Attended my first operating session on Monday... had a blast!


C

CbrandonB

Member
Hi everyone,

I had found a local club near me not too long after moving here and finally decided to meet up with them. I attended a fun run a few weeks ago and tried my first operating session on Sunday. I had a blast! This is a really nice layout with great people in the club. I am very, very fortunate that it is only 10 minutes from my house. Here's a link to the club's website, if you'd like more info: http://laslrailroad.net/

I had used my phone and connected to JMRI as a throttle... pretty sure I'm going to get an actual throttle soon as I didn't enjoy using my phone. I ran two through freights with a couple of stops on each and really enjoyed it. I'll probably run a few more time and/or through freights the next operating session before attempting a local. If I'm honest, I enjoyed it more than I thought I was going to, and can't wait for the next one!

Just wanted to share with you guys. :)

Brandon
 
That is one massive layout. Did they start you out as a new operator on a through train, or do you just get thrown onto the call board with everyone else?
 
Iron Horseman said:
That is one massive layout. Did they start you out as a new operator on a through train, or do you just get thrown onto the call board with everyone else?
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Yeah, it's almost a mile of track in about 5,000 square feet. Really, really awesome layout. They intentionally had me on through trains. I only ran two, one each direction, and that took me right at 2 hours to make it around the layout.

CSX_road_slug said:
Glad you enjoyed it! I remember my first time as a guest operator at the Severna Park club 25 years ago, I thought I was in paradise! Nowadays I'm hosting my own op sessions.
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That's awesome!

There's another club or two in the area, also, including Dixie Model Rail Road Club and the Tennessee Central museum that I'm planning on checking out at some point. Hard to beat this nice of a layout 10 minutes from home, though. Haha! There are people who drive 100 miles each way to participate. Pretty crazy.

Brandon
 
Since the layout has Los Angeles, looks like there's room for a few Los Angeles Junction (LAJ) Ry Switch Leads across the aisle. The best LAJ write up is in the Oct 2003 issue of the Warbonnet.
 
After looking at the layout some more I am a bit disappointed that they didn't include Cucamonga. Thinking of all the Jack Benny shows/skits that featured that station.
 
There nothing like a good operating session on a large layout. Where I live there are no clubs, but I really enjoy visiting model railroad friends when we pass through Missouri. There is a large club layout and two of my friends have huge layouts. I really look forward to operating sessions while visiting. They can sometimes be a challenge, but they're always fun.

Looks like a really large layout with a lot of room for operations.
 
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