Opsession May 24th 2016

I enjoy watching the layout come alive when friends are coming down in my basement for an opsession. Sadly I have not been able to host opsessions so often I would like the last years, but finaly we managed to operate the P&SF late in May.
The room is pretty small and become pretty crowded. Four to six people is maximum.
When enough operators show up, I can be host and supervisor or even take a nap when things runs smothely! Like this thuesday.

Here are a few photos from this day:

The Hassayampa Chief waiting in the Ash Fork Staging Yard. This is an Intermounain F3AB I bought this spring. It has ESU LokSound decoders factory installed. Just in time for the opsession ESU launched its new Full Throttle features, making running diesel enginees more fun. I still have to learn more of all the features though.

The rest of the pictures shows the yard crew working hard to sort the cars.
The SRX reefer train with SFRD reefer cars is my signature train: The Salt River Valley Express with Letuce and other perishables from the fertile Salt River Valley in Arizona.
I try to run one each opsession

Did I mention? Operating is fun!

Aids for operating the P&SF

Operation is fun, but it also requires some paperwork and some time for set up.

I use the well known CarCards and WayBills (CC&WB) system, with a little twist.

I print my own CarCards on heavy cardstock using EMRI - Easy Model Railroad Inventory. The program can be downloaded here.

I found an Excell sheet on the late Wolfang Dudlers site (link) and based my WayBills on his sheet, but with some significant changes.

First – I do not use four cycles per WayBill that needs to be turned. I use only one cycle per waybill, but have two to four or even more WayBills in each pocket of a CarCard.

Second  - I have have color codes for different switching areas and staging, making it easier for my crew when sorting cars.

For now I do not have details on what goodies the car ships, just the industry and the industrial area or staging.

I also have some cards with HOLD telling the crew to replace the car at the same spot.

My crews follow the instructions on the WayBills, but do not turn them or move them.

Between the opsessions I do move the front WayBill in the pocket of each CarCard to the back of the stack in the pocket.

I have mounted some boxes from Micro Mark for the CC&WB cards. I have also made some taller cards with appropriate colors the yardmaster can use when he is blocking the trains. I have also written some instructions on those.

I have schematic plans for the yard or industrial district hanging in clear plastic envelopes beneath the boxes. This is an idea I found on the great MRH-forum.
I also has schematic plans for the whole layout hanging around.

I have no timetable, but a loosely based sequens set up for the trains we are running.

A pair of passenger trains, the ”Hassayampa Chief” and a motorcar runs from Phoenix Union Station to staging and back during the opsession.

All freight trains are extras. The yardmaster calls for a freight train out of Mobest yard when he has 14-16 car going west or east, which still is to the same way to small staging yard.

We try to not send freight trains to the yard when the yard crews has lot of work.

I have also made  a kind of instruction sheet for each train. This has some instructions on trainhandling and use of horns, some tips, the number for the DCC decoder and a list of the functions of that decoder.

There is a system map and also a switchlist on the back side for those who wants to use such a list.

The opsessions are very informal, and we do have lots of fun operating the layout

P&SF - main goal for the layout

When preparing my layout for an op-session last year, in a flash I could put words on what is my main goal for my layout:

Build a layout that is fun to operate!

Scenery, buildings, weathering, details etc will be a bonus if I ever come around to build that.

When it  comes to operation, I like many things:

Industrial switching
Yard switching
Local freight trains
Mainline freight trains
Reefer trains (SRX)
Long trains
Helpers (steep grades)
Interchange
I like to operate

on my own
with my son
with a couple of friends
But I really have a good time when the layout becomes busy with my operation crew of 4-6 people
Actually, I do already have had lots of fun with operation on this layout, despite lots of temporary solutions.

The lure of modern trains

A couple of weeks ago a friend of mine brought with him some of his modern rolling stock for an op session. We cleared the layout for our own rolling stock and put our friends on track.


I really was bitten by the bug. It was just like it should be. If just someone would give us the right offer on our transition-area rolling stock........
I did start US modelrailroading in 1996, but happens to model sometime around 1960.
As I woke up from the dream, I went to the ModelRailroader and layouts like Chuck Hitchoocks new Argentine Swithing layout set in 1960. This has almost cured me.
I could perhaps be a bit more flexible with the timeframe, and say the 1960s which would aloud me to use some newer rolling stock.
What if.....

Second op-session

Yesterday the US-rails-gang tested out switching on my rebuilt yard.
During the last weeks I have laid down new track for the yard and even some temporary track to test out the Glendale area.
I used alligator clips for wiring and had no time for adjustments,
but we could run trains.

I made up a schedule, a schematic trackplan with name of the industries and even a switchlists for the session. This was actually quite fun, but right now I don't have many cars on the layout.















Nicholas working the Glendale Switcher.
You can see his switchlist and the scematic trackplan in front of him













Gunnar and Thomas were the crew of the Yard Switcher, while Jon Tore tries to use one of my "map-pin-turnout-controls". He has just come in town with the Hassayampa Chief and seems to be almost done switching the REA-cars to the expresstrack and the passenger cars to the House Track.

More photos from the op-session

Nicholas is the engineer of the arriving freight.












The engineer and conductor plans the switching moves.













Do the crews of the freight and switcher disagree?














Hey, no comments from the non-operators!

The first operation session

Some weeks ago, when my friends in US-rails met at our house, – we had a short operation session. The layout is far from finished. There are just some functioning tracks in the yard, and the wiring is temporary, but still we could run a simple schedule and do some switching.
Here are some photos from the op-session:
















Tormod and Thomas plans their next move putting together the passenger train.














Looks like Jon Tore, with the Digitrax Zephyr throttle, enjoys being the engineer for the yard switching job.














Before the session started, some of the guys had to test and show their newest engines. I don't own a steam loco myself, but we did hear engines with sound from QSI, Soundtraxx, even their new Tsunami - It sounds terrific! - and a diesel with Digitrax sound.
We also got a demonstration of the LocoBuffer and DecoderPro.