Types of Sessions The Wyoming Division hosts three types of operating sessions.  All are complete sessions with the possibility of running all types of trains and all types of operations.  The differences are basically the guests that attend. • Regular Monthly:  See the Calendar below. Most sessions are open to all operators, but Reservations are suggested. We have never had to turn anyone down—always room for one more on this very large layout. o I generally send out invitations 10 to 14 days before sessions from a Groups.io, WyoDivOps. Previously, I used a Yahoo Group. That Yahoo Group still exists, but it is  not active. o The Groups.io group is at https://groups.io/g/wyodivops/topics In the invitation is a link to a Google Sheet (an Excel- like interactive spreadsheet) that you can type your name on under a job to reserve that job. After you type your name under a job and press [Return] the Google Sheet is automatically updated, so all of us, and I can track who is signing up. o The Groups.io is at https://groups.io/g/wyodivops/topics   To join you must be approved. Only operators or enthusiasts who would like to try operations should join. As a member you would receive a lot of emails about our operations, so non-operators would be bothered by a lot of such posts. Contact me at the email below to express an interest in operations to receive an invitation. o You must be a member of the Group to enter it. This requires approval from Verryl.  To join Group, write Verryl at wyodivops@gmail.com , tell him about yourself, and your interest in operations, and he will have Groups.io send you an invitation. Verryl will be notified back, so he can approve you. o To reserve a job or space to operate if you are just coming through town (2nd Saturday, generally) write Verryl at above email to notify him you are coming. • Special Ops:  Occasionally we hold special sessions for special groups, and these may not be open to the public. Only the regular, open sessions are on the calendar below. • We hold annual 3 day events   similar to Bay Rails, Rocky Mountain Ops, or SoCal Ops, only all op sessions are at the Wyoming Division. o These Invitationals consist of a Thursday layout open house and BBQ o Friday operate all day 9 to 4 o Saturday, operate 9 to 4, and then a prime rib banquet. o The photo below was taken at a banquet. o Wives are encouraged to come—Sharon is a great party giver and tour guide for the weekend. Schedule of Operating Sessions (Calendar) The annual 2018  calendar may be seen by clicking the link to the right.  Upcoming News:  See the “News” Tab for the latest Calendar DESIGNED AND BUILT FOR HISTORICAL ACCURACY AND OPERATIONS The layout was built specifically for operations which will feature. • Long, through freight trains (25 or more cars plus engine, tender and caboose) • Long drag freight trains across the entire layout including LCL pickups and setouts at 11 freight houses and numerous team tracks • Local freight trains that will be confined around Cheyenne  (2 within the yard); Cheyenne to Green River West; Ogden to Green River East; and in Ogden and the vicinity (1 within the yard and one of 68 miles to Park City, Utah) • Interchange with Southern Pacific; a UP train brings a string of cars from the Ogden-Riverdale yard to an interchange track in Downtown Ogden and picks up loads and empties from the interchange track to return to UP.  The Downtown Ogden SP Local then works the 13 industries in Downtown Ogden until another UP train is needed. • MOW Work trains as required • Coal, iron ore, cement, trona (soda), and oil product trains from 2 coal mines, 1 iron ore mine, 1 cement plant, a trona mine, and two refineries • The Laramie Tie Treating Plant, the Granite rock quarry, the Wycon Chemical Plant (fertilizer from the soda), and the Ideal Cement Plant are other local trains run by YM’s • PFE trains will run across the layout with a few stops on the layout (for icing in Ogden and in Laramie and to set out or pick up an occasional car) • Stock trains will serve Utah and Wyoming and the packing plants • 4 named Streamliner “City” (LA, San Francisco, St. Louis, Portland) passenger trains, the Challenger Heavyweight Passenger train, and a few mixed trains for local passenger service and local freight • Helper service will be required up Sherman Hill West from Cheyenne and East up the Wasatch Mountains out of Ogden. • There are two lengths of main line track that require left hand running, so the correct current of running, left or right, must be observed.  These two areas are prototypical requirements due to grade differences in new and old tracks built years apart. • These Sherman and Wasatch grades require changing heavy loco power for lighter units across the nearly level “bowl” of Wyoming, so we do that at Laramie and at Green River. “Operations” means having a model railroad party.  We really enjoy the cooperative nature of “ops,” that is, running a lot of trains with the express purpose of moving passengers and freight from A to B as if to make a profit or at least efficiently, like real railroads try to do.  It involves dispatching, calling engineers to run, running, switching, yard work of classification or loco changes, engineers bringing trains into and out of yards with the cooperation of yard crews, and helper operations.  All these have the goal of delivering freight or passengers or picking up empty cars.  Like real life it takes a lot of workers to accomplish the work of a real railroad, and that working together is a lot of fun.  The bottom line is modelers take great pains to make layouts that look and sound like real scenes.  Operations attempts to carry that realism into running the trains.  And no one is scolded or embarrassed if we make a mistake—after all we only do it once a month, not 40+hours a week. A “spot” in railroad terminology is a place to place a car for loading, unloading, or storage.  It is where a crew “spots” a car, so called for precision placement to facilitate loading or unloading.  There are 906 spots on the Wyoming Division model railroad, and most of them attempt to model or at least represent real industries and loading and unloading locations on the 1957 UP Wyoming Division.  Generally, the industries with spots that appear on the layout had real counterparts in 1957 and they are located approximately where they were with respect to the more recognizable towns, junctions and yards.  In one case, Ideal Cement, near Echo, the plant is on the wrong side of the tracks, but this is “modeling license;” the bench end cap at Echo was a natural for that town and junction, because the real tracks make a 90°turn from SE to NE.  It was necessary to place the main line tracks near the edge of benches (benches 1/2 and 2/3) to make the radius large.  The space left inside the model’s 180°curve was an obvious place to place a large industry like a cement plant, but in Utah, the real plant is some distance from this bend at Echo. A very large percentage of all the other industries represent real counterparts in layout and location with respect to towns, but of course they are scaled down in size like all models.  There are a very few industries on the layout that are not good representations of Wyoming and Utah in 1957. To manage and remember the spots, an 8-page table is used in operations.  Part of one page is shown here. The table is arranged by location, east to west, and color coded as to type of car is reasonable for it to require.  For example, a stock car would not be appropriate for a grain mill or a refinery.  Nine types of cars are used on the model, and there is a color and column for each. JOBS ON THE WYOMING DIVISION There are the following jobs on the Wyoming Division for modelers to fill when they operate.  Each has a high degree of realism to the real job, except there is no heavy lifting or dirty hands. Dispatcher (if 2, each dispatches one level, upper or lower)           1 or 2 Trainmaster/Tower Operator Cheyenne (manages turnouts,           1 arrival and Departure of trains in Cheyenne A/D tracks, directs trains to correct Classification yard per Cheyenne YM) YM’s (Cheyenne, Laramie, Green River, Ogden)           4 Hostlers (Cheyenne, Laramie, Green River, Ogden, also act as Tower Operator job communication with Dispatcher)                   4 Classification Foreman ((Cheyenne, Laramie, Green River, Ogden)           4 Staging (2 if real time staging is used—requires 2 expert yard men, or 1 or 0 if 4 hour session with few expert operators and all trains pre-staged 0-2 Coal Jobs (Coal Agent, Engineer/Conductor for 2 coal drags)           2 jobs total locals (optional:  2 in Cheyenne, 1 in Ogden, Downtown Ogden SP interchange job                   1 Road Locals (Park City Local, Rock Springs Road Switcher  4 Cheyenne to Green River West, Green River to Cheyenne East)  2 Passenger Trains (4 City Trains—SF, Portland, St. Louis, LA           1 or 2 Heavyweight Challenger, 1 or 2 mail) 2 to 4 run concurrently           2-4  Road Crews (1 or 2 man crews for Conductor/Engineer—1 can handle the job any Total (we never had too many) 40 (we have had as many as 50) OPEN INVITATION TO OPERATE:  All are welcome to operate on the Wyoming Division.  We have especially made the operating system (the single trick car card car forwarding system) simple to operate and learn.  You should have no hesitancy to get into ops using this simple method.  You can then go on to more complicated 4 cycle car card systems or switch list operations and work your way up even to Time Table and Train Order ops  (TT & TO). To make a reservation or enquiries write Verryl at wyodivops@gmail.com