Simulating Coors - Part 1

My goal of modeling the Coors Brewery near where I grew up led to a long linear track plan. The overall layout is about 54 linear feet long, or about 1.6 scale miles.

Coors Branch Configuration.

One of the key elements in this plan is the desire to be able to operate this branch synchronously or asynchronously with the rest of the layout. In other words, I want to be able to operate this branch while the rest of the layout is also in operation (synchronously) or to operate the branch on its own when the rest of the layout is either not operating, or is between operating sessions. Furthermore, I wanted the branch to work much more like an industrial line, where the line simply receives cars and ships cars. The connecting railroad delivers specific loads to the plant along with requested empties. However, the returned loads are returned with a manifest for their destination. I did not want that manifest to be generated external to the branch, thus specifying that specific cars were to be loaded with specific loads for specific destinations. Furthermore, I wanted to be able to vary the number of operators needed to run the branch from 1 to 3 or more. Three is probably the limit for this configuration.

So, the operating plan I developed for the Coors Branch simply receives cars at East Yard. If those cars are loaded, they are destined only to specific parts (jobs) of the branch, which can be readily determined by the East Yard Job. 

East Yard Job

The East Yard Job performs yard work at East Yard. It breaks down incoming trains from the Golden Branch, constructs outgoing trains for the Golden Branch, and constructs the local trains for each job on the Coors Branch. There are 8 possible jobs, seven of these would require the East Yard Job to construct a train of 1 to 8 cars. These 8 jobs include:

1. McIntyre Job (A and B)
2. Receiving Job
3. Glass Job
4. Table Job
5. Heavy Beer Job
6. Canning Plant Job
7. Brewery Service Job
8. Locomotive Service Job

Let's talk about each job:

McIntyre Job

Coors Branch McIntyre Job.

There are two flavors of the McIntyre Job which I call A and B.

McIntyre Job A - If there are intraplant (in-plant) covered hoppers loaded at the elevator in the McIntyre Yard area, these are loaded cars destined for the Brewmaster Tracks at the Brewery. These cars are pulled, and replaced with 3 loaded hoppers from the McIntyre Yard. One of the loads will be Rice, one will be Hopps and one will be Barley. Each of these cars is pulled from a separate yard track in McIntyre Yard. The loaded intraplant covered hoppers are then taken the length of the layout and are delivered to the appropriate Brewmaster track at the Brewery where they are exchanged with the empties in that track. The empties are then collected and are returned to McIntyre Yard and are placed in the intraplant storage track. This job takes loads and spots them to become empties.

McIntyre Job B - If there are external covered hoppers at the elevator in the McIntyre Yard Area, these cars are empties. These empties are taken to East Yard and exchanged for 3 loads (one Rice, one Hopps and one Barley) at East Yard. The job returns to McIntyre Yard with these loads and places them in the appropriate tracks in the yard. Then the job takes intraplant hoppers from the cleanout track and places them in the elevator track for loading. An equal number of intraplant hoppers are then moved from the storage track to the cleanout track. This job takes loads and returns with empties.

These two jobs form a repeating job cycle that moves material from the outside world into storage at the McIntyre Grain Elevator and on to the Brewery for brewing according to the recipe specified by the Brewmaster. This job where loaded grain hopper cars will be sent. The empty hopper cars from this job would be returned on the Beer Trains to the yards in Denver.

Receiving Job

Coors Branch Receiving Job.

The Receiving Job works the Receiving Plant at the Brewery Complex. Either loaded box cars, or tank cars loaded with either fuel or lubricating oil are received at East Yard and sent to the Receiving Plant. The East Yard Job builds a train of 5 to 8 cars (8 cars being the limit for a train on the line) and sends it to the Receiving Plant. There up to 8 cars that have been unloaded and are now empties are pulled and the loaded cars are spotted based on their contents as specified by the East Yard Job. The number of empties returning may not be the same as the number of loads sent to the receiving plant. There are five spurs that are served with this job. Fundamentally, this job takes loads and returns with empties.

Zoomed In Receiving Job. For scale, the Receiving Plant is 54" long (720 scale feet).

Glass Job

Coors Branch Glass Job.

The Glass Job works the Glass Lining and Ceramic Plants at Coors. This job takes 1-4 cars from East Yard, some of which may be empties and others which may be loads, and exchanges them at the five spurs that serve the Glass Lining and Ceramic Plants at the Coors Brewery facility. Unlike the other jobs, the cars coming and going are a mixture of loads and empties.

Zoomed in Glass Job Area. Both Plants are built against the backdrop.

Table Job

Coors Branch Table Job.

The Table Job is one of the most interesting jobs at the Coors Brewery. The job occurs in a concrete canyon in the Brewhouse. The prototype has both a north and a south table job, while I have only modeled one. One of the novel features is that the switching takes place on a series of serial transfer tables that allow cars to be loaded in any order while all cars are aligned in parallel against the loading dock. The tables are aligned so that the car on Table 3 (in the Figure below) can be extracted. 

Zoomed In view of the Table Job. The modeled Brewhouse will be 60" (800 scale feet) long.

  

Five transfer tables are modeled (the prototype has more). Cars may be pulled that are partially filled may be transferred to the Keg Track where loading may be completed, or when they may be transferred back to the tables. The Table spur provides space to store cars waiting to be delivered to the Tables, or cars that are now fully loaded from the Tables or Keg Track. The behavior of each table will be randomly controlled, so the job operator will have to follow indications about which cars need to be moved from the tables in what order.

The Table job would take 5 to 8 empty cars from East Yard. If there is a South Yard Job working, these cars are delivered to South Yard, and the South Yard Job would provide a like number of cars to the Table Job. If the South Yard is not operated, then the Table Job goes straight to the Brewhouse. Empties are exchanged for loads, and loads are returned to East Yard.

Heavy Beer Job

The Coors Brewery ships concentrated beer to other bottling locations. These concentrated beer loads are called heavy beer - hence the Heavy Beer Job. The Concentrated Beer is carried is Coors owned tank cars specific to that purpose. I am assuming that the cars are cleaned before loading at the Heavy Beer track. 

Coors Branch Heavy Beer Job.

The Heavy Beer Job consists of 1 to 7 empties sent from East Yard. Just like the Table Job, South Yard may be used as an intermediate destination. The empties are exchanged for loads at the Heavy Beer Track at the Brewhouse. 

Zoomed In Heavy Beer Track.

Since all the cars used in this service are dedicated cars, they should be easy to identify in East Yard. This is also a simple empties arriving and loads departing operation on the Coors Branch.

Canning Job

Coors Branch Canning Job.

The Canning Job works the canning and bottling lines at the Packaging Plant. The Canning Job takes 5 to 8 empties from East Yard, uses South Yard as an intermediate destination, and proceeds to swap empties for loads at the Transload and Packaging Tracks. These loads are then returned to East Yard for interchange.

Zoomed In Canning Job Spurs.

Brewery Service Job

Coors Branch Brewery Service Job.

The Brewery Service Job works spurs located at East Yard (The Coors operated Sewage Treatment Plant for the City of Golden), the Caustic and Team Track near the Packaging Plant and the Coal Plant located near North Yard. This job would take 2 cars to the Sewage Treatment Plant, and 1 to 6 cars to the spurs at the west end of the branch. This job uses North Yard as an intermediate destination, and at North Yard, the Job swaps cars waiting at North Yard for the cars it is delivering from East Yard. The cars taken from East Yard are then delivered to the individual spurs. Empties from this operation are returned to East Yard.

Zoomed In Brewery Service Job Spurs - East End.

Zoomed In Brewery Service Job Spurs - West End.

Locomotive Service Job

Coors Branch Locomotive Service Job.

The final job is the Locomotive Service Job. The priority for filling jobs on this branch is an East Yard Switcher, the Coors Branch Job, then the South Yard Switcher, and if necessary, a second or even a third Coors Branch Job. So, there could be up to five switchers in operation at any time. However, it is more likely that there will generally be 2 or 3 crews at most due to the space available.

The locomotive service job would randomly recall one of the switchers from its current work task, and that crew making a trip back to the Locomotive Servicing Tracks for refueling, sand, lubrication or other running maintenance. Once completed, that engine could return to its previous assignment.

Zoomed In Locomotive Service Job Spurs.

Each of these jobs on the branch corresponds to work performed by the switching crews at Coors. Yet, the branch can be operated with a single crew (who would perform the East Yard Job and then one of the 8 branch jobs described above), or with up to five crews, which would include an East Yard Job, a South Yard Job, and three branch jobs. In this scenario, at any one time, one of these jobs would work out of South Yard (performing the Table, Heavy Beer, Canning, and Brewery Service Job - East End), a second would work out of the East Yard (performing the McIntyre, Receiving, Glass, and Brewery Service Job - West End), and the third would work as an East-South Yard Transfer Job. These jobs would be rotated among the three Branch Job operators. 

But how would the particular job to be performed be determined? That will be covered in Part 2.

Cameron Turner