I recently wrote about building more time into a typical operating session and filling that newly-minted time with time to enjoy watching the trains I was running and also time to incorporate more aspects of a typical day of work on my little stretch of railway so that what I was watching looked like real railroading. After posting that, a reader sent me an email offline relating his experiences at the throttle on an actual shortline. He introduced things I never knew or thought about and his contribution was just so wonderful I couldn’t imagine not sharing it. Given his relationship with the railroad I wanted to find a way to share his message while not compromising his position. I have edited his message with that in mind.

I like your comments about allowing sufficient time for each function. Watching other modellers running trains can be pretty comical at times…