Greg
took his train from East Babel Yard to the
town of Marshal where he
moved cars from industries to the Marshal Yard
for future departure and
spotted cars at industries as specified in his
Instructions. He also
moved a few cars among industries.
Paul
took his train from South Babel to Vienna, did
the pick-ups and
drop-offs as specified, and returned to Babel.
Cars
for Carnegie and Carol Gardens are left on an
interchange track by a
through freight. Dave performed some local
moves among industries,
moved cars from the interchange track to
industries, and vice-versa. Herb
[left-hand picture above] took his train out
of North Babel to the town
of New Rochelle and Bergen, switching
industries in each town, before
returning to Babel.
This session was Bob’s first experience with
operations [right hand picture
above]. He ran a through freight from Marshal
to Babel, where he
spotted the cars as specified in his
instructions. He then ran an
Amtrak, which helped familiarize him with the
layout. Herb
wrote: “I very much enjoyed operating on the
ARE. The
information
provided in your introductory email was very
valuable and gave me a
good insight as to how your railroad would
operate. The
concept
of using Employee Instructions for routing
makes operating on an
unfamiliar railroad much easier. The
RailOP feature made
finding
and selecting cars to be picked up or set out
straightforward and
eliminated the confusion that can be
experienced when interpreting the
routing on car cards. I liked the way
the turnouts were wired
to
stop a train if the turnout was thrown against
it. The
signaling
was also a big help. “Above
all, I appreciated your tolerance of my
mistakes.”
A large contingent of enthusiastic model
railroaders (shown above, Shawn Hogan, Bill
Mosteller, Robert Prosser, Alban Thiery,
Bill Lyders, George Meyrick, John
Huntzinger,
and Roger Boyce) participated in a
well-organized and enjoyable operating
session on
the afternoon of April 12, 2014 at the home
of Pete LaGuardia on his New York Central
Western Illinois Division (WID). This
session, part of the Potomac Division
Operations
Initiative involved personnel from two MER
divisions, Potomac and James River. Pete’s
operations choreographed an 18 person crew
into the roles of Engineer (4) &
Brakeman
(4) and WID location staff (10),
Superintendent, Dispatcher,
Yardmasters/Assistants,
Hostler, and Operator.
Pete LaGuardia's New York Central’s Western
Illinois Division (WID), in Haymarket, VA,
is set in 1953, is HO scale, and operates
from Kansas City, Omaha, and Des Moines on
the west, through Moberly (MO) and Hannibal
(MO), to Danville (IL) and Indianapolis
(IN) on the east. Bench and track work are
99% complete and scenery was started in
January 2013. The WID fills a 35’ x 32’
room. The DCC control system is radio NCE
with
7 power districts. We operated the WID using
Pete’s throttles under Timetable & Train
Orders (TT&TO) with Car Cards and
Waybill system available from Albion
Software, Ship
It Car Cards. Crew communications to the
Dispatcher was done using a PBX phone
system. We operated under a 3:1 fast clock
for an 8 hour session that lasted around 3
hours
completing 11 train schedules. Operational
activities had each major yard (Crotona,
Hannibal, and Beaumont) managed by a
Yardmaster and an Assistant Yardmaster. Each
train had an experienced Engineer and a less
experienced Engineer (operating as a
Brakeman).
Both my journeys as an Engineer with
Brakeman Bob Harmon started in Kansas City
(West
End Yard) once with a freight train and next
with a passenger train. For Bob, from
James River Division, this was his first
operations session. So I took the
opportunity
to mentor him on the TT/TO process and
operating on the WID. Bob couldn’t believe
my
patience answering all his questions, but it
was FUN for both of us. In our first
stop, we dropped off 20 cars and picked up
22 in the Crotona Yard under the complete
control of Yardmaster (YM)/Assistant
Yardmaster (AYM) Bryan Kidd/Shawn Hogan,
shown
above, as they made up new trains advised by
Superintendent Pete LaGuardia. Leaving
that yard, we journeyed around the layout
until Hannibal YM/AYM Roy Gurnham/Robert
Prosser, coordinating with Operator Bill
Mosteller, directed us to drop off/pick up
cars in Hannibal Yard. We completed our
journey to Danville leaving our train in
East
End Staging Yardmaster Phillip Raymond’s
capable hands.
On our second train journey, we took our
steam passenger train NYC 6001 around the
WID
roundhouse on the way to Crotona to drop off
a coach and get an observation car. Later
we passed a train coming from the other
direction run by Engineer/Brakeman John
Huntzinger/Marie Moyer and working the
industries at Calamia. The largest
collection
of train cars and human participants was at
Crotona Yard, as it quickly fills up with
cars requiring yard switching operations.
Overall management of the session was
performed by the Dispatcher, Mat Thompson.
He oversaw east bound trains and west bound
trains to make sure train meets were not a
problem.
After the operations session, the crews
relaxed in the crew’s lounge with a cold
drink
and cookies and peppered Pete with questions
for about 30 minutes on how he conducted
operations and future WID plans. I have
since talked to some of the less experienced
participants and they all really enjoyed the
operations experience and looked forward
to doing it again. The mood was always
relaxed and friendly and everyone worked
together to get the “work” completed. In
fact, due to Pete’s organization of the
session, most trains arrived on-time.
Roger Sekera's The Clinch ValleyLines
This past
weekend I attended another enjoyable and
informative operating session and had
the pleasant opportunity to meet other
model railroaders. The attendees were
Bob Shepard, Bob Sprague, John King,
Herb Biegel and Jared Jacobs. Our host
was Roger Sekera and his Clinch Valley
Lines point-to-point layout is designed
for operations. Set in 1959, the Clinch
Valley Lines hauls coal and general
merchandise through Appalachia with
first generation diesels up front.
Operation is TT&TO which adds to the
realism and kept John King at dispatch.
The Clinch Valley Line is well marked
with a separate dispatchers desk and
lots of space for the five operators.
Quite a bit of switching and one run I
made lasted over an hour. As I design my
layout attending operating sessions
provides valuable information to
incorporate into the design.
Tom
Gaffuri
Tom
Broderick - Providence and Worcester
I’m
fresh from an operating session at Tom
Brodrick’s Providence and
Worchester (aided by Marshall Abrams)
where Bill Ataras, Bob
Muilenburg, Bob Rosenberg, and I spend
the afternoon running the
railroad. The crew was evenly
divided, two novices and two
more
experienced operators. A good time
was had by all.
One of
our number noted that switching an
industrial area is an intellectually
challenging task. I certainly find
it so. I was
thrilled
with how I was handling another area on
Tom’s layout when I realized
that I was about to push three cars into
an industry in exactly the
opposite order of what was called for!
Join
in on the fun.
Bill Mosteller
I
also spent Sunday afternoon working on
Tom Broadrick’s P&W. It
was
only my second experience in model
railroad operation, and while there
were some improvements over the first
time there were a few things
that, had I known them up front, would
have made my life that day much
easier: Locating all the cars that I
had to switch, for example,
(especially the one that was hidden in
the building) before I actually
started moving them around would have
helped a lot. Taking 5 cars from
the interchange track and spotting
them at different industries while
removing the existing 5 cars from
those same industries and leaving
them for pick up back on the
interchange track may not seem like
that
big a deal, but you might be surprised
if you’ve never done anything
like that before; think of it as a
puzzle with the trains as the
pieces. But I did have a lot of fun
doing it and I’m looking forward to
the next time I get a chance.
Bob Rosenberg
Brian
Sheron - Long Island Rail Road
(LIRR)
On March 9, 2014 I spent a fun and
informative afternoon at an
operating session hosted by Brian
Sheron on his Long Island RR Port
Jefferson Branch layout. Bill
Demas assisted Brian in working
the
operators - Herb Biegel, Glenn
Downing, Jared Jacobs, Alban
Thiery and me.
The layout is based on the Long
Island Rail
Road, Port Jefferson branch, circa
1964. It occupies two rooms in
Brian's basement. The original
layout and Long Island portion of it
is
in a 13' x 19' room. The newer part
is in a 12' x 12' connected room,
and in there Brian models the Long
Island's Pennsylvania Station
terminus in New York City. The
mainline is a double track
folded-dog bone, so on the straight
stretches it appears to be a 4
track mainline. There are various
industries located around the
layout,
and the layout has two major yards,
Holban and Sunnyside.
The
layout is quite impressive both in
size and in the significant scene
detail. The layout is well
marked so that operators can
readily
navigate and find locations.
For a novice like me this was
essential. Although I must
admit that I did make a couple of
pilot errors (oops moments such as
not verifying that I had the correct
cars before leaving the yard and
making switching moves more
difficult
than necessary).
This was a good learning experience
for me
since I am in the process of
designing a layout for both
operations and
running. I would like to thank
Brian for hosting this session.
I am looking forward to attending
the upcoming operating sessions.
Tom Gaffuri
Andrew Dodge's Colorado
Midland Railway
by
William Mosteller
I keep discovering variations in
operating model railroad’s schemes
that surprise me. Andrew Dodge,
MRR, is an accomplished and
published (Model Stock Pens Along
a Fascia, Model Railroader, May
2017) modeler. A key to
understanding his Colorado Midland
Railway is that the locomotives
are the focus. This makes perfect
sense, as Andrew built all the
steam engines in his basement
shop. He’s a bit of a throwback to
days of yore in model railroading,
a real craftsman. He built the
railroad to Proto 48 standards,
and thus has proved you can run
trains to such standards. The
railroad scenery is beautifully.
(Use Natural Soil and Rocks in
Scenery, Model Railroader,
September 2017)
The operating instructions include
mandatory stops not merely for
water, but also for coal, sand,
and cool-down after a hard run. (I
only remember hearing about such
for New Haven EP-5 “Jet” electric
locomotives.) The couplers are
prototype scaled and operate with
realistic latch pins. So yes, you
must open both knuckles before
coupling. Trains are short (mine
topped out at four cars), so there
is switching, but the locomotives
are the focus.