Getting the railroad re-staged after an operating session

It takes a lot of planning to set up for an operating session, at least on the A.P.R.R. Trains need to be staged, industries need to be looked at to see what is needed as far as freight cars and which industries need to be serviced. Depending on the number of operators also determines how many industries are serviced. This is also done when I am part of the virtual operations I have with two other layouts, also known as the P.C.C.M. (Penn Central Car Movements). You can read about these movements further down on my blog.

Let's take a look at the area surrounding the wall on the east side of the railroad. There are 4 industries that are always worked on an operating session. Here's what it looked like after the last session:

Now here's a photo of what the yard looked like after the operating session: 

Since I needed some relaxation on this rainy evening, I decided to have a little fun and work on re-staging the layout. The first area I attacked was the lumber yard. In addition, I needed some other freight cars for Cargill and a few other industries. I brought up a couple of trains, and both are at the ready to head to the freight yard.

Before they can get in, at least one move had to be made. I chose to go get the freight cars out of the lumber yard. A set of switchers were used to make the move.

These were brought back to staging, dropped off in the east ladder, and then other cars were sent back to the lumber yard.

Yes, a caboose was added to protect the upcoming shove at the lumber yard...

In order to make the move, the engine cut the freight cars off, and headed to the rear of the train to shove the cars into the siding at the lumber yard.

Once the cars were in the siding, the engines headed back to the yard to put away the other cars. 

The freight cars are now on various tracks in the yard, so one of the trainsets from staging can be brought in. Once in the yard, i'll take the switchers to break them down and sort them for the next move...

With the train in the yard, we can work on it later. More than likely I will host the mid-month in December or the January sessions. 

That's all for now!