I am considering operations in my new layout plan and went back about 3 years to see this video and others that you did on operations. You will be happy to know that the information you gave us still seems current. Thanks for keeping all of your videos up as they are a great reference, Larry.
Part of my layout is a Transportation Museum in a old tourist town that allows me to display trains, cars, buses, trucks etc. from different years. I guess that's one way to display all my trains collections passenger and freight at the same time.
I'm so excited that you decided to do a whole series on Operations as this topic is of great interest to me. I like that you are going to break it down into manageable bites and of course you give links to great resources on this topic.
Me too, I hate doing those talking head videos but it is still the best way to get a lot of info out there on which to base the more detailed how-to videos.
I'm planning again after a break from the hobby.... looking into having someone experienced go over my track plan with me before I really start building anything permanent. I am making operations part of the planning and a few years back I picked up the Tony Koester book that you showed, along with the magazine special issue you showed on the tablet. I'm interested in knowing what has changed in the new edition of the book by Tony K. I also have a handful of Model Railroad Planning special issues and small suppliment pamphlets that came with some MR magazines... they have been great resources and I am looking to pick up the digital collection of MRP on DVD-ROM ... I'd like to set up a sequential opperation that will repeat once completed, and then make small clipboards up that have some information on them, like something kinda resembling a train order or track warrant, a sort of switch list, etc... to go with the carcards/waybills. I would have other information and a Timetable of sorts at the workbench, basically a list of trains to run in what order, etc. A session could be fairly short and do one cycle of the waybills, or have a break and reset them for a second cycle, etc... after cycle 4 then it all would repeat. Let me know if you would be up for some corresponding to help me with my track plan , or if you can recommend anyone else that I ask about that. Thanks so much for all of the videos.
Great video Larry. If possible in your upcoming videos on operations, if you could mention options for a one person operator, that would be great. Thanks again, and have a great weekend.
I second Roland's comment. The components and how they are used in Operations has always been a mystery to me. There is no one locally to me that has operating sessions.
No, I have a chapter in my “Wiring Projects for Your Model Railroad” book on mako g one from a kit but I have never covered it on the channel. I did a few videos on operations but they weren’t all that popular somI figured not enough interest to show ofF my fast clock and telephone system, etc.
It only takes about 5 minutes to find out that some people don't want you there. This came from "personal experience"... One of the big reasons I left the NMRA
Yes, that was the first book on ops that I remember reading but it is so out of print I figured no one would be able to find it. I remember Bruce saying that at one point be had memorized the previous version written by Al Kalmbach.
Hi Larry. Sorry to nit-pick, but the UK national rail carrier is British RAILWAYS; I know north Americans use the term railroads, but British Railways is a proper name. It was good to listen to you talk about the different operation methods, but I am looking forward to seeing your upcoming video(s) showing examples - particularly for passenger services.
No problem but I think at that point I was referring to British railroads in general, predating even the grouping era. Schedules came quite early to the UK. I saw somewhere that at first they operated them like highways with policemen regulating train movements. There is a RUclips video on UK signaling that has some interesting stuff like that in the intro section.
That is getting to be a problem around here too. As a result of covid folks still seem reluctant to hole up in the confines of a model railroad. Plus we lost a few operators as a result and because so few layouts are operating now it is difficult to recruit newbies. Local clubs can be a source of operators and once the word gets out more may show up. I have not been to a proper op session since early 2020 and am beginning to wonder whether I will be able to recruit enough operators once I get the Piedmont Southern ready.
Hey, Larry -- quick question for you, although I'm not sure it'll be covered in one of those later videos or not: Is there anywhere that gives a list of phrases that dispatchers use to communicate different things with engineers? My uncle and grandfather both have model railroads, and when they're railroading together one of them pretends to be a dispatcher (usually the one running the mainline trains). I can never quite follow exactly what they're saying to each other, whether it's a format or if they're just making something up that sounds realistic. There seems to be some standard way of doing things like asking permission to have a yard switcher cross main line track, but I'm not sure of any resources that exist that specifically say "here are the radio phrases dispatchers use to give commands to trains, and here are the responses." They specifically model late '80s D&RGW and modern UP, respectively. Whenever I play along, I just make something up... although I'm not sure if I'm doing that correctly! It's usually like: Them: "UP 8321 requesting permission to cross the main line track" Me: "Roger that UP... uh... what was it? Oh, UP 8321. You can do that. Go on the mainline whenever you're ready." Maybe that's realistic, maybe I'm messing it up entirely. They've never said anything to me about it, but I've always been self-conscious about whether I'm "doing it right." ;)
The radio jargon is seems to vary among railroads and modelers although things like “os” and requests for track and time are common. The publications I mentioned have some of that and hopefully today I will get those posted in the description.
get a copy of a real railroad rule book and employee timetable.......tons of info in both.....keep in mind operations in the mid 50's were totally different from today
On a schedule? I don't think you've interacted with the actual railroads, lol. Prototypical operation of my layout is I do local moves whenever I want, since that's the level of service I got requesting cars in/out and spotting changes from Jacksonville. And I bet it was way way worse in the early diesel era I model.
I’ll get into locals and turns which were/are typically operated as extras without a schedule. Many railroads now operate many if not all their trains as extras. This was just and overview, not a deep dive into the details. The opsig books has almost 300 pages on ops and it doesn’t cover it all.
I am considering operations in my new layout plan and went back about 3 years to see this video and others that you did on operations. You will be happy to know that the information you gave us still seems current. Thanks for keeping all of your videos up as they are a great reference, Larry.
John Armstrong's book is an EXCELLENT resource.
Yes but last I looked it appeared Kalmbach had ceased printing his books. I’ll have to ask whether they plan an updated printing.
A really useful introduction and good cross reference to some practical reading resouces too. Thank you for your insights and enthusiam.
If folks can't see you are one of the best teachers of this hobby they are blind. Teach on Larry, thank you so much.
Thanks for the kind words.
I agree
I'm looking at this again, and there is such good information in it. Thank you.
John Armstrong was one of the best people to grace this hobby.
Thanks Larry lots of information here to consider.
Take care Julian
Thanks for a comprehensive introduction to a fundamental if complex and interrelated group of subjects. Looking forward eagerly to future instalments.
Thank you Larry for a really interesting and concise professional Presentation outlining this huge Subject.
Part of my layout is a Transportation Museum in a old tourist town that allows me to display trains, cars, buses, trucks etc. from different years. I guess that's one way to display all my trains collections passenger and freight at the same time.
i've always thought that would be a good idea, especially for contemporary layouts.
Really liked the historical info on control. That was well done.
I'm so excited that you decided to do a whole series on Operations as this topic is of great interest to me. I like that you are going to break it down into manageable bites and of course you give links to great resources on this topic.
Instablaster
Well done Larry
You dived into a large topic
Really enjoyed it
Larry, I am looking forward to your breakdown and focusing on the individual parts for Operations for the Model Railroad. Thanks.
Me too, I hate doing those talking head videos but it is still the best way to get a lot of info out there on which to base the more detailed how-to videos.
Enjoy video.Good update too.
Terrific Larry, I'm looking forward to how this develops so I can give it a go myself. Cheers
Great video and looking forward to the future ones
thank you for detail video on operation of the model railroad as great watching this
I'm planning again after a break from the hobby.... looking into having someone experienced go over my track plan with me before I really start building anything permanent. I am making operations part of the planning and a few years back I picked up the Tony Koester book that you showed, along with the magazine special issue you showed on the tablet. I'm interested in knowing what has changed in the new edition of the book by Tony K. I also have a handful of Model Railroad Planning special issues and small suppliment pamphlets that came with some MR magazines... they have been great resources and I am looking to pick up the digital collection of MRP on DVD-ROM ... I'd like to set up a sequential opperation that will repeat once completed, and then make small clipboards up that have some information on them, like something kinda resembling a train order or track warrant, a sort of switch list, etc... to go with the carcards/waybills. I would have other information and a Timetable of sorts at the workbench, basically a list of trains to run in what order, etc. A session could be fairly short and do one cycle of the waybills, or have a break and reset them for a second cycle, etc... after cycle 4 then it all would repeat. Let me know if you would be up for some corresponding to help me with my track plan , or if you can recommend anyone else that I ask about that. Thanks so much for all of the videos.
This isn't something that I am wanting to try myself but, I do find it interesting to hear it explained. Thank you.
I love Love LOVE this - THANK YOU
Great video Larry. If possible in your upcoming videos on operations, if you could mention options for a one person operator, that would be great. Thanks again, and have a great weekend.
I’ll be going over that when I get around to doing an example of sequence operations on the modules.
I second Roland's comment. The components and how they are used in Operations has always been a mystery to me. There is no one locally to me that has operating sessions.
Thanks Larry.
thank you as always great video
Excellent informative video 👍😀😀🇬🇧🚂
Is there a video or guide on fast clocks for passenger station stops/departs? To set schedules for several train stations on the layout.
No, I have a chapter in my “Wiring Projects for Your Model Railroad” book on mako g one from a kit but I have never covered it on the channel. I did a few videos on operations but they weren’t all that popular somI figured not enough interest to show ofF my fast clock and telephone system, etc.
It only takes about 5 minutes to find out that some people don't want you there. This came from "personal experience"...
One of the big reasons I left the NMRA
People might also want to look for Bruce Chubb’s “How to operate your model railroad”.
eBay always has copies.
Yes, that was the first book on ops that I remember reading but it is so out of print I figured no one would be able to find it. I remember Bruce saying that at one point be had memorized the previous version written by Al Kalmbach.
Hi Larry. Sorry to nit-pick, but the UK national rail carrier is British RAILWAYS; I know north Americans use the term railroads, but British Railways is a proper name. It was good to listen to you talk about the different operation methods, but I am looking forward to seeing your upcoming video(s) showing examples - particularly for passenger services.
No problem but I think at that point I was referring to British railroads in general, predating even the grouping era. Schedules came quite early to the UK. I saw somewhere that at first they operated them like highways with policemen regulating train movements. There is a RUclips video on UK signaling that has some interesting stuff like that in the intro section.
My problem is that I have a 12x84 foot 2 deck layout and I can't seem to get anyone to do a operating session with me, so what do I do.
That is getting to be a problem around here too. As a result of covid folks still seem reluctant to hole up in the confines of a model railroad. Plus we lost a few operators as a result and because so few layouts are operating now it is difficult to recruit newbies. Local clubs can be a source of operators and once the word gets out more may show up. I have not been to a proper op session since early 2020 and am beginning to wonder whether I will be able to recruit enough operators once I get the Piedmont Southern ready.
Hey, Larry -- quick question for you, although I'm not sure it'll be covered in one of those later videos or not: Is there anywhere that gives a list of phrases that dispatchers use to communicate different things with engineers?
My uncle and grandfather both have model railroads, and when they're railroading together one of them pretends to be a dispatcher (usually the one running the mainline trains).
I can never quite follow exactly what they're saying to each other, whether it's a format or if they're just making something up that sounds realistic. There seems to be some standard way of doing things like asking permission to have a yard switcher cross main line track, but I'm not sure of any resources that exist that specifically say "here are the radio phrases dispatchers use to give commands to trains, and here are the responses." They specifically model late '80s D&RGW and modern UP, respectively.
Whenever I play along, I just make something up... although I'm not sure if I'm doing that correctly!
It's usually like:
Them: "UP 8321 requesting permission to cross the main line track"
Me: "Roger that UP... uh... what was it? Oh, UP 8321. You can do that. Go on the mainline whenever you're ready."
Maybe that's realistic, maybe I'm messing it up entirely. They've never said anything to me about it, but I've always been self-conscious about whether I'm "doing it right." ;)
The radio jargon is seems to vary among railroads and modelers although things like “os” and requests for track and time are common. The publications I mentioned have some of that and hopefully today I will get those posted in the description.
get a copy of a real railroad rule book and employee timetable.......tons of info in both.....keep in mind operations in the mid 50's were totally different from today
In one of the ops videos I showed my 1950s Southern rule book. Easy to fond on eBay or railroadiana shows.
On a schedule? I don't think you've interacted with the actual railroads, lol. Prototypical operation of my layout is I do local moves whenever I want, since that's the level of service I got requesting cars in/out and spotting changes from Jacksonville. And I bet it was way way worse in the early diesel era I model.
I’ll get into locals and turns which were/are typically operated as extras without a schedule. Many railroads now operate many if not all their trains as extras. This was just and overview, not a deep dive into the details. The opsig books has almost 300 pages on ops and it doesn’t cover it all.
operating a real railroad like that would never be done......what you are describing is a non common carrier private plant railroad
Don't forget to drink water.
Or, what about adding cough drops, tea with honey, or making Vid at a diff time all together, Larry !? !
As you said at the outset, it’s a big topic! Well done. 👍