Switching Action at Mountain King Potatoes

[Gary S]

Finally got Mountain King substantially complete. Here is a sequence of switching which mimicks the prototype as evidenced on page 1 of this thread. Compare this sequence to page 1...

First, an overhead shot of Mountain King and the empty SLC reefers at the potato unloading ramps.

   

There are 7 empties total at the unloading ramps (2 empties on track 1 and 5 empties on track 2). Our job is to pull all those empties and replace them with 6 loads that are coming in from the Pearland Yard.

The empties:

   

Here are the loaded cars on the spur. The locos are behind the loaded cars, having pushed them from Pearland Yard onto the industrial spur.

   

The first move is to get all the empties onto Track 2, clearing up Track 1 for loads. Here we are backing into Track 1 and coupling to the 2 empties there.

   

Once coupled, we pull the 2 empties out of Track 1.

   

We pull the 2 empties past the turnout so we can push them onto Track 2. This gets all the empties on Track 2, and Track 1 is clear so we can spot 5 of the loaded reefers there.

   

We throw the turnout and shove the 2 empties into Track 2 and leave them there.

   

So Track 1 is now clear. We shove the loaded reefers onto Track 1:

   

continued next post......