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A Message From The President: November 2004
Still hard at work on those wires...
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One Friday evening about a month ago the Garfield Central transformed itself from a complex
toy to a working railroad. For the first time in several years, the club dedicated an
operating night to a coordinated operating plan.
We chose a relatively simple operating scheme that, if run perfectly, could be completed in
about thirty minutes. Of course the first run-through took over an hour and was accompanied
by a fair amount of confusion and equipment failures. After a short debriefing, the team
tried again. The second run was flawless. Freight was delivered on time. Coal arrived at
the coke processing center. Passenger trains arrived right on schedule. Head end crews
changed seemlessly at the Georgetown division point.
The most important result of this second run-through was the satisfaction felt by everyone on
the operating team. Bringing a fast passenger train to a gradual and realistic stop at the
Georgetown station
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is satisfying; but it is far more satisfying to do it as a long freight
clears the passing siding in your wake and the local passenger train slides into a nearby
siding for a perfect timetable connection.
At the end of the evening, everyone was already talking about how to make the operating plan
longer and more intricate. It was a good beginning. Congratulations to all who made it
happen.
We are now in the midst of the Fall Open House demonstrations for the public. It would be
unwise to attempt a complicated operating plan during the open house events. But during our
first session last Sunday (11/7/2004 Open House
page), it was good to see that operators were using passing sidings and attempting
realistic meets as part of the show. Perhaps it is time to restore the "Operations
Committee" to plan for future sessions.
- Pat Reardon
President, Garfield-Clarendon Model Railroad Club
November 25, 2004
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