Page 26 - January February 2012

RS Tower – Boldly going, and all that . . . Part One
Schematic diagram of RS Tower and modules at Exeter 2011
As many members of the NMRA’s British Region will be aware, the HO-scale RS Tower layout has exercised an impressive pres- ence upon the British exhibition circuit for a few years now. Its basic format is 27 × 11 feet, and the centrepiece is an inter- locking tower in small-town-mid-west, which controls routes across a diamond; here is the crossing of two main lines, a “lesser” one that includes some street-running, and another, more important road. A small yard facilitates local freight trains that appear off either railroad, and it also acts as a base for the switching jobs that service local industries, as well being a terminus for branchline trains. Passenger trains also stop at the depot on the main line, and terminate from the branchline in commuter service.
One of the most impressive features of RS Tower is that rare facility, the ability to run long, almost prototypically-sized trains that, more often than not, have to creep slowly up to the diamond crossing, stop, and await the passing of another, con- flicting train. It’s a railfan’s paradise: trains in excess of 30 feet long are commonplace, and the front end disappears back into the storage yard as the rear has yet to arrive on-stage. The RS Tower set-up also permits the adding of additional modules either side of the main layout, and this contributes extra spice and variation to the main theme. For further and far more de- tailed information, see the October 2011 Continental Modeller, and visit the RS Tower website: http://rstower.wordpress.com. I was privileged to play a small part at two appearances of the RS Tower layout in 2011, latterly at the PECO Steam Spectacular weekend (at Beer, East Devon, over the August bank holiday weekend), where the main RS Tower layout was accompanied by some module extensions and ran, for the first time, in the “transition” era of the mid-fifties.
The former event, however, was, to my mind, one of the most significant developments in US-themed model railroading in the UK for some time. The main RS Tower layout, plus a branchline that comprised over 90 feet of module extensions, was exhibited at the Exeter Model Railway Show in May 2011. And if that wasn’t enough, the operation of the branchline was to be made “prototypical”, requiring a dispatcher, a tower operator, two yard-masters (one at RS Tower, the other at Dale Yard at nearly the end of the branch) and several locomotive engineers, all working with two-way radio control and under- taking active and prototypical operations using track warrants and waybills. All this, in addition to the mainline action that was taking place on the main RS Tower layout. What a feast. Like a growing number in the British Region, I’ve become more and more interested in attempting to run trains prototypically, and have read avidly the work of Tony Koester, Bill Darnaby and Joe Fugate, all of whom have pioneered this subject in the
last decade or so. The latter’s series of DVDs on the topic are required watching too. I was delighted to find out that this sort of thing on a large scale (which was previously the stuff of dreams) was to be offered by the RS Tower crew, and locally, into the bargain.
Along with a few others at the monthly Western Union meets in Plymouth, I’d already experienced the pleasures and chal- lenges of introducing “meaning” to a model railroad (see the April 2009 edition of Roundhouse for further details). What the RS Tower boys were proposing was much bigger than we were doing; it was also a complicated and risky operation that de- manded a huge team effort, a lot of hard work and planning, and the drafting-in of the many additional volunteers required to run a model railroad of this size and ambition.
They also engaged four of us from the Western Union division specifically for the running of the branch line, using waybills, radios and dispatcher. We brought along our two-way radios and headsets, and the previous experience we had garnered for “operations” with dispatcher control. At the close of play on Day Two of the Exeter exhibition, the DS reported in excess of 90 track warrants being issued during operation of the branch line.
Following some (fully expected and understandable) glitches that occurred during the first morning being remedied, we felt that we really were “running a railroad”, and not just shuffling stock and locos aimlessly from A to B. Once permission was given to enter the branch line, it was prototypical operation right along the whole length of it, either running as a way- freight and switching the local industries en route and keeping clear of superior trains, moving the branch commuter trains into and out of town, or running substantial freight drags straight to the yard at the end of the branch line. Cars on these 25-plus trains were then switched locally, to destinations fur- ther on again.
The chat on the radio was exactly what you hear in real life too: seeking permission to occupy the main line for a period to facilitate switching moves, told to wait “in the hole” for the passing of a superior train, asking whether any opposing trains were coming, real requests to “go to beans”. . . And the branch- line was so long that two-way radios were the only way to do it. We were amused on the Sunday morning, when we started up again, to find that we were using the same radio channel as a local Car Boot Sale’s car-park control – I still wonder what on earth they thought was going on, when they heard us exchange operational American railroad information . . .
Brian Moore
26 ROUNDHOUSE