Home | Overview | BN Loop | CORY Branch | Operations
Operationally, the layout offers several styles of railroading. My preference is for lonely branchline operation hence the emphasis on the Columbia & Okanogan Railway. But over the years I have come to enjoy regular operating sessions with two or three other fellow model railroaders. The BN Loop provides not only an outlet for CORY's traffic, but also place for at least one other operator. Operations can be detailed enough to justify positions for up to five people, but after that we run out of space for more folks.
The prototype Cascade & Columbia River owns three locomotives (two GP40s, one each ex-Conrail and ex-Chessie, and one ex-N&W high-short-hood GP-38). Two take one train north in the morning to switch the northern end of the line up to Oroville. Meanwhile the other locomotive switches the lumber mill at Oroville. Around noon, the Oroville Turn is back and Omak and its cars are combined with Omak's cars to make up the daily run to Wenatchee. This train leaves at 2 each weekday afternoon for the 90 mile run to Appleyard. Any switching to be done south of Omak is handled by this train. After interchange with BNSF, it returns 90 miles to Omak. The locomotives rotate through the assignments to even out wear and tear.
Operations on the Columbia & Okanogan Railway will mimic these operations pretty much as they are. We will have one crew working the Oroville Turn run and another the Omak Switcher. In the afternoon, a third crew will make the run to Wenatchee and back.
At Wenatchee, operations include classification of cars for local industries and passing trains, train and car inspection and servicing, local industrial switching, interchange with passing through freights, and the daily interchange with the Columbia & Okanogan, of course.
The BN Loop will require one operator for the various trains that pass through Wenatchee. There is also a need for an operator to coordinate the staging yards. The latter is not a prototypical position, but he or she could also serve as BN Dispatcher.