Marek  Mountain  Railroad

Operations  Information  Page

 

During an open house we 'run' trains around in circles…

 

…the rest of the time, we ‘operate’ the railroad.

 

 

 

EasyDCC

 

I use EasyDCC from CVP Products, on my layout.  Years ago, we was one of the first people in the San Antonio area to look at switching to DCC.  After reviewing the three main systems available at that time, I chose EasyDCC for three main reasons… 

… it was the only system at the time with a true wireless throttle, never having to be plugged in

… the throttles were very easy for anyone to use, from selecting engines to running trains

… there was no way for Visitors to do any decoder programming from the wireless throttle

 

After 6-8 months, my experience encouraged 8 other railroads to switch from DC to EasyDCC, which lead me placing a group order for 8 systems with over 50 wireless throttles. Over the years I have used other brands while visiting other layouts.  I feel the three main system are all very nice systems and today, all three finally have true wireless throttles.  Each system has it's Pros and Cons.  Today I still use EasyDCC and enjoy the same basic reasons I selected it.

 

In December of 2003, I successfully won a venture with Yahoo, to acquire the Moderator and Ownership of the EasyDCC Group.  My effort even challenged an interesting problem, what happens when the existing Group Owner / Moderator, passes away and no one else is at the throttle? 

Read more and visit that Yahoo Group at...   < EasyDCC Group >

    

 

 

RailOp

 

When I started years ago, I played with Car-Cards for a short while. It allowed me to have a ‘system’ that defined where to move cars to and from, pick-up here, set-out there.  Being a computer guy, not long after I wrote a simple program to generate ‘Switchlists’, to give me a single sheet of paper with the information a Train Crew needed to switch cars during a session.

 

In 2000, I purchased RailOp software, written by Phil Chamberlain.  This program allowed many options and features, and was very flexible allowing various options.  Soon after I created the Yahoo User’s Group for it and was encouraging others to use it as well….  < RailOp Group >

     

 

In October of 2010, I flew to St. Louis to give a Clinic on the basic setup and use of RailOp software, to the St. Louis Area Narrow Gauger’s at their Fall Meet.  That hour long clinic is available for viewing from my site.  Just click this link…    < RailOp Clinic >

 

 

Over the years, I have hosted man many operating sessions on my layout and traveled to operate on many others.  Even travelled to other Cities, to attend ‘Operating Weekends’.  I will be adding links to photos taken from those trips soon.

 

 

 

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