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Operating EventsThese events are up-coming within a year or so, and are open to all interested parties regardless of OPSIG membership, which is of course encouraged but not required. If you would like to attend, you must contact the host and secure an invitation. For changes, corrections and or additions contact Ron Copher, Monthly
Virginia (Glen Alle/Richmond)
Easton & Potomac Railroad: (Contact first) Website: http://eastonpotomac.blogspot.com/ Contact: Keith Stillman kfstillman@comcast.net Multi-deck operations oriented layout featuring regular sessions on the 3rd Saturday of every month
Michigan (Grand Rapids and Flint)
Live Steam Card Order sessions: (All meets are by invitation only) Contact: Bob Hill upbigboy4004@aol.com 810-797-4961. Live Steam Card Order sessions on the Michigan Central Railroad of Bill & Gisela Hays
Illinois (Chicago)
L&S Division of the B&O RR: (Must contact for invite) Regularly: January 14 7PM, March 10 7PM, April 14 7PM Contact: Ed Lorence lorence1827@sbcglobal.net 773-727-7716 9:00 am - 9:00 p Featured in RMC October 1997, MR April 2004, GMR volume 48 by Allen Keller December 2004. Railroad size 22' x 44' two levels 6.5 scale miles main line, plus 5 more hidden storage & sidings, 121 turnouts hand operated. Designed to operate 50 car trains, 25 industries for switching. 62 lighted buildings, 450 yard & street lights, 27 sound modules. Digitrax DCC, All sound locomotives, circa 1954. Limit 8 to 10 operators. Card card and weigh bills are used. Operators positions available 1/Grafton yard master, 1/MC yard master, 1/East Elkins yard master, 1/ Fairport yard master, 1/ Gray Jct mine, 1/ Elkins yard master, 4/Engineers/Fireman.
Bi-Monthly
Louisiana (LA/ Baton Rouge)
Midsouth Model Railroad Club: (Open Invite Contact first) Regularly: First Saturday of the even months Website: www.midsouthmodelrailroadclub.org Contact: Jack Green jwg3rd@aol.com March
Washington State (Seattle/Tacoma/Olympia Area)
Soundrail: (Open Invite Contact first) Regularly: 3rd weekend in March, even years Next scheduled: Thu, Mar 29, 2012 - Sat, Mar 31, 2012 Website: www.soundrail.org Contact: see website From Whidbey Island in the north to Olympia in the south, you'll run on a fascinating variety of layouts including some of the finest in the country. Operating sessions feature some of the best-known layouts in the country and will be held Thursday through Saturday.
Massachusetts (Boston)
Boston RailRun: (Open Invite Contact first) Regularly: March annually Contact: Carl Senftleben shoalsrr@hotmail.com 781-233-7051 Come run on ten to fifteen layouts in the Boston MA area and enjoy some great railroads while having lots of fun.
Indiana (Indianapolis)
CIRROPS - (Central Indiana Railroad Operators): (Open Invite Contact first) Regularly: Spring Next scheduled: Fri, Mar 30, 2012 - Sun, Apr 01, 2012 Website: www.cirrops.org Registration for the CIRROPS 2012 Operations Weekend scheduled for March 30 - April 1, 2012 is now open. Please go to http://www.cirrops.org for more information about CIRROPS, the 2012 Ops Weekend, and to register. Use the 'Contact Us' page on the site to ask any questions you might have.
Oklahoma (Tulsa)
3rd annual Tulsa Area Layout Design and Operations: ( Register.at website) Next scheduled: Fri, Mar 23, 2012 - Sun, Mar 25, 2012 Website: http://ldopsigmeet.tulsanmra.org/ Contact: Dave Salamon www.picturetrail.com/salamon Indian Nations Division of the NMRA has a great weekend of operations lined up and a full day of presentations on Saturday March 24th.
* Lance Mindheim – Planning and Designing a Switching Layout* Lance Mindheim – Modeling Prototype Switching Operations* Steve Davis – Computer Switchlists for Model Railroads: Why? And HOW to do it for FREE!
* John McBee with Dick Hovey - What Time Has Taught Me About My HO Scale Pueblo Division* Jim Senese/Tom Fausser/Dave Salamon – How we operate our model railroads: variations in car forwarding systems
Additional Activities include:* 32 Square Foot Layout Design Challenge – Open to everyone!* Bring your trackplans, photos, display boards and mockups to share
with everyone, great place to solicit feedback on your layout!* Panel question and answer discussion* 3 Operating sessions with several layouts available for each.
The cost is $35.00 (Until March 1st then goes to $40.00) to get in and that includes an self serve sandwich bar which includes sides and a drink.
California (Bay Area)
BayRails: (Open Invite Contact first) Regularly: 3rd weekend in March, odd years Website: www.bayrails.com Contact: Seth Neumann website2009@bayrails.com 650-965-4687 Exceptional operating sessions and a celebration of Western Prototype Railroading in the San Francisco Bay Area. Operating sessions feature some of the best-known layouts in the country and will be held Thursday through Saturday
April
Colorado (Denver Area)
RockyOps 2013: (Contact first) Regularly: 2013 TBD Website: http://home.comcast.net/~rockyop/odd/index.htm Contact: Doug Geiger gmry@comcast.net 303-651-2225 Anyone with ANY level of operations experience is welcome, from the novice to the most experienced!
Indiana (Fort Wayne and Nortwest Ohio)
THREE RIVERS OPSIG: (Open Invite Contact first) Website: www.hoosierdiv3nmra.org Contact: ThreeRiversOpSig-owner@yahoogroups.com. 'Op till you drop' weekend featuring eleven (11) layouts. Layouts cover a wide range of operations interests. Each participant selects which layouts they desire to operate on Friday evening, Saturday morning, Saturday afternoon, and Sunday morning.
May
New Jersey (Union)
The Model RR Club, Inc: (Open Invite Contact first) Regularly: May or June Website: www.tmrci.org Contact: Pete Ezzard pezzard@hotmail.com 212-996-6858 Come operate on this extremely large and very progressive club layout, with over 3,500 square feet of HO gauge railroads and 800 square feet of N Scale
Texas (Cental Texas Area)
Spring Fling Live Steam Operation: (Contact for invitation) Contact: Peter Byran peterb@pdq.net Live team operations on 3 miles of track plus a 2500 foot branch line. Over 70 industries and 15 towns. This is the first and only true point to point Live Steam railroad in the U.S. Dates are always the first week after Mothers Day as it has been for the past 16 years
Missouri (St. Louis)
Gateway NMRA Rail/OP Weekend: (Open to all skill levels, Must be an NMRA member) Website: http://gatewaynmra.org/railop.htm Contact: Richard William Schumacher rschumacher@stlcc.edu 314-539-5351 Three free operating sessions (Friday evening, Saturday morning and afternoon) with seven layouts participating (6 HO standard gauge, 1 Sn3 narrow gauge). Open to all experience levels. Registration closes April 20, 2011. Must be an NMRA member to participate. Registration is online, http://gatewaynmra.org/railop/sign-up.htm
June
Wisconsin (LaCrosse)
Riverrail 2012: (Invitation only, contact first) Regularly: Weekend following Fathersday in June Next scheduled: Fri, Jun 22, 2012 - Sun, Jun 24, 2012 Website: http://guest.riverrail.com/home-page-2/ Contact: Mike Lord riverrailcord@gmail.com. More Information as the event draws closer, also check out www.Riverrail.com
September
BRITISH COLUMBIA (Greater Vancouver Area)
VanRail: (Invitation only, please contact first) Regularly: 2nd weekend in September, odd years Contact: Scott Calvert scottcalvert@shaw.ca 604-939-1849 Operations weekend in arguably one of the most beautiful areas of Canada featuring numerous layouts of several scales and operation systems. Participants will operate on three different layouts, and will also enjoy a couple of RR related clinics as well as some other social events while attending.
North Carolina (Salisbury)
NC RailRun: (Open / Registration by the website) Website: http://www.carolinasouthern.org/RailRunMain.htm Contact: Marcus Neubacher kntower@carolina.rr.com This year's event will give attendees a chance to operate on layouts in Charlotte, Salisbury, Greensboro, and Hickory areas of North
Carolina. Located close to the North Carolina Transportation Museum in nearby Spencer, the city of Salisbury is a great location for hotels, dining, sightseeing, railfanning, and of course access to
the great layouts that will be featured in NC RailRun.
Ohio (Dayton / Cincinnati area)
SouthWest Ohio Ops (SWOOPS): (Contact host group thru web site first) Website: http://swoops2011.wordpress.com/ The SouthWest Ohio Ops (SWOOPS) weekend will be held September 30 - October 2. SWOOPS 2011 is sponsored by NMRA Division 7, and includes layouts in the
Cincinnati and Dayton area. Railroad scales/gauges include N, HO, HOn3, O 2-rail and O 3-rail, with a variety of eras, railroad sizes, and operating
schemes. we hope to open for registration on August 1), including hotels and local model railroad attractions.
Colorado ( Pueblo/Colorado Springs Area)
RockyOps South: (Open Invite Contact first) Regularly: Even number years Next scheduled: Fri, Sep 07, 2012 - Sun, Sep 09, 2012 Website: http://home.comcast.net/~rockyop/even/index.htm Contact: Greg Long greglong62@msn.com 719-547-9641 Anyone with ANY level of operations experience is welcome, from the novice to
the most experienced!
Utah (Salt Lake City Area)
Great Basin Getaway: (Invite Contact first) Regularly: September, even years Next scheduled: Thu, Sep 06, 2012 - Sat, Sep 08, 2012 Contact: Lee Nicholas leeucwrr@msn.com 435-744-2423 This year it will be held Sept 6-8 Thursday thru Saturday. (Due to circumstances beyond our control this is the same weekend as Rocky Ops South).
We will have 4 primary layouts this year: Lee Nicholas Utah Colorado Western, Rob Spangler Western Pacific 8th Sub (new layout), Gary Petersen Salt Lake Southern, Ted York Santa Fe Cajon Pass. Plus several more layouts open for evening sessions.
October
Arizona (Phoenix)
Desert Ops: (Open Invite Contact first) Regularly: 4th weekend of October, even years Next scheduled: Thu, Oct 25, 2012 - Sat, Oct 27, 2012 Website: Coming soon Contact: David Doirion ddoiron@cox.net We intend to have 4 operating sessions at the 2012 event. Thursday evening, Friday morning, Friday afternoon and Saturday morning featuring 10+ operations based layouts.
Illiniois (Chicago area)
AmRail: (Open Invite Contact first) Regularly: October even years Website: choprail.org Contact: Mike Ritschdorff nwpoca@hotmail.com 773-763-1516 A very large and popular event, come to the Windy City and operate on many large and very operations oriented layouts.
Alberta, Canada (Edmonton)
Northern Rails: (Contact first for an invitation) Regularly: October of even years Next scheduled: Fri, Oct 26, 2012 - Sun, Oct 28, 2012 Website: www3.telus.net/public/ulvestad/NorthernRails.html Contact: Cal Sexsmith calvinsexsmith@sasktel.net
Minnesota (Minneapolis/St. Paul)
Minn-Rail: (Invitation only Contact first) Website: http://www.minn-rail.org/ Contact: Randy Nord rnord@milwroad.org 763-559-0348 We intend to have 4 op session periods at the 2011 event (ie: Friday eve, Sat morning, Sat late afternoon and Sun morn) and with approximately 17 railroads (including 2-3 new ones this time.
North Carolina ( Hendersonville)
Saluda Rails: (Contact for invite) Regularly: Fall of odd number years Website: http://saludarails.org/ Contact: contact@saludarails.org Saluda Rails is a model railroad operations group that promotes prototype model railroad operations. Operations are anticipated to be held every two years in Western North and South Carolina.
Pennsylvania (Allentown/Harrisburg/York)
Lehigh Susquehanna Operations: (open Invite Contact first) Next scheduled: Fri, Oct 05, 2012 - Sat, Oct 06, 2012 Website: www.susquehannanmra.org/lsops/ Contact: Jeff Warner jwarner@susquehannanmra.org Come operate on three large impressive layouts in the Allentown area, and three in the Harrisburg/York area.
November
Wisconsin/Michigan (Meet is rotated around the division each year)
Winnebagoland Division: (Contact First) Regularly: First Saturday of November Contact: Dave Rickaby wmwestdiv@yahoo.com They use this gathering to teach, encourage, and share operations while having fun and getting together.
California (San Diego)
TT&TO Operation on the Tehachapi Pass Layout: (Request to Participate via the website) Regularly: Next operations planned in February 2012 Website: http://www.opsontehachapi.com Contact: Novt4O2@sbcglobal.net This is Crew Call for a weekend Time Table/Train Order Operation on the Tehachapi Pass Layout of the La Mesa Model Railroad Club on November 5-6, 2011. The operation will use 1953-era equipment, with full fleet of big steam, 1st generation diesels, corresponding car fleet, train orders with open telegraph offices, switchlists, and a real-time (bring watch!) timetable.
Operation is planned for approximately 10 hours on Saturday and Sunday, with crew rotations at the 5 hour mark. Line will be in operation from Bakersfield (including staging) , Bena to Sandcut, through Tehachapi Loop to Mojave Yard, located on the mezzanine.
There are approximately 45 - 50 operating positions available. The positions to be filled before operation can start each day are: Dispatcher, telegraph station operators, and yardmasters. To see the full list of potential positions, please reference opsontehachapi.com, "Request to Participate" page.
There will be a small fee charged each participant to cover costs for security and on-site lunch. Motel Information will be provided upon sign-up.
Please respond by email with the above subject line with the following information:
1. Name of Operator;
2. Operating position (DS, YM, TO, am or pm, Sat or Sun)
3. Any circumstances preventing full-time participation
4. Any dietary restrictions (for lunches)
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