PSMRE Organizational Structure

Operations Department

Once a month (the first Saturday of each month) we conduct an operations session. These typically run from 10:30 to 3pm, with the goal of replicating a day's worth of train operations in the Tacoma area somewhere in the mid 1950's.

These sessions typically use a Superintendent, Dispatcher, Yard Masters and several train crews. Yard Masters operate the Head-of-Bay and Auburn yards and with sufficient staffing, the Milwaukee yard. The yards accept and build trains, and crews operate these trains for their various jobs. Some of these jobs, include the East Tacoma turn and Yakima turn out of Auburn, and the Tideflats and Asarco turn out of Head-of-Bay. The Milwaukee yard can also require a train crew. Sweeper trains originating in Seattle and Portland (main staging) also run throughout the day, setting out and picking up cars in the two NP yards. Of course the 1950's would be missing something important without passenger trains and we run those according to schedules from our modeled era. Train crews can include an Engineer and Conductor, but typically trains run with a crew of one. Guests or new members will often comprise a two man crew, along with an experienced member and allow us to keep the railroad moving, while giving someone a chance to experience the layout.

In most sessions we communicate using Family Service radios with headsets. Crews contact the dispatcher for permission to depart their terminals and the dispatcher grants authority for movements across sections of the railroad. Currently the Dispatcher keeps track of this with a magnetic train board. Plans are underway to replace or augment the train board with a computer based system. The Dispatcher is aided in tracking trains through the use of Station Masters OS'ing train departures. In actuality the train crew, puts on a "Station Master's hat" for a moment and performs this function before quickly returning to the task of running the train.

Just how do train crews know what to do with their trains? We use a car card system for controlling the movement of cars, developed by our long time Operations Engineer, Doug Walters. Each car has its own card with a pocket containing a destination card, which are color coded to aid crews in their jobs as well as labeled with the specific customer. Crews are provided with timetables that help them locate a specific customer. Some jobs are fairly easy, run the train from Portland to Seattle, others are far more complex and challenging. These include tricky switching moves and the need to avoid first class trains while switching from the main. Our system provides a wide menu of train operations to satisfy the variety of interests. If all you want to do is run a train around the main, we've got jobs for you! If you'd like something a little more challenging, we've got those too! For the experienced operators the Yard Master's jobs can be a lot of fun and we're always looking for a good Dispatcher.

Our Operations Department was led by Doug Walters until his passing in 2020. Tom Kenneally, who worked closely with Doug is now our Operations Engineer. Under Tom's guidance, the Operations department meets monthly to address issues, and continues to improve the operations sessions. This department frequently requests the aid of other departments to address problems or make changes to the layout. Most of these are pretty minor now, and frequently involve repairing track or equipment. Before each monthly session this department is responsible for setting up the cards for the next operations day. The cars don't move (at least their not supposed to!) but the destination cards get moved.

A recent addition to the Operations sessions are our Open Operations sessions. These dovetail with the annual Train Festival and occur once a quarter, allowing members to bring their own equipment of any era or railroad. We then enjoy running our personal trains on the NP and Milwaukee mains as well as the Stampede line.

Maintenance Department

The Maintenance department is currently lead by Greg Price. The Maintenance department has been given the task of doing the work required to keep the railroad running while upholding the standards and qualities established by the talented and dedicated former engineers of the four consolidated departments below.

Track

Professional railroaders know that good track work is not only essential for smooth operations, but a necessity for a safe work environment. While the stakes are quite high in the model railroad world, poor track work leads to frustrating Operations sessions and frequent derailments. The PSMRE needs high reliability in order to keep auto trains running. We are quite proud of our Track department, which was led by NMRA Master Model Railroader Gene Swanson until his passing in 2019.

Gene and his crew laid Atlas Code 83 flex track over Homasote. Code 100 was used in hidden track areas, such as the main staging yard. Code 70 track was used in yards and sidings and some industrial sidings received Code 55 track. Turnouts in the hidden areas received Atlas Code 100 #5's, most mainline turnouts are Micro-Engineering Code 83 #6's, and Shinohara #8's. There are several scratch built turnouts including two sets of moveable frog crossings at either end of Union Station. All rail joiners are soldered and electrical gaps are filled with styrene and shaped to the rail contour.

Scenery

As you can see from some of the most recent photos, scenery is largely complete and has been for several years. Most all of the buildings were built to replicate as close as possible, local landmarks from the 1950's, these include the Milwaukee freighthouse and trestle, the Tacoma Union Station, the Asarco plant, the Meeker Mansion, the Neely Mansion, the Brown and Haley factory, Tacoma and Auburn roundhouses and other distinctive landmarks. The last building of significance was installed in December 2018. Built over a period of 10 years by Gail Hendrickson, Union Station is a masterpiece! A truly remarkable work of art and a focal point to the exhibit. Gail's legacy will remain with us long after his passing in 2019.

While buildings, and trackwork are important elements of a great model railroad, other time consuming elements complete the scene. In our case the talented Scenery department was led by Paul Rising, who produced the wonderful scenery elements that distinguish the exhibit. From the fake fur application that represents native grasses, to the forests of trees made and installed by Paul and other members of the Scenery department. The results are truly impressive! Ongoing scenery projects include the addition of lighting, details, people and vehicles. We challenge you to find the Boy Scout camp, a heated hobo discussion and perhaps the occasional fallen pedestrian.

Civil

Like any good railroad, trains run better when built upon a good roadbed. In a model railroad, the roadbed really starts with the benchwork. At the PSMRE we placed this responsibility under the Civil Department. We were most fortunate to have as its leader a professional cabinet maker. Bob Stumpf was that man and the bench work he and his crews produced are certainly among the best of any layout anywhere. As the foundation of the layout, the benchwork was largely completed early in the process and most of the work now required of the Civil department falls under the category of improvements. Not long ago, we changed our card storage methods and the Civil Department (Bob) did its normal terrific job. Bob built us a strong foundation, one that will last long after his passing in 2021.

Equipment

The Equipment Department has seen several different Engineers. For several years and until his passing in 2021, Al Babinsky led this important group. Initially charged with developing equipment standards and rostering a stable of trains to handle the auto train duties. The Equipment department has now transitioned to largely a maintenance job with the occasional addition of new equipment and the responsibility for approving new member's equipment contributions. Maintenance is no small chore, with the auto trains racking up hundreds of smiles (scale miles) each day, there is a lot to do. Let's not forget the hundreds of pieces of rolling stock and locomotives used for Operations sessions. This important work will continue as part of the Maintenance Department.

Electrical Department

While the trains won't roll without tracks, they are equally dependent upon fuel. In our miniature world, electricity is the fuel and not just any old electricity but DCC - Digital Command Control. Simply put an AC voltage containing coded commands, instructs decoders installed in locomotives or switch machines and other devices. Our layout uses Digitrax Digital Command Control equipment and the locomotives use a variety of decoders including many sound decoders.

Our Electrical Department has been lead by several different members, until recently by Al Zimmerschied and now Steve Carter. Although the DCC concept was part of the original plan, the electrical plan has changed and evolved over the years.

Currently the layout has 11 power districts, each of which has between 2 and 4 subdistricts, all protected with circuit breaker devices (Power Shields from DCC Specialties). There are also 3 reversing districts controlled by reversing devices from DCC Specialties. The Digitrax LocoNet® is also broken into districts matching the power districts and controlled by proprietary devices built by a private vendor.

By 2016, nearly all of the turnouts were controlled with Tortoise motors. Most of the Tortoise motors have been retrofitted with proprietary switch decoders. These devices required removing the original Circuitron circuit board and replacing it with a proprietary circuit board. The smart Tortoise machines can be individually addressed (any address we need), have onboard LocoNet® connections, as well as contacts for switching frog polarity. Control of the switch decoders is through the use of several control panels, located in drawers at various locations around the layout. In addition many areas have local push button controls built into the facia. Control panels were built using the Tower Master product from CML Electronics in England. The last two panels built, were for the main staging yard, using a precursor to LCC (Layout Command Control), called TCSNet (Train Control Systems). When LCC was adopted as an NMRA standard, TCSNet was shelved, but our system lives on.

A recent electrical project that is mostly complete, is the installation of Power Status panels for each of the power districts. These panels display the DCC voltage and amperage in a given district, allow power shutoff to each of the subdistricts, display track power/short circuit status and the status of the 12v accessory bus. The panels include audible and visual short circuit indicators.

Block detection has been an ongoing project during the last few years. Currently nearly all of the layout has occupancy detection through the use of proprietary block detectors. These block detectors are key to our current auto train control system. The presence of a train in six specific trigger blocks allows the system to function. Beyond that, the entire layout is monitored by a computer, we're currently using Railroad & Company's TrainController software. Block detectors are from a private vendor and like the switch decoders, can be addressed individually and have a LocoNet® connection. In addition to computer monitoring of the layout, several panels display track occupancy, including the Yakima (formerly Martin) yard, the helix and ramps leading to the main staging yard and an auto train control panel. This last panel allows operators to visualize the status of the auto train stop blocks and trigger blocks, turn on/off the auto trains control system and prepare the layout for an operations session. It also features a button that sets all the main lines turnouts to the normal position. The panel's features are a credit to the Tower Master circuit board it was built upon.

Signaling the layout is an ongoing project. Physical signals, in the form of semaphores, are in place on the Stampede line and functioning under the APB (Absolute Permissive Block) system used by the NP in the 1950's. Trainorder Signals are also in place at stations on the NP mains and the Stampede line. Tomar semaphores, trainorder signals, searchlight signals and tri-light signals are to be installed. Semaphores were installed using custom 3D printed "hangers". An assembly built on the hangers, including the semaphore, servos and LED drivers were created and tested and installed as a unit through a 3/4" hole. Semaphores are controlled by a Tam Valley Depot's Dual 3-Way Servo controller, designed for semaphores. While signaling exists for the NP Mains and the Milwaukee line in the TrainController software, only a few physical signals have been installed thus far. TrainController is the control system for the signals, sending DCC switch commands to signal drivers using a logic system based on occupancy and turnout positions.