As I am interested in having a few friends over for operating sessions in the future I thought it would be useful to start simulating some operating sessions to run by myself
I have always read that staging trains for an operating session can be a large chore. Yes, moving many freight cars around to specific locations to stage everything takes a bit of time but what I was having a hard time figuring out was how to organize the flow of trains. I have 3 staging yards and the idea is to be able to move trains from an occupied position in one yard to an unoccupied position in another yard. My first step was to make track diagrams using the same graphics that I used for the staging yard's control panels and assign a number to each track.
Next I made up a magnet board from a piece of sheet metal I had laying around. This was mounted to the bottom of the DC test setup that I keep on hand to test DC equipment. Enlarged versions of the track diagrams were pasted to this.
By running through the exercise on the magnet board, I was able to put together a job list showing where each train departs and arrives both in theory and actual location number.