An operating question for a small layout

[Blind Bruce]

I am building the "Hollow Run Railroad" as featured in Iain Rice's book mall, Smart, and practical track plans.
Can anybody out there suggest some ways to operate this layout?
Thanks,
BB

[Texas Zepher]

Unfortunately I do not have that particular book. If you would post a bit more information about the layout then perhaps others, like me, without the book might be able to comment.

[leighant]

Could you give a written description of the layout.
Does it have an oval that allows continuous (round-and-round) running?
Does it have a mainline? Single or double track?
If it has a single-track mainline, are there passing sidings where one train can go around another?
Does it have a "yard" as such? (My layout doesn't!)
Does it have a town scene with industry spurs?
Does it have a runaround track?
Does it have any staging so that trains that leave the visible scene have a "somewhere else" to go?

[Blind Bruce]

The layout is difficult to explain in words. It is a continuous single track oval with two turnouts in the far (north) side. The West one is a trailing point with the diverging portion heading Southwest to several No four's for a "mine" and a service stub. The East turnout is a facing point and heads Southeast to 3 wyes used for several industries. The far East side of the oval is double track and, I assume. is a passing siding There is nothing in the center three feet of this plan as it is used for wheelchair access. That's about all I can think of right now.
BB

[selector]

Sounds like team tracks? A nearby warehouse for produce would be ideal for the team track requirement. Gotta get those tomatoes out the the town right away if they were picked near ripe. Parallel tracks that could have ramps between them for unloading two or more rows of boxcars with 2-5 ton trucks that can drive on the ramps (ramps can be elevated or not). The big yard, for sure, should have at least two turnouts so that one of the tracks acts as a run-around for the switcher.
Your western area sounds like switchback style to a mine or logging camp. Each segment on either side of any of the turnouts must be long enough for the train you envision running...loco plus X cars. What will your industry there need?

Why is your train company dealing with these places? Answers will determine 'what you do' with your trains....and your tracks.

[Tracklayer]

QUOTE: Originally posted by selector

Gotta get those tomatoes out the the town right away if they were picked near ripe.

Yes. Please do. I love a good tomato sandwich...

Sorry selector. I couldn't resist [:p].

Tracklayer

[Texas Zepher]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Blind Bruce
The layout is a continuous single track oval... The far East side of the oval is double track and, I assume. is a passing siding

I would guess that is a run-around track.

The most simple operation is to choose a desired distance and equate a number of laps to that distance. Example, the train starts at town A and travels to town B five miles away. So make 1 miles be equal to 2 laps. So the train will have to go 10 laps. The schedule says 20 mph max so it should take the train - 15 minutes to get there. That's kind of a long time without a fast clock so shrink the time by a factor of 5 - so 3 real minutes to make the 10 laps. Make the "towns" different distances appart and work on getting the train there exactly on time for whatever speed limit that "section" of track has.

QUOTE:
The West one is a trailing point with the turn portion heasing Southwest to several No four's for a "mine" and a service stub. The West turnout is a facing point and heads Southeast to 3 wyes used for several industries.

To "work" the town make up a card for each freight car. Put the cards into two decks. One deck for the cars in the train and one for the town. When the train arrives choose 2-3 cards out of the "train" deck for cars to be set out, and 2-3 cards out of the "town" deck for cars to be picked up. To decide where the set outs go you could make a second set of cards with the sidings on them, or number the sidings and use a dice to select where each car goes.

From there, this can refined to get more realistic. This will require making the cards more complicated. By more complicated I mean add things like: specific cars to specific industries (hopper or ore cars to your mine), a car can only be picked up by a train of a specific direction, three trains must pass before a car can be picked up, etc. After a certain level of complexitiy you could start rating the sessions by counting the number of moves it takes (each time the loco starts is a move). I ran with such a system for many years.

If you don't need the double track portion for a run-around, you could stage a second train there facing the opposite direction. Only one could run at a time but it would add some variation running a train one direction and then one in the other.