadsheet is used
to generate the following paperwork:
Switch list of the originating train
Station agent’s list (at each town)
that specifies certain cars to be picked up by specific trains,
cars that are priority moves, and other cars that can be picked
up by any train.
Crews will consult with the station agent to
determine cars that are available for pick-up. All cars that are picked
up will be manually added the train list by the crew.
Trains
The following trains will be run during the
operating session:
Coal train (turn) which switches the
mines at Ancho and Capitan and Vaughn Coal in Alamogordo
Reefer train (turn) which switches
several sidings in Alamogordo for icing, loading and re-icing
work.
Stock train (turn) which switches
sidings in Alamogordo and Vaughn
Fast freights 990 and 991 that only
switch Alamogordo and do not operate as turns.
Alamogordo & Sacramento Mountain
(turn) local that switches the Southwestern Lumber and other
industries in Alamogordo and returns to Cloudcroft.
Two local freights that switch can
switch any of the towns: one from the SP and one from the ATSF.
Typical train lengths are eight to ten cars,
with the exception of the A&SM local.
Uncoupling
Due to the difficulty in reaching across the
layout and in the interest of preserving many scratch built structures,
all single ended sidings have under the track magnets for ease of
uncoupling. Main line and double ended sidings require manual
uncoupling.
Enthusiastic purists may not like the
concept of delayed uncoupling which is encouraged my railroad
management.
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