That’s a nice video

I liked how you explained your plan/idea when you started. You made it clear why you did the switching in the order you did it. I was wondering if my operations were close to how a real train crew would do things and I think the answer is yes after watching your video. 

@Shawn

Thanks.  The goal was to give you an idea of what I was thinking when I was planning the switching.  Not that what I did was "perfect", the "right" way or the only way.  As a matter of fact during the filming I had to reshoot a couple scenes and took advantage of that to actually changed what I did to save a couple moves.

One of the current discussions of model railroading is to use little figures to mark where the crew members are.  I found that having the switch controls mounted in the fascia near the switch and manually uncoupling accomplishes some of that.  I have to physically position myself to reach the switch controls and it made me more aware of where the switch crew would have been.  Now in 1903, there would have been 2 or 3 switchmen plus the conductor, so they had a lot more flexibility.

Thanks Dave!

That was much appreciated. As a relative newcomer to switching, I found it fascinating. The fact that you explained what you were going to do and WHY, before even starting was of particular interest to me. I have a section on my newly built short-line layout that resembles the area you were working in quite closely (without the switchback), and I can already see that I will be doing things differently in future.

Great contribution, thank you very much!

John

So many layers of enjoyment here, thank you!

It was really a great pleasure to spend twenty minutes at your side, following your thinking as you moved through the DRE job. 

As you pointed out at the beginning the principles of movement apply regardless of era, but I found myself relishing the experience of the hardworking crew on that 1905 camelback in my imagination, not just the guys lining the switches but the backbreaking work it must have been to wrestle the reverser on that job. 

I appreciate the steady camera - such a thoughtful contrast to so many quickie videos and well worth the extra trouble, I think. You "spliced in" a few camera movements, too, which really enlivened the narrative. I think a few closeup shots at critical cuts and joins would not be out of place.

This is a great example of a model railroader talking to other enthusiasts. Marvelous. 

Jeff Allen

Shooting

Thanks for the feedback, glad you enjoyed it.

On the subject of filming it, I actually filmed the video 4 times. 

Once a really rough overview as proof of concept. 

Once as a trial run.  That included what happened at the yard to get to the DRE and what happened after I was done, plus how my CC&WB system worked.  But my goal was to be under 30", so those had to go.  What happens in the yard and how the CC&WB system works might be later videos in their own right.

Finally I did a rehearsal and then the final filming.

I wanted to add some tighter shots, but I didn't want to make the video any longer than necessary, 28 min was pushing it as it was.  I decided to go with the more panoramic shots since the overall movements of the engines and cars was more important to telling the story (plus I only have roughed in scenery and mocked up buildings so it wasn't as scenic). 

I have been pleasantly surprised by how easy it has been to make the videos.  The video and sound editors were freeware.  It took about 6-7 hours over 5 or 6 evenings to shoot the various versions of the video, about an hour to record the narration, an hour or so to do stills, about 3 hours to edit the video and about an hour and a half to edit the sound.

I'm sure I'm going to want to make some additional videos.

Great practical example

Dave,

Thanks for this, should be useful for many newcomers and experienced operators. I also appreciate that you took the time to rehearse and produce a quality video as opposed to the “ramblin’ with my iPhone” school of model railroad videos.

I understand simplifying the video by working without a caboose. But if you did have a caboose, which I think would be typical for that era, where would you stash it while switching? Or would you leave it next to the engine and just take it along for the ride for most of the time? (The switchback complicates this, of course.)

Personally, I might try to leave it at the break-bulk part of the wharf (near the car float apron) after spotting the two inbounds. The crew would be backing down the train onto the caboose when departing – don’t want to spill the coffee pot!

How would you approach it with a caboose?

Caboose

I would probably pull between the switches, run around the train, pull the caboose and put it in the idler flat spur.  That way when its time to depart, once I get my train together, I can just back down onto the caboose and its on the right end of the train to go back without any further switching.

If it was a "conventional" local train, I would just cut off the caboose and the cars for other stations north of the north switch and put out my flag. north of that.

I don't want to jostle the caboose while I'm switching because the rear brakeman is on the caboose cooking breakfast while we are switching.  That by the way is a "true" scenario.  One of my corridor managers was at one time a brakeman on the switch engines one of MP's car ferries (either Vicksburg or Memphis).  His job (as determined by the crew) was to cook breakfast while the other guys switched and loaded up the car ferry.

Idler flat spur

I didn't know if that spur was long enough in the clear, but that makes sense, especially if you think you'll end up building the outbound train on the main rather than the siding.

Idler

The tail of the runaround is two cars, the idler track is that plus the length of the switch, and had 1 car in it.  It could hold about three 30 ft cars.  Easily a idler car and caboose.

Nicely done video

That’s a very nicely done video Dave.  Your planning and trial runs paid off for sure.

Interesting to see how you approached the switching.  I usually do the trailing point moves first, then runaround and do the facing point moves (which are trailing after the runaround of course).  Your approach is pretty efficient though.  Any thoughts on wether one or the other is generally better?

Which way first

Unless there is some compelling reason to do something different, I normally switch whichever way the engine is set up for.  Unless there is some reason, no point running around the cut an extra time.  

In the video, because of the short tail room on the south end (car float end), I had to run around the train to the north end to switch the cut.  Purely because of tail room.  After switching the inbound train by siding and main, the engine was on the siding on the north end.  So that's where I started.  If it was a choice between starting on the main track side or the siding side, I would probably have still gone to the siding side spurs first, because as I said in the video, the siding side spurs were straight pulls and shoves.  The main side had the switch back.

If it had been more complicated, I had an out in that I could have stuffed 3 or 4 outbound cars down the Marine Terminal lead and they would be easy to reach back and pull to depart. Therefore I made sure by the time I got to the complicated side, most of my cars were outbound cars that I wouldn't have to fool with until I was ready to depart.

Thanks Dave, Enjoyed the

Thanks Dave,
Enjoyed the video and reminds me how much i miss running trains.

One thing i took from that was the length of the video. I assume you were running without CC&WB for the exercise. Add the time sorting and planing them and you have a 1 hour opp session on a layout and easily demonstrates how an achievable layout if we look at that section only can provide a lot of interest.

Cheers
Adrian

CC&WB

I do use CC&WB.  This video was focused on the switching moves.  I originally include info on them but explaining them took too much time and the goal was a sub 30 minute video.

I don't see where using CC&WB would significantly take longer.  Sometimes if you switch the WHOLE area at once yes you can get wound up in it.  If the inbound cars are sorted by main/siding and facing/trailing, and the cars at industry have a car card box by track, it becomes a simple matter of picking a track and switching it.  Each track, one at a time.  The only place it gets tricky is a switch back of some sort where there are industries on both the tail and switchback, then you have to sort two "tracks" at once.

I try to keep my CC&WB for cars in a train organized in standing order (front to rear or rear to front).  Then I only have to handle the cards for the cars that go to the station where I'm working.  If I'm switching a track then all I need to handle are the cars going in and the cars in the track.

In the wider view shots you might notice I have 1 inch "binding combs", the round plastic combs used as a spine on brochures and reports, attached to the fascia as card holders to sort the CC&WB.  They are available at office supply stores.

Thanks Dave,  Might have miss

Thanks Dave, 

Might have miss directed my comments there. Was thinking there would be some set up time for a opp to get to the point of bringing the train in. 

On a side not what sort of switch control are you using? Seems to be some form of manual control on the fascia that has a very positive movement in them. Maybe point me to another post if you have disscussed previous rather than clogging up this with non opps chat.

I think this video could also lead a little into TOMA design and shows how a small functioning section of a layout can provide a good amount of interest. While i had considered building my full mainline and then going back and working on the yards the idea of switching keeps winning out.

Appreciate all your perspectives you add to the Opps topics also. 

Cheers Adrian

Switches

I use what I will call, for lack of a better term, the "Omaha Standard" switch linkage.  It evolved from a linkage by Jeff Otto (the one in Minnesota whose an iron range modeler) and I believe it was first made by Don Wetmore, now in Florida.  It uses an angle that is a "truss tie" and a DPDT paddle handle toggle switch.  The control is a dowel push rod.  I have modified it , by adding a third hole in the angle to make a linkage that can be arranged so the switch is normal any time the rod is pushed in.    The DPDT switch provides contacts for frog polarity and can also feed a signal system if wanted.  Lots of layouts in Omaha use this type of linkage.

Here are some of my second version linkages, I have since gone on to version 3.

Layout

Yes this could be a small layout, its roughly about 18" by 8 ft.  This section of the layout was used as a "prop" for my switch building clinic at the Mid Continent Regional NMRA convention a couple years ago.  I had switches in all stages of construction and then used the various switches to demonstrate switch building.

Switching for TMTV?

Dave,

I absolutely love the way you presented this switching primer. This video makes it easy for anyone to jump straight into operations.

Your narrating voice was perfect. The instructions on the next move and why the next move is up next were perfect. The fact you had several recordings / camera angles worked really well. Plus like you explained, you had a script that was rehearsed. That really showed and helped with the overal quality of bringing the message.

My only negative is on the combination of camera equipment and the resolution of 480p. The combination (at least on my end) gave a moire effect around the ties of the track which is somewhat distracting. But that is something a higher resolution like 720p or higher should get rid of.

I hope you can provide more of these sorts of videos in the future. I'd even love to see you do this as a guest operator at different layouts for TMTV! JoeF, are you seeing this?

Resolution

Yes I noticed that too, I'll have to work on that with the next one.