Operating a Model Train In Your Own Way

Do you think model railroading is too much of an individual hobby? I don't think so. I think it's combination of both. I know I work here alone on projects, structures, cars, whatever it might be. But one of the things that we've enjoyed much here in this area is the operation, and we have about 17 operating railroads, so every week we're operating someplace with a group of people. And quite honestly, it's as much of a social event as an operating session. It's a little bit of both. But I think it's, I don't think so. I think there's a nice balance there. I think people can elect to be as involved with others as much as they wish to be. Is that how you get, how you have most of the fun in the hobby is interacting with other people, doing operating sessions, or doing something else, or? That's surely a large part of it. You know, we have other things. We have a lunch bunch that gets together once a week, and it's a chance to kinda sit and just kinda shoot the breeze about a lot of things. But the operation is probably the core of the thing. Again, we have that, that's kind of the common bond. We enjoy doing the operating in a prototypical manner. How do you get others involved in the hobby? Unless they're out, you know, if they're model railroaders, they're already involved, but I mean new people, how... Allen, it's through, you know, perhaps open houses, layout tours, and I'm always pretty open to all that, because one time when I was a young lad, someone let me see their railroad that gave me some inspiration. I didn't see myself doing something like I've done here, but that's, none of us do. But I think you gotta be open to let people come by, look at it. I try to encourage people to be interested in operation, and we try to bring people into that group. From the standpoint of participating in a comfortable setting and environment, I want to believe, having had a good time. Well, you're very serious about operation, and that's a big part of the hobby to you, both socially and railroading. I mean, it's all part of the same thing. Now, some people can get too serious about operation, and you know, you run people off. How do you avoid where it becomes no longer fun for people? I can, I know exactly what you mean, because if you're put in a situation where you really feel uncomfortable, and you're really intimidated, you're not gonna have a good time. Allen, if you were coming to the railroad for the first time, we would put you with an experienced person to work with so that you feel comfortable and have a good time. 'Cause I know if you come down here and we throw you out there by yourself, you're gonna be scared to death you're gonna make a mistake. You're not gonna know what you're doin', and the quality of the operation is gonna suffer, but you're not gonna have a good time and probably won't want to come back. I with a lot of other people have done a lot of research into actually what the passenger trains, what the consists were, when they operated, basically the consist changes that were made in certain places, the head end equipment, the flow of that equipment from East Coast to West Coast. There was lots of things to be gleaned in terms of things you can do to make the operation credible. Why is passenger train operation so appealing to you? I think because I grew up in an area when there were a lot of them around, and I looked at 'em like everybody else did, saw a passenger train, and just said, "That's a passenger train." But never really examined the equipment, and then as I started getting in operation here in 1953, in order to be credible, there had to be passenger trains. So I started looking at the consists, and what the trains were by numbers and names. For example, the Chief was an all sleeping car train, it carried transcontinental cars to New York and Washington. I don't know much about that, but I started checking around with the Pennsylvania railroad people, the New York Central people, and learned that there was something that was a part of the structure, that they worked in concert together. The mail trains were carrying magazine cars on Tuesday from Pittsburgh goin' to the West Coast. Wasn't so much they had magazines in 'em, but it was the kind of car that was carrying. So there was a lot of research done by myself and others. And Dave Lambert's a good friend, he's done a lot of supportive work on the railroad both structure wise and research wise, but that becomes almost a hobby in itself, but it allows you the feeling that you're doin' it the way the railroad did it in '53.