Getting Real Column - 5
schematic of the layout to Bob Warren, who’d volunteered to
help me by dispatching the railroad. Bob came back with some
great suggestions that streamlined the operating scheme. Of
course, he also provided some great feedback after the session
and I’ve implemented several of his proposed changes.
I tested every inch of track and every car and locomotive prior
to the session. In some cases, if the track wasn’t up to par, I
replaced it before the session – including replacing a pair of
troublesome turnouts with new Peco code 83 curved turnouts.
My goal was to achieve as close to 100% reliability of track and
trains as possible.
Then there was the paperwork (several examples of which are
shown here). There’s a little paperwork for a small layout, with
more for a larger layout like mine. I had developed a timetable
starting with a prototype Central Vermont timetable, for inspira-
tion. I also made up a “call board” list of trains (basically a sequen-
tial listing of all the trains I planned to run during the session) for
myself, the yardmaster, and dispatcher, and made up train cards
for the train crews to know what to do with each train in each
town. Finally, I created car cards and waybills for each car.
In preparation for the operating session, I spent several eve-
nings getting the layout; and the associated operating paper-
work; completed. The photos and captions describe some of
this paperwork. I learned to never underestimate the amount
of time and effort a layout owner has to put into getting ready
for an operating session. Not only do you have to make sure
the layout is ready – track cleaned and “debugged,” decoders
programmed, and trains staged; you also need to create the
necessary paperwork.
In my case, layout prepa-
rations involved finish-
ing a staging yard on the
south end of the railroad
(critical so all those trains
had a place to go to and
come from!), installing
a fast clock, and devel-
oping track diagrams,
like the one shown for
Everett (4 next page), for
each station.
I also installed shelves to
give my operators a place
to put throttles, paper-
work, uncoupling skew-
ers, soda cans, and the
like without having them
on the layout itself. All
these preparations con-
sumed the better part of
a month of hobby time,
but they were well worth
it when it came time for
the session to start.
So, how did it go? Truth
be told, I just made it. I
was programming decod-
ers and assigning ID num-
bers to one of the radio
throttles as the first crew
members arrived.
3
3. Prior to the session, every
car and locomotive and section
of track was tested. Anything
that failed the reliability test was
replaced. This included two old
Walthers turnouts that were
replaced with new Peco Code
83 curved turnouts.
MRH-Nov 2013
