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2014 FALL OP SESSION (16TH Annual) |
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Monday, September 1, 2014 |
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Category: |
Operations Meet
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Summary: |
Monday, September 1, 2014. This is a 6 day long event. Operating sessions will be held Monday Sept. 1 thru Saturday, Sept. 6th. Operators wishing to participate must register in advance. Contact me thru this website if you wish to receive an invitation.
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Details: We will begin Monday Sept 01, 2013 by moving 250 freight cars from storage onto the railroad. As soon as all available crews have delivered the cars to the various towns and industries and switch yards, we will begin operating sessions for the rest of the week.
Each freight crew normally consists of an engineer, conductor, and brakemen. Cars are delivered to specific industries, based on 4 position way bills that most model railroaders are familiar with.
For those who like to just run the railroad, there are from 1 to 6 passenger trains running different routes on the railroad, following a timetable. Passenger trains have priority and thus freight crews switching cars in a town must clear a path thru town when passenger trains are scheduled to pass thru.
WCRR is separated into two divisions and thus has two switch yards where freight cars are classified prior to being delivered by local freight crews to towns and industries within that division. Hidden Valley yard can handle from 10 to 15 local freights. Cornertown yard can handle up to 8 freight trains. In addition to local freights delivering cars to various routes within the division, there are also thru freights that deliver cars from one division yard to the other division yard. It takes approximately 45 minutes to deliver a thru freight from one division yard to the other, following the main line. Of course, thru freights must also wait at various towns along the way if a passenger train is due to pass thru.
Since passenger trains carry passengers, if you happen to be at WCRR during running hours, passengers are welcome to get a ride on one or more of the passenger trains running. Passenger trains usually run beginning at 10 am and the last train will depart at either 7 or 8 pm, which is close to dark, so the last passenger train will be running in the dark.
Cornertown yard is usually manned by one switch crew that handles all incoming and outgoing traffic, as well as a yardmaster responsible for making up trains and directing the switch crew.
Hidden Yalley yard, being larger, handles more freight and thus needs two switch crews. One crew handles the 7 track classification yard and classifies trains by where the cars will be going within the division as well as making up thru freights bound for the other division yard. The other yard crew, known as the arrival/ departure crew handles removing incoming freight from arriving freight trains and putting new freight cars to be delivered onto the train.
Once a Hidden Valley freight crew receives a new consist of freight cars, they depart the yard and deliver the cars to the required towns and industries on one of 6 local branch lines. Cornertown division has 3 local branch lines. A typical freight crew can be out on the railroad delivering cars anywhere from 1 to 3 hours, depending on the complexity of the industry spurs on the branch line. When a freight crew makes its second or third trip of the day, it usually is assigned to a different local route than the one it just came in from. As a consequence, a freight crew can work all day, or even two days, and still not have make deliveries to all the towns in the division. Also, for variety, a freight crew may work out of Cornertown Yard one day, and then out of Hidden Valley yard the next day. Also, a local freight crew may be given a thru freight to deliver to the other division's yard. It will take the crew about 2 hours to deliver the thru freight to the other yard and return to their own division yard. Of course, along the way, they must avoid whatever passenger trains that are running as well as being cleared thru towns where local freights may be setting out or picking up cars.
As you can see from the preceding description of what happens at an operation session, perhaps you would like to join us. If you currently are an HO op SIG person, you definitely would enjoy working in 1/8th scale. If you are new to the hobby or have never had the opportunity to "operate" in this scale, consider yourself invited to join us for the 2014 Fall operations session. In past years, we have had up to 75 operators. WCRR can easily handle 100 operators. If you don't know how to "operate", don't worry, all of us were in the same situation once. We would assign you to a crew that is experienced and they will teach you what you need to know. Typically a freight crew "rotates." That means, on one trip a person may be the conductor, the next trip, he (or she) (yes, several women also participate with us, including running steam engines) may be the brakeman, or run the engine.
Participants will have the opportunity to experience the whole range of jobs. Each operating session, they may choose to do something different.
2014 will mark the 16th anniversary of this annual Fall invitational op session. Many of the participants have been coming most of the 15 previous years. Last year, at WCRR there were participants from several different states. You do NOT need 1/8th scale equipment to participate. Approximately 15 to 25 of the participants bring their own engines and some freight cars. Others with no equipment just participate. All have a good time. There will be room for you.
ALSO, WCRR may be joined in progress on Wednesday September 3 by operators attending and operating at MCRR. WCRR is located at Cedar Springs, Michigan.
If this sounds like something you would like to try, contact us and let us know so we can send you more information. If your time schedule does not allow you to join us for that much time, let us know what days you CAN come. We hope that you will be able to join us for a minimum of 2 days, hopefully more. Ladies are invited to participate, observe, or enjoy other activities such as card games, dominos, crafts, shopping, etc while the men are "working" on the railroad.
You may contact us thru this website or email me (Russ Eldred) at rmeldred@charter.net.
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