Clearing the Skipton Silos

 

With a grain ship in the port, wheaties have been running daily to the GEB terminal at Geelong.  Today, T361 has been teamed up with Y151 to run no.391 (as required) goods to Skipton to clear the silos.

At 6:38am on the 12th July 1984, T361 and Y151 run through Ballarat North with a long rake of GH's for loading at the silos at Skipton.

It will take over 3 hours to reach the branchline terminus and then a number of hours to load the GH's at the silos with the train not returning to Ballarat until mid afternoon.

At 3.40pm Y151-T361 arrive in Ballarat yard with a load of wheat from the Skipton silos.

In Ballarat yard a fresh crew join the train, together with T331 which will provide assistance up 1 in 52 grade to Warrenheip.

T331 is added to the train to provide assistance on the climb to Warrenheip.

At 4:01pm T331-Y151-T361 begin the climb up Warrenheip bank with wheatie to Geelong. 

22 minutes later Y151 and T331 return light engine to Ballarat having left T361 to complete the mostly downhill run to Geelong solo. 

Y151 and T331 return light engine to Ballarat having assisted the wheatie up 1 in 52 grade of Warrenheip bank.

Only part of this trains movements occur on the modelled portion of the layout. The train was assembled in Ballarat yard and then ran to the hidden sidings (staging) where it ran around the wagons and was held for a number of hours (to reflect the run to Skipton, loading at the silos and then run back to Ballarat). Once the appropriate time has elapsed, the train runs onto the modelled portion of the layout and arrives in Ballarat yard. Here the additional T class was added for the climb up Warrenheip bank, the train departing and runs off into the hidden sidings. Here the T and Y are detached and then return to Ballarat. Using the hidden sidings/staging this way during operating sessions creates a sense of layout being part of a larger railway network and allows prototype operations to be replicated.