Barbara Emery-Geiger came to a session in October 2014 from Longmont, Colorado. She is working the local freight in the South Bend, Indiana, area of the GLW.
Bruce Petrarca
Many folks think of model trains as just a Christmas decoration, running around in circles under the tree. Yes, you will see trains running continuously around our Great Lakes Western (GLW HO-scale) railroad during our open houses, but the layout was designed for so much more.
Last month I talked about the research that goes into the design of the towns and the industries that are on the layout. This month I’ll explain how we use them.
Two or three times a month we operate the GLW as if it were the early 1960s. Normally scheduled member sessions are the first and third Tuesday mornings. We pick jobs at 8:45 a.m. and trains are rolling by 9:00 a.m. Noon is our time to shut down and go to lunch together. We also give back to the model railroaders in the valley by scheduling visitors’ operating sessions on Saturdays or evenings from time to time.
We have been part of a nationally advertised operating weekend, called Desert Ops, both times that it has been held. This weekend brings folks from as far away as Florida just to run trains.
We use proper vintage locomotives and cars and rules to move freight and an occasional passenger around the layout. These operating sessions have many jobs involving every part of the layout in the Eagle’s Nest Activities Center, Room 106. Perhaps you’d like to come by and see what we are doing.
What is the allure of all this? It is a mental puzzle. How to get the correct cars in the proper locations with as little wasted time and effort. It’s not a race, but a mental challenge – something we all need as we get older.
A normal crew involves eight operators but we can use as many as ten. During the summer months we have had as few as five folks available to run the railroad. When we are short, some members do double duty or we cancel less critical jobs. So you can see there is room for more members to come and have fun with us.
If you don’t know how, we will teach you. Only one current member of the club was a regular operator before moving to PebbleCreek and joining the club. We do have a few members who worked for railroads, though.
The PebbleCreek Model Railroad Club has been a part of community life here since 1998. We are headquartered in the Eagle’s Nest Activities Center, Room 106. Members are there on Tuesday and Thursday mornings – but not always running trains. You can always keep up with the PCMRC on the web (www.pcmrc.org).