OperatingSessions.com | Oregon Joint Line

Layout Description

The Oregon Joint Line is a joint Northern Pacific/Great Northern mainline through the mountains and canyons of eastern Oregon connecting the Pacific Northwest with California. The layout, which is set in 1969 just prior to the BN merger, has plenty of pool power mixed in from the connecting California roads (WP, SP, and ATSF). Most heavy trains (freights are typically 22-28 cars long) receive helpers for the shove up the 2.2% grade to the summit at Snowline. The major terminal area has three yards (NP, GN, and the O&NE) with a focus on transfer/interchange activity and industrial switching. There are two forest products shortlines: the "Oregon & Northeastern" switches the Hines Lumber pulp/plywood complex and makes log runs out to Canyon Reload while “Anderson & Middleton” switches the large lumber mill complex at Westpine.
The layout is 28' x 28' with a mainline run of 275’ and more than 25 staging tracks. Operating sessions require a dispatcher, a train order operator, 2-3 NP Yard crews, 1 GN Yard crew, 1 O&NE crew, 2 local/helper crews, and 3-4 road crews. The layout is operated with radio-controlled NCE DCC. Dispatching is Timetable & Train Order while car forwarding is currently done with car tabs.

While we do run Timetable and Train Order we don't expect visiting operators to be experts at it - in fact we'll even take beginners. But we do expect that you'll spend a little time familiarizing yourself with TT&TO before you get to the session. There are several good online primers to read through: http://www.railsonwheels.com/ors/quickopsguide.shtml
http://virginian.mdodd.com/ttto-tutorial.html

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