Tehachapi Layout January Modern Operating Session HD

Watch in High Definition! On January 7 and 8, 2012, the La Mesa Model Railroad Club had a 2 Day modern operating session at their Tehachapi Layout in the San Diego Model Railroad Museum. The modern operating sessions are when the club tries to most accurately repplicate a real railroad in a day's operations. The Modern operating sessions take advantage of the amazing technology that the club owns; the real CTC dispatching machine that was used on the actual Bakersfield to Mojave line and the associated signals and switches. All are wired together to behave like the real thing. The machine detects trains in the blocks, and the machine controls the signals and switches. This setup is supplemented by the trains' advanced DCC system and having detection installed in every car. In mainline areas of the layout that don't have CTC, real track warrants are filled out and followed. All other areas are considered yard or restricted limits. All trains and engineers follow real world railroad rules. The trains stay in contact with the yardmasters and dispatcher through radios. The dispatcher and yardmasters communicate using the line's original telephone and intercom system. Participants will be assigned to any number of jobs including yardmaster, switch engineer, local engineer, road engineer, hostler, dispatcher, chief dispatcher, and road foreman. This video includes footage from both days of the session and has videos from around the layout. Included are Switiching operations in Bakersfield from both SJVR and Union Pacific, trains out on the mainline, and footage of the yards. On the first day of the session, I piloted a train for a few junior members of the club and helped with hostling in Bakersfield Yard. On the second day, I was Mojave Yardmaster all day. The video includes footage of most of my HO gauge locomotives: BNSF 4929, BNSF 4435, BNSF 551, and Santa Fe 3364. Not pictured are BNSF 684 and 6304, though they were running. I also contributed approximately 15 freight cars to the club's modern operating fleet. I was recently promoted to Road Foreman of Engines for the Modern Operating sessions, which is an officer position. Please leave a comment if you would like any information on future operating sessions. We openly invite others who wish to participate in the operating session to join us. This operating session, we were joined by many guests, including NSmodeler24. Also, visit my website at http://www.bnsffan.webs.com/ for more awesome railroading stuff. Enjoy!