My latest operating session

Not having hosted an operating session on my layout since July, I planned for and hosted two sessions this last weekend. Preparation for these sessions naturally called for a lot of checking of the state of the layout, and indeed a few repairs proved necessary. One of them was a rail connection that was no longer electrically connecting. This just required a touch of solder, and of course verification with a meter.

I also made a few improvements in scenery and other details around the layout. Some of these, naturally enough, were repairs to things that had gotten damaged or needed to be re-glued, but in a few cases I was able to upgrade something. At left below is the model palm tree that has been alongside my winery for years. The fronds are some kind of fishbowl plant, which has sadly withered and sagged. At right is the upgrade to a far healthier looking palm tree.

When the sessions came along, on the first day the crew was Ray Freeman, Leo Pesce, Jeff Allen and Richard Brennan. All had operated here before, but for widely different numbers of times. For a couple of them, this meant that they experienced something of a learning curve in the session.

The first-day crew that began at Ballard is shown below, with Leo at left and Ray at right. Ray is holding the throttle, so Leo must have been conducting. It looks like he is pointing out the next switching move.

Below you see Jeff (at left) and Richard, who had begun with a shift at Shumala, but now have progressed to take their turn working at Ballard. I believe Jeff was conducting at this point, and appears to be pointing out an industry that was either going to receive a set-out, or one needing a car picked up.

The next day there was a different set of four people to operate, and this time we had a first-time operator, Bob Rosenbauer. He worked with Lisa Gorrell, and they are shown below sorting out the cars in the yard at Shumala, with Lisa at left, who was the conductor here.

Meanwhile, the other crew, Cliff Linton (at left, below) and Steve Van Meter were engaged in switching at Ballard. It looks like Cliff was uncoupling cars for a spot.

These were good sessions, and even with a few glitches (the fear of every layout host), it did go well overall, and everyone seemed to have a good time. I managed to minimize the threat of Host Flaw Hysteria (described in more detail elsewhere: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2023/07/pressure-what-pressure.html ).

Tony Thompson