Sounds good to me Joe!

Any time you want to share with us your vast model railroading expereince I am "ALL EYES AND EARS."

Have you already started this clinic on your own forum?

Cheers,

Ryan

 

Sounds like a good idea to me.  I would prefer to keep it here.  I don't mind signing up for your forum, but I usually don't have the time to check more than one forum.

Which eras are you planning to cover?

Enjoy
Paul

I'll be there. I'm trying to build my layout so that it can be run by prototype practices. the hardest part is I'm not exactly sure how to use car cards and waybills. As for it being here or on your forum, It doesn't matter to me.

IRONROOSTER wrote:

Sounds like a good idea to me.  I would prefer to keep it here.  I don't mind signing up for your forum, but I usually don't have the time to check more than one forum. Which eras are you planning to cover? Enjoy Paul

Paul:

I hear you. I think what I would do is as I post installments over there, I would add a post to this thread and include a link so the content is only one click away. That way you wouldn't have to crawl my forum over there to find it, you could just stay here on this forum and this thread would be "grand central station" to the content ... I would just host it over there so I can control the formatting and presentation easier.

I'll start working on postings and we'll give it a try ... think of it as an experiment.

I'm going to be covering Track Warrants, which is a more modern method of granting authorization for trains to move that works especially well for model railroads. I'll be using my own HO Siskiyou Line as an example. Later we can also discuss Timetable and Train Order (pre 1970) if you like, since I have some experience operating T&TO as well on a model railroad, having done it as a visiting operator to several other layouts.

Joe;

Having observed this hobby for over forty years now I can tell you this much:  the insertion of the word "operation" into a phrase is automatically going to be a Bru-ha-ha Breeder; it is almost always immediately followed by weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth.

I will admit that I am more of a railfan operator than a how-many-cars-can-I-shove-into-the-spurs-on-this-particular-trip operator; I prefer watching trains roll although I do, upon occasions, enjoy watching a peddler drop and pick up cars at an online industry; call me impatient if you will but I get just a little nausious of that after four solid hours of it.  I simply don't orient my railroad around that particular function - I know of some who do.  If operation is your bag then have at it; don't tell - or imply - that I am out of the mainstream of model railroading if I don't share your enthusiasm.  Discussion of prototype operation quickly degenerates - at least in silent opinions if not in audible verbage - into rationalizations of "IDIOT(S)"and "BLASPHEMER(S).  I am sure, at this particular moment in time, there are literally dozens out there reading this post shouting those exact invectives at me for my I-don't-enjoy-operations heresy and further advocating that I should be called to account before the Spanish Inquistion!!! This attitude is usually followed with statements like, "The XYZ railroad ................"; I have encountered this on numerous occasions and I am sure you have also.

Operations - and operations principles and procedures - are not written in blood, a fact lost on more than one model rail.  "I am an operator and if you don't operate your layout the way I operate my layout then you obviously are not really serious about operations!!!"  I enjoy reading "Trains of Thought" but T.K. is a legend in his own mind!!!  

Now, there are some hard facts of life regarding (prototype) railroad operation and I try to run/operate my ABC railroad on sound operational principles and practices, but it is the ABC railroad and not the PDQ Railroad, or the XYZ Railroad, or the Sneaky Falls, Regurgitation, and Pacific Railroad.  Being a freelancer (a heretical word which is usually accompanied by another explative, "lazy") you will almost never hear me say "The 'real' railroads never or always did or did not do something" specific because I really don't know (and, with a few exception, don't really care) whether these "real" railroads never or always did or did not do something specific; such advocacy carries the implication that any railroad which does something differently is not a "real" railroad!!!  My ABC Railroad may not have a 'real' corporate identity but it is singularly unique in its requirements and its operational policies and procedures is going to be singularly unique.

I'll follow your forum but I'm going to keep my boots off of the floor and my tongue in my cheek - that's to keep from choking off spasms of laughter - while I do; I am extremely curious to see if you can moderate this topic to keep it from degenerating into a virtual donnybrook.

***** (Five Stars)

Great Idea!!!!!

VERY, nice, Joe.  Keep it coming!!! 

Brian

GearDrivenSteam wrote:

Sounds great Joe. Will you be representing both diesel as well as steam?

Actually, prototype operations is more related to time and era, than the equipment per-se. Many of the concepts will apply to any era, and the era-specific topics will be post 1970 track warrants. Later, we can expand the discussion to include pre-1970 Timetable & Train Orders.

But T&TO operation can get really involved, so saving it for last will be best since people will have all the other less complex discussion under their belts first.

Joe,

I really like it so far.  I appreciate the discussion/explanation on the difference between the railfan and engineer modeler and how that reflects in their approach to modeling and enjoying their layout.  I look forward to the upcoming installments.

Tom

TOPIC THIS POST: What do we mean by 'prototype operation'?

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