Howard's Ontabec Central Layout Immortalized!

Who says small layouts aren't meant for bigger crowds! Last evening Howard's small switching layout managed to keep an entire group of Friday nighters occupied...and well satisfied with a fine session of train operations. As we all know, Howard is a crafty lad. Does he plan for hours spending tons of time making up train ops sheets before his fellow Friday Night operators arrive? Certainly not! He's made that job a vital role for one of the two crews that work simultaneously in his small apartment sized layout room.

Indeed, two crews are assigned the job of ensuring the Ontabec Central remains a vital cog in the railroad map of central Canada, in particular Ontario and Quebec. The task facing the "town crew" is that of spotting and lifting traffic to and from the many industries in town. They may also be called upon occasionally to assist the OC's mainline train with its exchange upon arrival in town.

The mainline train is made up in staging. Here is where Howard has freed himself of all planning prior to a session. It is the role of the mainline train crew to review the cars located at industries (in town) by checking Howard's logbook. They then decide which cars they will use in the staging yard to make up their train. It is their duty to determine which industries specific cars will be spotted to and which lifts the town crew will procure from those industries.


Of course, these instructions always refer to the next cycle of operations...and Howard's layout has shown that in any given evening, three or four cycles can be completed. The cycle is continuous and when Howard turns out the lights after all the lads have departed, he sleeps well in the knowledge that the first cycle of events has already been drafted for his next session! Why didn't I think of that when I designed my layout? Of course, this is one of the benefits for those who build smaller model railroads!
Oh, yes...as for Howie being immortalized...this was discovered over the Internet. Howard's Ontabec Central was one of a select few layouts chosen to be incorporated in Kalmbach's latest train simulation game called TrainPlayer. His layout is in the esteemed company of John Olsen, Malcolm Furlow and Tony Koester, to name a few. You can see the description of the software and check out Howie's trackplan and how it can be incorporated in the gaming software at the following website http://www.trainplayer.com.


Yes, a great big dose congratulations goes Howie's way on behalf of all the Friday Nighters!
Cheers, Mike