The Chicago, Champaign and Southern Railroad
Owner: Bill Kirchmeyer
Scale: HO
December, 2014 – Huge changes are under way! Stay tuned.
The CC&S is a Class 1 Railroad running from Chicago to New Orleans. The Modeled portion runs from just north of Champaign, Illinois, south, to just short of the Ohio River. Separate staging yards feed both ends of the railroad. Junctions and interchanges with the B&O, PRR, NYC, IC, and Wabash are featured. There is local switching at seven towns, in addition to the main city and yard at Champaign. Some Basic ststistics; Main line length – 550′ excluding staging. Turnouts – Main line, #8, all others #6. Minimum radius 30″ All track is code 83. This railroad was designed for operations. All other considerations are secondary. The minimum number of operators is 14 and the railroad will support 20. Fixed positions are – Dispatcher, Yardmaster, North yard switcher, South yard switcher, Fairview switcher, Trainmaster and then, of course, road crews. Dispatching is by Verbal Authority using telephones.
Update: 11/12/11, Tomorrow’s operating session will be session number fifty on the CC&S. The railroad continues to run well with minimal problems. – Bill
November 1st, 2012:
Big changes are being made to the CC&S. I built the railroad with the intention of running Timetable & Trainorder, thus the long main line. I was never able to find enough operators in the Rockford area that were interested in TT&TO. So we ran with Verbal Dispatching and everybody wants to come. Problem is that I’ve not been satisfied. Too big a crew and they all want the trains that do work out on the railroad. So the main is becoming shorter and the towns of Dunston, Fenway and Gault are gone. The main now connects Champaign to Eastwood and, on the upper level, Fairview to Herrick. This gives me the space to construct a major interchange operation with the B&O. The guy that runs the B&O will stay fairly busy for the whole session. The new area represents a line from Champaign to Decatur. It will have a yard, lots of industry switching and a three track B&O staging yard. At the north end of the railroad, the main staging yards will be downsized, leaving room for much more switching on the north end of Champaign. The demolition work is done. I got lots of help from friends. I hope to be operational again by April as I need at least four sessions to get things operating smoothly on the new stuff. I plan to be fully operational for Rockrail 2013 on the first weekend of August.
1/4/2013 – Update – The new area (B&O Decatur) is in and tested. The lower level main line is in and tested. The upper level main line is next. Got a plumber coming Monday to fix a leak in the Master bath shower drain. I had to pull some ceiling tiles, light fixtures and my work bench to get at it. Looking to complete the new area in back this weekend. Then I can clean up back there. It is a mess! I’m convinced that the most important tool for railroad building is a good Shop Vac.
1/19/13 – The new B&O area is done, and the CC&S main lines are reconnected. I’m now working on the new main staging yards.
1/25/13 – The new North staging yard (lower level) is in and connected to the main at Champaign. Ready to do the South yard (upper) There will be some delay as I’m going in for AAA surgery on Monday.
2/27/13 – Pretty much recovered from the surgery and back to working on the railroad. The upper deck staging benchwork is back in place. Now all benchwork is complete. Today I’m laying track to connect the upper staging yard to the main to Herrick and the new Milllville cutoff. Then on to laying the track in upper staging and connecting the busses to the boosters.
3/4/13 – Staging yards finished! Now to clean up the whole railroad, connect the rest of the boosters and run a train the length of the railroad.
3/9/13 – Main line complete and tested. All 7 boosters tested. Millville completely rebuilt. North Champaign (head end work and university trackage in.
3/15/13 – All trackage is in and tested. Now building a lift out section between Johns Manville and Fairview proper. This is for access to the new store room and will only be in place during op sessions. Next step is the new ops plan and the new card system.
3/18/13 – All construction completed and trackwork tested. All electricals and electronics tested. Time to start on the new operations plan. The new carcard system is started. The website track schematics willl not be updated until later, when I get some time.
4/12/13 – Well, the first test session on the revised railroad is Sunday the 21st. Up to my ass in paperwork!
4/21/13 – Session one went ok. Very few problems caused by the railroad. One curved Walthers turnout that does not like SD 9’s! Two turnouts (#6) that need adjustment. Not too bad with almost 200 turnouts on the railroad.
The real problem came from the Ops plan. I need to make some adjustments to fix excessive congestion in a couple of areas. We’ll get there.
7-3-13 – Much better! Everything worked! Restaging the railroad took two hours instead of the 5 it took on the old version.
Bill
Bill Kirchmeyer email CCS-Trainmaster at comcast.net
