Back at work on the RR
Since retiring in 2017 I have gotten back to working on my layout. I've made lots of progress in the past 5 years but I neglected to document in this blog. So today I'm getting back to updating the blog. I plan to update the blog at least weekly. I'll also be adding pages of layout pictures, product reviews, tips & techniques, etc..
Since retiring I've joined a local model railroad club, The Houma Model Railroad club, hosted by Art Houston. Art has a large (20 x 50') triple decked HO scale layout and hosts 3-5 operators most Fridays. Track work is complete and scenery is 80+%.
The layout is controlled by a NCE DCC system and operations are managed via JMRI Operations Pro. Art has an active Facebook page: Grande Pacific FB Page and YouTube channel: Grande Pacific YouTube channel full of lots of interesting information. I encourage readers to check out his pages.
One of the things I've been working on over the past 3 years is that I got back into computer programming. At first I was just tinkering around writing simple games, but then Art told me that he wanted a program that would format his JMRI created manifests and switch lists without the need for Microsoft Excel. After a few months of work, I launched Model Railroad Switch List And Manifest Formatter (MR SLAM Formatter for short) for Art to use. He has been using it for operating sessions on his layout since early 2021.
Encouraged by the program's success on Art's layout, on April 26, 2021 I launched a webpage to offer the program to the model railroad community, free of charge. It has been met with good success with over 90 downloads. If you use JMRI to manage operations on your layout and use JMRI's native report formatter for your documents, or if you use a third party program, I encourage you to give MR SLAM Formatter a try.
On my layout I had been using car cards and waybills to manage operations (what limited operations I can support on my quite small layout). By operating on Art's Grande Pacific I learned about JMRI Operations Pro. I was familiar with JMRI's Decoder Pro but I hadn't used the Operations Pro segment of the program. When I started working on MR SLAM Formatter, I had to dig in and learn much more about JMRI's Operations Pro and I started applying it to my layout. I must admit that while the learning curve is steep, it is worth the investment. One resource I have found to be invaluable in my learning is the JMRI Operations groups.io forum. There is also an active JMRI Operations Facebook page.
One area of my layout that I've been focusing on recently is a saw mill and lumber camp area above the town of Cawood. The logging area is pretty well complete so now I'm working on the lumber camp and saw mill area.
Well that's all for now.