April 21st- Time for Repairs

Post date: Apr 25, 2016 12:4:0 AM

Another evening of FUN was had by the Sue Line Crew, but to me the most important part of the evening came after the operation session.

It was then that the discussion of "minor problems" came up. Those annoying little things that do not cause a session to stop, but ever so slightly take away from the enjoyment. They are things like a broken solder joint, a loose rain joiner, or a broken wire. Those things which you experience, but don't take time to write down. They just keep happening and nothing is done about them. Each member of the Sue Line Crew mentioned at least one "little problem" which they have noticed. Areas were trains just don't run right, areas where trains don't run, signals which malfunction, signals that don';t work at all, etc. Near the end of this session one of the members began to make a list so that these can finally be addressed.

I believe that the Sue Line will be a better model railroad for this list as the items can now be addressed one by one. Perhaps this something we should all do from time to time so that we can stop and fix those things which slowly steal some of the enjoyment of an operation session.

Way back in 1996, David Barrow of Austin, Texas, along with Keith Guiterrez of Dallas, Texas, the late Cliff Robinson also formerly of Dallas, Texas and myself presented an Operator's Guide at the "Gateway Getaway" Regional Convention of the Mid-Continent Region. On that list was:

#14 – Report Problems

Report maintenance problems to the dispatcher. Don’t shout it out! The host probably has a list to keep track of problems. Report your difficulty as tactfully as possible.

This was good advice then and remains good advice twenty years later.