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Operations on the C&O Ryder Gap Sub

Having received their work instructions from the station agent, the Mill Gap Turn train will run around in preparation for working the lumber mill. The scene is based on Cass, West Virginia.

Operations on the C&O Ryder Gap Sub

November 2024by Joe Green/photos by the author

Hosting operating sessions is one of two top priorities for my HO scale Chesapeake & Ohio Ryder Gap Sub. I designed a railroad and operating scheme that I would enjoy, and hoped others would as well. After a recent operating session, I received email feedback from one of my experienced operators that exceeded my expectations: “A next-level experience for a guest is when the visitor is immersed in the experience, not just visually, but at a feeling level. Your layout does that. I felt like I was by myself (with my engine crew) working away in western Virginia!”

Truth be told, I didn’t explicitly consider what would create an experience “at a feeling level” during my planning and design. I was just hoping that people would have a good time and want to come back! To understand what helps to create such an experience, we need to start with the operators themselves.

Imagination
Each operator comes into the session with their own interests, experiences, skills, and expectations. The Ryder Gap Sub will engage their imaginations differently and, therefore, we should not expect all operators to experience a railroad the same way. A simple example is the use of the engine’s horn, bell, and lights. Some operators will enjoy using them prototypically; others may not. In the latter case, we can educate and encourage, but going further is likely to be counterproductive.Ryder Gap

ABOVE: Magnus Christerson and Dave Enger (in the cap) are the morning Mill Job crew, starting their work at Back Creek Paper. The mill stretches the length of a 26 ft. peninsula, has 13 industrial spurs with 30 to 35 cars, and will keep the crew busy for a couple of hours. A block of 16 cars in the set-out track will be picked up by Train 146E later in the morning.

As context, the railroad is a switching layout set in the mountains of Virginia in the spring of 1974. It fills the majority of a 30×31 ft. room. There are four crews: two yard crews and two road locals. A crew can be either one or two people, and a typical group of five to seven operators has plenty of space in which to work. The layout is essentially divided into three separate yard limits; the emphasis is on switching! What it provides, hopefully, is a realistic railroad, a realistic list of jobs, and realistic set of paperwork for the operators. In this case, what “realistic” means is “realistic enough for the operators’ imaginations to create the experience they are looking for.”

Some of the individual topics discussed below, such as prototype-based waybills, are complex subjects that have merited their own dedicated articles. Our goal here is to take a broader look at an example of how the different aspects of a model railroad and its operating scheme can come together to produce a rewarding experience.

Realistic Railroad
The Mill Gap Turn spends most of its time switching the small town of Mill Gap, a scene inspired by Cass, W.Va. Modeling prototype Chesapeake & Ohio scenes is the second top priority for my railroad (see “Modeling Prototype Scenes” in the December 2023 RMC). The track plan, structures, and scenery are influenced by the prototype and, as in the case of Mill Gap, are often intended to be visually recognizable reproductions. The engines and cars have been selected and weathered to create a plausible fleet for the era and location. Following this approach has helped create a sense of realism.

Ryder Gap

ABOVE: C&O often used two cabooses on their local trains, the second caboose placed directly behind the engine for crew members working near the head end. Incorporating a railroad’s specific practice can help the operations feel more prototypical.

A fundamental decision for the design of the layout was what and how much to include. Should it include more scenes that are highly compressed, or fewer scenes that are less compressed?

The C&O itself had only a few large, non-coal-mine customers in the mountains of western Virginia and eastern West Virginia. Designing a viable switching layout based on these industries was premised on including as many of their industrial tracks as possible. As the design developed, maximizing the number of prototype tracks included led to minimizing the compression of the scenes, at most 2:1 but often much less, and modeling fewer of them.

Train length was another consideration. Crews switching the largest customers — Back Creek Paper, Mill Gap Lumber, and Highland Chemical — run with 12- to 15-car trains, a realistic number for an industrial switching assignment. Put together, operators experience prototypical-length trains switched within close-to-prototypical-sized scenes. Therefore, the combination is more easily imagined as being realistic.

Ryder Gap

ABOVE: The Yard Job crew, Scott Wiesemann, is bringing a short string of cars back to Thomas Yard to be classified. The Mill Gap Turn waits in the siding. The trains and buildings seem to be an appropriately small part of the uncrowded, mountain-dominated scene.

Switching requires smooth slow-speed performance. I set the top speed on my engines to between one-third to one-half their original maximum setting, so they will be going 10 to 15 mph when the throttle is rotated halfway. Combined with a moderate amount of momentum, this allows operators to start their engines slowly and to control them at realistic switching speeds smoothly.

We started operations early on in the construction process. Operations can be lots of fun without scenery or structures. The focus can be on the puzzle of switching moves, the intricacies of running trains under Timetable and Train Order (TT&TO), etc. In addition, starting operations before scenery makes it easier to perform necessary track changes that are uncovered by the initial sessions.

All said, the nature of the feedback I have received has changed as the scenery and structures have progressed from a simple “that was fun” to a more complete “that was an experience.” Again, the intent is to give the operators a realistic enough setting so that they can imagine they are in a small town in the mountains of Virginia, switching a large paper or lumber mill, or chemical plant…


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This article was posted on: October 20, 2024