Our next division meet will be held on Saturday, June 7 at St. Alban’s Church in Newtown Square, PA. The first part of the morning session will be devoted to our annual business meeting, where elections will be held for three open seats on the board of directors. This will be followed by a clinic on operations conducted by board member Rob Hinkle. Rob Hinkle will be presenting an “Operations Bootcamp” program, which will cover some of the ops basics and then move on to more advanced topics. This clinic has been presented in other divisions and regions and also at the national convention in 2011. The major topics covered during the presentation will be:
• What is Operations? • Car Forwarding • Paperwork • Car Cards/Waybill Systems • Switching • Train Control (Dispatching)
• Train Routing • Modeling Railroad Jobs • Signaling and Communications • Layout Documentation • Getting Started and Having Fun
After the presentation and a lunch break, the railroad run by the fellowship will be open for an operating session. It is hoped that a large number of attendees of the clinic take the opportunity to run on the layout during the operating session. Attempts will be made to pair new and experienced operators together so that everyone can have an enjoyable time. If you are interested in operating on the layout, please contact Rob Hinkle (
robhink@comcast.net) with a subject of “June 7th Ops Session,” this will allow us to plan out the number of jobs and trains to run that day. If you are planning to operate with us and have a Digitrax throttle please bring it with you. The layout is also setup with JMRI and Wifi Throttle so a smartphone with WiThrottle (iOS) or Engine Driver (Android) programs can be used as well for train control. Additionally the layout uses FRS (Family Radio System) radios for communications between the train crews and the dispatcher/tower operators so if have one or more please bring those along, as well. We are looking forward to sharing the knowledge of operations with everyone in the division.
Meetings are held to gather the membership together for fellowship, learning, and enjoyment. This is such a great hobby that we like to share it with everyone, so consider attending, and perhaps bring a friend who might show interest in becoming a member.
