In the same boat

I liked this article. I find myself in the same boat. The layout is prototypically correct, correct locomotives, correct rolling stock, etc. The op session is built from arranged freight service books and timetables. I know why, when and where every car goes in an op session. Translate that to paper and have someone else do it? What a cluster. I live in Orlando and have some buddies who come down to visit for the Cocoa beach meet it January. I am hoping to have a simple op session with them and have it actually resemble an op session. My plan is to start with waybills and have a photograph of every car on each card. I hope I can at least get that done by January. I'm not sure where to go from there, but it will figure itself out.

Smile

We are having fun. There were some serious faces in those pictures.

Sea trials

Feedback

As our club tunes its operations, the greatest obstacle has been getting fresh feedback.  Because we run for six hours on a Saturday, many people are ready to leave by the time the sequence winds up.  If you can block out a half hour for, um, rehydration and a little bull shipping, you will be able to uncover glitches more quickly.

Believe me

I did a "debrief" at my first few sessions

Based on the recommendation of layout design/ops experts. I found it to be a complete waste of time. I found I got better feedback with a follow up phone call a few days after the session. This really helped tweak the operating scheme. We've had several sessions since the one presented here and have really ironed a lot if things out. But based on my experience I wouldn't plan on getting much useful info from an immediate post session"hotwash" For layout issues (track problems and the like) I had post its available and told my crew to note any issues. Some issues I could deal with real time during the session, the rest were dealt with after.

One piece of advice for your first session

Don't make things too complicated. Ridiculously simple is almost too complex. Remember you know the layout inside and out - your new operators don't. Give them and you a break and lower your expectations! At least at first.

Great inspiration!