A Photo Essay of Operations on the Kansas City Subdivision - Part 4

Milwaukee Road Coburg - Ottumwa Manifest passes by Southwest Junction Tower on their way to Ottumwa, shortly the caboose appears as the train leaves CTC territory.

Milwaukee Road #355 arrives at Ottumwa Yard on the arrival track where the crew will pull into the clear and tie up for the day. Soon the caboose appears and the train is in the clear.

Milwaukee Road Fairbanks Morse switch engine #766 prepares to switch out the cars on the CYOT train and after the cars are switched out, locomotive #355 will be taken by the hostler to the Engine House track for servicing. After the days running, locomotives used in the Ottumwa - Coburg runs will go Light Engine to Coburg to have the locomotives turn on the table and ready for another day of service.
BN Transfer arrives at staging - the cars must be returned to the far end of Murray Yard staging track, caboose will go to the caboose track and locomotive 145 returns to the front of the Murray Yard track (2nd track from front).

BN 145 switches two cars onto the tail end of Murray Yard track. These cars will be deemed as delivered and their waybills changed for the next trip they make in the future.

BN locomotive 145 cuts off the cars then heads back to use the run around track at the far end of staging.

BN #145 uses the run around track, appearing back at the front end of staging.

BN #145 couples on to their caboose, pushing it down to the caboose track until needed on the next BN transfer.

BN caboose now stored on the caboose track, BN #145 heads back to the front end of Murray Yard and the Crew is finished for the day, locomotive parked.

The CTC panel is now at rest with no trains on the system, all switches set to Normal (top row of levers) and all signals set to Stop (bottom row of levers). No traffic indicators are illuminated and no trains are on the main track. The graphical panel shows all turnouts normal and signals all at stop with no trains on the main track.
During a normal running session there will usually be around 6 to 10 trains run, depending on timing.