C.N. Clearwater Sub
Owner: Norman Skretting
I began building this layout about 1997, four years after we moved into this house, in two rooms in the basement. The main layout room is about 14 x 22 ft and the staging yard area is in an irregular shaped room that is about 12 x 14. At the time it was a straight DC layout and I could run up to four trains at once using plug in and radio controlled DC throttles. I converted the layout to DCC using a Digitrax system about 20 years ago. The Digitrax system now supports plug in, Simplex, Duplex and WiFi throttles. Most (almost all) engines are sound equipped and can use auto notching or manual notching (if you like that sort of thing), and I have either Soundtraxx Tsunami2 or ESU decoders. The engines are speed matched and any engine can be mu’d with any other engine except for a few yard engines.
The layout is loosely based on the Clearwater Sub in British Columbia that runs from Blue River to Kamloops Jct. The sub is single track and there are three CTC controlled sidings and all of those stations have real or imagined industries. The signal system is from Signalogic Systems (Kevin Rudko) and can operate in standalone (ABS) or as a dispatcher controlled CTC system. The dispatcher, when CTC is used, is located in the adjoining bedroom using a laptop computer and a walkie talkie style radio system. A 4:1 fast clock is used in conjunction with the Digitrax and laptop controlled clocks which display in 24 hour format.
Car cards and waybills are used as well as switch lists for some trains and yard movements. The trains that operate on the layout are loosely based on trains that could have operated on CN during the time period that I model, which can be anything from the 1970s to the present. There are usually two passenger trains, two wayfrieghts, many through freights and two or three yards that operate during a session. The operation requires a staging yard operator, dispatcher, yardmaster and at least one yard crew, along with up to 6 or 7 road crews. The wayfreights that operate to switch industries along the line are usually operated with two man crews. A typical operating session will last from 3-5 hours and it can get pretty hectic for the dispatcher, yardmaster and the staging yard operator (usually me). Aisle congestion is a little bit of an issue along Kamloops Jct yard, but can be managed with a lot of dialogue between crews.
It is very rewarding for me to watch the trains run on the layout with the help of many.