People who are done your layouts, what's a typical session on your track look like?

[detz]

I haven't even started building my layout yet but I'm curious what you guys do on your track. Do you just run your trains around or do you setup scenarios? Are you ever really done with your layout?

 

[rzw0wr]

I have mine running, kinda.
A typical session on my layout looks like my layout has been bombed, strafed and possibly a large tornado has come through.

Cars and engines everywhere and in every position.
Mostly derails. I am still working to get things tuned.

 

[wombat457]

I'm like Dale - my layout kinda reassembles London after the blitzkrieg; however, when it is running, I just let my trains do that, run and hope they stay on track. One of my sessions is more or less organized chaos!

 

[D&J RailRoad]

I am designing my current empire for operations, again. There will be plenty of industries along the 6.5 miles of double track mainline as well as the large coal facility and inter-modal yards. The layout can be displayed with just trains running laps or an op session can be set up to swap out empties or loads. This has a large sorting yard and a large staging yard.
As far as being done, no. Probably won't be done for a few years at the earliest and probably never as far as large empires go.
This video is featuring a couple of SD50s that I recently bought, but you see the extent of the layout. There is a steam loco running in the background too that was louder than I intended for it to be.

[video=youtube;KlmFO0OOPEY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlmFO0OOPEY[/video]

 

[Iron Horseman]

I haven't even started building my layout yet but I'm curious what you guys do on your track. Do you just run your trains around or do you setup scenarios? Are you ever really done with your layout?

Well, not on my track as I don't have any track, but for an operating session in general.... Cars are staged at appropriate industries and trains are staged (or pre-built in one of the yards). There is a schedule that outlines a 12 or 24 hour period depending on the length of the session. Fast clock so each 10 minutes is an hour. Each train has a set of instructions (I've tried to attach the one for the ORE train which I speak of often). The ore train is first out so I seldom have to wait for my "scheduled" time to leave the yard. On some layouts a scheduled train just leaves at the scheduled time. Other sessions have a dispatcher so one has to get permission to leave at the scheduled time. One follows the written directions for the given train and obeys the signals, trying to stay on schedule. For dispatch controlled sessions a good session is when one gets permission to depart and doesn't have to talk to the dispatcher for the entire run.

 

[Motley]

I use JMRI Operations mode. Its free with Decoder Pro. I print out switch lists for the yard, and other trains. From staging, into industries. It tells me what trains to make up, and where they go.

 

[Lynnb]

I simply run trains around and my intentions when all the industries get placed is to run op sessions alone. Done? God I hope I never get it done.

 

[montanan]

My layout was built as a switching layout. It is a point to point layout with the capability of continuous running with the use of hidden staging with three tracks. I operate alone so things are pretty informal. A train would be brought into either of the yards at either end from hidden staging. The train would be broken down, and then a local freight would leave from the yard and switch out cars at different industries along the main line. There are about 20 industries on the layout. A typical operating session usually takes a couple of hours.

I very seldom run a train continuously except perhaps when the grand kids come over. I don't have any card system for switching, but just use the proper cars for the industries they serve. Maybe some time in the future I may come up with some sort of system for the switching duties, but that may seem like work.

 

[marriedshades]

I am moving in a couple of month. so most of my stuff is getting boxed.

 

[Skipjacks]

I just watch mine go around in circles. I can't watch them for an hour without getting bored.

It's kind of hypnotic.

Then I get bored with watching the same trains (Or to be more accurate my daughter suddenly wants to run a different color train) so I switch from passenger to freight, or from B&O to Pennsylvania or something.

That's when my layout starts looking like a tornado went through a train yard because I have random cars sitting all over the place instead of putting them away after I switch.

 

[Sleeper]

For me its a never ending changing process. I get bored pretty easy watching it go around in circles so I come up with ideas on how to make it better and sometimes it means my layout is out of commission for months. Its kind of like that movie "The Money Pit" with Tom Hanks. LOL

 

[Skipjacks]

For me its a never ending changing process. I get bored pretty easy watching it go around in circles so I come up with ideas on how to make it better and sometimes it means my layout is out of commission for months. Its kind of like that movie "The Money Pit" with Tom Hanks. LOL

Your layout with be done in 2 weeks!

hahaha

Great movie

 

[IronBeltKen]

Right now my layout looks like a construction zone. The benchwork is built and the track laid, wired and ballasted. Still need to add scenery and structures.

I have a switching layout with a short segment of 'main line' so I can run long trains. It consists of a main classification yard, an engine terminal, a steel mill [where 60% of my traffic originates/terminates], and several lineside industries. When I run trains I'm either "rehearsing" for an op session or having an actual op session. I use JMRI PanelPro to generate switchlists for my guest operators to use. I normally have between 4 and 6 operators: a yardmaster, a steel mill trainmaster, one or more manifest engineers, and an engineer for the Local. I don't bother with trying to scale-down time, just hand the operators their switchlists and wait till they are finished. A typical session goes from 2 to 3 hours. If not every task gets done, no problem; just want my guests to take their time and have fun.

 

[dave1905]

My sessions were about 3-4 hours long. I used timetable and train order operation. Mostly timetable, very few train orders. I generally ran about 4 through freights (2 each way), 4 passenger trains (2 each way), a local plus a yard switcher and industrial job at Wilmington and a switcher at Coatesville. The sessions started out at 12 hrs and gravitated to 8 hours on a 3:1 fast clock. I used car cards and waybills to direct car movements. I had crews of 5-6 people. The layout was single level in a 12x23 ft room with a staging yard in an adjacent hallway. The layout represented the Wilmington & Northern Branch of the Philadelphia & Reading/Reading railroad in 1900-1905 (generally 1903). Its all 30-36 ft cars with small steam engines.

 

[Charles Smiley]

When I'm alone, I run two or three trains with lots of meets and passes. If someone unfamiliar with the hobby sees the layout I just run one train in 'laps' while I explain things a little. When modeler friens are here it involves lots of locals switching cars. I have plans to w=expand the layout with more countryside running and hidden staging tracks. That will offer more operating options.

A meet of two trains...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8gBRgQmLKE

 

[logandsawman]

I spend a lot of time cleaning up the layout in progress and putting stuff on and taking it off the track. I have some rolling stock appropriate for the 50's and some stuff for the early 70's and so I will put stuff back in the boxes periodically. When I do run the train a few times around it is part of checking the wiring and the tracks for alignment and bad spots. When I put a train together, I try to match the loads to the locomotive and story of the layout.


And I am still working on the layout so for weeks at a time do not run trains. I cemented in a bunch of areas a couple weeks ago and just now am ready to clean off the dust, and will be running trains again soon.