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Central Indiana & Ohio Railroad





CIOR Construction Progress


January 14, 2008

The new year is upon us and I decided that atleast a text update was needed.
So, here we go.

The railroad is pushing the technological bounds. The signal system is up and almost finished, just needing a few more additions to be made. The interlockings at Thorne, Pine and Newman are all that remains and that will be finished here soon. If you haven't checked it out yet, go look on youtube and search CIOR BLMA, or visit the BLMAmodels website and click on the Blog and watch the video.!

The next bit of progress lends heavily on the computer and a big thanks to Chris for the work he has put into that. Soon we will have a computer interface that looks like the C&O's Peru Indiana board on a PC! This too will eventually give way to a real "remake" of the WABCO/USS machine that will control the railroad. This end of it may take longer, but I will be happy to see it and willing to wait.

The other "projects" will have to wait, and remain a secret for a while yet. No doubt these will move the CIOR ahead of the game as a model railroad. I will also thank those involved well ahead of the game for their hard work at making things go.

So stay tuned and I will do my best to keep things updated. If not, pay attention to the forums around the net!

Sneak Preview.......This is the railroad being ran by the CATS system via CMRI.....





9-27-07

A brief overview of what the yardmaster has to see. Directly above the yard deck is the town of Greenfield, above that is CP-Jax and the town of Centerville.
This is the location of the Roller Coater Company switch. The track will diverge off of the Riley siding and around the corner over the creek and into the plant directly above the Hawthorn turntable site.
Here is the 130' turntable at Hawthorn yard. As you can see, its a very busy place and often very crammed during sessions. Hopefully soon we will pull the pit area farther toward the camera to allow a few more engines in.
West Richmond is now in. The siding is 10 cars long and will allow for block swapping between Columbus and Logansport trains. The new West Richmond siding is located on the north side of the tracks.
The often mentioned but rarely seen Rushville. This is a temporary stand in for Rushville. The real town will be closer to Proto 87 standards and be hand laid allowing for a more prototype arrangement. This is just Atlas track and switches for a quick build.
This is the eastern end of the CP-Newman interlocking at Richmond. The track moving to the left not yet laid is the lead into Richmond yard. A panel on the facia will allow the yard or local crew to work it from either room.
The basics. This shelf will be Richmond yard. At a foot wide, it can hold up to 6 tracks, but probably only 5 will go in. It will just host the one local per session and possibly a yard job depending on traffic.
Here is Carl's bridge located just out of the town of Henry Indiana. This is the bridge that has been much talk in a few circles. Very nice, but has work yet to be done, its just currently setting in place.
This was a major project and thanks to the guys we got it done. The bridge wasn't level from one side to the other. It caused issues with some of the engines, so a leveling task was undertaken and in a few hours it was level and track speed again!!!
A quick view of Pine staging. These trains are fresh in from Saint Louis and ready for the next session to head east across the Dunreith District. I tried a shot of Richmond staging, but it was too dark. Likewise with Indy Staging..


10-11-06

CAD buildings, these will be temporary until I can get around to scratchbuilding/kitbashing some various structures on the layout. Its also nice because it gives me an idea of size and place for structures.
A slightly different view of the same building. I will probably have a few of these on the layout for awhile.
The NJ International "Over the road" crossing. Its nice, and with a little modification I was able to make it "multi-position" friendly.
Here is a shot of the mounting system I made for the "over the road" crossing. I used a old piece of Code 83 rail, and ground off the railhead to allow it to fit inside the brass tube. Once I had it ready, I glued it using CA glue and in 30 minutes I drilled the hole to install it.
Here is a great shot of the Derail made by Details West. Its actually operable, with a flip of your fingernail. Looks good too, especially when you want that "real railroad" look.
A few have asked about "CP-Thorne and I-465", well here it is. You can see its just bare bones scenery and I don't have it all the way to the backdrop yet. That will probably be in a day or so.


10-02-06

Overview of the junk yard in Greenfield. Groundwork is done, and I need a few sections of fence to complete it.
Work is progressing quickly on the scratchbuild/kitbash of I-465 on Indy's east side. Its styrene and parts of Rix's overpass kit.
Work on the plowed fields east of Indianapolis is progressing also!


2-10-06
Here is the front of the reverse loops section. In this view you have from bottom to top, the "Kitley Runner" to Hawthorn Yard, the middle deck is the "Mainline west" staging, and upper deck will be "Mainline east" staging.
In this view, you can see how the westbound trains will return back to CP-Thorne, soon this view will be block by a view block and an overpass.
This is CP-Thorne on the east side of Indianapolis. Here trains either head west or venture to Hawthorn Yard (also including south staging for Cincinnati).
Lighting has been an issue in the back room, so this past weekend more lighting was added in the form of drop shop lights. In this portion of the basement there isn't enough room between the drop ceiling and the floor joists above to allow for tray lights like in the rest of the basement.
Here is a view looking at CP-Pine (or West Pine) for the staging entrance. There are 4 tracks of staging and 1 mainline, but all tracks pass around and connect back at "East Pine".
OK, OK, I will take the hint. Here are the new signals from ISS (Integrated Signal Systems). This signal here will be the WestBound home signal at CP-Thorne. They are very nice signals and these pictures don't do them justice. The signal heads haven't been glued in place yet!


01-08-2006

Here you can see the finished trackwork for Greenfield. All new turnouts and trackage, along with a new track plan for industries. The mainline to the east hasn't been connected as of yet.
In this picture you can see the layout from Henry to Dunreith (lower deck) and Dublin on what will be the upper deck. As you can see the facia on the upper deck is in and hides the lighting for the lower deck very well. On the left you can see the Indiana HiRail's line to New Castle (over the foam).
Here you get a eye level shot of Henry and above it will be Dublin or "Cargill's Dublin Plant". For most people, Dublin will require a step of some kind.
This is an "unfinished" view of the layout lighting for the lower deck. This view allows you to see how it all is installed in front of the facia. At this point, the upper deck facia is the same distance as the lower deck.



(Viaduct Pictures)
To check out the progress of the Cambridge City viaduct, click here!







10-28-04
Looking eastward from CP-Riley, you can see the "Amaco Reload" facility. Slowly ballast is being filled in on the industrial tracks.
This view shows you the pulling tracks for the Amaco facility, you can also notice the CO-OP track on the left. It is Code 55, while the mainline is Code 83.
This is a overview of Charlottesville looking west. You can see the CP-Riley at the top of the picture, before the curve.
These are the local CP "Control Point" temporary panels. As you can see, each turnout/crossovers has their manual-power switch and normal-reverse. The L.E.D.'s show the train crews the position of the turnouts with a quick glance. These are powered from the turnouts and seperate from other systems. This also relays to the dispatchers desk.


Here is the diamond at Dunreith. Actually it wasn't as hard to make as I thought, things in total only took me about 1-1/2 hours to do it, over 2 days. The NKP's former Rushville Branch crosses here, so like most diamonds, the crossing railroad will be the same size rail, but on both sides the rail will be Code 55 to the backdrop and facia. Things worked out well when I tried this project. I didn't do a "how to" on it, since it was my first try, and well the CIOR doesn't need 2 diamonds!
This is the small helix, located between CP-Dunreith and CP-Dublin Jct. The minimum radius is 38" just for the purpose of being able to make the return to the layout as the area to turn around is merely a bit over 80".
Here is a view of the layout structure support. They are the heavy duty style with a flat deck 1x4 then the 1x4 grid. The backdrop has yet to be installed on this part of the layout.






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