operations – Page 15 – Robert Raymond’s Blogtorium

June 21, 2024

On Sheet – Seniority

ne of the problems we faced on our club layout is staffing up trains and running everything. On a home layout, that really isn’t a problem. If you wish to do it this way, you can tie in a firm understand with your operators that – outside of special cases – you stay until the session is over. And you should attend a debrief (the owner has put a great deal of effort into a session and wants to hear, good and bad, how it went). I was at a session last year where some old duffer decided, in mid-session, […]

June 23, 2024

OpsLog – FEC – 6/22/2024

read a lot of books. In fact, I’ve read all the Hornblower novels. Even read the Patrick O’Brian novels about a British expedition that rounds Cape Horn with its endless pounding storms. And I didn’t get the heaving and scurvy of that passage in the op session, but I got the damn rain! I was at the dispatcher’s desk in the “command” shed, along with the missus and the Farnhams. In the other shed, we had a full house and a heavy schedule. And we might as well have been ships in a storm-tossed formation, for all the chance of […]

June 27, 2024

OpsLog – LM&O – 6/26/2024

ur group seems to form great teams of solid operators. A lot of layouts ask for us, even confirm that we can make it before announcing a session. Among other places that request us, there are the Virginia SouthWestern, the West Virginia Northern, the Florida East Coast and the Western Bay. It’s a shame that if we did not actually build and maintain the Leigh, Monongahela & Ohio we probably wouldn’t have been invited at all. I mean, look at last night’s session. First off, there was all the dramas before the clock even went hot. I actually approved of […]

June 28, 2024

On Sheet – The Problem with Nazareth

ur club layout has a very simple arrangement – there is a central yard (Martin) in the middle, the staging at the far ends of the railroad (Cincinnati and Bound Brook). For almost two decades, six freight trains (three in each direction) would enter Martin Yard and swap out a handful of cars. These cars would go onto the three primary locals (Shelfton, Mingo Junction and Zanesville). When the cars got to the industry and spent a time being unloaded, they’d be sent back to the yard to go onto east and west trains. it was a nice little flow, […]

July 10, 2024

OpsLog – TBL – 7/9/2024

o it’s the day after. I’m sitting in the local coffee house with a cup of joe, looking all urbane and cool. And it’s hard to sip coffee with this big mother-loving smile on my face. We had a great session last night. The Tusk has been down for a couple of months with computer problems. The interlocking tower would either fail to boot or, after an innocent start, suddenly fail catastrophically. I have people who drive a hundred miles to attend. I can’t risk getting them out here for an annulled session. Thanks and praise goes to designer Steve […]

July 19, 2024

OpsLog – TBL – 7/19/2024

t was an interesting way to pull together a session. I asked around but everyone was going on vacation. Then I thought I’d run solo Thursday after a cancer-status-check with my surgeon; he’s all the way down in Celebration (and for people who don’t know about that, well, given Interstate 4 traffic, that’s like saying “He’s on the other side of the D-Day invasion”). Then I thought, no, maybe I’ll just go to my local coffee shop and veg. Then young Zeus who is going off to school started in on me.It was all that “How about this day? How […]

July 28, 2024

OpsLog – FEC – 7/27/2024

kay, this one will be a tough one to write. Sure, the first train out got routed wrong out of the yard. There, are you happy? I admit it. To make it worse, the last train in also misrouted down the wrong track and hit a train on the departure tracks. So full disclosure. But while we’re spreading blame on toast, let’s not forget that every local, every local, worked long today. I had delays at Palm bay, at Pinetta, Buenaventura, Frontenac, Titusville and the whole Cocoa stretch. If locals worked clear of the main, they did fine. But work […]

August 18, 2024

OpsLog – West Fork – 8/17/2024

ome of you are probably sitting up at this – where is Robert operating now? Tampa? Miami? Atlanta? Nome? Nope, right down at our own Orlando N-Trak Clubhouse. West Fork is the little switching layout Steve and I (mostly Steve) assembled. It runs on batteries (seemingly forever) and is interesting. Essentially you have a lead that can hold an engine and three cars. The main can hold five. The two sidings, three apiece. You’ve got eight cars to shuffle and need to get five (in the right order) on the main. Index switching? How long could this possibly take? Well, […]

August 25, 2024

OpsLog – FEC – 8/24/2024

ough day for me on the Florida East Coast. Evidently we simulated love-bug season. I could hardly see out of the cab and the wipers didn’t help. Squinting for half the session. But that comes in later. So Ken wanted to dispatch and in a surprise move, put Zach into the trim job (I’ve done it several times – it’s good casual fun). This, of course, meant we could all talk about Zach in the ops shed, so it was an amusing day. Delighted to find myself moving road units – been a long time. My first job was the […]

August 29, 2024

OpsLog – LM&O – 8/28/2024

hese great, dumb beasts, moving as one, plodding through dust and adversity in their drive towards their distant goal. Small stupid eyes peer from beneath their shaggy manes, nosing their fellows, driving on and on, clutching their trains under their arms… What? Yeah, I’m not talking buffaloes here. I’m talking about the general rush for the door, the one-and-done deal where half the club is out the door and heading home to their nightcaps and their Tonight Shows. Those who stick to their throttles were looking around about 9:20pm (real time AND train time), wondering if the rapture had happened […]