I wonder if someone can explain how operating session works? I want to know how the cars are moved to/from different industries, to/from staging yards and things like that.
If I understand it right there is a couple of variations or methods that are common. Cards, paperwork, and things like that. In a random manner maybe?
This must be planned right from the start, in your trackplan, right?
There are several excellent publications regarding model railroading operations and I suggest you get one of them. They explain it far better than I could in a short space. A recent one by Tony Koester is very good. It’s simply a matter of designing your layout with a purpose in mind. Unlike many modelers, real railroads don’t shuttle cars back and forth just to watch them run. They serve businesses. A business can be a shipper, a receiver, or both. Once you have established the businesses on your layout, you need to decide what commodities they will ship and/or receive. Then decide what type of car is appropriate for that business. Your “job” as an operator, is gather those cars in a yard, sort them into a train, and send them on their way, to other locations on your layout or into staging yards. Of course, everything works in reverse. Trains come onto your layout from staging yards and either spot cars at industries if they are locals or arrive in yards to be resorted into other trains or dispersed to local industries. Car cards, switchlists, tabs on cars are just a few of the ways for dictating which cars go to which industries or sent offsite via staging yards. Passenger trains can also be switched although many modelers fail to take advantage of this aspect and just run their passenger trains from one end of their layout to the other. To really understand the in and outs of operations, you need to get one of the textbooks.
To answer your last question - it is best if you can plan for ops right from the start. But any layout (most any) can be used for ops, even one years old.
jecorbet is right on the money, no pun intended! A railroad exist to move a commodity from point A to point B for profit. When designing your layout, think about what commodity you want to transport, and how to move them from point to point.
You don’t need a bunch of sidings to operate a layout, but they help. Simple track side industries right off the mainline can add a whole new dimension to your operation. As stated before, even an existing layout can be rethought into some kind of operation. It’s about imagination and purpose.
As far as card/waybill/random or other system, that is up to you. None of that is really required, but it helps if you have dozens of pieces of rolling stock serving several industries. Very simply, “operation” takes an “empty” car from point A (either on the layout or “off layout”) to the industry at point B to be “loaded”, then take the “loaded” car from point B to a “customer” at point C to be “unloaded”, then from point C back to either A or B. That’s it in a nutshell.
One of my Christmas gifts was Tony Koester’s Realistic Model Railroad Operation - I found it quite fun to read, it’s given me a lot of new ideas and here I had been thinking I already had a ‘plan’ . (… no I don’t work for Kalmbach[swg])
[LATER EDIT] Oops, I just read the ‘fine print’ in jcorbett’s post…[:I]
Thank you guys, excellent answers as always [:D]
electrolove, here is a good web site that explains different train operations.
[urlhttp://www.railway-technical.com/tr-ops.html[/url]
Joe Fugate did a forum clinic on designing for operations. I thought I had it bookmarked, but I couldn’t find it.
Hopefully one of the other guys can post it.
here is joe’s thread on operations
http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic.asp?page=1&TOPIC_ID=25535
here’s another thread on operations , showing that just about any layout can be used
http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=46614
It is really hard to describe operations since there are so many different ways to do it. In the operation group I am in, there are 4 distinct operation schemes and several variations.
There are two major elements in operation. Making up the trains (car movement), and moving the trains over the layout. There are variations for both. Random is a thing that planned operations trys to avoid. One can read and read and read, but the best way to understand operating sessions is to find some other modelers and experience them. I went to one fellows session where he had followed some plan from a book and the session was truely just “car shuffling”. I have been to other sessions where there is so much paperwork that it was truely “work” insead of fun. I spent more time with a pencil and notebook that I did running the train - needless to say I didn’t join that operating group.
No, an interesting operational plan can be designed for any trackplan even a simple loop or single track out-and-back. A more simple the trackplan just limits the operational possibilites. On the other hand the layout for the club I belong to was designed for way freight operation from the get go. The high-ball express operation schemes don’t work well on it.
Just knowing the over all plan of what you are attempting I would guess that the trains will need to be controlled by a written schedule. The CZ will be the most important train and put into the schedule first. Then add th
Maybe it’s just me but, to be realistic you probably should not put TOO much thought into the placement of your industries until you have placed your mainline. This is how it was really done in the real world. Most mainlines were in place for a few years before the industries started popping up beside them.
I am very reluctant to point you in this direction because the participants at this Yahoo group are WAY TOO SERIOUS about model railroad operations. That said, the really dedicated operations folks are found at:
Ry-ops-industrialSIG@Yahoo.com
The cool and key observer and commentator is Dave Hussman. The majority of the folks have too much free time. There are free downloadable car card systems and links to commercial software and other systems for helping with operations. Good luck adn keep a foot on the firm ground of reality.
I use a car card system. Each car has a card telling where it goes. Now some cars just go from hidden yard to yard on layout ant then to another hidden yard. The yard on the layout it Clifton Forge Va. (CF) the hidden yards are Russell Ky, Newport News Va. & Baltimore Md (Pot yard). Some cars are sent to business on the layout some to another RR (J&M short line). Here is an example of one of my car cards.
I put hash marks ( / ) on the card when it is sent to destination. When vertical row gets full I start over at top making the hash mark an X. All of my trains get orders to pick up & drop off cars according to these cards. This is kind of simplfied but it really is not that hard.
Is that how the “card-and-wabill” system works? also please explain a “switch list”
If you are asking me about car and way bills I don’t think this is the same. I like this system because the cards do not follow the cars. I have a board with clips on it for all of the locations on my layout. This includes hidden yards and switching yards. The cards are moved on my board when train orders and switch lists are made up to show where they are going to. when the train completes its rounds the cars are where the cards say they are. In the case of the yard when a train comes into the yard the cards for that train are put on clip for the lead in track they are sitting on. I then take the cards and make a switch list to put cars on appropriate tracks to get it to next destination. The card is added to cards of cars already on that track. When the time comes for the cars on that track to leave I pull the cards from clip make up ttrain orders and put the cards in clip for proper destination. The train engineer / operator gets the orders and departs the yard to follow his orders. Which as for now will ultimately end in a hidden yard in most cases where the train will be reversed ( put loco on other end) to return at a later time with new orders. These orders control drops, pick ups and spotting ( cars previously dropped at industry but not spotted at that time) of cars along my pike. It work very well for me.
Les
2 suggestions: 1. get Tony Koester’s book, so you can get familiar with the language and have a basic understanding of what you see and hear at 2. Visit some clubs that have operating sessions, not just “open house” viewing. Enjoy, take it a little at a time, and enjoy more as you grow. jc5729
you mean the book “realistic model RR operation” ? does that explain car-routing, switch-lists waybills and all that?
before i add to my layout i also want the book “track planning for realistic operation”
Dingo9 yes those are the two books you should really understand before committing to build. That is not saying you shouldn’t get the feel of layout, laying track, wiring and doing some switching on a small segment that could maybe fit into your plan, eh? The main thing is to enjoy while gaining experience! jc5729
i already have a 4x12 but in the next few months i hope to add on to it to make it 4x20 and i want to study realistic operating and how an operating session on my layout should work.
I agree with other’s suggestions on Tony Koester’s books. I have all three (includes the new one on Layout Design Elements or “LDE’s”). However, my all-time favorite book on operation is “How to Operate Your Model Railroad” by Bruce Chubb. He’s the same person of “Sunset Valley” fame who just had his new layout featured in the last two issues of MR. His book is truly the bible of operations and covers all aspects in great detail - even greater detail than the Koester books IMHO. It has been out of print for many years, but you can still find it regularly on eBay. If you can get it, I think you will find it invaluable!
If I have a criticism of Mr. Koester’s books, it would be that they primarily focus on examples from the Nickel Plate Road and the areas he models. Bruce’s book is less prototype specific and much more generic.
As an aside, I will be using the RailOp software program for car forwarding. It eliminates the need for car cards and waybills and instead incorporates computer-generated switch lists for the operators listing set-outs, pick-ups and blocking instructions. I discuss this further in my upcoming article in Great Model Railroads 2007. You can find out more about RailOp at www.railop.com.
Try operating solo at first to get your feet wet. Just switching cars with purposeful imagination is fun!
Now, go generate some revenue for your RR! [:D]