12-22-2009, 02:14 PM
Stein -
Well, you asked me to talk about my operations plan, and that is something that not only I enjoy talking about, but am infinitely more qualified to talk about (and as I believe I said before, over model building any day!). This layout was designed from the get go to operate just like the real thing, with scenery taking a secondary approach. Unlike some people who want to try to cram their layouts full of pretty scenes, or crazy track work, I tend to believe that less is more. By following the prototype (I tend to "Protolance" however, which by definition is a prototype-themed layout that is not %100 prototypically sincere to an exact time or place because of track work, industries or equipment), I have not only the same amount of industries that the prototype had (of course, there is the issue of selective compression in the size of them because of room available) but I also model industries representative of the area, which is one of the reasons I say I Protolance over strict Prototype modeling. A gravel loader or palm trees would be as out of place in Jersey City as a carfloat in the Arizona desert or a grain elevator in Vermont would be, so even though a cold storage warehouse may not have been on the CNJ in this part of Jersey City, there were many others just a few blocks away on the PRR and Erie, and I am OK with that. But I digress, so let me get on to explaining some stuff and painting a better picture of how I plan to operate this thing!
A very important part of my layout is the active staging, and the two people who will run them, called Active Staging Agents, or ASA's. One will handle the "west end" (Oak Island/East Claremont/CNJ) and one to handle the "east end" (carfloats to NYC). Like my friend Dave (NYHRR), there will be a pool of cars, and my two areas are at opposite corners of the basement, so two "caches" of cars will need to be "stockpiled". I do not have the length (or width) to build big staging yards like you see in the magazines to allow the pre-staging of trains, so the ASA's are given train and carfloat schedules and basic make-ups of what each train or float needs to carry, so they can grab the right kind of cars. As a side note, train and float capacities can varry. Obviously, a carfloat can only handle so many cars (14-15 max), but sometimes, a second float can be sent, and on the flip side of that, a carfloat does not always have to be full to be sent to it's destination. Just because it holds 14 cars doesn't mean there will always be 14 cars to send! The transfer jobs to and from the main west end staging yard are a different story, however. The longest fiddle track to build a train on (without doubling the train) can hold 14 cars, but as a general rule, 15 cars is the max a transfer job will handle (one carfloats' worth of cars). 15 cars with two SW's on the headend and a caboose is longer than you might think - I don't have an exact measurement (I'm at work right now), but if you figure that a 3 foot piece of flex track holds about 6 40ft cars, that's about a 9 foot train. It's only about 15 feet from staging to the main yard, so my trains can't bee too big, and even 15 cars is pushing it, but much less than that and I would think the trains would look too light/small!
As for storage of these cars, I have rolling carts that actually have self contained boxes that can hold about 12 cars (6 boxes to a cart, and I have 3 such carts) that I can use for the carfloat end (and to transfer cars between the ASA's), and at the fiddle yard end, it actually rests on a 4 foot tall metal cabinet that has drawers (3 wide by 10 tall) that can hold about 9 cars each) to store the cars in. So by doing an intial "seeding" of cars for each fiddle yard, I can get the guys building trains and floats right out of the gate, and then they will be responsible for following the the correct train/float makeups and transferring car types as they need them, between each other. There will probably be a guy who will run interference between each ASA as a helper, especially if I have extra guys at a session.
Which brings me to another point, which will soon answer your other questions. I figure a "full blown" op session will be about 16 guys, (including me), but I can run a "reduced" Holiday/Weekend schedule with as little as 9. Without going into too much detail, you'll have a General Freight Agent (responsible for waybilling and tracking only LV on-layout delivery of cars) - This will probably be handled by me, btw. Two ASA's, one at each end, and their "runner". A Yardmaster at the Johnston Ave float yard, who oversees the operation, he does not operate any trains. He oversees two yard swtichers, one who works only the floats, the other the piers and helps out where needed. There is also a Float Boss who he works with, he is more an assistant to the Harbor ASA than anything else though. OK, we now have 8 guys so far. Then we have the West Yard Yardmaster, who works along with the Grand Street LCL Freight Station Agent and the Communipaw Ave Tower Operator. The Tower Operator handles the movement of trains between staging and the yards, since the backdrop blocks the view of trains to and from, and the train crews have to walk around the layout to operate their trains. I plan to intall some kind of basic cab signal or bell signal dispatching system, but that is a whole other discussion worthy of it's own post! There are two other guys who will run the freight and passenger trains in and out of staging. OK, that is all for the LV side, and we now have 13 guys. The CNJ side of the layout will consist of the Jersey Ave Fright Station Agent (will handle the "billing" of cars to and from the branch), a local switcher, and one guy who will run to and from the yard and staging with cuts of cars, simulating the link to the larger CNJ rail system.
Now, a lot of these jobs can be consolidated, and probably should be, but I need to plan for as many guys as I can handle, and experience on my friend Dave's layout has shown that it take a while to know how your layout will operate, even with a pretty solid ops plan in place. It took us the better part of the year of successive op sessions at Dave's to get a handle on how and what the jobs will be able to handle. Some are too busy for what we threw at them, some not busy enough. It is a learning experience, for sure. In fact, I probably suffer from having more guys than I can handle that will want to operate on my layout, believe it or not. That is not always a good thing, trust me. The issue of having to deal with turning people away aside, it is just plain expensive! You have to think infrastructure (enough throttles, enough people space) but also supplying the "amenities" (bathroom, drinks and snacks) and Dave has experienced this problem firsthand with his regular crew of about 15. Trust me, smaller is sometimes better!
OK, I hope I have not bored you at all, so I am going to leave off for now, and come back later to talk about the train jobs in detail.
RAH
Well, you asked me to talk about my operations plan, and that is something that not only I enjoy talking about, but am infinitely more qualified to talk about (and as I believe I said before, over model building any day!). This layout was designed from the get go to operate just like the real thing, with scenery taking a secondary approach. Unlike some people who want to try to cram their layouts full of pretty scenes, or crazy track work, I tend to believe that less is more. By following the prototype (I tend to "Protolance" however, which by definition is a prototype-themed layout that is not %100 prototypically sincere to an exact time or place because of track work, industries or equipment), I have not only the same amount of industries that the prototype had (of course, there is the issue of selective compression in the size of them because of room available) but I also model industries representative of the area, which is one of the reasons I say I Protolance over strict Prototype modeling. A gravel loader or palm trees would be as out of place in Jersey City as a carfloat in the Arizona desert or a grain elevator in Vermont would be, so even though a cold storage warehouse may not have been on the CNJ in this part of Jersey City, there were many others just a few blocks away on the PRR and Erie, and I am OK with that. But I digress, so let me get on to explaining some stuff and painting a better picture of how I plan to operate this thing!
A very important part of my layout is the active staging, and the two people who will run them, called Active Staging Agents, or ASA's. One will handle the "west end" (Oak Island/East Claremont/CNJ) and one to handle the "east end" (carfloats to NYC). Like my friend Dave (NYHRR), there will be a pool of cars, and my two areas are at opposite corners of the basement, so two "caches" of cars will need to be "stockpiled". I do not have the length (or width) to build big staging yards like you see in the magazines to allow the pre-staging of trains, so the ASA's are given train and carfloat schedules and basic make-ups of what each train or float needs to carry, so they can grab the right kind of cars. As a side note, train and float capacities can varry. Obviously, a carfloat can only handle so many cars (14-15 max), but sometimes, a second float can be sent, and on the flip side of that, a carfloat does not always have to be full to be sent to it's destination. Just because it holds 14 cars doesn't mean there will always be 14 cars to send! The transfer jobs to and from the main west end staging yard are a different story, however. The longest fiddle track to build a train on (without doubling the train) can hold 14 cars, but as a general rule, 15 cars is the max a transfer job will handle (one carfloats' worth of cars). 15 cars with two SW's on the headend and a caboose is longer than you might think - I don't have an exact measurement (I'm at work right now), but if you figure that a 3 foot piece of flex track holds about 6 40ft cars, that's about a 9 foot train. It's only about 15 feet from staging to the main yard, so my trains can't bee too big, and even 15 cars is pushing it, but much less than that and I would think the trains would look too light/small!
As for storage of these cars, I have rolling carts that actually have self contained boxes that can hold about 12 cars (6 boxes to a cart, and I have 3 such carts) that I can use for the carfloat end (and to transfer cars between the ASA's), and at the fiddle yard end, it actually rests on a 4 foot tall metal cabinet that has drawers (3 wide by 10 tall) that can hold about 9 cars each) to store the cars in. So by doing an intial "seeding" of cars for each fiddle yard, I can get the guys building trains and floats right out of the gate, and then they will be responsible for following the the correct train/float makeups and transferring car types as they need them, between each other. There will probably be a guy who will run interference between each ASA as a helper, especially if I have extra guys at a session.
Which brings me to another point, which will soon answer your other questions. I figure a "full blown" op session will be about 16 guys, (including me), but I can run a "reduced" Holiday/Weekend schedule with as little as 9. Without going into too much detail, you'll have a General Freight Agent (responsible for waybilling and tracking only LV on-layout delivery of cars) - This will probably be handled by me, btw. Two ASA's, one at each end, and their "runner". A Yardmaster at the Johnston Ave float yard, who oversees the operation, he does not operate any trains. He oversees two yard swtichers, one who works only the floats, the other the piers and helps out where needed. There is also a Float Boss who he works with, he is more an assistant to the Harbor ASA than anything else though. OK, we now have 8 guys so far. Then we have the West Yard Yardmaster, who works along with the Grand Street LCL Freight Station Agent and the Communipaw Ave Tower Operator. The Tower Operator handles the movement of trains between staging and the yards, since the backdrop blocks the view of trains to and from, and the train crews have to walk around the layout to operate their trains. I plan to intall some kind of basic cab signal or bell signal dispatching system, but that is a whole other discussion worthy of it's own post! There are two other guys who will run the freight and passenger trains in and out of staging. OK, that is all for the LV side, and we now have 13 guys. The CNJ side of the layout will consist of the Jersey Ave Fright Station Agent (will handle the "billing" of cars to and from the branch), a local switcher, and one guy who will run to and from the yard and staging with cuts of cars, simulating the link to the larger CNJ rail system.
Now, a lot of these jobs can be consolidated, and probably should be, but I need to plan for as many guys as I can handle, and experience on my friend Dave's layout has shown that it take a while to know how your layout will operate, even with a pretty solid ops plan in place. It took us the better part of the year of successive op sessions at Dave's to get a handle on how and what the jobs will be able to handle. Some are too busy for what we threw at them, some not busy enough. It is a learning experience, for sure. In fact, I probably suffer from having more guys than I can handle that will want to operate on my layout, believe it or not. That is not always a good thing, trust me. The issue of having to deal with turning people away aside, it is just plain expensive! You have to think infrastructure (enough throttles, enough people space) but also supplying the "amenities" (bathroom, drinks and snacks) and Dave has experienced this problem firsthand with his regular crew of about 15. Trust me, smaller is sometimes better!
OK, I hope I have not bored you at all, so I am going to leave off for now, and come back later to talk about the train jobs in detail.
RAH