EFfingham RailRoad

[Mr Fixit]

Oppps didnt realise it was a "just dont mention the war" kind of topic.
Glad to see that my mechanical knowledge is holding up though.
Mark

[ngauger]

Oppps didnt realise it was a "just dont mention the war" kind of topic.
Glad to see that my mechanical knowledge is holding up though.
Mark

It's fine that you mentioned it We'll get it fixed as soon as he posts the replacement Happy Belated B-day too!!!!!

[tomustang]

I fixed that gif but the guys don't want to replace it

Was that after we moved????? We can replace it now.. we're running the place We lost a lot of stuff when we moved.

No worries

[rrinker]

It's one of those optical dillusions - stare at it long enough and it looks like it's rotating counter-clockwise. If you're good you can make it change direction at will.

--Randy

[ngauger]

Looks OK now

[Ralph]

Headin' in the right direction!

[Mr Fixit]

I just realised with all my postings elsewhere here that I had let mine wither on the vine so to speak. D'oh.

I just looked back over some of the previous posts and realised that now the loco is turning and burning in the right direction, just how is he going to get anywhere without a major boiler explosion due to lack of water or running out of fuel given he has no tender and is not a tank engine?



These ARE important issues of Safety people so something must be done.

Meanwhile I will try to 'Do something' on my EFRR so I have something to report. It's too damn easy to just sit at the computer instead of actually doing something.

Mark

[Mr Fixit]

Shocking its been almost a month since I posted anything to this thread and whats worse is its my thread about my EFRR layout . For shame for shame.

My excuse is that I have been doing way too much viewing and posting on other threads here at Big Blue. Well thats my story and Im sticking to it.

Mark

[FCIN]

Shocking its been almost a month since I posted anything to this thread and whats worse is its my thread about my EFRR layout . For shame for shame.

My excuse is that I have been doing way too much viewing and posting on other threads here at Big Blue. Well thats my story and Im sticking to it.

Mark

I believe your story Mark. Very easy to sit in front of the computer, reading things, looking for information or scanning aerial views of certain areas, looking for inspiration. Then you finally get up and wonder where the time went that should have been spent working on the model railroad!

Ed

[Brakie]

Shocking its been almost a month since I posted anything to this thread and whats worse is its my thread about my EFRR layout . For shame for shame.

My excuse is that I have been doing way too much viewing and posting on other threads here at Big Blue. Well thats my story and Im sticking to it.

Mark

I believe your story Mark. Very easy to sit in front of the computer, reading things, looking for information or scanning aerial views of certain areas, looking for inspiration. Then you finally get up and wonder where the time went that should have been spent working on the model railroad!

Ed

Indeed..Here lately there's been a flood of great switching layouts to look over and steal-er ah,ahem, borrow ideas from.

Bing and Google maps is a treasure cove of ideas based on modern ISL designs.

[Mr Fixit]

Thanks for the absolution of 'modeller's guilt' guys.

You are right about Bing and Google being great research tools, although I must admit that Google Earth leaves both of them for dead. I will add that while useful, they cannot be taken as gospel, because the postmark date doesnt always gel with the actual photo shown. Case in point, until late last year the Google view of EFRR showed the Bunge/Hodgson Mill building as its original size when it had been doubled in size for at least 3 years, yet the postmark date at the bottom would lead you to think it was the most current view.

There are without a doubt some very interesting Industrial Switching Layouts [ISL] being designed and constructed at the moment so we are very fortunate to be able to 'liberate' some ideas for use on our own layouts.

Remember we never beg, borrow or steal anything, even ideas, we simply 'Liberate' them for the cause, whatever that maybe.

I have found it to be useful to regularly Google 'Effingham Railroad' as well as checkout Effingham on RRpicturesArchive, to catch things of interest. I recently caught some new pictures of EFRR #2716 in action unloading crushed rock aggregate from what is effectively a small unit train of Vulcan hoppers at the Mid Illinois Concrete bulk materials site on the EFRR. I was very pleased to find these new pictures which included a cab view from #2716 as well as some background details of Mid Illinois Concrete.

Yesterday I again Googled 'Effingham Railroad' and I found some video taken on the same day as the above mentioned photos, showing #2716 moving and then #2716 beginning the unloading of the second hopper in the consist.

A very exciting find indeed.

Mark

[Mr Fixit]

Effingham Railroad Unloading Vulcan Hoppers

Check this link <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://youtu.be/Gl_vrskYg8s">http://youtu.be/Gl_vrskYg8s</a><!-- m -->

For a brief view of EFRR #2716 unloading crushed rock from Vulcan Marterials hopper cars at the Mid-Illinois Concrete bulk materials site in the Effingham Business Park

Mark

[Mr Fixit]

EFRR #2716 on its way to throw TQW North Switch

A 15 sec. video of EFRR #2716 moving at the back side of Total Quality Warehouse, having just emerged from inside warehouse [TQW] and through TQW South Switch then heading for TQW North Switch. Note the electrical sub-station alongside TQW.

Link here; <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://youtu.be/eq-ekIyLSIQ">http://youtu.be/eq-ekIyLSIQ</a><!-- m -->

ps volume of #2716's EMD 567C is pretty high so be prepared to turn it down if you dont want to disturb others

Im not sure why the guy doing the video only shot 15 sec. when #2716 had to do all that movement forward and backwards. The interesting thing is that both he and the guy seen at the start of the video both posted photos of the activity from both videos, with the guy doing the video managing a cab ride as well.

Damn I have to get me to Effingham.

Mark

[Mr Fixit]

It would appear that Fred Frailey of TRAINS magazine has visited the Effingham Railroad [EFRR] and has written about his visit in his web blog. There are a number of photos included in the article as well as a track plan.

I was surprised by the article as it sort of crept up on me as I was searching the web.

As far as progress on my EFRR goes, I have been adding to my fleet of railcars by buying mostly covered hoppers but I also placed an order with my LHS for 4 Ortner 40' Aggregate cars [Walthers Platinum line] and 2 Bulkhead Flat Cars [Atlas Trainman].

I specifically ordered the Ortners because they are available in Vulcan Materials lettering and so saved me having to detail such cars. They were a bit pricey, but the biggest surprise was just how heavy the cars are.

I suspect that one of my next purchases will have to be a set of small scales to enable me to accurately weigh each car to make sure it complies with NRMA standards. At least on covered hopper car I bought recently seems to be under-weight and it probably is which is surprising.

I ordered in the bulkhead flatcars because one of EFRR and TQW's [the run thru warehouse] key customers is in the habit of receiving regular shipments of particle board sheet packs for use in cabinetry and when you employ 600 people you are bound to need a lot of materials.

Mark

[FCIN]

Nice article about the EFRR. I knew that they were storing a lot of cars on line, as last time I passed through Effingham, there were quite a few tank cars and a long string of new TILX 4 compartment covered hoppers (for transporting DDG) on the storage tracks along Pike Ave.

Good to hear that either Harlan Bakeries or Hogson MIll (the article doesn't specify which) is about to receive rail traffic again. Hopefully, the EFRR will continue to keep a good amount of traffic moving on their line. It is indeed an interesting, model railroad size, switching company.

I really wonder if the Illinois Western will ever really get off the ground. Right now the entire line consists of about 1,000 feet of track and one turnout to no where. If the economy doesn't pick up, I'd say the business park in Greenville, and the future track running east to the BNSF will just remain a hopeful enterprise. But we can always hope for the best. Would be great to see another neat little switching operation along I-70.

Have to agree that traffic on the Vandalia Railroad appears to have really fallen off since Pioneer Rail-corpse took over operations of that line. Just like in the article, every time I stop by there to check things out, the engine is sitting by the old interlocking tower (railroad office), but the last time I went by there, there were several cars on the interchange track.     I sure would like to catch the Effingham Railroad in operation, next time I head out that way. Guess I should give them a call to see when they'll be operating.

Got a track plan for your EFRR layout Mark?