Walnut Creek Model Railroad Society

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Operations

As you enter the building the Dispatcher's Office is on the left. This is the control point for operation of the mainline. The train routing is done with using Centralized Traffic Control (CTC). One dispatcher controls the level perimeter trackage known as the Valley Division. A second dispatcher handles the central Mountain Division.

By positioning the track switches or turnouts, the dispatchers set the routing for the engineers to follow. These routes are displayed on a 8 x 30 foot Centralized Traffic Control (CTC) board. The CTC board is visible on the rear wall of the building. This Big Board also shows the position and direction of travel of the mainline trains.

Up to ten engineers operate the mainline trains. They view the "Big Board" from a mezzanine across the front of the building. Even from this high vantage point, an engineer can see his or her train only about 25 percent of the time. The engineer must therefore depend on the CTC board for orders. Under average traffic conditions, the time required for a train to travel the entire mainline is about 45 minutes.

A second important element of any layout is their Yards. There are several on the layout. Each of these yards is under the control of separate yard engineers. They work with the dispatchers and the engineers through an extensive telephone order system.

A setup yard where the trains are set up and removed from the layout is located under the central mountain range. This yard is not readily visible to show visitors.

Apart from the mainline and yard operations there are other areas that require operators. These include the Narrow Gauge mountain line, the Olympia Electric interurban route, the Olympia Street Railways, the branchline climbing over Olympia yard, and the Diablo Industrial trackage.

About 25 members are needed to operate the layout during a show