Come January our club will complete the transition from DC to DCC operations.
Currently our members often lose track of their trains while shooting the breeze and forget to pay attention to what any other train is doing (only two cabs, two mainline loops and a wye/marshalling yard). This not infrequently leads to narrowly avoided corn field meets or worse.
With the introduction of DCC, with multiple throttles, we’re going to have more trains/loco’s operating at one time, on the mainlines, in the wye and yard and also on local sidings. There’s a great potential for chaos and conflict of train crews and equipment!
To minimize that chaos we are drafting basic train operating instructions and rules to provide some necessary discipline to both our casual running nights (where the trains go round and round) and to planned prototypical operation nights.
We’d be interested in hearing how others manage their DCC operations e.g. dispatcher control, two operators per train (engineer and brakeman) track warrants etc. Any references would be appreciated.
JPM335,
It’d be more than a little money. Signalling is possibly one of the most expensive things you can do for a layout. I mean, you can always use economy methods for scenery and track, but there’s only so much one can do to make signals work…at least without being an electrical engineer. [:)]
The trick with rules in a club is to find a set that everybody can agree to.
At my club (with DCC), we have blocks that are 15’ long and designated temporarily with “dummy” masts (sticks painted white stuck in the scenery). All trains are to keep two empty blocks between their loco and the caboose in front of them. We also use radios for communication, and employ a dispatcher when we have shows or operations. This dispatcher is the only one allowed to throw mainline switches during an ops session. This tends to keep down accidents.
Members are also supposed to walk in front of their train, not beside it. And if they stop, they are to walk to the rear of their train to “flag” or protect it.
Eventually, the plan is to have full signalling, and perhaps installing some kind of ATS (Automatic Train Stop) to prevent SPADs (Signal Passed At Danger), but that’s in the distant future.
Paul:
Thanks for tips, including the reference to a caboose - our operating nights are transition era, so no FRED’s/ETD’s (or double stackers).
Two blocks empty between trains and the blocks are 15 feet long, means (gets out his calculator) 30 feet between trains! Hmmm, must be quite a big layout?
Since we have 22 modules, each 4 feet long, for a total of only 88 feet of double tracked mainline, we’ll probably settle for maybe three modules between trains, with right hand running only, radio’s and a dispatcher on operations nights and shows.
Wow, the nice simple tip I take from Paul is “Members are to walk in front of their train, not beside it. And if they stop, they are to walk to the rear of their train to “flag” or protect it.” Get that rule working and I reckon you are a long way towards getting some control
This gives more credence to Joe F’s method of having 2 man crews. That way both ends are protected. The positions of Conductor and Engineer can be traded off for each leg of a run or each new run. I can see where this would be an advantage and you could cut the cushion to one block! jc5729
I like the part of walking in ‘front’ of the train - Good Idea. Last summer, I operated on the ‘Operations Road Show’ Layout at the NMRA convention. Each ‘town’ had a pocket with little ‘flagmen’ that were to be placed ahead and behind your train if stopped on the mainline. If you were the only one running the train, you had to remember to ‘pick up’ your ‘flagmen’(and yes, I forgot once!).
Even with a working signal system, you have to ‘watch’ the signals, not BS with the guys.
Isambard,
Our layout is pretty big, and we’re only about 1/3rd or so done. Currently, the layout has two divisions, one is approx. 300’ long, and the other is approx. 420’ long. Eventually, the layout will fill a 6300 sq. ft. room.
www.ssmrc.org - The South Shore Model Railway Club, Inc., est. 1938, Hingham, MA.
Rob England,
You know where I got that tip from? A Providence & Worcester RR engineer who is a former member but is still friendly with us (he left for his job, not by choice). He ran on our layout for two days during one of our Open Houses, and did not have one accident. The remarkable thing is that he had never operated DCC or at our new layout before in his life. I asked him how he had avoided any incidents, as several regular members who really ought to know better and who have a lot more model railroad experience had several accidents, some of them quite gruesome.
He told me that while he was running he walked in front of his train, and if he stopped he walked to the rear.
Mentally, I gave myself a dummy slap and mumbled, “Of course.” Ever since, I reinforce that advice whenever possible to the members.