Operation! Remember when you were younger and you played the game where you were supposed to remove parts of the body from the game board without killing the patient? You had a metal pair of tweezers that you used to remove organs, bones, or whatever without touching the sides of the cavity and setting off the alarm.

Well, with train operations the difference is that you need to move all your rolling stock into the right position in a given amount of time so your railroad doesn’t lose revenue. Sounds like a pretty simple concept, doesn’t it? Hold on a minute, though. You need to remember that there may be other equipment located where you need to put your rolling stock, there may be other trains coming that won’t allow you to block the tracks, or any of a variety of other difficulties you need to overcome just to get your equipment to where it needs to be. And on time! Remember, time is money. Wait a minute. What about other freight that you have to pick up? Now not only do you have to drop off freight, you have to figure out how to pick up freight too. All of a sudden, things aren’t quite as simple as they first appeared.

Let’s see, drop off freight at various places, pick up freight from different places, go to the next delivery or pick up point, continue on until you get back to a yard somewhere where you can transfer all the incoming freight to some responsible entity for further movement. My head is beginning to spin. This wasn’t all that hard when I started. What happened? Why can’t this be simple? How do the real railroads do all this?

The answer, of course, is that they use modern equipment, programs, computers, and trained personnel to accomplish this seemingly simple task that has become a logistical nightmare. So, we too, can use the same modern equipment to do the same simple job. The difference is that we will have to accommodate our own railroad and develop the software and computers we need to run the operations on our railroad. This is what keeps model railroading interesting. Like to just watch trains run in a circle? Okay. Watch the passenger train that stops rarely and continues from point A to point B and back continuously. However, while the passenger train is running, the freight delivery must be accommodated and not interfere with the passenger train that has priority on the tracks. Your job now could be to move all those cars destined for delivery and pick up without holding up the passengers on the train trying to get to their destination on time. You also need to do your job in a timely fashion. The products you are delivering may be perishable or time sensitive so you cannot waste too much time or you will not only lose money, but business as well.

This is the concept of model railroad operations that has been epitomized by the model railroaders involved in RailRun in the Boston area.FUNTRAK members Lorenzo Franchi, John Fleming, Brian King, and fellow model railroader David King from Canada recently completed operations on four layouts during RailRun XXIV. FUNTRAK members have been fortunate enough to be involved in this extraordinary event since its inception and have enjoyed the camaraderie and excitement this provides each year. Now FUNTRAK is in the process of attempting to develop an operations schedule to use with the T-trak layouts created at shows. Come to our annual “Valley Rail Sights” show this month and see how we make out. Hope to see you there!

Brian