Lucky kids!

Wow. It’s been a while since I checked in on the progress but those kids are lucky to have a teacher that sees learning opportunities in model railroading. 
 

My guess is that the “crew lounge” is for student operators on deck and out of the way. My first thought is an Outlook integration so they can remain at their desk until called, or alerted, on their computer or phone. It might make an interesting code project as well to integrate Access with Outlook to capture the schedules and work assignments in an elegant way. It could end up on an iPad or cell phone for the assigned train as well so that the train schedule would be at hand - literally. 

Sorry about that...

Thanks Neil, and my apologies to everyone for not embedding that video properly. I hope this works better:

The "crew lounge" is chairs spaced 6 feet apart with the layout surrounding them, so for better or worse no one is ever "out of the way" but everyone should be able to follow the action and respond quickly to crew calls. 

I started unpacking rolling stock yesterday, and hooked up the DCC equipment. Locomotives will be unpacked and tested today. Progress!

Jeff Allen

First pancakes

Eight students showed up yesterday - three families elected to keep their kids at home, a likely eventuality under any school reopening scenario for the foreseeable future. 

None of this particular group has had more than a few very brief encounters with actually running model trains, but at least they remembered how to use uncoupling skewers. I had set up switching scenarios at the three operating areas but it didn’t take long to realize that they were going to eat up all of the available time just making the first few moves - and have a wonderful time doing it! They had a blast. 

I’ve been hosting very inexperienced operators for several years now but these circumstances were unique, what with masks and safety protocols and all. This group was on campus for two hours, but I was only allowed to have them indoors for half of that time, the rest had to be spent outside in the fresh air (still spread out). I’ll have other similar groups on Wednesdays for the next few weeks, so I was treating this group like guinea pigs, or lab rats. They preferred to be called “first pancakes.” 

The most salient takeaway from the session was this: very high momentum settings right from the start is a literal game changer, and positively so. Students quickly got their heads into the “to scale” experience of moving large masses and managed their throttles with caution and a conservative touch. Multi-person crews really had to divide the tasks, whoever was on the throttle was completely absorbed with train control and was happy to leave planning and decision-making to others. Being a switchperson or brakeperson was a very attractive job for some students who were unsure of themselves but it didn’t take long for them to start offering opinions to the conductor. 

I just wish I had more ProtoThrottles - they are actually easier to learn and make way more sense to the novice than the array of buttons on my other throttles. 

The room seems so lifeless this morning without them here! I regret that I can’t show images of this year’s kids (no waivers yet). They were so excited.

Jeff Allen

I'm sure

those kids needed it more than  you think.  An escape from the current state of the world would be a very healthy thing for anyone, especially when you are doing it as safely as possible.

Have a look at Silicon Valley Lines Remote Ops

They have a raspberry pi based 'in-cab' camera that allows for remote running/sessions that is pretty slick.  They have instructions, parts lists, and a how to on building and programming the cameras and info on transmitting/livestreaming, (your students might, no will, have a better way to do the livestreams).  With 2-3 people onsite to do hand switching, everyone else can be remote.

They did a livestream today (14 Nov) that actually seemed to work - although the audio was out in the early run.

Building the cab/flatcar cameras https://siliconvalleylines.com/2020/08/04/the-svl-cabcam-project/

Blog - https://siliconvalleylines.com/

It's alive! Briefly...

Another Wednesday, another group of students came to campus for some operating fun on the railroad. This second round incorporated everything I'd learned from the "first pancakes" and it went very well. 

I had learned that the kids were so absorbed in learning about the details of throttles, couplers and throwing switches that they had limited capacity to “look ahead” when planning moves, so I tried to address that by giving them paper-based planning worksheets and encouraged them to think about the situations and make some notes before they entered the layout room. 

That helped, but translating a mental model into 3D reality (even when “reality” is also a model) is a big undertaking, one that provokes fruitful, sometimes comical interactions among classmates. It was simultaneously heartwarming and heartbreaking to see how precious these moments have become. 

Our protocols keep this cohort separate from others and only allow them to be indoors (with lots of ventilation) for an hour (we did prep and followup outdoors), with some relaxing of social distancing norms within the cohort for brief interactions when operating on the layout. Everyone gets tested every other week.  Although we are laying plans to continue a “gradual reopening” with improved local conditions, the ominous broader national trends as we approach holidays and winter will keep us alert and cautious.

Jeff Allen