percent passing mark was required. However, those who did not achieve this level were given a conditional pass so that no one was left behind. Fur- thermore, unlike real-life railroading, novices are not required to write an exam before operating trains. Surpris- ingly, the group actually seemed to en- joy the experience of “writing the rules,” possibly making this the first time in recorded history that anyone has enjoyed taking a test! Of course, there’s more to long-dis- tance dispatching than establishing a phone connection which enables the dispatcher to talk directly with station operators. In addition to a train sheet, current timetable, train order book, rule book and schematic of the rail- road, the remote dispatcher requires a fast clock so he can keep pace with the distant railroad. Since those early operating sessions,


the timetable and setting up a rule book. Of course, this would require a rules class followed by an exam so the crew would have a better idea of how a prototype railroad operates. Mike was- n’t sure how the operating crew would react to the thought of writing an exam just to operate on a model railroad. However, his concern turned out to be largely unfounded since the majority of the crew seemed to regard it as a posi- tive learning process. Our experience showed that a huge amount of learning was achieved when the exam questions were being reviewed and discussion got down to why a specific multiple choice answer was or was not correct. Using the 1929 rule book as a start- ing point, Bill and Mike abridged it to make a copy more suited for WM use by removing everything not applicable to its particular operation. This included automatic block signals, work trains, double-track running, etc. A few of the rules had to be rewritten and Bill’s dis- patching experience proved to be valu- able in this regard. In spite of this, the resulting document was 23 pages long. With Bill in Calgary, Mike conducted the rules classes and examinations in Vancouver. The first took place with three of his crew at a local Tim Hor- ton’s, a popular Canadian coffee shop chain. While Mike was reviewing the


RAILROAD MODEL CRAFTSMAN


material, a gentleman at the next table who seemed to understand what they were doing could not contain his cu- riosity and inquired which railroad they worked for. With a straight face, one of the crew quickly replied “Why, the Western Midland.”


It took a few more questions before it became clear to him that this was a model railroad. It transpired that the man at the adjacent table was the ter- minal manager for Canadian Pacific’s Port Coquitlam Yard, the western ter- minus for Canadian Pacific.


The second rules course and exam


was held during a Friday evening gath- ering of another local model railroad group, with about ten candidates. The material was read and reviewed, but much of the learning came after the two hour exam during a review of the questions following grading. In real-life railroading, rules exams usually con- tain one or two unusually difficult questions which even experienced rail- roaders have trouble with. This is done to prevent candidates from getting a perfect mark and thereby becoming overconfident. True to life, the Western Midland rules exam contained such a question,


although that probably


wouldn’t have been necessary since all were writing for the first time. As with prototype rules exams, an 85


Mike has added yard limits at some stations to avoid rule book infractions and operating problems associated with running around a train. Also, the ever-evolving Western Midland now has remotely-operated two position train order boards (see “Building a working train order signal” in the Jan- uary, 2008, RMC) so crews know if train orders are waiting for them at specific stations. From the 1929 rule book, it was discovered that station train order boards provided a second- ary function of maintaining spacing be- tween trains traveling in the same di- rection in non signaled, or


“dark


territory.” Station operators were in- structed by the rule book to lower the semaphore blade to the stop position after a train’s caboose had passed 300 feet beyond the signal. The signal was to remain in the stop position for vari- ous lengths of time depending on the circumstances, which in most cases was 20 minutes. Should a train happen to arrive during this period, it would wait for the time to elapse. After 20 minutes, if there were no orders for the train concerned, the station operator would issue a clearance stating “nil or- ders” and raise the order board to the clear


position. As on the prototype, DCC model railroads are subject to rear end collisions and this procedure has proven most useful in this regard. Over the past two years, many oper- ating mistakes have been made by many people on the Western Midland, and occasionally one of them is again ordered to “report to the superinten- dent’s office,” but the knowledge gained in realistic timetable and train order operation under Bill’s supervision from afar has been invaluable. Best of all, everyone enjoys the operating sessions even more!


61


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