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Introduction The Eastern Loggers layout has existed since 1981, yet the layout has never been operated formally. Actually, as of January 2000, the layout has been run fewer than 50 times, with most of those being for shows or open houses. To many, this might be a travesty, maybe it is, and maybe we agree. So, the club has decided to hold formal operating sessions once a month. The only problem is, that none of the members have experience operating a model railroad in a formal way, let alone to emulate prototype operations. "Emulating Prototype Railroading" is a broad term. A model railroad is an approximation and so are its operations. How close that approximation is depends on the choices made, and every model railroader makes different choices. So, follow along with us, as we convert the Eastern Loggers layout in to a working railroad. As developer of operations for the Eastern Loggers and author of these pages, I, David Keith, welcome comments directed toward the content the pages or short line, narrow gauge, and logging railroad operations. If you have general questions about developing operations for a model railroad, I suggest joining the Operations SIG and signing up with the LDSIG (and OP-SIG) e-mail list at onelist. Moving Forward There are many facets to operations, too many to detail here. For general information about operating model railroads consider "How to Operate Your Model Railroad" by Bruce Chubb. There many other sources of information, but this book seems like a good good reference and it was on my shelf. The chapters of "How to Operate Your Model Railroad" define the facets of an operating model railroad. Actually, I have used the topics in the book as an outline to operations, as guide to develop operations on the Eastern Loggers layout. The associated "Session" web pages, outline operating sessions on the Eastern Loggers layout. We will use several organized sessions to go from "Session 0" to "Session Future", or from model to railroad. Sessions
Outline Topics
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