The porter driver dropped switchman Rabbit track-side prior to him crossing the tracks to ‘get the switch’ prior to a shove. Conductor Mr. Railroad stands by while figuring his next move. When you work the ground you see a lot more of it. Keeping these avatars in mind while running trains helps players engage on the playing field. By the way, the hopper car is a good “rider” for Mr. Railroad and Rabbit to ride on during the up coming shove.
I liken this avatar operating scheme to RPGs, the fun comes when you immerse yourself in the game. Our RPG story has multiple scenarios (e.g., A train coming to pick up a cut and leave to the schedule), roles/characters:(e.g., train and switch crews, Mr Railroad, Rabbit, you & me etc.) And finally, guides/facilitators(i.e.,Train Master, Dispatcher, Yard Master).
If it is your model railroad and you are a solo operator, sure.
But if you wish to do this on a large model railroad with multiple operators, unless you find a way to slow down all the mainline trains that are piling up behind you, you probably won’t be invited back.
Seems to me that this RPG analogue would work much better integrated into a ‘train simulator’ program than applied to a 3D model railroad. For proper “realism” a layout would need moving crewmen to make some of the delays other than tedious – you might be able to adapt the Faller Car System or that product that simulated an HO scale cyclist to move the switchman up and down the train to produce the effect of inspections, lacing hoses, pulling the pin or applying handbrakes, etc. It would be fun to watch, but hard to model unless you appreciated things other than trains and cars moving.
One thing that might be useful would be a RailDriver-style “RCO pack” to give realistic control over some of these operations, rather than just pretending to turn knobs.
Personally, I think a reasonable way to include the work times in a compressed or ‘fast-clock’ type of switching operation would be to have a clock controller with buttons or controls that would ‘take off’ however many minutes correspond to each necessary action. I waited with great enthusiasm for the ‘pocket watch fast clock’ we were promised circa 2014, and here is a perfect value-added set of functions for one. This would account for the realistic time spent without having to sit around pretending your characters are moving – until we reach the era we have Boston Dynamics agility in popular model-railroading scales smaller than 1 gauge.
Some friendly advice from someone who played this game:
You forgot to test the handbrakes.
You also bottled the air on your cut. That’s a rule violation.
Drawbars are usually straight when you cut away (unless you really shoved some long drawbars). And you should have at least a car length between the cars if you go in between to straighten. Also, stopping to open knuckles is wasting time. Just open the car you are cutting away from and hop on. You can open the other knuckle later when you have to stop for another reason.