PCCM 48A

I decided to originate as much of this movement as I could on the new Malabar District. This would amount to a good operational test of how things would work out -- I'm still figuring out how to operate the district, as well as how to fit it into the larger layout's operating scheme. But this test turned out very well.

One thing I discovered is that westbound moves out of Malabar toward Jaques must be shoves, as changes in the grade will cause couplers to come uncoupled on pull moves up this hill. So this is a dominant factor and will determine how the outbound cut is made up.

The first job is to take GN 3630, bound for the Empire Belt, out of Malabar and use it to get the WP bulk sugar car in Paper Box.

The Santa Fe GP7 will need to run around it in Malabar to get it in position to pick up the WP car in Paper Box.

Now it starts its shove to Paper Box:

Meanwhile, the two reefers, a BAR bound for the Empire Belt and an NP bound for the Atlantic Pacific, are waiting in Paper Box. The WP bulk sugar car is also on the right.

Here comes the shove:

It passes the reefers and couples to the bulk sugar car:

The GP7 and the two boxcars move into the "sugar refinery", go onto a sector plate, and are rerouted onto the track with the reefers so it can shove them back to Malabar:

The whole assembly rounds the curve back into Malabar:

Now the GP7 has to get the boxcars back in order so it can shove the whole cut up the hill:

And off it goes!

So far, I'm finding that Atlas/Kato locos work best on the Malabar District. They have the flexibility to handle the vertical curves leading back through the wall and the power to shove cars up the grade to Jaques. I'm still working out what the industries will be longer-term, but I'm happy with using mechanical reefers on the district, as this exercise shows.

I'll finish up my part of the move tomorrow with PCCM 43B and hand off to Brian!