Since we have an impending hurricane, I thought it might be interesting to tell the MRH readers what real railrods are doing because of the hurricane.

The railroads have been watching the storm since it entered the Gulf.  Once it strengthed to where it looked like a hazard (about two or three days ago, they would begin making plans.

Every ballast car in the region (maybe the system) would be loaded and sent to staging areas about 100-200 miles inland.  Carloads of ties (for cribbing) and bridge material would also be inventoried and possible pre-positioned.

I have been reading a lot of wonderful articles on Computer Assisted Operation such as JMRI and others. I am planning my layout to work with signals and have crossed over to the " dark side " of operations. My questions are:

How do you incorporate computer assisted operations into your sessions?

To what extent have you incorporated computer assistance ( if any ) ?

What are some reasons you did or didn't use computer assisted operations?

I have been considering what it may take to have remote operating sessions. To illustrate what I mean here is an example. My layout will have rail barge service that operates out of Prince Rupert BC, sending and receiving cars from other places along the pacific coast that also have rail barge service like Whittier Alaska, Vancouver or where ever.

I thought I would add a car to my track cleaning MOW train.  Currently the train has 3 cars with fine emery pads that polish the rail and a trailing car that has a felt pad to wipe off any grit and/or dust.  The new car would pull in anything metal that may be hiding in the ties.  I simply glued a steel weigh to an old car frame then just stuck some of those “Rare Earth” magnets on the underside.