Are you the sole engineer/CEO?

[FJ and G]

SOme layouts are equipped w/multiple throttles, both conventional and command control. Others have just one and require taking turns. Are you the lone engineer and do you wish you could have operating sessions with your friends.

If you conduct operating sessions are there downsides such as having fights over who controls which train or who is dispatching?

[guilfordrr]

I'm a lone engineer, but I kind of like it that way. Kids usually want to send trains careening off the tracks. And I have no command control, so its easy to run the layout on my own.

[fjerome]

my layout is designed to have multiple operators, but i can do it myself also.

[spankybird]

Most of the time it only me and Spanky. And Spanky isn't allowed to run the trains.

I do have two DCS remotes for when friends come over.

[Roger Bielen]

I have two CAB-1's, one for me and one for the oldest granddaughter. I set her up with a train but am sure to have the other CAB-1 in my hand. As to CEO, sometimes I wonder, the youngest GD, 3 in July, referres to the trains as " PaPa's going to run my trains for me." The middle one, 4 1/2, enjoys playing with the cars and trucks on the layout highway, I grit my teeth and bare it. Usually have to rearrainge whatever she can reach from her step stool when we're done.

Well, can't complain they are "toys".

[Anonymous]

Yes ..Sole operator, CEO here, cant even get my wife to run em, but she likes to watch.I love to run em when friends are over just to see the look on their faces. I have a ZW and 2 RW 110 hooked up to 4 tracks but all the controls are easily reached from the command seat.I am hooking up TMCC on 1 track to see if I like it....Tim

[Big_Boy_4005]

My layout is planned for single or multiple operators, no fighting allowed or required.

[dougdagrump]

Since I retired before my wife did I guess that made me the COO and her, for a little while, the CFO. [:D]

[Anonymous]

I bought it, I built it, I wired it, I did the scenery,
I repaired the trains, It's mine. I run it for the
pleasure of others. I have the control of the
trains, but the layout is wired for interactive use
of accessories and operating cars and the like.

It seems to work very well. The layout is con-
structed more like the old "department store"
layouts anyway, so the trains mainly run. Not a
prototypical operation in the "railroad" sense,
but prototypical in the "toy store" sense. Most
of the children like to see the things run and
they like to operate the things that "load and
unload" rather than try to run the trains them-
selves. Also by having a central control panel
I can set things up so the trains can run them-
selves and I can sit down in a chair and enjoy
them myself.

When I visit other peoples' layouts I prefer to
watch their operations rather than want to be
an operator, so I used the same pattern.

Just my 2c

[daan]

I'm a lone runner, mostly because I'm the only one who can get on the attic..[8D] Besides that, my girlfriend doesn't see the special thing in trains..

[Anonymous]

I only have a small train board and a few trains that are mostly postwar. I also have a prewar set and some cars so my board is set up with a control panel at one corner to be run by myself. Sometimes when people come over they show some interest and I demonstrate them. But mostly I run and work on the trains to relax from my work. It's a great rainy day hobby. On good weather I go fishing or hunting. Sometimes I even hike along railroad tracks and get pictures of real trains. Maybe that will be a new hobby.