I have to say, the dispatcher’s job scares me (too much responsibility), bores me (not running trains), and seems too detached (not even in the layout room) to be much fun.
Dunno, it seems to much like work, and I retired to get away from that.
Rich
I think the one or two hours mentioned is real time. I think what you may be asking about is the use of a fast clock. Not everyone uses one. I just started using one, but the only thing I do with it is use it for the starting times of the trains. That way there are not jobs that get done after something else was supposed to happen first. Like a car not being in a particular train because the train left early.
My ops sessions start at 10AM and go until 4PM. We break for lunch for an hour. Now, the reason my sessions are so long is that my operators travel for an hour (50 miles) to get here. So I don’t think a one or two hour session is worth the drive to and from. And I have asked them if they want to do shorter sessions, and the answer is no. So I do think they are having fun, because, like reading a good book, they get lost in the jobs they are doing during the sessions.
If a session ends without getting everything done, there are a couple of choices. Leave it until next time, or come out and play trains on your own and complete the session at your leisure.
Then there is no reason to have one. However, once you get some sessions going, ask your operators if anyone likes the position of Dispatcher. If not, fine. If yes, you could easily create the position. Also, the Dispatcher position doesn’t have to be used or filled all of the time.
My Dispatching position is in the train room.
So if a fast clock is used, and the session went for three hours, how much time elapse on the fast clock. Sam
Sam, that’s a good question. On my layout, ops start at about 7:45 on a Tuesday night and run to about 9 pm. Since it is a week night and several people have to go to work the next day they are more than willing to take their leave. I do have one spur on my layout that is the last one served by the west bound train. This area was purposely set up from the beginning to be a little more difficult, kind of a ‘time saver’ puzzle. If the crew of the west bound is running behind the Dispatcher will let them drop off their cars on the spur to be worked later by a switch engine from the yard that it is adjacent to.
Remember, on my layout it’s as much about having fun as it is anything else and to make them stay another half hour to work that area is sometimes cruel and unusual punishment. It mostly depends on who the crew is. Last time Jim had that train as both engineer and conductor and even though he drives further than anyone else to get here he wanted to stay and finish the job. And it was ok by me. The regular dispatcher went on home and Jim and I stayed.
As far as what the host does when the operators go home…, I usually turn everything off, turn out the lights and go to bed. I’m sure it varies with individual hosts.
So far, because I don’t have a super big layout, all cars get worked in the alloted time.
[quote user=“jacon12”]
Sam, that’s a good question. On my layout, ops start at about 7:45 on a Tuesday night and run to about 9 pm. Since it is a week night and several people have to go to work the next day they are more than willing to take their leave. I do have one spur on my layout that is the last one served by the west bound train. This area was purposely set up from the beginning to be a little more difficult, kind of a ‘time saver’ puzzle. If the crew of the west bound is running behind the Dispatcher will let them drop off their cars on the spur to be worked later by a switch engine from the yard that it is adjacent to.
Remember, on my layout it’s as much about having fun as it is anything else and to make them stay another half hour to work that area is sometimes cruel and unusual punishment. It mostly depends on who the crew is. Last time Jim had that train as both engineer and conductor and even though he drives further than anyone else to get here he wanted to stay and finish the job. And it was ok by me. The regular dispatcher went on home and Jim and I stayed.
As far as what the host does when the operators go home…, I usually turn everything off, turn out the lights and go to bed. I’m sure it varies with individual hosts.
So far, because I don’t have a super big layout, all cars get worked in the alloted time.
As you all can see, I’m not even green at this, I,m still a seedling.
Sam
Yeah, but you are getting fertilized and watered, so in time you will grow - - - LOL
Hang in there, Sam, I feel somewhat like you do.
Rich
The way a session is set up can be different between the system used. The system being whether you use car cards, or one of several computer programs available, or some other method.
I use a computer program called RailOp which is very close to JMRI Ops. My sessions represent one full day of work on the RR. Work starts at 5AM and goes until Midnight, layout time, or 19 fast hours. During that time, the RR runs 51 regular trains. This number also includes all the yard trains. My real session length is five hours on the layout. My fast clock is 3:1, which means that 20 minutes real time represents one hour of layout ops time. That’s 15 fast clock hours. So it is close, but not exact. There is one or two places where I reset the clock and knock off an hour or more. This depends on how good the operators are that day.
The same trains are run for each session, but the cars switched are different because they are at different industries each time. And because the operators may have different positions than the last time they ran, it doesn’t become routine.
I try and have an operating session every three weeks.
When we hold sessions on the Operations Road Show (ORS) layout at its home in Saline, Michigan, we have a pool of three guys who have experience at being the Dispatcher. One of them happens to own the house the layout resides in between Convention trips. We’ve had several guest dispatchers over the years, though.
Our Dispatcher writes train orders and records the times when crews call in while passing or stopping at train order stations/offices. He also works with the Fiddle Yard crews to determine when trains will come out onto the modeled part of the railroad.
On the “visible” part of our layout, there’s no yardmaster. The only yards we have modeled are a large industry yard and a couple of small yards used to set off cars for local trains. All switching moves within the yards are determined by the yard crews as they write up and work through their switch lists.
Since the ORS uses an active fiddle yard that connects to both ends of the mainline, we have a role (usually requiring two people) of Fiddle Crew. The people taking that role create trains to send out on the mainline, create the motive power consists and assign them to throttles. This is somewhat similar to what the yardmaster and/or hostler roles entail on many other layouts. We have a sheet of the usual arranged trains for each day’s schedule and an outline of what sorts of cars each train is supposed to handle.
We use two-man crews on the ORS layout. Once a crew has been paired-up for a session, we leave it to them to decide who will act as engineer and who will be the conductor on a given run. Most crews trade roles on different runs.
Admitedly I have not read all the responses, The only operating session I have observed had one person assigned to each train, except the newbie (me), operating with a “supervisor” following me. He did most of the switch turning and uncoupling. If your situation makes having two people per train preferable, a possible solution that comes to mind is to divide the session into two halves. Half way through the session have everyone switch positions.
Just a thought.
Have fun,
Richard
The vast majority of opsessions I have been involved with are in the 3-4 actual hour range and represent 8-12 hours of the railroad operations. After about 3 hours it gets harder to keep people. Some have had an “op til you drop” session where they operate 3-4 hours, break for lunch, then operate a second session for another 3-4 hours.
It doesn’t quite work that way. One engine will pull the car from the industry and bring it to the yard. A second engine will switch the car in the yard. Another engine will run the car to the next yard. A switch engine will switch the car and a final engine will deliver the car to industry. That whole trip would take 2-4sessions. After the engines complete their trip they will be plasced on another train. In most cases the enginesmay one trip per session. You have to remember that freight cars don’t normally turn very fast. A boxcar in the 1970’s was lucky if it had one loaded trip per month. A highly efficient, highly utilized unit train might get one loading per week. An intermodal car would be loaded every 3-6 days.
Its OK if some cars don’t move every session. Its OK if some industries aren’t spotted full up every session.
Mostly rest. Then checks the layout to make sure all the cars are and paperwork is in the right place, turns waybills or advances the billing on the cars
What exactly does the yardmaster do at an Ops session?
The majority of the layouts I operated on has been staging to staging with a division point yard where some trains terminated from staging and the YM classified cars into trains bound for the one of the staging yards plus made up a local.
The most challenging operating layout I operated on to date was a branchline layout that started in a 7 track yard and ended in small town with several industries,team track and station.There was no yard just a run around in this town.
The actual operation sessions last 2 - 3 hours due to the amount of industries that needed switch on this 60’ branch.
However…
The most time consuming industry has the auto plant( 2’ x 14’) near the yard since it had 14 different spots and the need to return to the yard for various cars…
There are 2 jobs the Ford switcher and the Dentenville turn which went up the branch.Both trains uses 2 men crews.
I still occasionally operate on this layout but,sadly operation sessions is far and few between since the owner’s wife is in ill health.
As host I try to not get too tied down, there are important details to attend to such as making sure the coffee pot is working right and full, snack table in good order. New guests/operators always have questions to be answered and that’s only natural.
When I go to someone elses layout at their home I get to run trains!
Jarrell
Richard I thought about doing that very thing after the last session. I think it’s a good idea. Simply reverse roles.
Jarrell
Andre you’re right. One of my problems is I try to be as inclusive as possible with the guys that show up. Bear in mind that my sessions are on a regularly scheduled club meeting night, it’s not your typical ops session where everyone that comes is expecting to do an ops session. I started having the sessions because many in the modular club don’t have home layouts so it is a way to get them running trains and then it became a more ‘official’ operating session. I’d say that out of about 18 to 20 people that show up, only about 6 to 8 are genuinely interested in working the session.
Jarrell
[quote user=“andrechapelon”]
Andre, sometimes that’s exactly what we do. One person can easily handle engineer and conductor jobs if need be and some guys even prefer it. On my layout a ‘session’ last about 45 minutes to an hour 15 minutes depending on experience, the train to be worked, cars to be moved out of the way to complete a job etc.
Jarrell
Hmm. Is it sometimes necessary to have 2 man crews because you get enough people and need to find a “job” for all that show up? I can’t speak for other people. The only job I don’t particularly care for is train crew on a through train. It’s not so much a case of not liking it as preferring jobs where the brain is continuously engaged (DS, yardmaster, crew on a local freight).
Where I operate on a regular basis, it’s normally the case that the layout owner will ask if someone wants to do a particular job and there’s normally not a problem getting all jobs filled. OTOH, we get maxed out at around six people. Also, every one of us has held down every job available, so that may be part of why there’s not much of a problem divvying up the work. We all know what’s involved since we’ve done it all.
There m
Andre you’re right. One of my problems is I try to be as inclusive as possible with the guys that show up. Bear in mind that my sessions are on a regularly scheduled club meeting night, it’s not your typical ops session where everyone that comes is expecting to do an ops session. I started having the sessions because many in the modular club don’t have home layouts so it is a way to get them running trains and then it became a more ‘official’ operating session. I’d say that out of about 18 to 20 people that show up, only about 6 to 8 are genuinely interested in working the session.
That actually explains a lot, Jarrell. Every op session I’ve ever been to was an op session only and everybody showed up with the idea tha they were going to operate, period. There would be no other activity going on. If there’s other activities going on, it might explain why people would do all they can to avoid jobs they think they might not like.
Andre