Getting Real Column - 2
entitled 19 East, Copy Three. It is sold out at the OpSig website,
but copies may found by searching at
.
Second, ancillary rules and special instructions may be included,
in addition to schedules. These added features are often pres-
ent in prototype employee timetables, and are an opportunity to
acquaint operators with various special conditions on the layout.
Third, other information may be present, at least in model
timetables, such as switching diagrams for yards or towns, as
an aid to operators.
And fourth, it may be desirable to make the timetable look
like a document from the prototype railroad on which the lay-
out is based.
1. SP Consolidation 2829 has finished its day’s work
on the Santa Rosalia Branch and as the sun sinks in
the west, is headed back through Ballard to the junc-
tion with the SP main line at Shumala. The timetable
and throttle are among the tools the operator needs to
manage the train.
1
The ways to con-
struct a model
timetable to
provide working
train times are
hardly mysteri-
ous, and some
rather sophisti-
cated aspects of
this topic have
been explored
in print over the
years. I won’t
address them,
but for those
who wish to
learn more, I
suggest perus-
ing one of Tony
Koester’s clear
and concise
descriptions
of the process.
There are at least two places to look: one is the Kalmbach
special issue of
Model Railroader
magazine, “How to Operate
Your Model Railroad,” Summer 2012 (Tony’s piece is on pages
51 to 53), and second, Tony’s book, “Realistic Model Railroad
Operation, 2nd Edition, Kalmbach, 2013.” As of this writing,
both are available for purchase at Kalmbach’s website:
kalm-
bach.com
.
Another reason I won’t be discussing the details of constructing
time schedules is that they are not very important on my own
layout. That stems from two things. One is that I, like most layout
owners, often operate by myself. Many more owners operate with
2. Front cover, SP employee timeta-
ble No. 164, 1953.
2
MRH-Oct 2014
