Setting up Operations - Mark Juett

I started my day in "Setting Up Operations" by Mark Juett. If that name sounds familiar, it's because he's been the author of the Pulse of DCC column in the NMRA Magazine for the past several years. He's also just taken over the DCC area of the NMRA Standards Committee from Di Voss, who retired from the position after holding it for many years. 

 
Caption: J. Mark Juett 

Now I'll be the first to admit it - I was afraid that this was going to be a clinic on setting up your railroad for TT&TO, which subject I frankly have little interest in (I'm going with Track Warrants - it's how my prototype does it). Happily, those fears were not realized, despite the fact that Mark's layout does indeed run on TT&TO (moving to CTC when he finishes getting it installed). 

Instead, there was a bit of an introduction on what sort of formal ops systems there were - CTC, TT&TO, TWC (track warrants), and the like, with a hefty emphasis on starting some sort of ops as soon as you could in order to find any mechanical, logical, or electrical problems before you had this massive scenic'd layout on which to have them (Jim Six, please take note...). He had suggestions for how to find operators for your layout and how he ran his seniority system (his layout, approximately half-complete already requires 9 operators for an op session), and noted that "If you build it, they will come" - quickly followed by an addition by a friend named Joe C-something of "If you build it right, they will come back." Right there, that should be the cardinal rule of op sessions. 

From there he went into paperwork, which was admittedly TT&TO heavy, being that it was from his own layout. However, his idea on Engine cards (including the programmed functions), Caboose cards (they have SoundTraxx Soundcar decoders), and Bad Order cards were pretty universally applicable. 

Mark showed us how he started by labeling locations on his layout (reversed decal to the back of a piece of clear plexiglass, then paint over the back of the decal with a contrasting color - that decal is there for good) and ended up putting up full schematics of some of the locations with sidings and spots. He finished up (to my memory) by pointing out how he'd modified his NCE Pro-cab throttles with mirror hangers to attach lanyards to them, as well as securing large paper clips to the back (sticking up past the top) with Gorilla Tape in order to hold some of the paperwork - such as the laminated Engine and Caboose cards. And how he provided the $0.87 Home Depot aprons to everyone to have them carry all their paperwork in, with the result that any lost paperwork was found in the aprons, and not in one of the operator's dryer, where it had been converted back to paper pulp after a ride home in a shirt pocket. 

 
Caption: Paper clips? Yep, paper clips. The really big ones (at least an inch wide).

Intermission...

There are half-hour breaks between clinics, so I spent some time down in the Ballroom rooms before the next clinic. First, I cleared up my misunderstandings regarding the 2021 NMRA Convention in Santa Clara while talking to a very nice person named Pat, who was quite glowing in his praise of the Santa Clara area (particularly the California's Great America amusement park, which is apparently across the street from the convention hotel) and the many railroad-related activities and sites nearby. I'm a bit dubious of calling Sacramento "nearby" to Santa Clara, but it is what it is. 

 
Caption: Pat with the NMRA 2021 "Rails by the Bay"  display

I also went to the Celebration Room (aka Contest Room) and was a bit shocked at how few models I saw. I was assured that this was just because they had just begun logging them in - they'd been setting up the room on Sunday. 

 
Caption: Panorama of the Contest Room

There were quite a few more when I went back later - we'll get to that. Let's just say I've got a lot of photos still to take. 

One of the early entries was this train celebrating the Golden Spike's Centennial complete with a couple of accessories -

 
Caption: Golden Spike Centennial Train

 
Caption: Golden Spike Centennial Train accessories

 
Caption: The Golden Spike

 
Caption: The Last Laid Rail

I also ran into these gentlemen playing guitar in the Company Store:

 
Caption: Clive Romney and John Lowrance pickin' and grinnin' in the company store. 

Ends up Clive was there promoting his Book + CD "Echos of Hammers and Spikes: Celebrating 150 years with stories and songs."  It's $30 in the Company Store. John just sort of showed up with a guitar and they were having a grand time. Sounded pretty good too. Over the weekend there were random impromptu barbershop quartets popping up all over the lobby area, the result of a music conference at Little America. It's been a very musical convention so far. I like it. 

Using different cameras to get the results you want

My second clinic of the day was "Using Different Cameras to get the Results You Want" with Bob Feuerstein. 

 
Caption: Title Slide

 
Caption: Bob Feurstein

Bob has several decades of experience as a professional photographer, usually in a legal environment (I get the idea he prefers his retirement in Florida to being cross-examined in LA) and has used a wide variety of cameras in his life. What camera does he use the most these days? His cell phone. 

I wasn't sure what I was going to get out of this clinic, but it basically came down to being a class on how F-Stop, ISO, and Shutter Speed (in that order) effect what sort of photo you'll get, the importance of lighting (and figuring out what direction it was coming from), and how the computers in cameras these days (even the cell phones) are so good, it's probably a good idea to just leave it on automatic, point the lens and press the shutter release. 

I'm not totally sold on that philosophy, but I have to justify the> $1K I've spent on this camera, and I tend to shoot in cruddy photo conditions such as convention ballrooms and clinic rooms. 

Later in the day I was shooting with just my cell phone... the photos tend to need a bit more processing. 

We finished early with the clinic so Bob rapidly ran through a clinic on resizing photos down to scale size in PhotoShop Elements. I don't have Elements, so that part didn't apply to me, but the general technique he taught (9 steps) should work in most programs. 

Prototype Research

My third clinic of the morning was on Prototype Research, presented by Henry Freeman. 

 
Caption: Henry admitted the B&O CPLs had nothing to do with the subject, he just loved the photo.

This was a pretty intense clinic - there was a lot of material to go through, and only an hour in which to do it. The clinic began with "Why research the prototype?" The answer is that by understanding your prototype, if you have one, and how it ran in a specific time and place, will help assure that you'll stay happy modeling it even longer. If you don't have a prototype it will assisted in understanding how and why prototype railroads do things the way they do. It can also help make decisions on when and where to model. 

When researching, he has some tips to follow, starting with, "Visit the area you want to model." I'm going to crib straight from his handout for the rest:

• Call ahead and let people know you want to do research, and what you are seeking
• Don't expect others to do your homework
• Be willing to share information. The more you give, the more you get in return
• Be friendly and polite, don't trespass. (Be nice to any security you run into and explain what you would like to do, and why - before you pull out the cameras)
• Look for clues. Doing research is like solving a mystery. (As an example, Henry had acquired a book that had something to do with the YMCA in the town that is the primary focus of his layout - it had a list of names, each followed by a four-digit number. After a few false starts, he realized that the number was the caboose assigned to the name and that he was holding a book containing the numbers of all the B&O cabooses that operated on that division in the time he was modeling. And through that he was able to interview three of the long-retired conductors.)

Sources of information:

• ORER
• The Official Railway Guide (schedules and maps of passenger service)
• Employee Time Tables
• Public Time Tables
• Railroad Standard Plans
• Directories of Industries, Stations
• Freight Working (Classification), Terminal Working and Passenger Consist books - info on how trains were block, switching instructions, etc...
• Railroad Company Maps
• Profile Maps or Track Charts (info including rail size, ballast size, stations, crossings...)
• Rules and Regulations of the Operating Department
• Rules and Regulations of the MOW Dept.
• Summary of Equipment
• Train Sheets and Station records
• General orders, training manuals, inspection reports, special reports, time books... 

Sources of Prototype Documents:

• Historical Societies and museums
• Railroadiana & Timetable dealers
• Train Shows and Swap Meets
• Antique Dealers
• Classified ads in magazines and historical publications
• Online auction sites (eg. Ebay)
• Local, Company, and State Libraries and archives
• Court Houses and City Clerks (the sort of people you call ahead before going to see...)
• ICC Valuation Records
• The National Archives
• The Library of Congress
• Sanborn Insurance Maps
• Topo maps, satellite & aerial photos

Other sources:

• Local newspapers
• Photographs
• Books (especially ones with good bibliographies of source documents)
• field trips
• Other people - share info, they'll share with you
• The internet - Search engines, email lists, Google Earth, Google Books, Ebay, Facebook, Flicker, YouTube... http://www.loc.gov

This is one I thought was interesting - the St. Louis Mercantile Library is home of the John Barriger III national railroad library. Mr. Barriger was a railroad official who took a lot of photos from the back of his car as he traveled around the system he worked for. Since the director of the collection didn't know anything about most of what he was looking at, he started posting the photos in the collection up on Flickr - and people started commenting with information on what the photo was a photo of. There are around 44,000 photos uploaded now... 

 
Caption: Barriger National RR Library information 

Using Raspberry Pi for Layout Control

This clinic, by Jim Smith, was very similar to the recent article in MRH by Geoff Bunza. Jim had not, surprisingly, heard of Geoff, but like Geoff had gotten his Raspbian + JMRI card image from Steve Todd. 

 
Caption: Title Slide

The clinic enjoyed an overflow crowd - I almost didn't get in.
 
Caption: Jim Smith

Jim explained what a Raspberry Pi is, why you want to be using the 3B+ model (the 2B has wifi dongle compatibility problems with the latest releases, the 4 is having teething problems and there is no Raspbian + JMRI image up yet for it), how you assembled the hardware and connected it to your DCC command station, and how you copied the downloaded image file to a micro-SD card, changed a config file (if wanted) using either an attached keyboard, mouse, and monitor or VNC, acquired the Engine Driver (Android) or WiThrottle (iOS) software as appropriate for your smart device, and finally connected the smart device to the JMRI WiThrottle Server on the Raspberry Pi - and ran trains. 

Note: Geoff Bunza's article, "Raspberry Pi for model railroaders" and a lively discussion about it, can be found at  https://forum.mrhmag.com/magazine-feedback-was-ezines-891776

Tools, Tools, Tools

 
Caption: Title Slide

Doug Geiger brought along a few of his favorite tools, as well as some slides of other neat tools that he's discovered, for an entertaining clinic. 

 
Caption: Doug Geiger

It's much to late for me to try to go through all of the tools that Doug either passed around or showed on slides (or both), so I'll just put up a couple of the ones I found interesting.

 
Caption: Doug believes in a well stocked, well organized, and comfortable workspace.

 
Caption: Rite-Way clamps are a new right-angle clamp I hadn't seen before.
 

 
Caption: Doug doesn't use his X-Acto razor saw anymore, he uses the JLC. It has a much finer blade. Much more fragile, too.

 
Caption: Need drills smaller than #80? Sphinx-Travers Tool Company has them down to about #92.

Frankensteining your plastic people

 
Caption: Title Slide

Benita Jameson provided an interesting clinic showing how a little surgical modification and carving can result in figures that are very different from how they started. 

Her first figures, which are the two guys with their hands up, started as military figures - and one of them is made with one figure's legs and another's torso. Most of the other figures started as military figures as well - the guy with his hands handcuffed behind him started as a military officer with a hat. 

 
Caption: 50's toughs in the arms of the law - all figures modified from military figures

By the way, don't worry about the "flaws" you might see in the figures - remember that they are much larger than their normal size here. You don't see the flaws under normal viewing conditions. 

These 1950s square dancers I believe started as a Napoleonic figure with a bicorn hat and tails and a German beer maid with tray and mug. Brianna says his mustache will be changed from Hitlerian to handlebar.  

 
Caption: 1950s square dancers

The guy on knee proposing was a sailor figure curling a rope, while the girl is a standard Preiser figure that comes with separate arms, so they can be positioned as desired.

 
Caption: Will you....

These busts in a millinery started as four largely unrelated females from the 30s, 40s, and 50s. But they all had hats. Radical surgery and smoothing, as well as the addition of scrap styrene stands, makes them ready for a shopkeepers window.  

 
Caption: Display stands

Someone put down a penny for comparison, so I thought I'd take a photo of that too.

 
Caption: for comparison's sake

Want more information? Here's her website -

Last clinic - Slow Orders, Dangerous Track Ahead

 
Caption: Title Slide

This clinic, by former MRH columnist Bruce Petrarca and his wife Linda, grew out of an article in the December 2012 MRH magazine. Linda admits that she stole most of it from another presentation she saw several years ago. 

The bulk of the presentation is in the article, but I'd never seen the live clinic (they've offered it for several years now at national and regional conventions), and I also wanted my wife Laura to see it. 

They did have a couple things to add onto the article at the end. Realizing that they had few relatives, and those they did have were not interested in any of their stuff when they passed, they didn't have anyone to manage their estate, or to care for them in case of an incapacitating accident. A chance conversation with an acquaintance who was a tax lawyer introduced them to the concept of a "Fiduciary." 

What is a fiduciary? From the website of one located near my own home in Oregon (and nearly matching the definition Linda and Bruce had word-for-word):

A fiduciary is a person that holds a position of trust that requires them to protect the best personal or property interests of others. The duty of a fiduciary requires them to look after the interests of the person they are protecting in a way even greater than they look after their own interests. A fiduciary is asked to be a substitute in making decisions for a person needing protection; these decisions may involve finances, living conditions, or medical treatment.

Their last new discovery was the website https://www.ready.gov/ which contains information on what to do to prepare for disasters, natural and otherwise, that might strike without warning. 

And that's it for today, Monday... oh wait, it's Tuesday morning now. 

I'm going to bed. See you tomorrow!

Thanks

Jeff thank you for a very nice review of the clinics you attended. This makes me feel better about not going to SLC. Keep up the good reporting and I will be in St. Louis health willing.

Tom

planning ahead

Jeff, thanks for great summaries. Lots of interesting topics here.

I urge everyone to plan ahead, whether fiduciaries, "durable power of attorney", or or other arrangements. These differ somewhat by the state or country where you reside. (I'll look up the MRH article, too.)

I've seen some irreplaceable historic materials, and some beautiful models, sent to landfills, because their owner didn't make some simple plans. Do your spouse and family a favor by making their life easier.

Better yet, downsize while you are still mentally sharp and able to send stuff where it will be valued.

Extra Fare - Great Saltair, Great Salt Lake Marina, Kennecott

My wife Laura took the Great Saltair + Great Salt Lake Marina + Kennecott tour yesterday. 

From the Timetable:
Great Saltair - Saltair is a 4600 capacity all ages concert and events venue that offers all the ambiance and accommodations promotors look for. We'll visit Saltair III and hear the history of Saltair I and Saltair II and the Salt Lake, Garfield & Western Railway which served to bring visitors to the resort Great Salt Lake Marina. Great Salt Lake Marina offers spectacular views of sunsets over the Great Salt Lake, a search and rescue operations center, and provides marina access for sailors, sculling enthusiasts, other boaters and bird watchers. A remnant of ancient Lake Bonneville, the Great Salt Lake covers more than 2000 sq miles and is two to seven times saltier than the ocean. Spend time at the visitor center to learn about the lake and the mining operations visible from the marina. The giant smokestack is used by sailors to get back to the marina. Rio Tinto Kennecott's Bingham Canyon Mine is the largest artifically made excavation in the world an is visible to the naked eye from an orbiting space shuttle. 

 
Caption: The Great Saltair III

 
Caption: Great Saltair I - destroyed by fire

 
Caption: The smokestack and mining operations 

 
Caption: looking out over the Great Salt Lake

 
Caption: Piled rocks at the marina.

 
Caption: outrigger canoes at the marina - Mormons go to Hawaii, Hawaiians come here.

 
Part of the Great Salt Lake Marina

 
First site of the Bingham Canyon Mine

 
Caption: A device I learned in Cranbrook at the PNR convention is called a "Mucker."

 
Caption: The Bingham Canyon Mine pit

 
Caption: The very large dump trucks used in the pit. 

 
Caption: Some of those very large dump trucks looking very small on the other side of the pit.

 
Caption: The tires used on those trucks. 13-feet tall. 

Ah, yes.

In 1965, while visiting SLC on business, I had the opportunity to visit the mine. It was awesome. At that time, there was an electric railway in the pit to deliver the ore to the top where it was then delivered by train to the smelting site near I80. I was able to see the pit and the operations from the visitors lookout on the rim. While traveling on the I80 near the lake, the cooling slag heaps would glow in the dark - quite a sight.

Is Sacramento Close By?

It's all relative. Having grown up in CA and living there most of the first 40 years of my life, I got used to the idea that having to drive a distance to see something or participate in a meeting might mean being on the road for 2-3 hours. Doing what you came to do and then another 2-3 hours home. I spent 2 years hitchhiking back in the 70's.  Lots of long drives. Then after being in Europe for 2 yrs went back to a base north of Sacramento. My parents lived in Newark across from Santa Clara and the about 3 hour drive home or back to base was nothing. Now I'm in Springfield, MO and rush hour traffic really doesn't exist compared with living in most big cities. The attitude here for a lot of people is a 10 minute drive to the store might be a long ways.

Jack

Fun with typos

Well 10 minuets is a lot longer than 10 minutes - at least half an hour.

Thanks Ken

Fixed it. Always did have a love - hate relationship with spelling.

Jack

Mark Juett leading NMRA DCC Spec team

Slow Orders article