| Rock County Operation (RR Simulation) |
My primary goal behind building a layout is to create an environment that can be used for simulation of the activity of a railroad business. For many years many model railroad modelers have added the simulation of railroad business to their model railroading hobby and it added to their enjoyment of the hobby. Over time an accepted level of simulation has become standardized with the focus on the roles found in the operating department of a railroad.
For my Rock County Railroad I plan to extend what is currently accepted as model railroad operation and include a management level in the simulation. Because this is a hobby we happily exclude roles and activity that is not enjoyable or entertaining in our simulation of the operating department and I will of course do the same for my management level simulation.
On a real railroad the personnel work the same areas and the same jobs for many days and in most cases many years at a time. In our model environments our crews have very little experience compared to the prototype so I plan to address that in my operating plans.
The use of train orders and time table control of trains has increased in popularity of late and I plan to use it on the Rock County because I like to think and installing a working signal system would not be my choice for a good time.
I am a computer professional so it is natural to use my stockpile of old computers to fill in for the needed jobs like clerical that are not much fun. Because I am a professional limiting the complexity of the custom software will help me avoid moving to much of my work life into my hobby. The design of the custom software and the hardware to support it is detailed in Software - Hardware.
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