Super Real Operations on an HO Railroad
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- Опубліковано 6 сер 2024
- Lee Nicholas’ Utah Colorado & Western uses a highly realistic operating system based on prototype train operations in 1950 including a CTC mainline. Lee started the 30 X 33 layout in 1970 and has worked on it ever since. He has developed a super realistic system of train orders, waybills and switch lists which are very close to the way a real railroad scheduled crews and train moves using a computer system called Flex Bill. His CTC control board is from the Union Pacific and while it uses modern computer control, it even has a sound system that reproduces the sounds of the original relays.
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You know what that guy needs? An authentic Stationmaster's uniform or Conductor's uniform. any of those real fancy boss uniforms of the era... or at least a hat
I'd do the hat. Sort of a tee shirt guy.
I never realized that screwing around could be so much like work. Makes me tired! 😄
Do you two have Grandchildren? If you do you've got to be the coolest Grandma and PA EVER. I miss being a kid around my Grandparents one set were farmers with antique equipment. Not because they were poor but because Grandpa Gene was frugal. He would have the tractors and combines rebuilt as they needed. I think three or four times with the International and Farmall tractors 460 806 and 856 and I know three times on the two Oliver 70s. My other Grandpa was a Carpenter did warranty work on mobile homes. He built me whole farm building sets for my sand box and I had my uncles toys to play with at their house. I loved my Grandparents GOD blessed them and me for having them! GOD bless you guys!
Yup. One. A granddaughter. She loves riding trains.
Wish you'd taken some sweeping shots of the whole layout.
This truly is the epitome of taking the hobby to a whole new level. I can envision seeing his picture in future model railroading history books of being the grandfather of miniturized modeling every facet of the real railroading world. Simply amazing. 8)
Toto? Have we left the toy world? You can guess the idea of running our trains on a tight schedule would be fun. I've seen these guys. Although the challenge is there and the guys and gals joke around a bit, you can cut the tension with a knife, at times. As for me, I'll settle for what the wife wants to run around the track for her buddies. I can appreciate the years of work on this line and it's expanse. A life's work for a man clearly of "our" vintage. As always, dynamite stuff. We will see you next week. Greg and Jeanne.
HI!! My comment section is messed up Google changes I guess. I really love operations as long as it's other people doing it. love to watch. But not our cup of tea.
Ditto! Our layout is just a demo layout and it doesn't take waybills and card system to run it. I have seen Lee's layout in magazines in the past and it truly is amazing. With Jeanne's fondness for O gauge 3 rail I didn't know how fun the darn bells and whistles could get. Carry on with this very fine pursuit of, "Screwing Around",
Well do!!
I just like watching trains go around the track. lol
Not many go this far!!
Awesome video, while the system sounds complicated. Once you go and operate on a railroad, these things become easier to understand.
I want these guys in charge of our nuclear defense shield! :D Jack
They are. The MX missile is made here!!! Explains a lot doesn't it?
Talk about taking "screwing around" to the ultimate level! Wish I had that kind of time! Amazing. Thanks!
I'm not an operator, just love to build everything from locomotives to rolling stock, Hot Wheels to full sized race cars! HOWEVER, this is like running into an Olympic Diver. I don't do it, don't think I'd even like to try it, but BOY is it amazing to see!!!
was a yard clerk in Idaho for years. Received five trains and built three a day. It was a great place to live and work. Thanks for awakening good old memories...
This is close to the way you guys ran the railroad! I prefer to build the models. Almost never run one except to dial in the operation. Then it’s on a shelf and I build another
GREAT VIDEO AWESOME VIDEO AND AWESOME LAYOUT. THIS IS SCREWING AROUND TIME WITH A PASSION. I ENJOY YOUR VIDEO AND INFORMATION GOOD AWESOME GOOD. THIS IS A VERY DETAILED LAYOUT. 😷😁👍👌🚂🚂📸
Awesome. Simply awesome. Can't wait to see the rest. See you next time.
It's amazing!! Wish we could have shot the railroad. BUT love going up there. So off we go!!
"Lees been working on the railroad, all the live long day!" LOL Kool video.
Thanks!! Yes he has!! His whole life too!
SCARY GOOD LAYOUT. AWESOME NICE THANK YOU FOR SHARING THIS WITH YOUR SUBSCRIBERS ALWAYS INFORMATIVE AND INTERESTING NEVER BORING LOVE THE MUSIC AND THE INFORMATION JUST PERFECT THANK you BOTH AGAIN JIM KAMMERER OF PHILADELPHIA PA AWESOME NICE THANK you BOTH be safe and careful mask up when you need to 🚂🚂👌👍😁😷😷
The first CTC board I ever seen was at the HO club in Columbus,Ohio back in the late 50s and I couldn't wait to become a student dispatcher after joining the club in '64-had to be 16 to join. I soon learn dispatching is like playing chess you need to keep two to three moves ahead.
Thanks for showing the CTC board...
Lee started about the same time I did, ..four layouts ago. Somehow, my venture into 1 to 1 life got in the way of achieving this amount of the screwing around, however. Thanks for showing off Lee's behind the scenes work. I can't wait to find the episode of "out on the tracks".
I saw the old NKP Fort Wayne Div CTC board which looked similar to this board and still in operation in fall 1981. Loved to hear those relays clicking away as the signals would come in. Awesome video!
This is such a cool idea. AND layout
Thanks for your time you two great job your having fun and teaching everyone history @!! Best wishes
Really something to see. We really want to get up there for an operating session
you two are gems and great video and content. i would do the waybill thing even in my teens as it gave the model railroad something to do beside be looked at.... move this here that there run load here... lol..... can be so fun or completely boring..... sometimes a little of both is great lol..... waiting for a pass thru train on a siding..... with a book and no cell reception.... haha this guys bar scanner setup is a definite ringer for dedication to the hobby.....
I just like building. Only run stuff to prover it works, or have a beer while enjoying it. Then back to the bench. But the operators have a ball, so carry on!!!
Wow Dale, Lee's railroad is fantastic. I never new anyone was this advanced to mimic real world operations to this point On previous a previous show, you showed the use of waybills, etc., but the have the CTC panel and software to control train movements at this level is great. I am looking forward to your next installment on Lee's operation. I am wintering in Florida, so I'm just now catching up on my You Tube subscriptions. I hope to catch up this week. Really great video to me. Stay warm you guys.
Amazing system. Still uses the same little waybills. Lee was operating that way for years. But now the little waybills stay in the clerks office. And move from one box to another, just like on other railroads only all the boxes are on a desk. The new system grew out of the old system, so you can still spot the DNA.
That is called Dedication. This was very interesting...Thank you for sharing
Totally over the top!
Enjoyed it very much! Thank you
Thanks. Looking forward to making a "denver run" in a few months. So much to see there!!!! And do!
Another great video and layout. Love the CTC board.
Right??? Still no idea how it works. But so cool that he uses this system
One of the best operation oriented layouts I’ve known of! Really have to learn more!
We need to go to an operation session!
I see a road trip to Utah in my near future. Thanks for another awesome episode!!!!!!
Go to lees web site and see if you can join a session! www.ucwrr.com/
Toy Man Television will do thank you!!!!!!
Outstanding! It's exactly the way I like to operate. I would love to operate on this railroad. I have never been one to run trains just to watch them run. I enjoy "playing the game."
That's exactly what it is too, a game. In this case the better everyone plays, the better the "game". And all games end in a tie. No winners, no losers, but hours of intense game play.
Of all the operating schemes I've seen highlighted for model railroading, this one is my personal favorite. I'd say this is the only one I would want to emulate. Very well done all around: Lee's fabulous layout and the documentary!
We are heading back SOON to see the railroad!!!! And we hope at some point, to get to operate!!
Can't wait to see the next video on the Utah, and Western. Great video.
Soon too!!
Thanks for a great video. It is very informative and gives a much better explanation of the paperwork than many other videos. Looking forward to the next video. Hope you will have some footage of the CTC panel in operation and corresponding shots of the signals in the field. Most people don't get the connection. Norman
Need to get back up there. Hope to do two more shows. The railroad, and the signaling.
That is awesome layout would love to do an operating session on that and im not into operations more just running for me but thats a real Sim Railroad. Thanks for bringing this to me Dale! - Matt
Not many people doing it this way, but some. I know of perhaps 5.
Nice CTC board. Amazing.
Did you see it in action on this weeks show? ua-cam.com/video/aY6Aq3xkNwE/v-deo.html&lc=z134zrnz5pnafxj0322jvpoyqryzehebi04
Check out Lee's web site. The railroad has been covered in Model Railroader twice, Keller Video, several Kalmbach books on layout design and operation, Model Railroading, Model Railroad Journal and Model Railroads. www.ucwrr.com/
Toy Man Television v
Lee's website has not been updated since 2007.....ten years ago. I suspect that his Flex-Bill software was added to his layout, along with a lot of other changes, during that last ten years. So where can I find his Flex-Bill software to download? Several links through web search are no longer active links. Your help appreciated.
THANKS VIDEO GREAT FULL DETAIL LAYOUT WITH REAL OPERATION LIKE REAL RAILROAD OF DAY
Heading back in a few weeks to film the railroad.
I have always loved this RR, but the OPS is a little over the top for me.
I wonder at what point this changed from fun to a non-paying job for this guy?
Larry never saw a difference. He sold cars, made movies, had a basketball team, restaurants, theaters, this collection and he would say it was all ways of making money and screwing around at the same time. Do what you love and you never work a day in your life!
I liked that operation because it has genuine feel. You actually can see the nuts and bolts of a railroad operation. Railroads like all businesses was for profit and they operated hand in hand with other businesses in order to get product to market so it's important to know how that was accomplished. Boy! that was a lot of paperwork. I use believe the lie that computers would eliminate paperwork when all it did was eliminate jobs and doubled the paperwork.
This is so confusing but so cool. I'm going to learn more about how railroads worked in the early 1900s, to Model. Great Video Keep it Up!
It is confusing. Almost everyone just uses car cards and way bills that stay with the cars. You pick up a car, and it's card, the card says where it's going, you take it there, spot it and leave the car and card for the next person who turns the card over, and takes it right back to where it came from. This is sort of the same, but the cards stay in the clerks office and the computer prints out "work to do" lists given to the crew. Sort of the same, but not.
Toy Man Television Thanks
Wow, this is such an amazing model railroad! Now im gonna have to plan a trip to utah lol.
Did you get here from this weeks show on this railroad? IF not, check that out!!!
I did watch this week's show, and then this showed up in the "Up Next" Column. both great videos and i can't wait to see a video showing an actual operation on this layout.
Cool railroad but also be sure to check out the Colorado Model Railroad Museum in Greeley! They have a crew of 10 operating numerous trains on an enormous layout set in the mountains of Oregon. It's quite the operation!
Want to!!!! We went there but there were closed. Only open on the weekends...
That's pretty cool! Gives the railroad an actual purpose, rather than just running trains for the sake of it. (Which is also cool, mind you.)
Better than a freeway interchange style. Which is also cool, but I like it more.
WOW! Lee knows his stuff.🚂
Heading back out soon to operate!!
Awesome video. Happy railroading!!!! I wish he had thrown in some stuff like, putting a track out of service so it can be fixed, a car and/or train derails, a locomotive won't start, a broken coupler, a vehicle blocking the crossing and a train goes into emergency, car inspector tells him a certain car has to come out of the train, which would delay the train and the car. Then the car would have to go out with the next train.
Hum..... They could add that. Easy. Hum..........
Looking forward to Part II...
As are we!! If it stops snowing we are heading back up. As soon as we get a green block from Lee.
great job you guys. wish you two would do something on the D&RGW Tennessee Pass line. its still there and most of its still accessable and easy to get to including the Tennessee pass tunnel as well as the rock tunnels around the old Eagle mine area and one called Deans tunnel down by the old Camp Hale area. Check it out. Darrel Smith. Fort Worth. Texas
This was a beautiful system. You should come here to Michigan and visit Bruce Chubb's Sunset Valley Oregon System. He's been running his railroad using 2 real CTC boards for years. One of them is a GRS panel and the other is a US&S panel. I've operated both of them several times. I'd love to switch him from car cards and waybills to a proper generated switchlist setup similar to this one!
Met Bruce at a National narrow gauge convention a few years ago. He did a 3 part clinic on his system. Still confused. Thank goodness I’m into old narrow gauge. No need for cool control system unless I put in a working telegraph. Really thinking of doing that!!
Well, if you're ever headed to Michigan during the first Friday/Saturday of a month, let me know and I can get you into an op session!
Very realistic.
Shockingly so!
All I can say is W O W !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wow. Just...Wow.
Where can the Flex-Bill software be found? All search engine pursuits have been fruitless with broken links.
That guy has been working on the rail road all the live long day
That’s for sure!
Toy Man Television I am an ideal toy and novelty great great grandson.
If you are ever in Southern California, (more specifically San Diego) I would highly recommend visiting the San Diego Model Railroad Museum. Among many other cool layouts, Its got one of the most realistic scale versions of California's Tehachapi Pass line ever built.
Need to get down there!!!!!
Very interesting, even if I'm more in building than running (not to say operations). But I would like to see a small train following its switch list the next time you go here, to better understand the whole thing.
That was our plan. But Lee does not want us to get in the way of an operating session. And it takes a bit of time to set up all that, so Our plan as of now is to
1 Go back up and run a through train over the whole line.
2 switch a few locations
3 Go back for a third show when "The D.O.G." (division operating group) is running as they love us to film them.
4 Also like to go up just to operate when one of the big national groups is running, just to watch. AND meet the members (from all over the world) and make some good connections to cover them later in distant cites!
Seems to be a very good new plan.
The world that we ourselves experience and reside in is the world we dream of and create for ourselves.
A dream is a movie made from a story we told to ourselves. Hum... same as a model. Or a painting.
meh, not exactly my cup of tea, but to each their own!
Where can you buy this software? Cheers
Hum. I think he sells it. He’s sorta hard to find but he has a web site. www.ucwrr.com
wow!!! :)
Amazing!!! We are heading back to shoot the railroad!!! Amazing layout.
Thank songs like fun! :)
Very interesting, just curious, did lee used to work in railroads? He obviously enjoys the complexity of it all. Maybe an accountant or engineer? Not trying to stereotype but intersted in how his mind works.
I don't recall, but not railroads. Just a fan from age 2.
I love model railroading....but I really not an realistic operations guy. Too much like work! I am a freelance modeler and I just like trains and modeling them and the associated scenery
I just like to build. But I get a kick out of seeing this stuff. AMAZING fun, really down in the weeds!! Not for everyone, but these guys are over the top!!!!
That's what logging or mining modelling does. It allows you to do some realistic modelling while keeping it a bit more simple.
sounds to me like if you were to mess up Lee's railroad, it would be like a real railroad when folks move cars without paying attention to their lists. I heard UP had something like that in Ogden where they lost a car and spent some time looking for it. I think they found it half way to Elko.
I kept thinking that maybe they can cut some ties and place a bar code scanner under the tracks, then they can do real tracking like union Pacific. Maybe with the RFID tags they can even build a track side scanner.... Then you know a car is between two scanners.
I can't imagine how hard it would be to find one back in the day!!! Then they went to bar codes, like lees but BIG. And now some form of RFID and bar code. And they STILL loose cars!
Not my "thing" however ; interesting to see.. Guess there are those that like doing ops.
Nor mine. I like to build, run it for an hour, then build something else. But I get it!!! These guys have a ball!!
uh, wow!
THIS IS LIKE A JOB HOW MUCH DOES IT PAY???
No kidding!!!
All I can say is you can't get any more proto running a model railroad then that.
How true!!!
I would love to engineer a utah Railway locomotive here....I would be in heaven, Local utahn here
Its quit a setup Not sure how this group came together to operate here. They are from all over the place.
Man that shit samll is hell handainit
yup!
A while back I picked up a booklet the New haven put out about their switch list system in 1947. I did a blog post with the whole text of the booklet:
theartsmechanical.wordpress.com/2016/02/24/the-new-haven-rrs-1947-ibm-car-processing-and-forwarding-system/
The system here looks like it works the same way.
WOW!!! Yes, that's it!! I need to send this to Lee. (Bet he's already seen it) But WOW thanks!!!!!!!!
I'm sure this is interesting to someone. But, the longer I watched, the more I could see the fun being sucked out of the layout. To bad you couldn't show the railroad.
Robert McDonnold there is a follow up later showing the layout. What I would like to do is document an operating session but they think we would be in the way and mess them up. And as many drive in for hours to be there they just don’t want us messing them up. I’ll post a link to the follow up in a minute as soon as I can locate it
ua-cam.com/video/aY6Aq3xkNwE/v-deo.html
Operations are too stressful. Model railroading is suppose to be relaxing.
Exactly. Should be getting paid to deal with all that.
One of my co-workers thought it was crazy to work with trains and operate a model railroad as a hobby so he asked yardmaster Mike why do you operate model trains when you come here to work with the real thing? Mike said, operating model trains is more relaxing because you dont have to work with people that give you attitude, don't want to work, half do the work or just have poor attitudes. To me this would be like a vacation from work.
Car cards, way bills, CTC, bar codes, scanning and COMPUTERS??!! Jargon and gibberish! If that's what you gotta do to be a real model railroader, I think I' ll take up the trombone instead.
More of an accordion guy myself, but the T bone is cool.... No one said you need to do this! It's what some people like. I for one just like to build. Almost never even turn the power on. To each their own!.
You're right. I've watched it a second time; maybe I'll watch it a third time - and then it will start to sink in and make some sense.
" Different strokes for different folks ". ( Flip Wilson )