Zusammenfassung auf Deutsch: Der Refrain aus Arlo Guthrie’s ”City of New Orleans“ passte zeitlich nicht ganz für das dargestellte Jahr 2015, aber unser Arrangement für das 2. americaN Heidetreffen vom 3. bis 6. Oktober 2018 im Vereinshaus des Bardowicker Schützenvereins in der Nähe von Lüneburg hatte es in sich! Die Strecke (ca. 60 Meter Hauptstrecke plus 30 Meter in den Nebenstrecken und Schattenbahnhöfen auf 300 qm) wurde gemeinsam von CN und BNSF betrieben und wir bewegten mit 15 Aktiven, davon 12 aus Deutschland und 3 aus Schweden, ca. 300 Waggons pro Betriebstag. Neben Funkuhren kamen neue, von Heiko Rosemann entwickelte WLAN-Freds erfolgreich zum Einsatz.

Neben den regularen Durchgangsgüterzügen (manifests) und lokalen Zustellern fuhren wir auch Ganzzüge mit Getreide, Lebensmitteln und Containern. Ein Pendlerzug fuhr nach Fahrplan, alle anderen Züge mussten sich per Funk Track Warrants vom Fahrdienstleiter holen. Die von Peter Gössel geplante Streckenführung war so großzügig, dass auch 4-Meter-Züge vor einem Bahnhof warten konnten, ohne die zurückliegendende Betriebsstelle zu blockieren. Viereinhalb Betriebstage und jede Menge Spaß!

This line from Arlo Guthries’s song "City of New Orleans" came to my mind when the arrangement at this years's FREMO americaN Heidemeeting from October 3rd to 6th was up and we were ready to run trains. But during the time frame set for this meeting, American songwriters didn’t write songs about trains any more—at least not any that have reached our European ears. No, our time frame was the summer of 2015 and our goal was to run modern, North American trains. And this we did!

The hall at Bardowicker Schützenverein near Lüneburg in northern Germany was a new venue, that Hagen Langbartels had found for the meeting. We shared the hall with the „H0 old“ group, whose layout occupied about a third of the space available. So we had about 300 square metres at our disposal. The room was nice and airy, but only weakly lit. Some additional lighting we installed greatly improved the situation, especially at the two staging yards. The hall is easily accessible from the spaceous parking lot and has doors at both sides. So no group was interfering with the other one during buildup, which took up most of the first day. In our team, 15 active members were present during most of the meeting, 12 from Germany and 3 from Sweden. A few others came to visit on one of the days.

Peter Gössel had designed a plan that surprized all of us for its size, for its long main, and for its spaceous aisles making it easy to move around. The setting was in the Northwestern United States with branches into Canada (schematic plan). The arrangement consisted of a long main line stretching from Parkwater to Whitehall/Yakima as one big operational hub and then on to Quebec City Yard as the central hub. East of Quebec City Yard the line branched out to Centralia and to the large Haslingen steel yard. Branches connected the industrial district at the Port of Tacoma, the town of Claze in the woods of Maine, and Arrowhead in the Canadian prairies to the main. Most modules were scenicked, and those who weren’t had some appropriate coloring so hardly any bare plywood disturbed the illusion of a real railroad.

The main line was more than 60 metres long. Branches and staging yards added yet another 30 metres. The feeling of distance was enhanced by long straights interrupted by elegant curves, so that even the longest trains could wait at the yard limits of any main line station without fouling the station behind.

 The railroad was jointly operated by CN and BNSF, three locos leased from Iowa Interstate and the engines inside Haslingen yard and a few others completing the roster. All movements were powered by double or triple traction, even the yard jobs. Some engines had their first test and it was impressing to see or operate the highly detailed units, some of them with sound.

The operational concept, also designed by Peter Gössel, included a timetable for the local passenger which commuted between Whitehall and Corning and between Whitehall and Quebec City, taking about one hour for both runs back and forth.

All freight trains had to request track warrants when operating outside yard limits. In addition to the dispatcher’s job, Quebec City, Haslingen, and Whitehall had yardmasters assigned as fixed jobs. As usual, all train crews had to report to the dispatcher to receive track warrants, so all crews except the one on the passenger local were radio-equipped. We successfully used a downsized version of TWC. The reduced radio traffic resulted in a very efficient communication with hardly any waiting time to get a response.

Besides the usual manifests and locals, we also ran unit trains consisting of 60 foot reefers, some grain extras, and double stack container trains. Empty cars in unit trains did not have to be returned to their originating railroads so the color code for returning the empty cars was suspended in this case. Instead, a distinctive destination was set for each type of empty unit train to keep train length prototypically high. As a result, some trains had to be doubled up in the staging yards. Trains often exceeded 2 metres in length, sometimes reaching up to 4 metres.

As you may have expected, some new technologies were tested: Besides Heiko Rosemann’s proven WiFi clock system, we tested a few of his upgraded wiFREDs. Apart from the occasional delay in communication between a wiFRED and the command station, these wireless throttles were greeted with almost unanimous enthusiasm, since you didn’t have to keep looking for the next LocoNet plug while operating your train.

Due to the length of some trains, our rolling stock had to stand a severe test. Much to our surpize, most cars stood the test with flying colours. Of couse, adequate car weight and body mounted couplers at the correct height are the limiting factors here. Weathering from light to rustbucket-style added to a colourful mix of old and new.

We ran 4 and a half sessions (Monday through Thursday and half of the Friday) and it was a lot of fun, although there was seldom time to realize that. We moved some 300 cars per session if you add inbounds and outbounds.

Shortage of time must have been the reason why any interest in looking over the fence and operating trains in the other group remained wishful thinking for most of us, but for the sake of justice, that was the same in both directions. Still, we had a few useful looks and discussions between the two groups.

Thanks to all who participated and to those who assisted in the background. It has been a fantastic meeting.

Good night, America? Not in our FREMO group! There will be another „Good morning, America“ at the next americaN meeting for sure.