50. Designing the Wakefield Goods Facility at McKinley Railway.

[@JamesPetts]

"Master of complexity" is the best job title ever.

[@ClinchfieldModelRailroad]

Although I enjoy the computers and electronics, it was pleasant to see this aspect of your layout.

[@mattsmith9222]

There are model railways and then there is McKinley, absolutely love what you guys are doing.

[@tomcarlos7929]

Thanks for the video. It was fantastic. It's great to see how yards are operated. I reckon it'd be a lot of fun.

[@kevinheard8364]

Very enjoyable... sounds like a great plan.... good job & thank you for sharing

[@markstafford5586]

Great video men. It looks like that station will provide hours of enjoyment for you team. As per usual, thank for the content.

[@dattouk]

Hi Mark, The plan is that every station will be quite different from the others. Never a dull moment for the operators.

[@lels3618]

Very detailed and great video! Thank you

[@NicholassTrainChannel]

Nice video. Looks like you guys have come up with a good design and plan for the goods Facility. Looking forward to the build of this area.- Nicholas.

[@chriscohlmeyer4735]

The Rolling Stone's - "You Can't Always Get What You Want" comes to mind. Great selection for a primary active industry for the location that has lots of action to contend with. Was thinking - 😜- add another goods train for the "other unmodeled industries" that arrives after most of the vans have departed, the train is broken up and put into the high yard to be "loaded and unloaded" then a different mix of cars reassembled for a departing train several hours later.

[@rjl110919581]

THANK YOU FOR VIDEO

[@langdontomkins001]

I might have missed the solution to turning engines.If you are sending brigades away I am assuming you have a triangle somewhere like Bourne Valley used to be. Triangles were probably quicker than turntables as long as they were local. Great progress. Love the videos. Fry the the old brain sometimes.

[@dattouk]

Possibly yes. We can turn trains on the layout. There is one big challenge we hadn't foreseen such as trying to uncouple three engines from each other. Thats a mission. Needs a re-think.

[@ainsleyperry5192]

Mckinley, David. Littlewoods winter cataloque alway's came with a supplement edition with all the Christmas toy's, bikes etc. For Christmas 1962 and 63 Triang's Scalextric racing sets were the no.1 toy sale in the country. Nice to see 3 Midland/ Fowler 3F' rebuilds working together. Do any of the 3 have a Stanier smoke box door or are they all Fowler doors? I can see Wakefield will be an interesting place to operate. Cheers, Chris Perry.

[@Holy_Moley]

Interesting. Quite enjoyed this one. Would be great to get in there and have a go at running it. Bit difficult from Australia!!! lol.

[@dattouk]

I'm thinking of how we could add internet operators in time. Keep watching this space. There's enough clever people around here to solve that one once we have the layout up and running.

[@Holy_Moley]

That would be fantastic, but I think you might get too many people.

[@andrewstevenson5449]

You're going to need fleets of Scammell Scarabs at the stations for distributing all those Aubrey's parcels. Will train operations out of Aubrey's vary seasonally, e.g. when the Christmas rush comes, they'll surely be despatching a lot more. Maybe that's one for the Master of Complexity, which sounds a great job title. But is it about creating complexity or finding ways to deal with complexity? :-)

[@dattouk]

he enjoys both ends of the complexity thinking. Creating problems and watching us try to solve them.

[@medwaymodelrailway7129]

Enjoyed the video.pick up some good tips.

[@mauriziomoris769]

ty a lot

[@rogerbass6235]

Well done for the ambition of your project. I may be missing something but - How does your operator keep track of which triplets are fully loaded and which are empty?

[@dattouk]

In the Wakefield yard which will be the next yard to come on stream with the RFID system where wagons are loaded and unloaded, the colour behind the wagons number of the freight manager screen changes colour (see video 52 for Sheffield example). There is a bit of work we have to do before we can show you this. We have to a) install Wakefield boards, b) wired it up, c) built the control panel and d) configured the freight Manager screen. So as you can see there some work to be done still, but the theory is there and hopefully we will have something to show by Xmas or spring.

[@rogerbass6235]

@@dattouk WOW, won't that be impressive !

[@henrybest4057]

Although you have got the goods outwards side sorted, apart from the packaging facility you've not allowed for goods inwards. Surely most of Aubrey's bulk orders would have arrived by train. 1000 ironing boards or 500 bicycles are unlikely to have been delivered to them by road. The loaded incoming vans would have to be unloaded before they can be reloaded with outgoing parcels. In a well regulated distribution centre, incoming goods would be balanced by outgoing goods, so there would be little need for empty vans to be delivered. Empties would only be needed to replace vans in need of repair and to allow for the fact that the outgoing parcels would take up more space than the incoming goods. Today, that would come under the heading of Logistics.

[@2H80vids]

There were vast numbers of returned goods too, although these could perhaps be accounted for by the passenger parcel stock.

[@henrybest4057]

@@2H80vids Yes, that's another thing to consider, but that would come under the general heading of goods inward. The returns could also be in vans in a train with other vans carrying new stock. All would have to be unloaded and, internally, taken into, or returned to, stock. That would mean that even fewer empty vans would be needed.

[@dattouk]

Hi Henry, The thing about Alberry's is that the site is constrained, by only having one end accessible to the railway. Ideally they would have had two, but as the senior planning officer for McKinley Railway, I have refused planning permission to extend the railway to the right. So Alberry's has to live with that constraint with the added problem that the platforms are quite narrow. It is therefore forced to have phases of inbound trains followed by phases of outbound trains. Gordon's timetable has us bringing in dozens of of loaded vans in, and emptying them. Once all the vans have been emptied and the platforms cleared, the loading process can start. The platforms are not designed to have simultaneous loading and unloading. We are forced to take some empty vans away so that the high-speed passenger rated stock can be brought in for loading express deliveries to London and Manchester. We have adequate storage, but the idea is to make the operators have to think two or three moves ahead to avoid getting the yard into a jam. It was probably called logistics way back then, but this is a model railway and being efficient is not its primary purpose. Regards David

[@dattouk]

Thats a good idea 2H80. Thank you.

[@henrybest4057]

@@dattouk But you talked about bringing trains of empties in, in the video. All I was suggesting is that there would be little need for empties due to the incoming goods. No change in the layout or timetable needed, just a change in the description of the inbound trains from empties to goods inward.

[@mickclarke392]

Not sure if this has been asked before but what coupling are you using inside the triplet sets. I assume you use Kaydee for the triplet ends

[@jamesn320]

Hi Mick, yes we use Kadee for the triplet ends but in-between we are using either fixed three-link or Instanter couplings as found here: jamestrainparts.com/shop/couplings/oo-gauge-fixed-link-wagon-couplings/ or dummy knuckle couplings that connect with Kadee but don't move which can be found here: jamestrainparts.com/2019/09/16/a-dummy-knuckle-coupler-for-oo-gauge-part-3/.

[@corinheathcote9868]

Rip siding? No, cripple/s sidings all over the network, yes.

[@dattouk]

Funny enough, we started with your wrding, but PC got in the way there. Some people said opps.. Can't say that.

[@MalcolmCrabbe]

Interesting video, but it would be great to have seen some of the testing being done, or have the process described actually done with a train on the layout rather than pen and paper... Too much "theory" means I have to go and watch Ivana weather the locos again to get that practical fix :)

[@dattouk]

Hi Malcolm, Lockdown killed the ability to have lots of people there as well as trying to film it. It was hard enough to try and capture the changes made to be able to share. We will try to share more when things get relaxed.

[@MalcolmCrabbe]

@@dattouk I can see the logic in that and perfectly agree that its best to stay safe. It was just that it was stated that testing was done, and it was a shame it wasn't recorded. But I can understand the reasoning. Hopefully things can start to get back to some form of normality soon... Looking forward to the next video.