Joe Fugate's HO Scale Siskiyou Line

Here are photos from actual Siskiyou Line layout op sessions ...

Charlie Comstock hostles power

It's the end of a run and Charlie Comstock runs his road power onto the turntable lead in Roseburg.

You can see Charlie using the EasyDcc throttle -- look ma, no tether! They're wireless, and once you give up the tether, you don't ever want to go back.

In front of Charlie is a shelf used to hold miscellaneous items (pens and post-it notes in this case). The 2-1/2" shelf is mounted along the bottom of the fascia in the town areas around the layout. This allows operators to have a place to lay out car cards for sorting, as well as providing a place to put other items, like a soda. By having these shelves, operators are encouraged to not set things on the layout.

Bill Murphy switches
Roseburg yard

Here Bill Murphy switches Roseburg Yard. Directly in front of Bill is the EasyDcc command panel (rarely used during an op session), and just to the right of the panel on the shelf are the card slots (clear plastic) for holding car cards.

Each car has a card, and as Bill switches each car to a given yard track, he places the card for that car into the card slot for that track. See the car cards section for more information and a close up photo of a car card and waybill.

Terry Roberts & Brandon Thompson switch
Dillard

Terry Roberts and Brandon Thompson got the Dole Turn, affectionately known by SP crews as the "Fruit Loop" (yes, that's what the prototype called it).

The massive Roseburg Forest Products facility at Dillard forms the one and only customer switched by this train, but that's enough! This one industry on the model can hold over 40 cars!

On this particular day, the Dole turn (Dole is a named location just past Dillard, by the way) has some 20 cars in it, which forms about half the total number of cars possible to have at the facility.

Brian Kelly waits at Cottage Grove

Brian Kelly (and Mike Faletti, out of the picture) wait for the dispatcher to give him clearance to use the main at Cottage Grove.

Brian drew the Yoncalla Turn, which leaves Eugene, switches Cottage Grove, then returns.

Behind Brian on the siding is a collection of water cars. During the warm months (April to October) the Forest Service requires all trains going over Rice Hill to have two water cars behind the locomotives spraying down the roadbed to douse any sparks. Cottage Grove and Roseburg, the two major towns on each side of Rice Hill, often play host to collections of water cars for this reason.

Dispatcher Mike Baynes at work?

Meanwhile, second trick dispatcher Mike Baynes says. "Let 'em wait."

"Those local crews think they own the road, so let 'em wait. I've got traffic that needs to get through so if they lose a couple of moves because they're keeping the main clear for a through train ... well, through trains are delivering cars too, you know."

The train crews have a favorite saying, "Check box 12 - The dispatcher is an idiot" (there is no box 12 on the track warrant form). It's all done in fun, of course. While we are serious about operating in a prototypical manner, we're not so serious that we can't have a good time!

Dispatcher Mike Baynes at work!

"Yoncalla Turn, SP7966, this is dispatch."

"Yes dispatch, this is 7966," replies Brian Kelley.

"As soon as Siskiyou Line East's caboose clears the east switch at Cottage Grove, you can have the main again."

"Thank you dispatch, 7966 out." Brian responds, glad he and Mike Faletti (next photo) can finally get back to work.

"Dispatch over and out." Mike Baynes says as he ends the conversation for now with the Yoncalla Turn. All in a day's work for a dispatcher on the Siskiyou Line!

The Yoncalla Turn's done!

Mike Faletti, who along with Brian Kelly has been running the Yoncalla Turn, tells Brian to call the dispatcher and inform him they're done with their work and ready to depart back to Eugene.

If you look closely at this photo (click on the photo to see a larger version) you can see the yellow stickies on the cab sides with the loco numbers. In a pinch, this gets the locos in service until I have time to come back to detail, decal, and weather them.

Keith Thompson (one-time editor for MR) came for an op session recently and a few days later, I got the following photo from him. Proves there's a prototype for everything!

Meanwhile back at Dillard ...

Meanwhile, Brandon and Terry keep working the Roseburg Forest Products mill at Dillard.

In the foreground you can see Brandon placing car cards for the cars they've spotted in Building 3 at spot 3a. This large facility has 8 different locations where it is possible to spot cars! Plus there is a slot for the siding, just in case there comes a need to leave cars on the siding itself.

I built this set of car card slots from 0.060" styrene in about an hour, then mounted it on the fascia with some screws and double stick tape. The slots are labeled with strips of yellow sticky for now. I eventually plan to paint the slots dark green to match the fascia and use my ALPS printer to print up some white decals to label the slots.

Now who is that with the camera?

Hey, who is that guy with the camera? Shouldn't he like, be running trains or something?

Enough with the camera already. "Dispatcher, there's an available guy here to crew your next train, due out right away, isn't it?"

(In case you haven't figured it out, that is me with my new 6.3 megapixel camera, taking these photos. Charlie Comstock took the photo ...)

Joe Fugate's HO Siskiyou Line Model Railroad