Inspired by all the operations during the American Invasion, I decided to run my own operation today. My railroad is a bit different, of course. I model a much smaller railroad than the IPP&W. The J&B is really designed for single person operations, so there is no dispatcher. In my world, the the J&B runs 4 freight trains each day; two in the morning and two in the afternoon. Two trains in each direction. Since it is only me, I take time to do things that I might not consider doing when there are ten trains running at once. These include water stops and connecting the glad hands. All of my turnouts are controlled manually. Today, were running train #2: it’s a westbound freight out of Green Springs, headed for Jackson. Our switchlist looks like this: Depart Green Springs with J&B Hopper#10, Shell Tank car, J&B Boxcar #105, and Caboose #503. At Occoquan, drop off J&B Boxcar #105 at the mill, pick up J&B #110 from the mill, and Northland #3 from the interchange. At Jackson, I need to do a local move of EBT hopper #805 to the Miracle Chair company, and then pickup J&B box #121 from Matheson Textiles. All in all, it sounds like a pretty easy operation session! So, let’s take a look at the session: The locomotive starts on one of the service tracks and must first be turned.
Once turned, we stop for a water fill up.
We’re scheduled to take caboose #503 today. Unfortunately, #501 is just in front of it. So we back up the caboose track and pull both cabooses.
I’ll pull forward and then back up on my departure track, dropping off #503 to start building my train.
Of course, now I have to put caboose #501 back on the caboose track.
I need to get hopper #10, but it’s behind a flat car, so I pull both cars off of that yard track.
I drop the hopper off and couple to the caboose. The flat car goes back to the track it was on. I need the tank car and the boxcar on the next track, so I pull them off and couple them to the hopper. My train is complete and I leave the yard.
My first stop sounds easy. I’ve got to drop boxcar #105 at the mill. So, I break the train and back #103 up the siding to the mill.
The only wrinkle here is that I have to pick up the boxcar #110 at the mill, and the boxcar on the interchange siding.
So, I couple box #103 to #110, and pull forward to the interchange siding, where I drop #110. Now the mill siding is clear and I can drop box #105. I now can go back and get the two boxcars that I left on the siding.
I put the train back together and proceed up the steep grade, finally crossing the trestle before reaching the hill’s peak.
We head down the grade towards Jackson, and I start thinking about the next maneuver. The hopper is on a trailing point siding and it has to be moved to the facing point siding at Miracle Chair. I break the train and leave it on the main line. Fouling the main isn’t a problem on my layout. 
The main does have a problem here: it’s on a steep grade. So, if I leave the cars here, they will roll away on their own. When I was out at Dave Goodson’s in April, he showed me how he dealt with the problem - he used a railroad spike to hold the train in place. I liked this idea, so I have a couple of spikes laying near the grades.
With just the locomotive, I back down the siding and pick up the hopper.
I couple the hopper to the front of the train and then I use the passing siding to run around behind the train.
Once behind, I first remember to remove the spike and then push the train forward.
I push it so that the hopper clears the siding that leads down to the Chair company.
I pull the train back and replace the spike, then run around to pick up the hopper. With the hopper coupled, I back down the siding towards Miracle Chair.
Unfortunately, there’s a boxcar at the Chair Company. I need to move it out of the way, before I can deliver my hopper full of coal.
I pull forward and pull the boxcar off the Chair Company siding.
Once I clear the switch, I pull forward and drop the boxcar, leaving the way clear to locate the hopper next to the Chair Company.
I go back and grab the boxcar and put it back on the Chair siding.
My last pickup is at Matheson Textiles. This one is easy - I just need to back up and couple to J&B boxcar #121.
I head up the siding and rejoin my train. Before leaving Jackson, I stop for water.
My switching is done and I head out of Jackson to the rest of the (unmodeled) railroad.
(I DO hope that’s in the future!)