Re: Overland Pacific Operating Session

What we want to do at these operating sessions is set up trains and give them an assignment, just like on the real railroad. You have so many cars that have to go to a certain place, dropped off or more picked up. As a train engineer, you have to run your train, set to the fast clock and see if you can get all of the assignments done on time. The fast clock is a computer program that is just a clock that can be set to run at faster than normal times. In two real hours, with the fast clock, you are covering an 8 hour work day. When that train has completed it's job, another train is assigned to run, or if it does not disturb another train, more than one engineer can be operating a train on the same layout at the same time. We see how many trains can we run in a two hour session. At the end of the session, we take a break to discuss the first session, then set up the second session. Then it repeats except the trains have different assignments than the ones that ran before. At the end of the 2nd session, a break is taken and the layout is open to a fun run, which is, anyone just running a train around the layout as we do when at a show. Hope this helps. Keep asking questions, and you will eventually get the hang of it. Hope to see you at the next session. I am sure an email will be sent to those that express interest. If interested, respond to Bill's email.

-----Original Message-----
From: Kimberly Reavis <kreavis@austin.rr.com>
To: ttat-members@aoot.com
Sent: Tue, Jun 8, 2010 5:08 pm
Subject: RE: Overland Pacific Operating Session

Could someone please let me know what this is all about? I'm brand new to model trains, and I'm not sure yet of all the lingo. What exactly does a realistic operating session look like, and what is the fast clock that was mentioned? Thank you!

~Kimberly

-----Original Message-----
From: ttat-members-owner@aoot.com [mailto:ttat-members-owner@aoot.com] On Behalf Of Bill Lohman
Sent: Monday, June 07, 2010 2:24 PM
To: hemicuda24@aol.com; aadelman70@gmail.com; Adrian Elliott; David Gold; Edward Weltens; mgraziano@austin.rr.com; Ricky Dolifka; Steve Wise
Cc: ttat-board@aoot.com; ttat-members@aoot.com
Subject: Overland Pacific Operating Session

Hi Guys,

Several of us have been discussing having realistic railroad Operating Sessions for quite a while now.   We finally started the process by teaming up and "learning by doing." We built several operating scenarios on my Overland Pacific Railway. Yesterday, Sunday, Jun 6.

Thanks go to Rick, Ricky, Mike, David and Dave. We did a lot of hard work building operating scenarios -- and had a lot of fun, too.

We were hard at it from 1 pm to 8 pm! I mean hard at it.   For example, operating on a Four to One Fast Clock the Valley Local took David and crew a full 8 hour shift (4 to 1 fast clock, 2 hours real-time) from start to finish. He and his crew were busy every second of the time!

Looking ahead.

We unanimously agreed that as soon as we feel ready (after a few more "learning by doing" sessions) we'll invite all Club members -- with an interest in realistic operations -- to join us.

And we're hopeful that we can also have Operating Sessions on Steve Wise's layout when he's ready and available.  Maybe others' layouts, too?

Once we go public we envision averaging at least one operating session a month. Maybe more.  We agreed to schedule them so they don't conflict with the Club's "official" events. Maybe the sessions will make it on to the club calendar. That'll be up to the members and the Board after we get going.

Stay tuned!

Bill