I'm an operator. I also think that I am more of a railroad modeler than a model railroader. I think that N Scale lends itself well to that. That is why I chose to model in N. My goal has always been to be able to model the AD&N and it's operations as closely as I can. I've built three small Layouts and learned from each of them. Hopefully, within the next year or so, I will be able to build my big shop and finally my "big layout". Hopefully it is also my last layout. I want it to be representative of the operations as they actually happened on the AD&N in the 1970's through the 1990's. On my small layouts and on a few other layouts where I was fortunate enough to be a regular operator, I learned a lot about operations. I have been working for a couple of years in JMRI Operations Pro to hone my operations plan for the AD&N. I've invested a lot of study and time into that. I've basically built a virtual AD&N and worked on getting everything to run right. As far as equipment goes, I like for equipment to be a fairly close representation of the prototype. I have tried to do the superdetailing thing on a few models. They wind up, IMHO, as being too delicate to work with operationally. I also find that when I am absorbed in operating that I don't notice whether a car rides six inches too high. I do know that I have to pull the empty and spot this tank car on the Chlorine Track. I just want to run the trains and be able suspend my disbelief enough to feel as if I am really part of the train crew working this job. If I can do that, it's prototypical enough for me.
Tad, I know what you mean, JMRI can be its own universe to get absorbed into! I don't know but a tiny fraction of it, but I follow the JMRI user group and am continually amazed at what folks are doing with (and expanding) it. But like most individual aspects of this hobby, it is not "required" to enjoy the hobby, it is just one more avenue of engagement and enjoyment for those interested. Probably the only thing that is required to enjoy model railroading is reliable trackwork and equipment (unless of course your heart of the hobby is repairing and restoring those!) And with JMRI, you can have virtual stand-ins for both! Yet another way to enjoy this great hobby...
No, you're absolutely correct, JMRI is not required to enjoy the hobby. I got into it because a fellow whose layout that I was operating on was the kind of go to guy for figuring out DCC programming for a lot of folks. He showed me what you could do with Decoder Pro and a Sprog. Well, I bought me a Sprog III and downloaded JMRI and started trying to figure it out. It made programming so much easier and I really liked how you could save the configuration for each locomotive so that when a decoder loses its mind that all you have to do is rewrite the decoder and you are back in business. I'll never use some parts of JMRI like the signaling and detection and all of that. My railroad is all in dark territory. I have used car cards, ShipIt!, and ProTrak on layouts that I have operated on. I used car cards on my smaller layouts. They are very versatile, but kind of a pain to keep up with. They were good on my smaller layouts but I think that they would be unwieldy on a large layout. ShipIt! showed me that switchlists were cool from the operator side. But my friend who used it had been using it since the early versions and he really knew the program well. He told me that it took a lot of fiddling to keep it working right. He said that if he was starting over that he would probably use Operations Pro. So, since I already had it, and it was free, I figured that I would try to learn it. I have a lot of original documents from the AD&N, to include scale drawings of all of the trackage of the entire line. I took all of that into Operations Pro and starting working on setting up the AD&N in there. I also have a lot of information on how they operated from talking to personnel that worked there and even Mr. Tedder when he was still alive. I wish I could still ask him some questions. I started with one train, a few pulpwood cars, and one pulpwood yard. I got that to work right and then built from there. I have all of my actual cars on hand entered into the program. Now I have a total of 32 trains in an operating session and I have the balance worked out pretty well. I did use what I thought would be modeling car capacities instead of moving 125-150 carloads a day on just the AD&N, not to mention the three connecting roads. I am starting to work on an updated track plan in XTrackCAD to reflect what I believe that my layout space will be when I finally am able to start building the "big AD&N." I've read about every operating book there is. I have been using that, my previous operating experience, and what I have learned in Operations Pro to drive what I am trying to do in my design for the layout. Once I get the design finished, I will move all of the layout dimensions into Operations Pro and start trying to balance the operations out again. What I have learned in Operations Pro has really affected how I look at my model inventory and my car and locomotive acquisition strategy. Hopefully, all of this will result in an "All Day & Night" layout that is designed from the start with prototypical operations as the goal. Sorry if that got a little longwinded.
Tad, I use a Pi SPROG 3 for both decoder programming and running my small temp layout, with JMRI as the "user interface": Decoder Pro for programming, and Panel Pro for running trains (headless, PP just starts the Wi Throttle server, and I use my phone with Engine Driver app for a throttle.) I also use XTrackCAD for my upcoming layout's design, but I haven't tried to export it to JMRI yet. I've seen an introductory presentation somewhere on the web about Operations Pro, and it looked really cool for an organized way to realistically run a railroad with purpose. I think I'd like that sometimes. Other times, I just wanna run trains... And that's what's great about this hobby! I've found the JMRI user group (jmriusers) on groups.io is a great source of advice and expertise with JMRI.
