Operating on your layout

[ginzokid]

I recently joined a new group of guys who actually have layouts. We are trying to start to have round-robin visits to every layout for the purpose of actually operating them. We are all new to this concept and some of us had not planned for actual railroad type operation, like me, so there is a challenge here to figure out some sort of schedule to run. This afternoon will be our first session at one of the guy's layouts. This one was planned for operation from the beginning. Sure will be better than the other group that just sits around and watches videos and has no layouts to visit. How can thay even call themselves a model RR group. Kim is about to kill me. I told her I would have to tear out the present layout and design a new one for operation. After the lumps on my head went down a little I could think more clearly. So, for now, I'll have the guys over and we can all brainstorm on what I can do to make this more for operations. I have little room left actually but may be able to fit in a small industrial switching area. I still think the new layout would be easier.....OUCH! Yes, Dear. No, Dear. (She was watching!) So have any of you actually thought about operating your layout on a schedule, car card system, fast clock or other type of system? This could be either frightening or fun. We shall see...... B-)

[g-pa1]

Even though I have a number of tracks with really no actual operations type yards,and several throttles, sometimes I get the grandkids to control a train each and they have to stop at the stations and industries along the way to load and disload? passengers and freight. They also have to go slower in some sections and then speed up in others. We seem to enjoy this activity a little more than just running the trains around the various tracks. The trains are run with a purpose ala the prototypes. I think that your new group will be fun. It, however, is a little more involved and time consuming than I would be ready for. Gene -- Edited by g-pa1 at 11/19/2009 8:15 AM PST -- Edited by g-pa1 at 11/19/2009 8:16 AM PST

[dl85vette]

I have the intent on doing such on my RR but it is still shut down for renos. (meteor named Home Depot slammed into my main dominos and leveled the industrial park/mainline. Public works is still putting in streets and sewers in the proposed indust park. I think you will have fun Pete, as long as everyone intends to have fun and not nitpick things to death for operational realism. The big thing is that you will be able to exercise your brain train-talking with people in person. not pointed at you but as general rule, play nice with the others. (nothing worse than being criticized for ones choice in track arrangement for yard lead ,etc as it wasn't proto correct. Not everyone has room for accurate sidings,etc. don't know about other people but I don't have 30 ft to devote to a corrctly arranged yard. I've heard of people using deck of modified playing cards, shuffling and picking out several to determine cut of cars to sort,etc. Others have cards for eerytie they pass hotbox detector where they draw a card for ever train passing thru hotbox. card could say proceed, stop for inspection, or stop and you have a bad car to cut loose. Maybe try starting with train orders and not worry about schedules, as everyone may be slower running their train as getting use to operations, then wing it if you have a train meet. Once you guys have the hang of it, then put schedules in place. It might be a little too intimidating starting from scratch and trying to adhere to schedules as well. Calls for a beer call to look at ones layout to come up with ideas for consist cards, train orders,etc.

[ginzokid]

We had fun today. There were only 4 of us and that made two crews, conductor and engineer. George has the Micro-Mark card system which is very easy to understand and learn. I'll get the same system for my road. Basically there is a card for each car, engine and caboose. George has created a pickup and drop off scenario using these cards. You start out in the yard say westbound with a train made up in the yard and drop off and pick up cars along the way. There is also and eastbound train doing the same thing and you have to coordinate the switching at the same places at different times. The eastbound could be dropping cars for the westbound and visa versa. We managed to get both trains finished in about 2 hours of fun. George is now aware of some bad spots in his track and some "bad order" cars that need to go into the shop. Also we discovered that all of his magnetic uncoupling ramps were set too high. Kept derailing the locos. For the first run we did pretty well with simple tasks. The point is that we had fun and didn't nit pick the layout or the trackwork. We were too busy trying to figure out how to get car A into siding B with three or more cars in between. It was a learning experience and we all said we would have been fired by the RRs since it took so long to make the moves. Gene I applaud your efforts. Even without a time table or car orders, you seem to have the grasp on the operations idea. We intend to keep this light and a mental challenge to getting the right car to the right spot. I will try hard to get some sort of operation on my layout soon. B-)

[barrysfp45]

My layout is sort of set up for operation but as I am the only operator and I prefer watching long trains roll by that is the general activity, our old train club layout was a scale 36 miles long and we often ran card days, and it had to be run like a real railroad, no hand of god sorting allowed, once you set a train in the main yard you couldn't actually touch it until the end of your run, we had magnets set in every siding and we all carried kebab skewers for main line shunting, you know how this works I hope, anyway you really do need a decent sized layout in my opinion for proper operations, we never bothered with fast clocks as everyone knew how long it took to run the whole layout and in real railroading there is no real law about shunting time, it takes as long as it takes, the one rule we all abided by was a minute or so to pump the air before moving after a shunt, it can be fun but being an old raily I still prefer watching a huge roll by. ]:)

[ginzokid]

George's layout is plauged by uncoupling magnets that are a bit too high and snag the fuel tanks of his diesels. This can be corrected. Actually he has so many magnets that the train comes apart at times when you don't want it too. We also had the long skewers for trouble spots. Once or twice we had to use the 0-5-0 switcher too. On my layout there will be no magnets. All uncoupling will be done by hand with skewers or picks. All turnouts are hand thrown too. I have just ordered 6 Humpyard Perveyance turnout levers for the six yard turnouts that I will not be able to reach once I add the new yard. These look and operate like the real thing. (www.humpyard.com if you are interested.) I am also adding another passing siding to ease the passage of upgrade and downgrade trains. So work goes on and my RR will never be finished. Is anybody's? B-)

[taz-of-boyds]

Well, that is prototypical, the real railroads are never finished... I have thought that if I was using a general compression of 15 to 1 then a fast time clock 15 times fast could go with it. Though yard work could not go that way. Have fun, Charles

[ginzokid]

Finally finished installing the two passing sidings and a new tunnel that leads to an interchange. Mail is sooooo slooooooow here and I'm waiting for more track and switches to build the new industry section. Better get to the scenery behind it first though. All these changes are for operation interests. B-)

[taz-of-boyds]

Pete, You should post some photos or make some new video, how much snow you guys got up there? Charles PS, belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and what not...

[ginzokid]

Not much snow on the ground.....just a lot of wind and cold weather. We have all seen bare plaster before so I didn't think I would waste any picture space on the progress. I did manage to get some ground cover on part of the area of concern, but have a lot more to do. I'm selling some extra Walthers backgrounds for less than list. Take a look at my auction by using the link in the "members" buttom at the left of this page. These work for all scales. B-)

[ginzokid]

The b'ys came over yesterday and we had our first operating session on my railroad. It went well and three hours just flew by. I found two areas of problems that I will correct today. Have to get a kink out of one siding and move another siding farther away from a building for clearance sake. We had three trains and three throttles going at the same time. Made for some interesting meets and interchanges. This is getting to be real fun!!!! :^O -- Edited by ginzokid at 03/04/2010 4:12 AM PST How did your friends like your layout? Do they like your craftsmanship on stuctures,etc? Good to hear that you got some serious train friends (vise the ones who sit around watching videos). -- Edited by dl85vette at 03/04/2010 8:22 AM PST

[ginzokid]

Busy day. Relaid the kinked siding, moved the other one. Hooked up the power to and lengthened the same roundhouse track for the new Climax that is coming some day soon I hope. Also took the lettering off the first Shay, repainted the area and lettered it for the home road, Shiloh Valley RR. Both b'ys were very excited about the layout. Tom brought his camera and took a lot of pictures. They both got a kick out of my little jokes and my annimated buildings. Now George wants me to come over and relay all his track, his is poor and we have a lot of derails as a result. George is an artist by trade and his scenery is beautiful. My structures and trackwork are far superior. We each have our strengths which is what makes this hobby fun and educational. Now I have to actually work out some car moves with the card system I bought, same as George's, from Micro-Mark. It's very easy to use. Time to go to beans...... ;-)

[taz-of-boyds]

Sounds great, multiple operators always seemed like a fun and more interesting way to go, more like real railroads, and can include the family more. At least boo-boos at scale should be easier to clean up. All the best, Charles

[barrysfp45]

I haven't run on my layout for nearly ten months now and am looking forward to being home again next week we hope, I did run on a new layout last week, the club I found here has just put a module layout together and I am now contemplating redoing mine to something like it, I was able to run a really long double stack train and still have it all on a long strait section of track, I also ran my Amtrak train on the second track in the opposite direction, looked great having meets in different areas of the layout, one side is all desert and yard the other side is mainly taken up with a big station and city scene and all sorts of industries at either end, I really enjoyed the experience and it could easily be used as a shunting layout or just run long trains and sit back and watch, railfanning in N scale LOL ]:) >>>> I had my mainline completed New Years and ran a little on and off for a week and that was it. I don't know if I was a little disappointed to see that point to point for my size didn't crack up to be that great for train length and time length for watching trains run. Need to figure out how and where to put a loop to make it continuous running. (without helix or duckunders) -- Edited by dl85vette at 02/16/2011 6:31 AM PST

[ginzokid]

We regularly run on George's HO layout, the one I am helping to build. Yesterday I ran several trains on my layout to get the dust off the rails since I haven't run in a while. The reason I did this is because I will have a visitor from Colorado tomorrow. This fellow contactedf George though one of his groups and was looking for layouts to visit while here looking at property. I guess he is moving here. Anyway, he will be here tomorrow to operate and at George's Saturday where we will operate again. Here's a scoop for you. George's CNR layout is published in the latest issue, Nov/Dec out late, of Canadian Railway Modeler. We didn't make the cover as we thought but the article is there. We have plans to do a follow-up article now that there is so much more layout finished. B-) Correction. It is the Jan/Feb issue. Here's a link. http://www.cdnrwymod.com/cover.htm :-D -- Edited by ginzokid at 02/17/2011 4:25 AM PST