What, Why, Who, Where, When, and How of Operations

[superchief]

Charlie, Sorry a bit late to the conversation, operations have fascinated me since I got into the hobby over 50 years ago, here are my answers:

What. operations is the movement of our model trains that emulate to prototype movements.

Why. This is an awesome hobby with many levels, bench work, Laying track, electrical and scenery....Operations is something to do with the railroad once we get to a certain level of running.

Who. the hobby is full of folks that like to run operations and there are some that prefer to "orbit" and there is nothing wrong with that, I think it is important to have some easy jobs or run thru trains that the "orbiter" can run, they may see how much fun we are having. We all have a fun time TOGETHOR.

Where. The home layout is the most likely spot, but ops on a club layout or a modular layout like Freemon, or N Trak is possible just take more coordination.

When. this is up to the group, I find Saturdays are the best, our club runs on Sundays when the store its located in is closed and not open to the public. Here locally we have a group they call themselves the "old geezers" and they meet on Tuesdays about 9am have coffee/ cookies and run from 10 till about 1 or 2 on different layouts and can be home before rush hour hits.

How. Maybe this is the biggest question and depends on the type of operations and the layout. Small switching layout, logging railroad or a bigger operation like a bridge route with lots of traffic. Car forwarding, from very simple like boxcar goes to the furniture factory and the tank car goes to the refinery with no paperwork, or use the standard four cycle waybills or a computer software program ( as mentioned earlier, reading the car numbers in N scale can be difficult like tank cars!) and some of us (myself included) wearing glasses, lighting is a must. Or a tab on car system that makes reading the numbers a thing of the past.

I will remark on some of the earlier post, I do not think that operation cannot be done in N scale, many of us have proved it can be, and very well I may add. Many HO'ers that have operated on my layout make comments of a 35 car train running thru on a single track scene with high scenery to train ratio say that could NEVER do this in HO!!!!!

Can it be more work in N scale, YES. our track has to be cleaner, our cars weighted and heaven forbid our steamers must be fine tuned to the highest standard to run well. As the beginners that get into our hobby, if the trains do not run well then they can get discouraged and lose interest.

  I hope this helps for your clinic at the national this year, sorry i will not make this one but hope to make Reno.
                                                                        Gordon Bliss / Santa Fe-All the Way

[peteski]

During recent ops testing on the AC&Y I've had two 70+ yr old gentlemen give it a go.  Both are experienced operators, mostly on HO layouts.  One is a retired railroader.  Neither had operated on an N scale layout before.  Both were concerned about two things going in:  Reading car numbers and uncoupling the cars. 

Car numbers turned out to be a non-issue.  To John's points:  No car is ever more than 15" away from the layout front edge and aside from heavy AC&Y and NKP reporting marks my trains mirror his regarding the mix of road names, purely by chance.  And did I mention there is PLENTY of lighting?

Uncoupling turned out to be a surprise.  I showed them best practices for manual uncoupling using a pick (on my layout anyway).  Neither had a bit of a problem throughout the session.  In fact the retired railroader stated that he wished HO couplers worked as well.

Both left their session believing N scale ops is not only possible, it can work pretty darn well.

Those are the exact comments we hear from seasoned operators (of all ages, but especially older ones) when they operate on my friend's layout.  They are also surprised that those tiny N scale trains run better than many H0 scale layouts.  That layout has smooth trackwork, and well implemented electrical wiring.

[MichaelMuha]

DIGRESSION...Your Specialty Minerals looks awesome - the large building in N scale look fantastic. Question: In real-life, is Specialty Minerals shipping in those covered hoppers or receiving...or both? END DIGRESSSION.

Thanks!
Mike

[brokemoto]

I have let an accident of construction govern my operations and even power roster.  The center of operations is a junction of three lines:  The Washington-Dover and Annapolis-Harrisburg lines of the Four Capitals plus the Short Creek and Nopedale. The Annapolis-Harrisburg line is operated by WM; the Washington-Dover by the B&O.  The SC&N has remained independent.  By an accident of construction (despite all of my measurements and planning), there is a 2,2 per-cent grade from the SC&N up to Short Creek Junction as well as on the Annapolis-Harrisburg line.  A grade of that sort is not the usual for that part of the country.  My choices were to pretend it ain't really that steep, or go for it and let the story be that the only real estate that could be acquired for it had a steep ridge over which the railroad had to get.  I went with the second option.

For the Annapolis-Harrisburg line, there really is no problem.  Passenger trains are gas--electrics or two or three cars.  Freight trains are no more than five cars, so even a yard switcher can deal with those despite the grade.  The challenge came for the Short Creek and Nopedale trains.  I had to figure out what was going to be the longest and potentially heaviest train that would have to get up that grade.  Passenger trains were of little concern.  They are no more than three cars; two head end cars and a coach or three passenger cars and an express boxcar.  A mggul or a ten-wheeler will get those up the grade.

The freights were going to be the challenge.  They moved under diesel power  I had to figure out the weight and length of various trains.  I had to learn how to figure out what kind of tractive effort was needed to get the trains up that hill.  I had to learn to figure out how many horses were needed to get the trains up the hill.  Train lengths and weights tended to vary, so  my Purchasing Department had to consider what kind of diesels it would purchase.  I had to make the "purchases" believable for the era, the kind of railroad and the locale.  Further, I had to consider what models ran the best and would run with each other.

The most frequent freight train needed twelve to thirteen fifty horses and just under thirty thousand pounds of tractive effort.  Anything larger than an RS-1 would work.  Given the era, anything up to a GP-9/RS-3/any Baldwin road switcher or cab unit/any FM cab or roadswitcher except a Trainmaster would work.  What do you do with a larger train, though?  The largest and heaviest train would require just over thirty five thousand pounds of tractive effort and twenty five to twenty six hundred horses.  How do you deal with that?

1.  You buy two roadswitchers or cab units-  This might be believable if you use two FM or Baldwin cab units.  As the former were maintenance hungry and the latter unreliable, it is going to be rare that one or the other is not in the shop (conveniently,  neither of them is in the shop only when the train requires both of them).  A short line does not have that kind of money.  The SC&N already has three diesels:  a Baldwin VO-1000 and a a pair of NW-2s.  Those are wartime assignments.  By the mid-1950s, the Baldwin has become the Short Creek Junction switcher, one of the EMDs is the Short Creek switcher and the other one is in reserve.  It does not make much sense to purchase two road switchers or cab units.  No railroad is going to pay to have that much power sitting.  One possibility is to cut the wartime assignment to one of the yard switchers and use an RS-2 and RSC-2.  One of the ALCos can work as the switcher for Short Creek, the yard switcher can work Short Creek Junction and the other ALCo can be the usual road freight power.  When two locomotives are required for the train, the other ALCo just leaves Short Creek without a switcher until the train returns from the junction.  The drawback to this is that spaces are tight at Halfway Hall, where cars are picked up and dropped off.  The two ALCos will make extra moves necessary which take up time.;

2.  You use the road switcher or cab unit and have a helper, a USRA 0-6-0, a Shay or a 2-8-0 from the very late 1800s.  No railroad, especially a short line, is going to pay to keep an old steam locomotive in operation so that it can help one or two trains per week.

3.  You u se a GP-9 when only one locomotive is required and add on one of the NW-2s if two are required.  This is a little better, but still a bit much for the tight spaces at Halfway Hall.  It does, however, give you the horses that you need (1750 from the GP-9; nine hundred from the NW-2 for a total of 2650; just barely enough.

.....but wait............maybe you are onto something:

You must look at your models for a minute.  That Baldwin has a throttle response far different from your Katos or Atlas'.  I am not a DCC boy.  Conversely, the NW-2s are close enough to both.  On the heavy days, the GP-9 or FM H-15-44 is not going to be enough before you get to the grade, but the two NW-2s will be just enough for it while it is on the relatively flat part of the railroad.  The two NW-2s can work the tight spaces of Halfway Hall.  Is there a rule against using the GP-9 or FM ( of course, only one or the other is actually on the "roster" at any one time) as a station/junction switcher?  No.  Now you have another question.  How do you get the Baldwin out of Short Creek Junction and back to Short Creek, where it can work as the Short Creek switcher and the GP-9 or FM to Short Creek Junction?  Railroads do not like to pay for deadhead light power moves.

There is an early afternoon fuel train that moves hoppers, gondolas and tank cars to Short Creek Junction.  They all are empty.  One yard switcher is enough to get it up the hill.  As a rule, the GP-9 or FM is iin charge of that train, anyhow.  You run the road switcher on the train.  The trip back is with loaded cars, but downhill or on relatively level track.  A yard switcher is enough for it.  The Baldwin takes the loads back to Short Creek.  The GP-9 or FM then works as the station/junction switcher.  The larger freight runs at night.  The two NW-2s take it to Short Creek Junction, with a stop at Halfway Hall to pick up any outgoing cars.  The two NW-2s can not get that train up that hill, but the GP-9 or FM comes to help.  That is more than enough tractive effort and horses to get the train up that hill.  You do not want both of the NW-2s at Short Creek Junction, so they will take the night freight back.  The next day, the Baldwin will run the empties on the fuel train to Short Creek Junction then resume its place as station/junction switcher.  The GP-9 or FM will take the loaded fuel train back to Short Creek.

This way, the railroad is paying only for one diesel locomotive to sit:  the NW-2 that is held in reserve.  The power assignments are sufficient to move the trains.  You have a roster that fits the railroad type, era and economics.

[Pomperaugrr]

DIGRESSION...Your Specialty Minerals looks awesome - the large building in N scale look fantastic. Question: In real-life, is Specialty Minerals shipping in those covered hoppers or receiving...or both? END DIGRESSSION.

Thanks!
Mike

Specialty Minerals in Canaan, CT produces a high grade dolomite limestone.  It is mined in a nearby, but off-site quarry and trucked to the plant for further crushing and refinement.  The large arched roof building is the kiln building.  I compressed the depth of the plant a bit, but kept signature structures.  They ship out product in covered hoppers, dry-bulk trailers and bagged/palletized.

[Rossford Yard]

Just my $0.02, but in the ops sessions I have hosted, I have found that simpler is better, and shorter shifts are better. 

My switching layout currently has 6 unique jobs, scheduled to take 30-45 minutes.  You can always run a second shift if the first 45 minute schedule actually runs on time.

My operators actually prefer silence to sound. I have had two operators with one running silent, one sound.  Basically, if they want to toot for crossings, use the brake sound, etc., they can, but they really don't have to and I don't stress them out making them do it.

Other simple items:

Car tabs, no road number reading. Not great for photos, but it is actually quite satisfying to see the class yard have lines of the same colored tabs, ready for taking out on the road.

Ground Throw Turnouts

Uncoupling picks, no magnets.

In most cases, one for one swaps (or two for  two, block for block, etc.)  On each switch list I put one industry that is a bit different than normal." For instance, on a multi spot warehouse, I have them take spots 2 and 4 instead of 1, 3, and 5 every other time out.  There are a few small wrinkles, but not a switching puzzle.

No switching puzzles.

I can't imagine beginner operators want to be stressed out by really hanging by the prototype, at least based on my years of experience.