Skovdallund
An article about timetabling & wagon control on the layout
Years ago I had an enjoyable weekend operating Ian L's Appledore layout to timetable. However the hobby's enthusiasm for operating layouts, like the prototype, with timetable and/or wagon control waxes and wanes and currently the hobby enthusiasm has waned. In many ways a good thing at exhibitions as the public wants to see trains in action not operators fiddling with paperwork even if fiddling with paperwork is extremely prototypical - as Ian D can confirm.
The imaginary Vejle Banen a privatbane (light railway) follows the Grejs Å (Grejs
River) from a junction with the
DSB (Danish State
Railway) at Grejs 9.5 kilometres (5.9 miles) to Skovdallund on
Fårup Sø (Fårup
Lake). The 50-70 meters high, forested slopes and tufa cliffs of the
Grejsdalen
(Grejs Dale) as it cuts though hilly terrain
makes it a scenically unique part of Denmark. The Dale and Lake are considered
beautiful parts of Denmark so tourism is a major source of traffic with the 22
kilometres long
Fårup Sø
having boat rental, campsite, fishing, and a
reproduction Viking ship the
Jellingormen,
seen by 150,000-200,000 tourists a year. Goods traffic includes agriculture,
forestry, and stone cut from the Dale's tufa cliffs. Historically the 13 water
mills along the Grejs Å were a major source of traffic for example the Grejs
Mill which in 1830 was the country's largest private clothing factory and
employed 150 people.
Denmark fitted most goods stock was with air breaks in the 1920's so goods stock
was found in most local passenger trains and favoured forgons (road vans)
combined parcels/break vans. The first thing I do when timetabling is to look at
the constraints. For
Skovdallund it's the
fiddle yard there can only be two trains on the layout and the maximum train
length is as in the photos below.
There are only two timetabled goods train (above) a day. The first runs to
Skovdallund in the
morning and shunts Skovdallund Mill before collecting the though coach from the
carriage shed (see above) to start its trip to Odense. The other mirrors the
first and after putting the through coach in the carriage shed shunts
Skovdallund Mill and runs to Grejs. Good traffic for the station yard and
Hopballe Mill (below) travel in passenger trains. Extra goods trains are run as
required, mostly when the mills further down the valley are busy, so they mostly
run round at
Skovdallund rather
than shunt. Goods trains can be annulled when not needed.
Having trains run to time needs information about connecting services I haven't
been able to obtain.
Grejs depart |
Skovdallund
arrive |
Skovdallund
depart |
Grejs arrive |
1.
Goods |
2.
Through
passenger |
||
3.
Local
passenger |
4.
Local
passenger |
||
5.
Local
passenger (summer) or goods extra |
6.
Local
passenger (summer) or goods extra |
||
7.
Through
passenger |
8.
[1] |
||
9.
Local
passenger |
10.
Local
passenger |
||
11.
[1] |
12.
Through
passenger |
||
13.
Local
passenger (summer only) or goods extra |
14.
Local
passenger (summer only) or goods extra |
||
15.
Local
passenger |
16.
Local
passenger |
||
17.
Local
passenger |
18.
Local
passenger |
||
19.
Through
passenger |
20.
Goods |
||
21.
Local
passenger (Fridays & Saturdays only)
or goods extra (Fridays & Saturdays
excepted) |
22.
Local
passenger (Fridays & Saturdays only) |
||
[1] Through coach to carriage shed for cleaning and the loco to
shunt Skovdallund Mill. |
When operating
Vale of Alyn I found
that I got more enjoyment if wagons moved with a purpose. So each wagon was
described on a card indicating were it should be shunted.
Wagon |
|
Colour |
|
Notes |
|
Return |
to FY |