SAMRA Show Retrospective

["Ira Schneider" <ira_schneider@iname.com>]

I think the SAMRA show went very well.  The time we spent last weekend working on modules really
paid off.  There were no major power drops and our trains ran very smoothly.  Also, track
alignment was good, thanks in part to Randall and Ryan who leveled the layout after we had set it up.

My exercise in trying to build a master schedule for the event taught me that we don't need one.
First of all, it was impossible to build such a schedule.  Secondly, some people didn't show up,
leaving holes in the schedule, and other people showed up at times other than I had expected them.
Just using the schedule board to list who is running and who is up next worked just fine.  I was
actually surprised that many times during the day people (including myself) were begging for
someone to take over their tracks so they could rest.  I thought we would be more likely to have
people begging for tracks to run on, but that didn't happen.  I think the "first come, first served"
scheduling worked well.

We had a couple of operating accidents, but that always happens.  A couple of times an operator
was distracted when running two trains on the same track and one train rear-ended the other.  Once
I was bringing a train onto a siding and dialed the wrong track number on the CAB-1 so the train
overshot the end of the siding and collided with the train waiting to exit a siding.  Once we somehow
got two trains switching places to get out of synch so one went into reverse when one went into
forward, both on the mainline at opposite ends of the siding.  Eventually, we got one train on the siding,
where I was able to control it independently.

I can only recall one incidence during this run where an operator left his train on a siding for a couple
of hours when he left the area.

Overall, there were very few operating problems and I think everyone had fun.  Thanks to all of you.
I am looking forward to the next club run.


Ira