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Joe; Having observed this hobby for over forty years now I can tell you this much:  the insertion of the word "operation" into a phrase is automatically going to be a Bru-ha-ha Breeder; it is almost always immediately followed by weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth. I will admit that I am more of a railfan operator than a how-many-cars-can-I-shove-into-the-spurs-on-this-particular-trip operator; I prefer watching trains roll although I do, upon occasions, enjoy watching a peddler drop and pick up cars at an online industry; call me impatient if you will but I get just a little nausious of that after four solid hours of it.  I simply don't orient my railroad around that particular function - I know of some who do.  If operation is your bag then have at it; don't tell - or imply - that I am out of the mainstream of model railroading if I don't share your enthusiasm.  Discussion of prototype operation quickly degenerates - at least in silent opinions if not in audible verbage - into rationalizations of "IDIOT(S)"and "BLASPHEMER(S).  I am sure, at this particular moment in time, there are literally dozens out there reading this post shouting those exact invectives at me for my I-don't-enjoy-operations heresy and further advocating that I should be called to account before the Spanish Inquistion!!! This attitude is usually followed with statements like, "The XYZ railroad ................"; I have encountered this on numerous occasions and I am sure you have also. Operations - and operations principles and procedures - are not written in blood, a fact lost on more than one model rail.  "I am an operator and if you don't operate your layout the way I operate my layout then you obviously are not really serious about operations!!!"  I enjoy reading "Trains of Thought" but T.K. is a legend in his own mind!!!   Now, there are some hard facts of life regarding (prototype) railroad operation and I try to run/operate my ABC railroad on sound operational principles and practices, but it is the ABC railroad and not the PDQ Railroad, or the XYZ Railroad, or the Sneaky Falls, Regurgitation, and Pacific Railroad.  Being a freelancer (a heretical word which is usually accompanied by another explative, "lazy") you will almost never hear me say "The 'real' railroads never or always did or did not do something" specific because I really don't know (and, with a few exception, don't really care) whether these "real" railroads never or always did or did not do something specific; such advocacy carries the implication that any railroad which does something differently is not a "real" railroad!!!  My ABC Railroad may not have a 'real' corporate identity but it is singularly unique in its requirements and its operational policies and procedures is going to be singularly unique. I'll follow your forum but I'm going to keep my boots off of the floor and my tongue in my cheek - that's to keep from choking off spasms of laughter - while I do; I am extremely curious to see if you can moderate this topic to keep it from degenerating into a virtual donnybrook.
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