I opted until I dropted.

[SpaceMouse]

I just attended my first op session aptly named, " Op until you drop," And boy are my feet tired. Bob from Clarion opened up his basement layout to people in Western Pennsylvania and I know of at least one person that came in from Ohio.

The basement is about 3 times larger than my club layout and at any time there were 12 trains running, two large yards and several smaller yards. I got hooked up with an old pro and together we ran a coal train, a doodlebug, and later ran one of the larger yards. At one point, we were caught up with classification and the yard was full, so I took a train out on my own.

The dispatcher tracks the trains via computer program that one of Bob's son's wrote. All moving trains are tracked via this computer and we were re all in contact via radio. All the trains are controlled by radio Digitrax controllers. I found it interesting that all turnouts were controlled by hand thrown switches and all switches were extended out to the edge of the layout. I was surprised to discover that it wasn't any more or less complicated that electrical switches and as Bob says less maintenance.

My favorite job today was yard goat. Moving the cars around and breaking them into out-going trains kept us constantly on our toes. And I must say, we spent a lot of time breaking "the ten commandments."

[Anonymous]

Ops is one way to get the most enjoyment possible out of the hobby, Im gonna miss ops this summer as the club I belong too is rebuilding its major yard into a hump yard and ops is just not possible without it.

Personally I've had the most fun with locals and mine shifters as far as ops goes, road freights get boring to me, and I dont understand the car-waybill routing system well enough to work a yard yet.

[dave9999]

Chip,
I have to say you get the award for best topic titles[:)].

I would love to have the opportunity to operate a huge layout. Sounds like a lot of
work and a lot of fun at the same time. Dave

[SpaceMouse]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Stuckarmchairing

Ops is one way to get the most enjoyment possible out of the hobby, Im gonna miss ops this summer as the club I belong too is rebuilding its major yard into a hump yard and ops is just not possible without it.

Personally I've had the most fun with locals and mine shifters as far as ops goes, road freights get boring to me, and I dont understand the car-waybill routing system well enough to work a yard yet.

The hootlebug got a little boring when we ran the lower levels off the dispatcher's board, but the local freights were semi-frustrating. There was one busy location where I had to run around my train and back up quite a ways drop off a single car then run around again to the front of the train. I was stuck on the siding for quite a while between each portion of the move. It took about 1/2 hour to drop the car, If I would have had to pick out a car first and drop the caboose it would have been much longer.

However, the I must say the dispatcher did a great job. He didn't have a second to breathe all day.

[RichS1]

Spacemouse is right......
I didn't have much time to breath between trains.
I started at 9am and dispatched about 30 trains before 12 noon. We ate lunch. Starting up again at 12:30 back to the "board" and dispatched another 50 or so moves. I took a break at 3:30. Then run the Blue Jay Southern which interchanges with the CR Low Grade until about 6:30. Then, back to the Dispatchers Board until about 9pm.
I moved a large number of locals, trans ft. unit, Hot Shot, RDC etc around the layout. Yes, there were times when someone had to wait, (local switchers) however, in real life the local switchers always yeid to the express etc trains.
That is why a lot of local switching is done at night.
Glad you had a great time on the low-grade
Rich Steiner
Chief Dispatcher, CR Low Grade

[Anonymous]

Wow! That sure sounds like a lot of WORK![:D]

I operate every third Wednesday on a friend's large HO scale layout, along with about a dozen or more other guys. I've personally never had as much inteterst in operating as those who have posted here. If I can operate one or two through trains an evening, its enough for me.

I've done way freights and there is just too much standing around waiting to be of interest to me. To top it off, the owner operates with sort of prototypical lighting, turning off the main lights when it is supposed to be nightime. There are blue bulbs on so you can see, but do not produce enough lighting to be able to see the numbers on the car forwarding pins on top of the cars. There are small flashlights around to use, but it is certainly kind of awkward to be holding a radio control throttle in one hand, an FRS radio in another, your switch list in another and uncouple the cars by hand, using a flashlight! Some guys thrive on this, but I'm just as happy to hang around and swap spit with the other operators who are waiting for their trains. And take a few photos when things are quiet for me.

Heading out this coming Wednesday for another go at it. Here's the layout website that I also maintain: http://www.geocities.com/islandcentral/

Bob Boudreau

[cwclark]

A lot of clubs run hand thrown turnouts...sometimes the electric driven ones don't throw the point rails all the way or one is thrown by accident and then there's a derailment or a train heading down the wrong track..not good when 12 trains are running all the time and trying to keep them all running....sometimes it's just best to stop a train and actually throw the turnout by hand ..that way, there's a visual inspection at each turnout the train goes thru...not to mention that it gives the brakeman something to do if a lot of people are assigned to one train crew during a club meet....chuck

[SpaceMouse]

QUOTE: Originally posted by RichS1

Spacemouse is right......
I didn't have much time to breath between trains.
Rich Steiner
Chief Dispatcher, CR Low Grade

I tried answering your email, but they came back. I'd love to see your layout.

[Anonymous]

Spacemouse, thats all part of being a local, you gotta plan your moves around road freights and allways be on your toes, and make sure your caboose isnt somewhere where its fouling anything. During a reccent operating session I had to switch out an interchange track at a busy interlocking, this interlocking was where the lead to the big classfication yard begain, where trains went in and out, I had to a simple pick up, drop and shove move into the interchange but since this was such a high traffic area I had to make half moves between road jobs coming in and out, and on top of this a train up the line a bit caused some congestion that tied up helpers coming back from summit. I finished my switching during a break in the chaos, and sat for a good 15 minutes in a spur off the main waiting for the dispatcher to give me clearance to return to the yard I came out of.

Yes It can be stressful at times if you're in a high traffic area, but the begining of this local I took I had to switch a number of places in a small town, I had the line all to myself during that time. The real hair pulling starts when you get to a busy section of the layout.

I've decided not to ever choose that local again, its just too crazy getting into that interchange track.

[JohnT14808]

Sounds like lots of fun, Spacemouse!! Our Club ( selected members, not myself) has been working real hard to get all the bugs worked out of a recent switch over to DCC. This past Thursday was the first really hectic Ops Nite the Club has had in several months.
What a rush! DCC was working great and we had six operators working individual trains, not in any sort of operations, just kinda chasing one another around the layout, playing with the controls and getting familiar with Digitrax. It was so nice to have the layout back up to snuff so that we could run trains. What fun! Even our youngest member Ian was there (he's 11 or 12) driving his newest DCC engine, pulling a freight down the main line.

[Anonymous]

I would not mind a ops myself but watching my 2-8-8-2 run those ore cars (Some of which might derail) is all I can handle from time to time. I think that my ore train might actually get in someone's way or cause problems for the dispatcher.

Going to deploy 24 ores later this month.

Good luck with your next session spacemouse!

[Pruitt]

QUOTE: Originally posted by FundyNorthern

...I'm just as happy to hang around and swap spit with the other operators who are waiting for their trains.

OUCH!

I know what you meant, Bob, but the term "swap spit" also has a different meaning. The image that flashed briefly in my mind as I read your post was rather vivid (and disturbing)! [:o)]

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Brunton

QUOTE: Originally posted by FundyNorthern

...I'm just as happy to hang around and swap spit with the other operators who are waiting for their trains.

OUCH!

I know what you meant, Bob, but the term "swap spit" also has a different meaning. The image that flashed briefly in my mind as I read your post was rather vivid (and disturbing)! [:o)]

Well, we are friends, but not THAT friendly! How about "Chewing the fat"? Guess that could be taken the wrong way too! I'll leave it with "Discussing current cultural events".

Bob Boudreau