A SUMMARY OF BROOKE AVENUE
This early 1940' photo is quite typical of what Brooke Avenue looked like for most of its 100 year existence. The key elements are the float, the C&O warehouses, Southgate Terminal ,Southgate stores, and Colonial Stores. Ennis though visible here, had a spotty record. Cars and trucks were obviously allowed in the yard itself, but, for the most part, drove around on cinders. The float traffic fed into the only run around and then a fairly small but efficient arrangement of sidings handled intensive switching into and out of customers as well as short term storage. The photo was probably taken either from the roof of the YMCA or Rousch Cold Storage , a major user of the C&O . Though the PRR and N&W were close neighbors, Brooke was never connected to any railroad other than its parent C&O; all traffic came by float from Newport News, VA and returned the same way. Brooke had no engine servicing facilities so motive power came on the first float on Monday morning and left on the last float returning to Newport News on Friday afternoon. Apologies for this photo of a photo......
My Background
Originally from Chicago suburbs, I was a Navy officer after undergraduate school, Then spent 9 years with Baxter Intl, then the vast bulk of the rest of my 40 year career in retained executive search, working at client and management levels. After 38 years in suburban DC, Sue and I moved to Easton, MD in December , 2020. Construction of Brooke began almost immediately . PS: I don't look that good in a suit.
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SELECTING BROOKE
This is my second model railroad. The first, the ClinchValleyLines or CVL (above) was a basement sized HO scale (mostly) coal hauling line home set in very western Virginia in 1959. Through building and operating (over 50 sessions), I found and then developed a strong interest in model railroad operations.Maestro Steve King was extremely helpful. Brooke Avenue was selected given its high operations profile and the simple fact that I could use prior rolling stock , engines and track as well as execute an HO scale model of Brooke in my allocated space here on the Eastern shore . That Brooke featured rail/marine operations was also a clear positive. Brooke has proved to be a joy to build and even better to operate.
THE BROOKE AVENUE FLOAT INBOUND
Built by the C&O in 1882, the Brooke Avenue yard served the commercial needs of the city of Norfolk, VA until 1982. Though small (1500 by 450 feet in total) Brooke was a very busy yard. The 13 separate industries or warehouses use 23 spots assure a very high level of switching activity. Several warehouses are what is called "logistics " warehouses today ; each door was owned or rented by a separate company,. A typical working day saw 35 to 40 inbound and a similar number of outbounds. Research indicates that material arriving came from a wide range of suppliers. Meat from Iowa, paper products from New England, rugs and clothing from Florida and Alabama, fruit and veggies from California and some from closer suppliers in New York and upper New England, and gasoline from Texas and Oklahoma were common. My version of Brooke is 20 by 2 feet, which is just about enough to model the 1/1 Brooke in HO scale.
The float and Brooke traffic patterns
Inbound traffic only came to Brooke by floats and only from C&O's large Newport News yard some 3 1/2 miles away. Twice daily these large floats delivered mostly 40 foot box cars, 25 to 30 cars at a time. Switchers then moved this traffic to their specific consignees. Meanwhile a second switcher was busy pulling the empty cars (normally 12 to 15 cars) , and moving them back to the float.
OPERATIONS
To date, 13 operations have been successfully held. Normal crew size is four;, two two person crews, one manages the float inbound and outbound and all yard activity and the other (the inside crew) handles all traffic to and from the industries or clients. Normal session time is about 2 1/2 hours Brooke uses EASYDCC with standard format car cards and waybills modified as Delvery Tickets. Crews are free to use switchlists. All engines have sound, mostly Soundtrax T2s. The two crews "share" the transfer track for moving car .
TRACK PLAN PER C&O
The basic configuration was largely the same over Brooke's 100 year existence. Actually, there was little room for alteration. Two large Southgate warehouse , a brewery, a cold storage operation and the C&O warehouse (presumably LCL) were mainstays and, thus, responsible for the majority of traffic.
The track plan used for this HO scale model moved the float from the middle of the west (or left side) to front of the layout. This move forced a track alignment featuring a big Z shape for the main. And effectively divided the layout into two largely separate layouts. Both sections use run around.
THE ACTUAL TRACK PLAN
Since the intent for Brooke Avenue is operations, that takes priority. All track is in, painted, weathered and fully operational. Ballasting is (ugh) underway. 8 of 12 structures are in their final stage, the other five are standins. Because reliability continues to be key, a lot of wattage has been and will be spent to assure stuff works first time , 'ever time.
Near term the focus is to complete ballasting and upgrading the stand-in structures