What do you expect from an ops session?

I was thinking this morning,, what do model railroaders expect from ops sessions?, as operators and owners?

As an owner at one time,, I wanted everything to work like a fine time piece. I wanted no shorts,, no stalls, no mechanical problems at all!!!!!!!!

As for my ops plan at the time,, was just thown together not much planning,, but my visitors did seem to enjoy themselves.

As an operator, I would like no mechanical problems either,, but hey that stuff does happen.. All the work you put it in as a owner and just when you think you got it,, murphy and his gremlin offspring show up and throw the worlds largest monkey wrench into your plans...but I digress...

I would also like an ops plan that is easy to understand. I have ran on layouts that use a varitey of the computer driven switchlists,, and on layouts that just do a one for one swap.

As an ambitious owner I downloaded the trial version of ship-it,, after 4 days of entering data,,, I press what ever button and whammo i got a switch list,, wooooohoooo it worked,,but hold on,,,, then after the first one,, it became clogged. Don't know what I did wrong...but I realized that one for one was the way to go.

So let's have some input. adios wyatt

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I think car cards and waybills are the way to go and are very forgiving of operator errors. I just started ops using CC/WB and love it so far. The owner decides what is picked up and what stays at the various industries before the session starts and the operators just handle the cars as dictated in the pickup box at the various towns/industries. Set outs are determined by the waybills for the cars in the train. As far as the railroad mechanics go...stuff happens (even on the prototype).

 

My desires for ops sessions change each time I attend. Depending on my mood, I might want to do some local work without a lot of outside interruption. Other times I like to man a road crew and chit chat with the other operators as I go around the layout.

At one layout I run at regularly, the Yard Master and I have running banter back and forth all night long, so it's fun to run the road crews there. On another layout, I like some of the local spots for switching. That particular railroad is not as operator friendly in terms of aisle space, so sitting in one spot is more enjoyable.

I like the car card system, although they can be a pain to carry around when they start getting bulky. The owner of that railroad gives each crew an apron though, which is a nice touch. Another layout I've run on uses a 8x11 piece of paper folded over for use with a small clipboard. That can be a challenge to use as well. Either way, as long as the info is easy to decifer, I like either of them.

 

As layout owner I want my layout to come to life!
My layout should work without bigger problems, there will be always minor problems. :angel:
I expect from my operators to have fun. But they should also operate with some brain and spot the cars correct., not at the wrong place. Last session there was an accident I - the dispatcher - didn't note. The crews had fun.



Remember: Have fun!

As an operator - for me at FREMO meetings - I expect a session with some prototype touch. That means you operate a little bit like the prototype. Not the "mother may I" way. You run your train with timetable speed. You make your records to the dispatcher - not absolute in prototype wording - but you make the records!

And for both, there're car cards & waybills.

Wolfgang

 

I think that some expectations are the same for operators and owners:

• No big mechanical trouble, layout reasonable derailment-free (We just found a major issue in one of my staging yards during the last ops session: Every engine derailed on one switch out of the yard.... Ouch!)
• It is reasonable easy to run trains. So if you need to throw toggles to run a train (like block selectors for DC layouts) they should be clearly marked, easy to find and logical.
• The operating system is reasonable easy to understand.
  Some switchlist programs have a "learning curve" to use (let alone to set up). I personally find CC/WB a little easier for road crews, more challenging for a yard.
• Each train has a "role" that is or can be described to add a sense of purpose
• "Operational Aids" (Maps, track diagrams, train lists, industry maps) are available to help the operators (Jim Younkins "Mud Bay & Southern" is excellent in that regard!)
• A timetable should not be too demanding / tight. I prefer a sequential train list.
• Everybody should have fun!

As owner and host I have some additional expectations:

• The operators should be willing to "learn" about my railroad / layout. Rather than saying "I will run this nice looking engine with the freight train into the tunnel up there" I prefer that they have "learned" enough to say "I will run freight 601 to Pasco".
• Operators should tell me where I need to do changes / improvements (my team does that loud and clear: They actually insisted that I convert to DCC)
• Everything should be treated with respect. Though I typically tell new operators "I have build it, so I can repair it" I appreciate if the layout is treated carefully.

Just my 2 cents....
Cheers
Dirk

 

Once somebody makes an attempt to quote a rule book or timetable, it's out the door for me................Don't need it and don't want to hear it.:thumbs_down:

 

I have operated on several layouts and still have several layouts that I just havent had the time to yet. I have used waybills, car cards, and even timetables, each have their pros and cons. Two basic rules that always apply: 1- run your trains at protype speeds & 2- have fun!

Knowing the RR as an operator is important. I have ran on some where the owner hands you a throttle and says, "Have fun!" Then there are others where they will team you up with someone that is a vetran operator, this seems to help alot as you can learn the RR more in depth. This method helps as I REALLY enjoy running on that persons layout. In fact I am going to an op session there on Friday night.

Even as much fun as us operators do have despite the derailments, wiring hickups, throttle problems, etc. It really depends on the dispatcher. I was at an op session one time that the disptacher was new and had never even operated on the layout before. Talk about a nightmare. The dispatcher had too short of trains in long passing sidings and too long of trains in short sidings and even had one operator back a 40 car train up through 2 towns (one town for each bedroom in the basement). I was like ,"Does this guy even have any clue what he is doing?" Yes I was a little bit flustered for that session. But the bottom line was that we still had fun running trains.