I've really missed the fun and cameraderie of ops sessions lately.

I'd read about remote control capabilities for JMRI, mainly for remote dispatching, but never tried it. For my switching layout here in Southern Ontario I wanted to see if remote engineers could work with me as conductor/brakeman. 

It turned out to be quite easy to set up, and yesterday an engineer in England and another in Australia ran the first 2 trains in my daily schedule.  We ran for 3 hours total between the 2 jobs, in 2 sessions.

For those who have train operations for a time period other than the "modern" era (where there were brakeman still working for the railroad), has anyone tried a three person crew?  One person be the engineer, one person the Conductor, and the third person being all five Brakemen?  

If anyone has tried, was there enough work to keep all three persons busy, or did one or more of the crews become bored?  

Ken L. 

Most layouts that I have visited and operated on that used the Card Card and Waybill system operated very well and reasonably efficient. I chose this system based on the ease of use and not having to hand write or computer-generate switch lists for each train in real time.

I created a video that displays a very basic operation on my small switching HO Scale layout, serving one of my busiest customers.  Usually, the local job switches all customers on the Stockyard Lead industrial spur in one session or day shift for the crew.  However, sometimes my shortline will work only one customer if there is enough work involved.  In this example, a transfer has brought in some cars for the Ready-Mixed plant and the customer would like to receive them quickly to keep up production for a big job.