Your Thoughts On Different Types of Operation

[Anonymous]

My layout is primarily a switching layout. When we reach the operating with a crew stage the jobs will be: 1. Bringing interchange and/or home road traffic into the yard from staging. 2. Yard switcher, 3.2nd switcher operating in an industrial area. Yard switcher will bring cars to industrial area to be switched by industrial switcher and the industrial switcher will bring an occassional cut of cars to the yard to get them out of way once the industries are have either unloaded or loaded them.

That being said, for the past several months I have had the priveledge of operating on an area layout which is quite large and very fast paced. Virtually no switching, but lots of trains run under train orders. Sign up for a train, find it, call the appropriate dispatcher (there are two) to get permission to leave and then run following the instructions on your train order card. I have never had the opportunity to experience this "racetrack" style of operation before and find it very interesting and very exciting. I have been operating on this layout since the end of last summer and only last week I had my first opportunity to leave and pick up a car at a station on the layout. I thought the lack of switching would bother me, but in fact the layout is a great deal of fun to operate. I'd like some opinions from some of you who have experienced both types of operation.

Cheers,

Ed

[ndbprr]

I plan both forms. I am modeling 1.5 miles of the PRR corridor from noth Philadelphia station and east. This allows me to use tracks 0 and 5 as the PRR did for local switching and tracks 2-4 fro mainline runs ( on other railroads the tracks would have been numbered 1-6 but not the Pennsy!). I plan to have one person located in the staging loops to start and end trains and two towermen at Shore at the east end and North Phily at the west end to handle the through trains. I also plan to make forced persepctive towers for them to operate from. they will have windows like the prototpye, a small desk and a radio. The staging tower will call the next tower and give him a line up of what is coming. he will pass that to the other towerman who will then call the staging tower to let him know it is coming back to staging. I figure there will be at least two freights and one passenger train on the mains at all times. operation should begin within the year.

[ClinchValleySD40]

Ed,
Fast paced ops is good but so is laid back ops. If people are operating on the fast paced layout and come to yours it might be like a welcome break.
Best thing to do is do it the way you enjoy it most and something your crew will enjoy.
Some people like switching, some like mainline running.

Come to the SE Michigan Ops Weekend the end of April and we'll give you a chance to operate on 4 different layouts over three days, each with a different operating system.

[tomikawaTT]

Once again, the type of operation you like is very heavily influenced by the prototypes yuu're familiar with. On the spinoff shortlines, you can find the easy, switch every town, operation that hasn't changed much since the early days. On the various transit district systems you will find nose-to-tail passenger operation with nary a freight car in sight.
On the BNSF between Belen, NM and Barstow, CA, about the only thing switched is crews. On the various terminal railroads, and the terminal districts operated by class I roads, switching is the name of the game, if not the entire game. And then there are unit train operations...

Which you prefer, and how you incorporate that preference into your own modeling experience, is very personal, heavily influenced by the characteristics of the available model railroad(s) and the likes and dislikes of the other operators in your club or informal group. Only a true lone wolf can do exactly as (s)he pleases. On one hand, an amateur yardmaster won't be very happy without a yard to operate. On the other hand, a layout with only sixteen linear feet of visible main line, where trains come in from staging, do their division-point business and depart to staging, isn't very conducive to the 'take the train over the road' concept.

The best thing about this hobby is the ability to choose what you like, then build and operate accordingly.

[Texas Zepher]

Nothing says switching operations cannot be fast paced, switching operations have to run "on time" as well. Our club layout actually has both. They yard operators are the ones with some real pressure because they have to get the trains ready so they can leave on time. The way freights had better have the mainline clear by when the crack passenger is due. No way it can be considered "laid back".

From what you described it might not be type of operation that is making the difference but size of the layout.

[johncolley]

Variety is the spice of life! Depending on your crew you can have either, or both! If you have newcomers, go easy on them until they know your system, then try them on a faster paced session if they are willing. It's how we learn and grow! jc5729

[ClinchValleySD40]

Here is a great chance to try a variety of different types of operations. The SE Michigan Proto Operators is hosting an Ops Weekend April 21-23. You'll have a chance to operate on up to four different layouts over three days. Friday evening, Saturday morning, Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. You can attend any or all of the sessions. Operate with Car Card/Waybills, Switchlists or Car for Car systems. Layouts range from smaller switching layouts to large club size and scales of N, HO and O. Info and on line registration on the group web site

www.michops.org

Questions, contact me off list.

Larry