My First Operating Session
                              by Jack Seay

A few Saturdays ago, my whole perspective of what model railroading is about changed considerably. My previous impression of a yard was that it was primarily a holding place for excess cars that were stationed there for decorative purposes. And occasionally a train was pulled off a mainline onto a yard track and another train pulled out of a yard to replace it. While these purposes for a yard may suffice for when a module is on public display, they hardly seemed worth the trouble or the money and space required for even a small home layout yard.

I had read the book TRACK PLANNING FOR REALISTIC OPERATION onto tape and listened to it several times. While this is a good book, it isn't a substitute for being involved in an actual operating session. I still didn't understand what I needed to put on my layout to be able to operate trains.

Then I got to go see an actual operating session for the first time. At least, that is what I thought I would be doing. When I got there, I was handed a radio headset, switch list, and throttle. I almost panicked, but fortunately hung in there and found that it was delightful.

This was a beginners session, so there were no deadlines to meet, no quotas to fill, no efficiencies to worry about. We were there just to have fun and get our feet wet. There was about a 15 minute orientation and a 2 minute explanation of how to read a switch list. I already knew how to couple and uncouple the trains and switch the turnouts. Someone else was there to control power to the blocks for us.

My first assignment, should I choose to accept it, was to move a passenger train from one end of the layout to the other. I was a little less nervous after that, so then I was handed a switch list and given a train to make up, involving dropping off a few cars at various industries, picking up some at others, and transferring some to different locations.

This wasn't really hard, since I wasn't yet expected to do it quickly or efficiently. So I proceeded to do it slowly and inefficiently, which suited me just fine, since I was being paid by the hour. Only beginners have it this easy. Some of the industry tracks faced one way, some the opposite way. This meant that some cars had to be transferred to the
front of the locomotive and then pushed onto the industry siding. Others could be backed onto the siding and uncoupled.

Just to make it more interesting, these sidings already had cars on them that were to be added to the train I would be making up. So I needed to pull them out and drop them off on another siding where I would be making up the next train. Often, however, there were cars in front of the one I needed, so they had to be pulled out along with the car I wanted and put back where they came from, if I could remember where that was. To move a car from the back of a train to the front of a loco, a runaround track was used.

The train was pulled onto a siding, the offending car unhitched, the train pulled ahead, backed up beside the car, then pulled up behind the car. Then the car was ready to push onto an industry siding that was facing the wrong way to back into. All of these maneuverings added to the enjoyment. It reminded me of one of those little plastic puzzles with numbered squares that you have to put into the proper order.

I learned from my first session that a lot of fun can be had with even a minimum amount of equipment and trackage, important for apartment dwellers like me. Here's what I would call a minimum to learn operations: two industry sidings facing each way, an extra siding to build your train onto, a runaround track, one locomotive, and 10 or 20 cars.

That may not sound like much, but those plastic puzzles don't have very many squares either. You can also add a loop for continuous running to show visitors, but I have learned that watching a train run around a loop has limited entertainment value.

My advice is that if you haven't yet been part of an operating session, beg someone with even a minimal setup to let you put a few trains together. Those yards and cars can be useful as well as ornamental.