Operating July 13 and 15

With some experience relating to a “fast clock” (though I have been running it at 1:1) and broadened use of mainline trains during an operating session, I set up two sessions recently, for July 13 in the evening, and on the afternoon of July 15. These newer sessions have the same foundation of switching work as I have been using on this layout for some years, but I am trying to add in some trains on the Southern Pacific’s main line on the layout, the Coast Route south of San Luis Obispo.
     These sessions ran smoothly. I was able to include a number of freight cars that had not been previously used in operating sessions. Some of them were subjected to the “rookie test” as I described recently (see that post at: http://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2018/07/the-rookie-test.html ). There were also some variations in waybills and switching patterns, partly just so operators would experience variety, but also so I could see how alternative patterns would work.
     On the 13th, I did have a late dropout from one operator who had signed up, and I wasn’t able to find a replacement. We then operated with three. As usual, each crew started on one side of the layout, did the work there, then switched to the opposite and did a second round of work on that side. One of the crews was Ray deBlieck (at left below) and Ed Slintak; in this view at Shumala, Ed is the conductor, and Ray is the engineer.

The Guadalupe local is in town, and Ed is just exchanging blocks of cars with it. (The local switch engine has to do this, as the road crew is limited by union agreement to making one cut and one joint only.)
     Meanwhile, Seth Neumann was dealing with the Ballard switching, and as usual, handling it smoothly and on time. And speaking of time, there’s the clock I mentioned, up on the wall in the distance. This allows accurate use of the timetable, which in turn is closely based on the SP prototype document for September 1953. I talked about development and use of my timetable in an article in Model Railroad Hobbyist, the issue for October 2014. (You can read it online, or download at any time, for free, at their wibsite, which is at: www.mrhmag.com .)

     I made a couple of small changes to the session plan before the Sunday session, and they seemed to make things run a little more smoothly. As an example, two through freights (trains 913 and 916) were operated. Shown below is No. 913, with a large girder load in the Pennsylvania mill gondola (this load was shown and described in a prior post, which can be found at: http://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2018/05/still-more-open-top-car-loads.html ).

     Sunday we operated with a full crew of four, all experienced operators. One crew was Dave Connery and Ray Freeman (seen, respectively, at left and right below), who did the second part of the session at Ballard, as shown here. Ray is the engineer and Dave is the conductor.

     Meanwhile, the other crew was cleaning up all the switching at Shumala on the other side of the layout. The photo below shows Earl Girbovan (left) and Clif Linton doing the work. Clif has the throttle and so must be the engineer in this segment. (Crews often switch off between engineer and conductor duties, so that both operators get to do both jobs, one on each side of the layout.)

     The changes for this session worked well, and I certainly regard them as advancements in the way the layout has been operated. Next time I can reach for still more refinements!
Tony Thompson