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2015 FALL INVITATIONAL OP SESSION (17th Annual) |
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Wednesday, September 9, 2015 |
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Category: |
Operations Meet
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Summary: |
This is a 4 day event. Setup is Tuesday Sept 8. Operating sessions will be Wednesday Sept. 9 thru Saturday Sept. 12th. Operators wishing to participate MUST REGISTER IN ADVANCE. Contact me thru this website if you wish to receive an invitation.
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Details: We will begin Tuesday Sept 08, 2013 by moving 250 freight cars from storage onto the railroad. As soon as all available crews have delivered the cars to the various towns and industries and switch yards, we will begin operating sessions for the rest of the week (Sept 9 - 12). We operate from 9 am until 5 pm. A few crews like to operate after dark.
ALL participants must register in advance. In 2014 seven individuals were refused permission to attend because they didn't register in advance. The deadline for registration in 2015 is August 20. 2015 registration materials will be emailed in maybe March or April. If you don't get a form, email me thru this website for a form, including your correct email address.
Each freight crew normally consists of an engineer, conductor, and one or two brakemen. Cars are delivered to specific industries, based on 4 position way bills that most model railroaders are familiar with.
For those who like to just ride the railroad, there are from 1 to 6 passenger trains running different routes on the railroad, following a timetable. Passenger trains have priority and thus freight crews switching cars in a town must clear a path thru town when passenger trains are scheduled to pass thru.
Since passenger trains carry passengers, if you happen to be at WCRR during running hours, passengers are welcome to get a ride on one or more of the passenger trains running. Passenger trains usually run beginning at 10 am and the last passenger train will depart at either 3 or 4 pm.
If you currently are an HO op SIG person and are physically fit, you probably would enjoy working in 1/8th scale. If you are new to the hobby or have never had the opportunity to "operate" in this scale, consider yourself invited to join us for the 2015 Fall Invitational Operation Session. In past years, we have had up to 75 operators. WCRR can easily handle 100 operators. If you don't know how to "operate", don't worry, all of us were in the same situation once. We would assign you to a crew that is experienced and they will teach you what you need to know. Typically a freight crew "rotates." That means, on one trip a person may be the conductor, the next trip, he (or she) (yes, several women also participate with us, including running steam engines) may be the brakeman, or run the engine.
Participants will have the opportunity to experience the whole range of jobs. Each operating session, they may choose to do something different.
2015 will mark the 17th anniversary of this annual Fall invitational op session. Many of the participants have been coming most of the 16 previous years. In 2014, WCRR had 52 registered participants from several different states. You do NOT need 1/8th scale equipment to participate. Approximately 15 to 25 of the participants bring their own engines and some freight cars. Others with no equipment just participate. All have a good time. There will be room for you.
If this sounds like something you would like to try, contact us and let us know so we can send you more information. If your time schedule does not allow you to join us for that much time, let us know what days you CAN come. We expect that you will be able to join us for a minimum of 2 days, hopefully more. Ladies are invited to participate, observe, or enjoy other activities such as card games, dominos, crafts, shopping, etc while the men are "working" on the railroad.
You may contact us thru this website or email me (Russ Eldred) at rmeldred@charter.net.
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