Annville Yard Switcher
– Responsible for classifying inbound
freight cars, making up, and breaking down local freights. Also
coordinates with the hostler/second switcher to service the
Annville industrial district, and to switch the locomotive service
tracks (sand, coal, ash, diesel fuel).
Annville Hostler/Second Switcher
– Responsible for moving
locomotives between the steam and diesel service areas, and
the Annville yard office (which is the crew change point). This
job also involves switching baggage/mail and express head-end
cars from passenger trains, as well as switching the Annville
industrial district and locomotive service tracks.
Train Crews (Engineer and Conductor)
– There are typically
five trains active on the railroad at any point in time, thus a
27: There is #5985 preparing to pull a mail storage car from
the Post Office in Annville.This car will depart westbound
when it is picked up by passenger train number 13.
27
Pennsylvania & Western RR - 17
minimum of five train crews are needed. Crews pick up a mani-
fest/switch list for their train from a stack in the crew lounge.
There is a good mix of through and local passenger trains (all
with at least some head-end switching), coal drags, through
freight, and local freight trains, so everyone will operate some
interesting trains in each session. The locals work best with
two-person crews. Crews keep in contact with the dispatcher
using radios which simulate the prototype’s “trainphone”
induction radio system that was used in the 1950s.
As the designer and builder of the Pennsylvania & Western, it
is very rewarding to see the layout come alive with the coor-
dinated movements of the various operators. As the “walk-
around superintendent” during operating sessions, I enjoy
being a railfan seeing several simultaneous train movements at
once. I also enjoy being able to share the layout with a group of
friends, which is part of what this hobby is all about. It must be
fun for the operators as well, since I never have trouble assem-
bling an operating crew of 12.
I haven’t seen much written on the subject of how prototypical
operating sessions can add to the social aspect of the model
railroading hobby. I’ve made close friends of operators on my
layout, and also of operators that I’ve met while operating on
other layouts in town.
In fact, I currently host sessions for three mostly different
groups of operators. There is my regular monthly crew for
sessions held on Saturday afternoons. This group has been
operating here since September 2004. I’m also part of a group
of retired guys from the Cincinnati/Dayton area who oper-
ate every Wednesday morning. There are 18 in the group,
and we have eight layouts that we operate round-robin style.
This group has existed for many years; in fact a few of the
MRH-Mar 2014
