Just something to let you warm up your brains on, it can;t be that bad because I'm the one who made it. We'll see. Your the conductor on Madison's daily freight local. You've just finished your work at the top of the grade, and now it's time to come down into lower Madison and work the guys down there. And aren't you in luck, you have a nearly full work roster. Consist, to start Caboose (Ex PRR NE ((PRR paint)) or ex CN PSC van((CMPA paint))) One Reefrigerator car (empty), going to Outbound tracks at the brewery 4 insulated boxcars (empty) 4 boxcars, loaded with bottles to be filled (to inbound tracks) 4 covered hoppers with grains for the plant 1 89ft flat(empty) going to Mill preservation for trash duty 1 64ft Mill gon (empty) going to Mill preservation for scrap metal duty 2 boxcars, with packaging materials (to inbound tracks) NRE 3GS21B-D(loco, with Dynamic brakes) Pickup: 2 reefers (cold drink stuff, I don't ask) 4 insulated boxcars (beers and colas, no you can't have any. ) 2 89ft flats from the Mill site (loaded, trash dumpsters) 3 covered hoppers And now for da rulez When you come down the Madison Incline, you cannot come down with more than ten cars. Including the caboose You cannot go up with more than 8 (including the caboose) You must have at least two cars (caboose is one of them) when operating the grade When operating the grade, the engine must be on the South (bottom, timetable east) end of the train. North end is fine if you are just pulling a few car;engths on the runaround in lower Madison. The caboose must be on the North (top, timetable west) end of the train on the grade. You don't need the caboose in Madison itself. the caboose is for visibilty, ad the grade crossings that are directly at the top of the hill. The madison incline is top left of the track diagram. From that top shown switch to the grade, you can pull 7 carlengths. The IKE spur is 1.5 miles long, and can be blocked. The Station track however, is in use today, so leaving cars on it or in front of that switch is out of the question. At the top of the Madison Incline, you have a 15 car [assing siding, a grade crossing, then there's a second siding that's 5 cars. There's 15 carlengthss from the south end of that second siding to the start of the grade. DON'T GO PAST THAT IF YOU AREN'T PLANNING ON GOING DOWN engine=one carlength carlength=65ft 89ft car=1.25 car length Oh, and did I mention the "Grade" is 6%? That's why there's min and max train lentghs, to make surwe you have enough braking power, without having to much train. this is modernized, but the track diagram is based on Protypical operation in Madison Indiana throughout the years. Liek I said, the job shouldn't be hard, It's all about pulling and running the right stuff around. And no, adding track is not an option. i can't add a runaround between the Mill site and the Brewery, there's a highway overpass right there, and a park, and people's houses. That long single track stretch is in a street, so dropping cars in oncoming traffic is not an option either. And where it says "Seven cars to last switch" that's between The Mill site and the farthest East switch of the Brewery, which is the farthest tracks East.
