Tuesday Night's Operating Session - A New Possible Format?

Greetings followers of the Atlantic Pacific Railroad and my blog!

As many of you know, I host operating sessions on my railroad. I run trains with a great group of guys and all of us have a good time. There's conversation, jokes and of course, the usual banter amongst friends. We do run trains and that's the fun part. 

There are three operating layouts in our group. One operator (Bob) uses a switch list on paper. It's very specific and the operator must study the industry in order to move the cars needed from the list. . His layout is the largest of the three. It's more like tremendous and takes up the entire basement which I think is about 30' x 60' (could be larger in the width). The second layout (Steve) is quite larger than mine. His layout and my layout do not use paperwork. He is adding signals to his railroad and will eventually have a dispatcher to run the railroad via radio. 

My layout runs with a dispatcher and a yardmaster. When I host a session, it runs well for the most part. I can get distracted when others ask questions or not familiar with parts of the railroad, which is understandable since I don't as host as often. Steve is our head gatherer and hosts the most. Last weekend Bob hosted and while he does use the paper switch list, he had one train that had to move first in order for the rest of the railroad to move. I thought that was a neat idea as it kept trains moving. When I host, depending on who is present, an operator of a train may have to wait and some just like to run a train then leave. 

My friend NJ John (the other John is in GA as I refer to him in my blogs quite often), is my senior operator and knows the railroad as well as I do (at times I think he knows it better than me). We discussed this and while I'm not a fan of paper or switch lists, I want the railroad to run with less down time between trains, as long as I have the operators to move trains.

I came up with a plan and last night I put it to the test. I was supposed to have a total of 6 people including myself, and I wanted a selected group of individuals. The main reason is that none of them are or were railroaders!. One could not make it and the other one cancelled on me at the last minute, something about doing things for work. Guess he needs to get his priorities in order, ya think? This just made me do both dispatch and yardmaster. With the other 3 guys running trains and the yard within a few steps it was not an issue.

Here's what I did. I put the jobs on index cards with the engine number, type of job and location on the railroad. One new twist, if you want to call it that was to have a pair of engines come up from the engine terminal and head to the yard, pick up a train and head to staging. This was John's idea as the engine terminal has never been used in an op session. Definitely not to a lack of people, just never entered into the equation.

The yard had a pair of RS units and two Geeps to use for local industries...

The first three assignments, if you know my industries are switched off the main. No one needs to wait coming from or going to staging. The first job goes to the yard light and then heads to staging. 

The next job, once there was an operator, would come from staging and head right to the power plant. No down time since there weren't trains ahead of him, and as long as he had the signals, went right to work. 

This last job, the operator went right to work, grabbed an engine and went out to get the cars, brought them back to the yard. He picked up the outbound cars, went back out, and I sorted them after he left the yard. He could have taken the outbound with him. Since there were just 3 operators, it didn't hold up anyone else...

  

In a matter of just under two hours, with three train operators, all six jobs were worked. Below are some random shots of last nights session...

The end result was that all three operators were constantly moving and running trains. I think John got more of a workout, retrieving engines and returning engines to the terminal and freight yard. It was his idea, so why not let him run with it! 

The assessment at the end of the session was that trains moved, it was enjoyable, the cards with all of the information eliminated many questions each operator may have had when running his train. The dispatcher and yardmaster had down time since trains flowed. Even if I did have a yardmaster, he wouldn't have been that busy. Since there wasn't a yardmaster, when John brought up his engines I pointed out the outbound train and he took it from there. Same thing when he brought up a train from staging for the yard. He dropped the cars, cut the engines and took them back to the engine terminal. I stood around a lot as once trains were moving, there was nothing to do but watch my railroad in action. Very cool!

As a bonus, John brought over some of his new UP motive power, working to replicate a UP engine move from real life...

Here's a short video of his new engines..

All of my night op sessions end with some munchies and drinks (non-alcoholic). Thanks to the guys that helped make this test a success!

P.C.C.M. #70 Part 1 - Outbound Freight To The K.P. & W. And The N.Y.C.T.L.

Greetings followers of the Atlantic Pacific Railroad and the Penn Central Car Movements (P.C.C.M.)!

P.C.C.M. #70 is a three layout movement. The Outbound freight originates on my layout and will head out to both Sir John and his railroad in Empire City and to PC Ralph and his railroad in West Mill. Both railroads inspired by, but not forgotten Penn Central Railroad!!

The yard at Rock Ridge is very busy today and management has summoned 3 sets of crews to gather outbound cars in and around Rock Ridge. 

AP #201" is under the guidance of 1/87th Bob and brakeman 1/87th JP, both veterans of the rails.

 AP #302, a classic GP38-2 has 1/87th Stuart at the throttle with 1/87th Mark as brakeman. We all know about Stuart and his performance on the APRR. However, 1/87th Mark is a veteran and will make sure Stuart rides the straight and narrow!

 AP #200 "Spirit Of Jay" is under the guidance of 1/87th Kai and brakeman 1/87th Jim.

First pull is from the yard. ACFX Morton Salt had been loaded and will head out to Cavendish Foods, and will be handed off to the KP&W. 

AP #201 stops at CP South Tower for some instructions from 1/8th Rich. A quick 'chit chat' and they're on the way!

The crew, riding sans caboose will be picking up 2 Auto Box cars. The EBRR box cars will head to the Ford plant in Empire City. The UP Box car (not part of the PCCM) will head out to the Ford plant in Louisville, KY.

Next stop is C&P Restaurant Supply. HRC has been loaded with restaurant supplies for Battaglia Bros. Warehouse. The EL Box Car and NP reefer car will head to Terminal Warehouse with both packaged and frozen foods. 

The cars are dropped off on one of the classification yard tracks. They'll be parked for a very short time as this train is heading out today!! No wonder they needed 3 sets of crews! Talk about getting the job done!!

The crew on AP201 head out again, this time over to Shapeless Steel for a pair of PC gondolas with steel slabs for Mid Island Steel to be delivered by the N.Y.C.T.L. 

Where to next? Three Amigos Warehouse and Storage to a pair of box cars. The PC car will head to Terminal Warehouse and the AP Box car will head to All City Storage, both loaded with assorted merchandise in Empire City.

AP #201 is back in Rock Ridge. A short stop so they wait for further instructions from the yardmaster. As mentioned earlier, this job is out on the road today!!

AP #302 stops at CP South. He's being called to pick up 4 box cars over at the plant. Normally a road switcher job, they'll do the work for today. Both 1/87th Sir Neal and 1/87th Sir John want to make sure this assignment gets done quickly with no hiccups or delays!

There are 3 Penn Central box cars that will head to Ralph's Grocery Warehouse with juice products. the Tropicana box car will head to A&P Warehouse in Garden City, LI. The N.Y.C.T.L. will hand the Tropicana off to the LIRR which handles all deliveries out there.

As #302 passed CP South, he continues west. Not going to the yard? The orders are to pick up the cars and 'drop them' on the Rock Ridge Outbound track. 

The cars are dropped and AP #302 crosses over at CP East and backs into the yard. Looks like the train is being put together to head out!

AP #200 'Spirit Of Jay' will start to pull cars off the classification tracks add them to the train now being put together. 

Cars are now being 'shoved' and added to the 4 box cars already staged on the outbound track. 

A Pair of KP&W box cars, both empty, will head back to Williams Yard on the KP&W.  

Corning #90404, which came from Penn Glass and delivered to Rock Ridge will head to Corning Glass in West Mill. 

A pair of KP&W box cars from American Hardware will head to Quality Fabrications on the KP&W loaded with hardware supplies.

Triangle Pacific #5510 was unloaded at C&P Restaurant Supply in a previous move and sent to Rock Ridge for storage. The car will head to the BCOL in N. Vancouver via Selkirk for assignment. 

A caboose is needed to complete the train. 

AP caboose #54 is added to the end of the last freight car. 

The train is now ready and will go out at Extra 600. Extra 600? There's no mention to the tower about engine 600, so what happened?  It seems a last minute order change came down from operations in Rock Ridge. What was the change? Check out the video!

That's a wrap for my part of P.C.C.M. #70

Don't forget to check the inbound portions of P.C.C.M. #70 on both railroads!

Sir John's N.Y.C.T.L.

PC Ralph's Kings Port # Western

Thanks for reading!!