3rd Operating Session in the books

Every time I think I have it figured out, I realize I haven't the foggiest.

At least there wasn't a hurricane.

Big thanks to:
Mike P, Mike G, Wayland, Dick, Doug and Scott for coming to run trains.

Things that worked:
Track (mostly; I've got some Atlas turnouts to fix)
Digitrax
Crew
signals (mostly)

Things that worked, but not the way I wanted:
Operating scheme and waybills (OOPS!)
Scheduling trains
staging the layout (Didn't do enough of this)

Lessons Learned:
This is like sight reading music, but on an instrument you barely know
Waybills need to be truly 4 cycle
Train sizes need to be stated so that locals don't get sent out with 10 cars for 5 spots
All crews/trains need instructions for what they are expected to do (got this halfway)
A better brief before starting is required at this stage of the Ops game
The yard crew needs to start 10 minutes early

So far, I've tweaked the schedule a bunch and updated instructions. I've started changing waybills (only 150 more to go!) and I'll get the layout back to where it needs to be for session number 4.

Now, the pictures:

Yes, that is a caboose in the middle of a bunch of cars on a local. Not exactly how I envisioned this working. (or listed in the instructions..)


Culprit of same:


In his defense, he DID get everything where it needed to go.

Yard crew on the right; with Doug at the left wondering how I talked him into running the internal yard local job.



Last two crew members talking about the now problematic double crossovers that nothing will go through without a reset. Ended up being a point power issue as the Atlas switches have worn to the point of not making good electrical contact. Jumper wires are in order here.



Everybody said they had a good time, so I won't argue. :)