Howdy folks
Its that time of year again, time to make plans to attend TrainOps 2013. I’m planning on moving it from September, into August. Both for weather considerations, and to give us more daylight to run in.
That said, I’m pondering the weekend of August 13-15 16-18. Mark your calendars!
I walked over to my calendar to mark it.
But, my calendar shows August 13 as a Tuesday. Starting early? Which weekend?
Will we operate at Stan’s on Sunday, like last year?
Whoops, August 16th-18th.
I hope we can operate on Stan’s on Sunday, Ill have to coordinate with him.
Consider it marked…
Marked! We’ll be there!
What Ken said! I like the cooler weather of September, but it’s hard to argue against more run time.
Bob
What is TrainOps 2013?
Richard
Richard Beverly said:
Bob
What is TrainOps 2013?
Richard
That’s when Bob hosts an operations session on his layout using the “TrainOps” software. Fun stuff!
http://www.largescalecentral.com/forums/topic/17104/train-ops-2012
Yep, what Ken said.
A few years ago I invited a few people over to help me rebuild a big part of the RR. That turned into a discussion of a regular ops session, and we’ve done it ever since. Plus it gives me a good deadline to get projects done by.
Two trains in each direction, maybe 4 or 5 sessions a day.
Looks like time to make reservations! I assume everything is still on - either that, or it will be a work session.
Funny, I was JUST thinking about bringing this thread to the top. Things are still on, yep. Ill come up with a schedule a bit later today.
Looks like the campsite still has space. Hoping I can get the same site as before. Need to call them.
Marilyn & I will be there barring anything unforeseen. Reservations made at Boston Minuteman Campground for Fri/Sat nights. No vacation time left so we will be an early evening arrival on Friday and will have to cut out early Sunday
Looking forward to it.
For anyone coming up who would like to camp, the campground is only 10 minutes away from Bob and is really nice. Sites still available as of today.
I have no idea what train ops is either, but if it involves watching and looking at trains and someones railroad then that is good enough for me
I can’t make it on the 16th but the 17th looks good at the moment.
Vincent D’Agostino said:
I have no idea what train ops is either, but if it involves watching and looking at trains and someones railroad then that is good enough for me
I can’t make it on the 16th but the 17th looks good at the moment.
Train-Ops is a computer program that Bob and Bruce Chandler developed for small short line and narrow gauge RR’s. It prints out a switch list of cars and where the go and what other cars to pick up out on the various industries on the layout.
Pretty fun stuff…
TrainOps is both a switchlist generating software package, and a weekend where we get to play with trains on my layout.
Schedule for this year:
Friday, Aug 16. Run-what-you-brung. Anytime after about noon, show up and run your trains. No formal operations session, this is more a “Get some cool pictures, and find bad spots on the trackwork that Bob hasn’t spotted yet” day. If you want to stay for dinner/bullshirt session, we’ll probably order pizza.
Sat, Aug 17. Operations day. Starting about 9, we’ll be setting out cars, and running trains. I run two trains in each direction, with two-man crews. This year I’m also experimenting with having a yardmaster make up the trains. So figure a maximum of 10 people operating at one time. Trains are all run as extras, no dispatcher. Meets are verbally agreed, or, in the event of a conflict, rock/paper/scissors will be used to determine priority. We’ll run 4 train “days” as long as we can keep going. Lunch will be provided for $5/person, consisting of cold cuts and associated salads and condiments. We’ll break for dinner whenever. No formal dinner planned, but last year we got a table at a nearby (10 minutes) restaurant that Martha and I go to a lot.
Sun, Aug 18. Operation at Stan Ames’ SJRP layout. As in previous years, we’ll be operating at Stan Ames’ gigantic SJRP layout in Chelmsford (about a 20 minute drive from here). You owe it to yourself to see this layout. Its very fun, laid back operations, with radio dispatching, and car-cards.
As always, more details as they are forthcoming.
Are you going to have a sign up list or anything for the people that may be coming, or can I just show up 
I promise I won’t break much…I mean anything…okay, just don’t let me touch stuff…
I would let Bob know that your coming, other then that, you’ll fit right in. We break stuff all the time…plus we’d also be glad to add another face to one of the names on here…
(and it will be a chance for us to switch you over to the “Dark Side”)…
Yep, pretty much. Shoot me an email, so I make sure I get enough bologna and warm soda for Saturday’s lunch. W’re all battery power here, no provision for track power. And we have three dogs, if thats a deciding factor one way or the other.
Bob McCown said:
Yep, pretty much. Shoot me an email, so I make sure I get enough bologna and warm soda for Saturday’s lunch. W’re all battery power here, no provision for track power. And we have three dogs, if thats a deciding factor one way or the other.
Will do, the dogs were pretty much the deciding factor that my girlfriend wanted to go!