Operating the C&DR

[tedp]

... I came across someone once who ran his trains at the appropriate 24-hour clock time, including going out to his garden shed at 23:10 or so to run the appropriate train around the garden.

Any idea what his shrink said?   :o

[tat2drod]

... I came across someone once who ran his trains at the appropriate 24-hour clock time, including going out to his garden shed at 23:10 or so to run the appropriate train around the garden.

Any idea what his shrink said?   :o

Naah... but in the company he kept, this was considered perfectly reasonable behaviour  :)

Like I said... horses for courses.

[duttonbay]

Having to wait for the timetable would become VERY boring!

Certainly boring if being run by one person. However the Dutton Bay used to employ four operators to run a day's trains, and we initially used a simple sequence system too. However it fell apart a couple of times when an operator simply finished one job, and then went to the next job immediately, without waiting for the other trains (being run by other operators) to do their thing.

I installed a fast-time clock, not so much so people would try to run the trains on-time, but to stop them being run ahead of time. The introduction of the clocks also resulted in a new rule in the rule book: it is perfectly acceptable to run late, but leaving a station ahead of time was a dismissable offence 

The problem of early running trains then went away. On the odd occasion it occurred, the punishment was downgraded to "loss of a chocolate biscuit privilege" at the post-session supper.

[SWTH]

I installed a fast-time clock, not so much so people would try to run the trains on-time, but to stop them being run ahead of time. The introduction of the clocks also resulted in a new rule in the rule book: it is perfectly acceptable to run late, but leaving a station ahead of time was a dismissable offence 

The problem of early running trains then went away. On the odd occasion it occurred, the punishment was downgraded to "loss of a chocolate biscuit privilege" at the post-session supper.

A well known saying from the bus industry:
"There are thousands of reasons to run late, but there's no reason to run early."

[tedp]

Perhaps there is some merit in fast clocks after all - it would be interesting to try one out with the present timetable, but I expect it would need train times to be adjusted.   ;)

[Isle of Stoner]

Can we get a fast clock for work? ;D

John W

[duttonbay]

Perhaps there is some merit in fast clocks after all - it would be interesting to try one out with the present timetable, but I expect it would need train times to be adjusted.   ;)

Ted,
I have no real idea of how your layout is operated, but it seems as though it is (often) just you alone. If that's the case then you won't run things early. It's only when you have multiple operators when you run into this problem - one job is completed (a train arrives at the terminus, and handed over to the station master) and then the operator picks up the next sequence card, which might be to drive a train from the other end of the line.

If you do run a fast clock there are times when you will need to be waiting. The Dutton Bay often has operators sitting with their trains, waiting for the clock so they can depart. But that's fine. I have (had, since the line in now closed) stacks of magazines to read while waiting for the clock. Nobody complained that they spent too much time doing nothing - that's actually very close to the way a real railway operates, especially on a single line. Crews often spend an inordinate amount of time waiting...

[tedp]

Well, obviously there is a difference between single person operation and a multi-operator layout spread out over a large area. I suppose I would need to make changes if I had regular two- or three- operator sessions, which is possible but rarely happens. Still, a fast clock might be tried at some stage!

I will now continue with the next episode:

Goods operation (1)
The goods stock on the C&DR was originally built with a vague idea of what kind of transport would be needed on the railway, and goods operation was just a random movement of goods stock from one place to another. I experimented with card order systems but quickly became dissatisfied with them because of the work to keep track of every vehicle on the layout. Any time a train is run without shuffling the cards around, the system becomes inconsistent with the actual situation on the layout, and has to be sorted out.



30 years ago I read the Model Railroader magazine, and inevitably up came John Allen

[tedp]

Finally, here is the second part of the description of goods operation on the C&DR. The visit to Sparsholt rather interfered and so did a nautical distraction which I won't bother you with!

Goods operation (2)
The advantages of the tagging system described in tha last instalment are obvious. It is inexpensive, it gives the destination of the vehicle directly without reference to card orders, and it results in a nearly random traffic flow with unpredictable train loads. When trains have been run for visitors, the goods stock is parked in the first available siding. During the next operating session it is forwarded to the first destination displayed on the tag.


Refinements
Trains in the Craigcorrie return loops being difficult to access, Craigcorrie (code red) is always represented on a two thirds sector of the washer. Each vehicle will therefore return from Craigcorrie with a valid destination code (on the small sector of the washer) ready to be read.

A terminal station like Dunalistair has to be treated in a special way. At a passing station the mean exchange rate of goods stock is 50% for each goods train passing through, two directions from the station being available.  At a terminal station all stock would be cleared from the station with every outward bound service, which won

[Isle of Stoner]

Really interesting, thanks. You should put it all together in an article and send it to the Railway Modeller as there are too many 'daft' NG layouts which make people think we are all silly boys playing trains... well I know we are but so are the rivet counters really.

Cheers

John W

[garrywhiting]

Really interesting, thanks. You should put it all together in an article and send it to the Railway Modeller as there are too many 'daft' NG layouts which make people think we are all silly boys playing trains... well I know we are but so are the rivet counters really.
Cheers
John W

Ted has already done that John. See "West Coast Narrow Gauge Part2 -- Operating the Craigcorrie & Dunalistair Railway " in Railway Modeller October 1991.

There is also "Goods Traffic on the CDR " in 009 News September 1998.

[Malcolm]

Various comments more on operation in general than C & DR in particular.

It is extremely difficult and frustrating to get a speeded up clock sysytem to work satisfactorily.  One of the few layouts I have seen where this worked was a layout based on somewhere on the south coast [was it Lulworth] by Dr Mike Walkingshaw.  There have been articles on the layout which was a terminus to fiddle yard with full block bells etc to boot.

Some years ago on the E&LMRC Edinburghshire and Lothians 009 layout we used flipover cards which on one side told the operator what to do and on the other told the public that this was the 3.00pm passenger to Marionville etc.  Worked a treat.  The club has again adopted a similar system for its new s***d?&%d gauge layout of Newcastleton on the Waverley route.  Cards on one side tell the operators [two - one down line and one up line] what train is next and will tell the public exactly which train it is as this layout is running prototypical trains for a given historical period.  Again this system on the layout's one outing so far worked a treat with few errors over the 3 days at Glasgow.  This system assumes of course the operator is literate!

Going broad gauge now I have for nearly 40 years been an operator on Richard Chown's Castle Rackrent layout, Irish 5' 3" gauge based about 100 years ago in the south west of Ireland when still British.  The layout has been described in the magazines over the years but is a 5 station single track line with 2 branches operated to a timetable with, instead of washers coloured pins inserted into the wagons to determine their destination just as Ted does on the C & DR.  In addtion trains are belled from one station to another which adds to the interest.  Operated at home so if there is a lull in services because someone has tied themseles up in knots [to the delight of everyone else] it does not matter but this system would not work [it has been tried] in a public arena mainly due to the shunting.

Which brings me to Caeredwyn the E&LMRC 009 which is a 5 road fiddle to main passing station to passing loop to 5 road fiddle which requires 13 x train sets to operate.  5 each in the fiddles with 3 in the 4 loops to the public side of the layout.  This layout works on the principle of if there is an empty loop move a train to it which in turn leaves either another loop empty or a fiddle yard road empty.  You very quickly settle into a routine which keeps trains moving all the time without having to worry about timetable.  It becomes most interesting when you insert train number 14 which in effect means you have all loops occupied!!  Great fun. :laugh:

Malcolm

[tedp]

I admire anyone who uses an operating sequence during an exhibition - I never managed to do so!  ::)

I did indeed publish something on the tagging system in the Modeller and in the 009 News, thanks for reminding us, Garry. But these were written many years ago so I decided it would be a good idea to do a new (ish) write-up on the forum.

An amusing and interesting addition to the method of operation is the regulation of goods and mixed trains rules: http://www.009dutch.nl/cdr/main/pages/eregulation.htm.

This was drawn up during a correspondence between Tigger and myself and it has had a pronounced effect on train make-up, as it concentrates on brake capacity in trains. Up to a few years ago I never bothered much, but now I take care to marshal vacuum-braked stock next to the engine on downhill trains.

Real railways have similar operating rules aimed at safety, efficiency etc. Thinking up something on these lines for your own railway increases realism as it makes you think about real operating conditions.

[tat2drod]

and so did a nautical distraction which I won't bother you with!

Stop knocking holes in the hull :-)

[tedp]

and so did a nautical distraction which I won't bother you with!

Stop knocking holes in the hull :-)

Since it seems you want to know, actually a