Sign me up. It would be an honor and a privilege. I’m only 3 hours North.
I would love to take part in this, Joe, being a 24/7 caregiver I would need plenty of lead time to arrange someone to stay with and take care of my wife of almost 50 years. jc5729 John Colley, Port Townsend, WA
Do you have “Home Health” services that will assign a care worker for the time you are away?
I would consider attending. Keep us posted if you have a firm date so I can look into booking a cheap flight. I’ve read quite a bit about the Siskiyou and would love to see it in person. My wife’s brother lives just across the Columbia from P-town and we are due for a visit.
Interesting … sounds like there might be some interest, then.
I’ve been thinking perhaps next Spring sometime, like maybe April. This would give people enough time to have some advanced warning for making travel arrangements. We could recommend a couple of nice but affordable hotels that are strategically located and maybe even work with others who would be coming to do some room sharing.
As to the comment about coming to “observe”, that’s why we do 2-person crews. As the newcomer, we pair you up with an experienced operator. You as the new guy get the throttle and are the engineer. The experienced guy is the conductor and is your boss, just like on the prototype. As the new guy, you just do what the conductor tells you to do.
The conductor, on the other hand, has a radio and handles the paperwork, talking with the dispatcher, and so on. If you have to do any switching moves, the engineer and the conductor can discuss options. And if you get stuck in the hole for a long time somewhere, you have someone you can shoot the breeze with.
But coming to just “observe” is cheating and we generally don’t allow it. Because, for instance, I can only handle about 16 operators or so and if you come to just watch, you have essentially shut out someone who would have come to operate. The other complication is there’s not a lot of room to just stand around out in the layout aisles. You mostly end up being in the way if you do that.
So if you come, plan on being given a throttle, and starting out without having to do much except run the engine forward or backward as you are told (and if you get a loco lashup with lights and sound you can play with those, too). If you get brave and want to try your hand at conducting, you can do that … more than a few newcomers, once they get comfortable with things, will actually try conducting.
Once in a blue moon, if we’ve got someone who’s
Instead of April, how about May? That way no one has to worry about Chain Law or any of that winter stuff.
I dont know what our situation will be at that time next year but will try to plan for it.
Yes, May could work too. Like the second weekend in May, perhaps?
Hmm. I have some questions off the wall for ya, I guess Im going to test the theory that there are no stupid questions.
What is it like to gather any number of people into an event like this?
What say you on Foreign Power desiel or steam to be run as extras?
Is there a set of train orders on the dispatcher’s desk that must be fulfilled?
How long do you expect the guests to hold out? 4 hours? 12? 24? Some of us have more endurance than others and there are health issues that might prevent one from working effectively over a great period of time.
Again, just curious with these questions.
Q. What is it like to gather any number of people into an event like this?
It will have to be on a first-come, first served basis. Charlie and I will determine the number of operators we can support and determine a basic schedule. From there, people could “sign up” and we could do a half-dozen “standbys” in case someone canceled.
In the events I’ve been to that have been around op sessions, they’ve been lots of fun and a highlight in the hobby for me (speaking as an attendee). More and more conventions are starting to add op sessions to their collection of events you can participate in. Plus there are LD SIG and OP SIG events periodically (Bay Rails being one such event).
Q. What say you on Foreign Power desiel or steam to be run as extras?
While in theory I’m not against foreign power, in practice it has seldom worked out well. There’s no way to guarantee the foreign power decoders are programmed properly, or that the locos have been tuned to operate well mechanically.
For instance, we had visiting power recently on the Siskiyou Line which I allowed, and it would derail regularly on just about every curve on the layout. I’m aware of the issue with this brand of loco and I’ve altered the wheelsets on these locos in my roster to
If you’re interested in the BC&SJ train line ups I’ve got some op session info for crews on my website at
http://s145079212.onlinehome.us/rr/operations/session.html
These days I’m running line-ups F and G.
Question: How does Joe’s proposed scheudle for an ops weekend strike you?
Fri nite - open house
Sat am - op session at the Siskiyou Line
Sat pm - op session at the BCSJ
Sun pm - open house
Cheers,
Charlie Comstock
Would you pay for a Boston MA to Portland, OR flight?[:-^]
I’d love to come, but the distance is a minor issue…[xx(]
Joe, I am making tentative plans to attend the National Narrow Gauge Convention ( September 10-30). I then plan to drive down to Weed via Klamath Falls to do some more research for my C & NE ( SP) RR. If anything is happening during this time period, I sure would be interested. Perhaps you could e-mail me and let me know.
Peter Smith, Memphis
I’m curious how we jumped from last June to “today”.
I’m always interested in operating sessions. If we plan far enough in advance perhaps I could arrange for several of us from Denver to come out together. There is a lot of train watching between here and there. Last year I almost chased the 844 all the way out.
I could even pick up some MR people I know in Idaho on the way out.
Charlie and I have been discussing this since last June, and we’re working on firming up the details – and Charlie’s just recently gotten active on the MR forum again … and here we are!
We’re still trying to figure out the exact agenda to make it worth people’s time to come. We’ve been thinking May of this year perhaps, but with the Narrow Gauge Convention in Portland this fall, that’s a possibility, too.
Boy, I’d love to make it. I’ll have to price things when the date is firmed up!
To anyone concerned about operating without previous experience…I visited one of Joe’s op sessions last fall, having never done anything similar in my life. I felt right at home (it did help having seen Joe’s videos), and was never uncomfortable as engineer at all. I had an experienced conductor, and everything was as smooth as it could be! I would recommend it for anyone!
[quote user=“jfugate”]
Q. What is it like to gather any number of people into an event like this?
It will have to be on a first-come, first served basis. Charlie and I will determine the number of operators we can support and determine a basic schedule. From there, people could “sign up” and we could do a half-dozen “standbys” in case someone canceled.
In the events I’ve been to that have been around op sessions, they’ve been lots of fun and a highlight in the hobby for me (speaking as an attendee). More and more conventions are starting to add op sessions to their collection of events you can participate in. Plus there are LD SIG and OP SIG events periodically (Bay Rails being one such event).
Q. What say you on Foreign Power desiel or steam to be run as extras?
While in theory I’m not against foreign power, in practice it has seldom worked out well. There’s no way to guarantee the foreign power decoders are programmed properly, or that the locos have been tuned to operate well mechanically.
For instance, we had visiting power recently on the Siskiyou Line which I allowed, and it would derail regularly on just about every curve on the layout. I’m aware of the issue with this brand of loco and I’ve altered the wheelsets on these
am just going out to purchase a lottery ticket.
would love to attend
Joe:
The CIRROPS crew in central Indiana is currently working on an OP Til You Drop April 4-5-6 and you might want to talke to Steve Johnson about the logistics. (www.cirrops.org)
The way you have it set up you will max out at the smallest layout’s maximum crew. If the smallest layout’s crew is ten then you are limited to ten operators. You might want to invite other layouts to match up with yours even though they are not up to your quality.
We currently have 10 layouts in four towns involved and will have approx 100 people running layouts over a three day weekend. For example 10 layouts times 10 operators each times 4 sessions gives us 400 possible operators or 100 max. That number gives you pull with a hotel and people carpooling to the session. FWIW
Bryan Lemonds
that would be an excellent experience, but i’m afraid that’s a bit far for me as well. that’s also very generous of you guys to offer that.
bogp40 i would be fair game for that. maybe if it’s at the right time of year i could catch a Red Sox game afterwards!!! I know, not railroad related [swg] nontheless i would be interested and that’s very generous of you as well.
Same with me for the forseeable future. I love SP so it would be a pleasure and honor to come learn from the master! Maybe some day! Syracuse is so far away from Portland!