So we arrive at the real purpose of this series of articles, what was an operating session like?

Well, on the CORy sessions took place on a Friday evening after work was over for the week.  Most of the other operators were Government employees of one sort or another and The Federal Government would shut down at 4 on Friday afternoon  which meant that by the time you had got home, changed and eaten you could be back in Alexandria at around 7 – and that was “sign-on” time.

We would front up at Peter’s house and go down to the basement where we would be assigned our duty for the evening.  Duties included Despatcher (generally carried out by Peter himself), Yard Master at Chelan (also usually Peter unless there was a surfeit of operators that particular night), and no less that three “Engineers” or drivers.  In the time I was a part of the crew I was an engineer every time, mainly because I was having to learn a completely new way of working and effectively a new language as well.  Remember a couple of weeks back our esteemed Chairman posted a picture of his Union Pacific 16-wheeler in the Facebook group and I came straight back with what the English term would be for it – a DO-DO?  Well, that’s a really fast way to upset an American Rail Fan, I know, I accidentally did it, it really is a different language in every respect…

So, the duties of the Despatcher are basically what we might recognise those of the Controller, with the responsibility of the signalman thrown in as an aside.  He calls the shots.  He gives permission for trains to depart – and bear in mind that on a rural backwater or Shortline in the US a train effectively gets the word to go and then isn’t in communication with the rest of world until it appears at the other end of the line.  There are of course passing places but these aren’t signalled in the way that they would be on a single line in the UK.  The Despatcher will issue a Train Order which will be communicated to the Engineers of the trains involved (originally by telegraph but more likely these days by radio) telling them who should do what.  If two trains are approaching a passing place one will be told to take the Siding and the other told to take and hold the Main.  From memory, taking the Siding means taking the loop line and stopping to let the other train pass, Taking and Holding the main means taking the main line thru the passing place, the word “Holding” implying that this train has right of way and if everything has worked should be able to pass through unchecked.  I may have got this last bit wrong and am prepared to be corrected if I have – if anyone knows the truth…

The other thing the Despatcher had to do was keep the passenger traffic running, there wasn’t much of this – the American railroads are for the most part a freight operation – but you can impose a lot of discipline on an operating session by having a passenger train run at a scheduled time, and then having to have all the freight trains pulled off the “Main” to allow it to pass.

The function of the Chelan Yardmaster was to assemble the trains that are needed, sometimes these are for the operating session currently underway but could equally be for the next session and I will explain what drove that in a bit.

And the Engineers?  Well, we drove the freight trains; the question is how did we know what to do?  Before we look at that though, let’s take a moment to talk about what you might expect to find as you travel along a Shortline.  Most of the lines on Peter’s layout were single so there were passing loops (US term Siding) and what we would call sidings (US term Spur).  At each of these “features” there was “industry”, it might be a grain silo, it could be a warehouse, a factory or even a Lumber (Timber) Yard.  Each industry would require a regular exchange of rail vehicles of a type appropriate to its business.  A grain silo might need an empty hopper to be delivered once a week (every 7th operating cycle); a furniture factory could require a monthly delivery of raw lumber on a special lumber car and a daily supply of empty boxcars to take away its products; a food factory could require a regular supply of Refers (refrigerated boxcars) – say 2 cars three times a week: and so it goes on, Peter had a list of all the industries on the layout and a list of the cars each one would require to perform its function; a bit like real life really…

What comes next in the story is a bit of a mystery, at least in that it was something I never saw because Peter did between operating sessions so I have no idea how he actually did it, but it involved making a list of the loads that needed to be moved between industries and yards in the next session – in accordance with the list of the requirements for each industry.  I think – and it is only supposition – that he was using a spreadsheet to do this, but I can’t be sure.  Anyway, sometime later I did talk about this to our esteemed former Treasurer and Excel guru Graham I who assured me that he could write me a spreadsheet macro to produce the required output. 

So, how did this output appear?  Well, when I “signed on” I drew my walkaround controller and a little pack containing two different types of cards:  Car Cards and Waybills.

Car cards?  Think Library cards.  There’s a photo attached of some I designed in Visio a long time ago and have printed on thin card as a prop for this essay.  There needs to be one card for each car or wagon on the layout.  Basically, Peter’s gave a description of the car, including a running number.  In my own inimitable style I haven’t really thought through what ought to be printed on a UK wagon card, I have simply noted down the sort of things I thought might be of interest to the operator (such as braked/unbraked) and moved on to another project, but as a starter these work.

And Waybills?  Those were simple slips of card that were inserted in the car cards.  On them were contained the details of the industry that needed that particular car on that operating session.  If you were lucky (or unlucky) sometimes there were two waybills in the car card.  Why?  Well, you might want to drop your grain hopper off at the silo this trip to be filled and then next trip take it down the valley to the distillery to be emptied.  

Just to explain the concept of library cards for our younger readers, those of a certain age will remember that in order to get a book out of the library you took your library card and the book you wanted to the desk where the clerk would stamp the “return by” date inside the front cover, and then pull the book’s record slip out of its pocket, put it in your library card and file that card in a wooden tray in a slot corresponding to when it was due back.

So, my train typically had 8 to 10 cars, I had my controller, I had my car cards with their waybills which were held together by a foldback clip, and I was ready to go – which will be described in the next edition.

If you want to read the American take on this you can find useful notes at:
https://www.building-your-model-railroad.com/model-railroad-operation.html