Last Saturday, I hosted the June meeting of our club, and the first Operating Session in its history. Always before, when we met, our trains chased their cabooses. We had a lot of fun, and I learned a lot about how to host an operating session. I was more occupied in putting out fires, but I was able to take a very few photos. The folks who did operate said that they wanted to do it again, so I guess it was a success.

Trying to sort out how to pick up that reefer.

Avery, who joined the club at 12, and now has his driver’s License, carefully enters the turn table.

Uncoupling is a lot easier with a #2 Phillips head screwdriver, with a 5 inch blade… Devon forgot his.

Devon starts the day at Wenatchee on the Chumstick River and Tumwater Canyon Railway.

And finishes in the same place.

There’s still a lot of work to do on my layout, I just ran out of time and had to abandon several improvements. Like all layouts, it is a work in progress.

Looks like you guys had a lot of fun.

It was a fun day and in one session changed my opinion on the need to have operational ability on my layout. It also spurred me on to get my loco done so i can run it.

Congrats Steve on your first “official” session. What are you using for Train Orders?

I’ve yet to have any guest operators. Came close last Summer when Ric & Jan stopped by, but it took us so long to get here from MA they couldn’t stay long and get to their campground before dark. Ric did run the “buggy” around the layout though.

Welcome to the “dark Side”. Devon…(http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)

Ken Brunt said:

Welcome to the “dark Side”. Devon…(http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)

yeah it wrecked everything

Devon, I have resisted the temptation. The NMRA group I belong to, does operating sessions on various layouts. I was only sort of invited once.

Daktah John said:

Congrats Steve on your first “official” session. What are you using for Train Orders?

I’ve yet to have any guest operators. Came close last Summer when Ric & Jan stopped by, but it took us so long to get here from MA they couldn’t stay long and get to their campground before dark. Ric did run the “buggy” around the layout though.

Jon, I stole TOC’s operating system. My, and his, orders read like this: Pick up a freshly iced reefer at Ice Station Whiskey and take it to Glory Meat Packers. Exchange it for the full of meat reefer on track 2 at Glory. Place your empty, but iced reefer on track 1. Move the iced reefer on track 1 to track 2. Proceed to Acme Meat Distributors. Exchange you full reefer for the empty on Acme Siding. Proceed to Ice Station Whiskey, drop off your empty to be re-iced. Return to Engine House.

This is if I am only working reefers. There would, of course, be orders for other cars.

I don’t bother with car numbers. Too much like work, I just want to have fun.

Perhaps TOC or Paul Austin, or Craig Townsend can flesh it out, a bit.

Steve,

Do you have a list of all your industries? TOC’s method is really easy for new comers and you don’t have to be specific about car numbers!

I think that TOC formatted the lists in columns so that it reads a bit easier.

Ex.

R (Refer) PU at Ice Station Whiskey (ISW)

R (Emty) SO at Glory Meat Packers

R (Load) PU at Glory Meat Packers Tk 1

R (Load) SO at Acme Meat

R (Emty) PU warm at Acme Meat

R (Emty) SO warm at ISW

When finished return to terminal

Devon Sinsley said:

It was a fun day and in one session changed my opinion on the need to have operational ability on my layout. It also spurred me on to get my loco done so i can run it.

Hummm… Did we say something about this a few months back when you where thinking about layout plans… (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-tongue-out.gif)

Craig Townsend said:

Steve,

Do you have a list of all your industries? TOC’s method is really easy for new comers and you don’t have to be specific about car numbers!

I think that TOC formatted the lists in columns so that it reads a bit easier.

Ex.

R (Refer) PU at Ice Station Whiskey (ISW)

R (Emty) SO at Glory Meat Packers

R (Load) PU at Glory Meat Packers Tk 1

R (Load) SO at Acme Meat

R (Emty) PU warm at Acme Meat

R (Emty) SO warm at ISW

When finished return to terminal

Thanks, Craig, for that.

My industries are still pretty nebulous. I haven’t settled on anything, yet. Plans include, but are not limited to, ice house, cattle industries, retail outlets, fuel oil, coal, brewery, mining, rail terminal, fruit industry, grain, and so on. The big thing is to get the crews spread out on the layout, so there isn’t a bottle neck.

Steve Featherkile said:

The big thing is to get the crews spread out on the layout, so there isn’t a bottle neck.

You don’t want to do that, as your taking the fun out of OPS… Don’t you remember Confusion Junction or Malfunction Junction from TOC’s layout? (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-undecided.gif)(http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-tongue-out.gif)

Craig Townsend said:

Steve Featherkile said:

The big thing is to get the crews spread out on the layout, so there isn’t a bottle neck.

You don’t want to do that, as your taking the fun out of OPS… Don’t you remember Confusion Junction or Malfunction Junction from TOC’s layout? (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-undecided.gif)(http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-tongue-out.gif)

There are plenty of locations like that. What happened was it took over an hour for three folks to get their trains built, and underweigh. I need to get them moving, to avoid frustration or boredom.

Craig Townsend said:

Devon Sinsley said:

It was a fun day and in one session changed my opinion on the need to have operational ability on my layout. It also spurred me on to get my loco done so i can run it.

Hummm… Did we say something about this a few months back when you where thinking about layout plans… (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-tongue-out.gif)

shut up

Steve Featherkile said:

There are plenty of locations like that. What happened was it took over an hour for three folks to get their trains built, and underweigh. I need to get them moving, to avoid frustration or boredom.

I can not speak for the other operators but actually the most interesting part of the session for me was the “frustration” of working with the other operators to get things going. We definitely bogged down at the beginning but it forced us to work together and think it through. I was the first to get my orders but i was the last train to leave. Everything I needed was buried by something else or someone else. It required me to tell others to get stuff out of my way so I could build my train. I was pinned in. But working together, the others moved stuff out of my way so I could get on the mainline and start. We had another bottle neck at the midway point and then again at the other terminus where again we had to work together to get done what needed to be done and get out of each others way. I found it very entertaining.

Hands down the most frustrating aspect was getting the old fart to get back to work after lunch. My Ice was melting in my reefer cars and he wanted to visit (old people!!!). Steve provided maps with locations and track numbers which made it easy to know where to go and he had markers identifying location. If I may the only part that was not very doable was not having a way to turn at the locos at the starting point. There was the “hand of God” or “the five finger switcher” doing some of the work on the one end. A wye, turn table, or even a switcher on the one end would be helpful. But this was minor.

Steve did an excellent job preparing the session for his first time. Then three first time operators did a good job of working through it. It wasn’t perfect (if this was the real world I would have been fired before I left the yard for humping cars way to hard and derailing them) but it was fun. Avery who lives about an hour away from Steve answered when asked if people would be interested in doing regular operating session quickly answered “i have a drivers license now”. I know I want to bring my trains and play.

Oh one more suggestion…Steve has this wicked cool gully next to his layout that he said at one point gave him the idea of a giant trestle/tunnel/trestle idea for that end of the layout. Then the monumental task of building it rendered him sane again and he abandon the idea. My suggestion…build it…it would be way cool. At 1:29 the thing would be like 2000’ tall or something crazy (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-tongue-out.gif)

Nice layout and pictures, Steve…

Craig Townsend said:

Steve,

Do you have a list of all your industries? TOC’s method is really easy for new comers and you don’t have to be specific about car numbers!

I think that TOC formatted the lists in columns so that it reads a bit easier.

Ex.

R (Refer) PU at Ice Station Whiskey (ISW)

R (Emty) SO at Glory Meat Packers

R (Load) PU at Glory Meat Packers Tk 1

R (Load) SO at Acme Meat

R (Emty) PU warm at Acme Meat

R (Emty) SO warm at ISW

When finished return to terminal

Craig, do you remember the codes for other types of cars?

G = Gons

O = Ore

B = Boxcar

S = Stockcar

T = Tank

R = Refer

I think that’s it.

Keeping with the simple pattern if you added

C = Coal

F = Feed (Covered Hopper)

Craig, Tango Yankee.