sister club to ours, the Orlando Society of Model Railroaders, decided they are going to give ops another try (they’d done it once but life got in the way). So Tom, one of our former members, scouted out our ops, took careful notes and carried them back to incorporate into their setting. And then he was nice enough to invite us over to run on the inaugural.

I’ll mention that this was going to make for a long day for a number of our crew – we already had a planned session at our own club at 7pm. If we cut out at 4:30 or so, we’d just have time to get in, get set up and run.

Yeah, my wife thinks I’m nuts.

A true railroader – gave his life to keep cars from going off the end of the track (Photo: Zach B)

I’ll be honest – I rather knew what to expect. A first time session with a lot of newbies and a first-time dispatcher is a tough thing to do. Our first sessions (20-30 years ago) were nothing more than Bob Martin and me (and maybe one or two others) switching. Eventually enough people started playing along. Soon we were running cars out from staging, we had Monday night home sessions, and a tipping-point was achieved. But it’s very tough to hit that point.

So Tom was using powerpoint to keep track of trains, and handing out warrants encased in plastic which he writes on with dry erase (which is a nice touch, seeing how we’re got a several-hundred dollar printing bill coming up for more warrants in our club). I won’t hide it – and Tom was doing his best – but things were slow. I’m pretty good with that – I’ve operated at Le Mesa club (real clocks, real waits) and I read classic literature and watch B&W silent movies. There was some antsy-ness, both in our club and some of the locals.

On the good side, they did get their inaugural done, and generally the first session is always painful. Me, I had fun – I did run one train and it took three hours to cross the division, but yeah, I made it. I guess if I were to offer suggestions (and look at me – it’s not like our sessions are always great – we’re just lucky the chance of fistfights has dropped off), I might suggest…

• The warrants we use are actual close to real railroad warrants. I think the OSMR version requires a bit too much writing (some of the information is duplicated). My top pace was 110 warrants in 2.5 hours, and you don’t have time for any padding. So yes, consider going close to actual railroad warrants (this is not an immediate concern).
• Think about making a map with train markers on it to move – we still do this at the club from time to time (we did it last night in our club session, in fact). Yes, it’s not very prototypical but it is one of the fastest and easiest methods to use. I use it on the high-speed WAZU line, and there would be no way to keep up otherwise.
• Take some index cards and write critical passing siding names on them. Just lean them against scenery so we know where things are. We wasted a lot of DS time bothering him for that information. At ONT, we actually have signs hanging over locations.
• 

  I passed this mine (almost went into it – oops). Beautiful work and a wonderful industry (Photo: Jordan V)

  Don’t try for a timetable just yet. But publish and follow a staggered set of start times. What’s the old joke? “Why is there time and space? There’s time so everything doesn’t happen at once and space so everything doesn’t happen to you.” Poor Tom; everything happened to him at once. If crews have a signup sheet, then they know when they are leaving (just use real times so everyone doesn’t gripe while they wait).

• Use the “Not in effect until” order more. That is one of the best commands in your warrant. It allows you to give an order to a train that only triggers when the approaching train arrives. This means you can issue it when you have a break in the action. More importantly, it gives your crews hope. If they know they have an active warrant, they are less likely to get frustrated. Waiting for the known is better than waiting for the unknown.
• Keep running sessions! Invite us back! You have a wonderful layout and making it do train-things is the bomb! I can tell you that all your guys learned things about operations during the session. Next time there will be fewer questions and everyone will know what to expect. Add in start times so people aren’t crowding around for warrants you really shouldn’t write yet (i.e. time and space). Lean and improve!

Anyway, we of Orlando N-Trak (and the Lehigh, Monongahela and Ohio) are delighted that the Orlando Society of Model Railroaders is operating again. Just think – soon you’ll reach the fist-fight stage and the fun really begins!

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One great thing about OSMR, even in their massive scale, they have some nice relaxed areas with sweeping curves. Good design! (Photo: Zach B)

The sun rises over a peaceful valley. Oh wait. That’s me in my ONT show-shirt (Photo: Zach B)