Large Scale Central

Bluestone Southern's Operating Manual

Articles
#1

I have recently put in the “articles” section of this website, a “Manual”" as such, outlining the operations of my Bluestone Southern Railroad…

Most of my experiences with “Operations” have been on Ric’s Kaskaskia Valley Railroad… He used a computer generated freight car management program called ““Railop””. Since I have been to each one of Ric’s Operating sessions, I had become familiar with that program, and decided that, it would be the one for me to use… I could also bounce my ideas off Ric, which also came in handy with getting another look at my ideas…

Ric recommend that I talk with Doug Matheson, from Canada, as he was very familiar with the program… Doug, graciously, offered to help me get an operations scenerio set up… I am very thankful for his help and wisdom…

What we came out with in the end, is the ““Operations Manual””, that I have posted in the articles section…

http://www.largescalecentral.com/articles/view.php?id=104

I posted this to give people an idea of what you might need to think about, if your desire is to operate on your railroad… Using the ideas to setup your railroad by no means requires you to use Railop, you can use any freight car forwarding program. From what I have seen in these forums, is that Bob has got a nice program called “trainop” to work with small operations, dealing with one-two operators.

Anyway, it’s there, if any are interested…

#2

Nicely done , really interest me to see a local RR mentioned , I feel like a railfan reading the article about the BS . It will really be something if I see a BS car or loco out near the Howell Yards !

#3

Pretty neat.

I guess this means we can operate on it when we visit next year? :wink:

#4

Dennis, Yes, it would be something, I wonder if EVWR would let me paint one…

Bruce, As always, what gets done by next year depends on health and weather, not to mention financial status… At the very least, the switching locals could run from the yard to the Industrail Park, and a switcher could move the coal hoppers back and forth to the mines.
I need to work on signs, so people would know what is where…

#5

Signs don’t need to be fancy. I don’t have any buildings at my industries yet, so I use a small signs to indicate where things are. When the exterminator comes to spray, he has to leave a little tag by the road warning of the application. These are nice little plastic stakes with a plastic coated card attached to the top. I’ve been saving them. I just cut down the card, punch a new hole and use my P-Touch to make a label to mark the location.

#6

I have to use signs, too. The 1:1 guys used them to let the folks know where they were, so it is prototypical.

I’ve borrowed an idea from the smaller scales. Where I don’t have the buildings built, yet, I use something from the real world to represent the industry, like an oil can to represent the refinery, or several round Quaker Oats boxes to represent the grain elevator, and so on. I just have to remember to bring them in during the monsoon season. :smiley:

#7

I really like the ones Ric uses on the KVRY. They are very helpful for the new user on his layout. They tell me where I am, as well as the next station. This is great for communicating with the dispatcher. They also provide information about each of the sidings in town.

(http://www.jbrr.com/Pics/Events/KVRY/IMG_5500.JPG)

#8

Jon, while I agree, they don’t need to be real fancy, I still have an obilgation to other people to show them where they are, and which direction they need to go… I want to make them readable to all… Signs are no good, if someone has to get down on their knees and get real close to them to read them…

Steve, I hadn’t really thought about that… Thanks for the idea…

Bruce, that’s the way I want to do mine… So the the ““First-timer”” knows where he’s at, and how to go from there… Ric got those stands from a nursery that was going out of business, now I need to find one going outta business…

Ric’s signs tell them where they are, what tracks are there, which one is the Mainline, and what/where the sidings are… then they go on to tell them the next station in which direction…

I think people have a fun time, when they can do it by themselves, and not be totally cornfused all the time…

#9

Todd Siddell is a member here, he might find some more signs. Those signs are used in all kinds of retail situations.

#10

Have you considered an BS employee time table like the real ones ?
You only need mile or smile markers on the layout , then the crew with the timetable which has the division map , and listing of mile post markers , for the towns , industry , and sideings as well as capacity of the sideings etc …it could be as real as it gets with the train crew and train ops , and the employee timetable !

#11

EWRR pic would not work ;- (

#12

Dennis,

No, I haven’t thought about an employee timetable… At the moment, my priorities are getting track in, buildings completed, retaining walls built, things like that… I want it to be realistic as far as operations go, but am not sure I want to go that much of an extreme… I think, that the overall distance and the scope of what I’m trying to build, doesn’t really allow mile markers per say, as the distances would be too great, for proper modeling of the distance…

If my layout was N-scale, I might be able to make mile markers work… :slight_smile:

#13

http://www.gemplers.com/search/sign+holder

#14

Bob, Thank you kindly…

#15

Thanks, Bob, those signs will come in handy.

Andy, each place on a railroad has a milepost marker with it. Just use selective compression. Granted, it is low priority, but it will help, some.

#16

Steve, If I mark each Station or town with a milepost, I can see doing that… At least, thats what I think you mean…

#17

yup, that’s the idea…

#18

I might could possibly, maybe do dat…

#19

ya know, MP 164.3, and then 20 feet on, MP 203.6. sumpin like that.

#20

Gotcha…