There have been rumblings in the past about the scheduling of operating sessions. Comments have ranged from “I drove past the convention site between every opsession; couldn’t these be closer together?” to “Do we really need to have opsessions at night?” and “Not all the operators that signed up, showed up.”
For The Connecticut Yankee Convention, we are scheduling and filling the operating slots differently from the past. We are borrowing a page from high-intensity operating weekends and bundling the sessions together. That means when you—the convention attendee—sign up for an opsession, you will operate on two railroads that day. There is a morning session starting at 9am, lasting no longer than three hours. There is a two-hour break for travel and lunch. The afternoon session starts at 2pm and runs no later than 5 pm. This gives attendees ample time to return to the convention hotel for dinner and evening activities.
As in past conventions, your registration number determines the “seniority” on layout selection. The lower your registration number, the better your chances are of getting the assignment of your choice. There are five groups, lettered A through E. For each day you wish to operate, select a single group. These are your layouts for the morning and afternoon sessions. Note that groups A, B, and E have two am or pm selections. Where two layouts are shown for a single time slot, you will have to make a choice. You operate on only one am and one pm layout.
Please keep in mind that you will be operating all day, so if there is a large railroad that you really want to operate on (say Brian Whiton’s Vermont Midland) you can select either one of the smaller railroads (John Sacerdote’s or Randy Hammil’s). You will be operating on Mr. Whiton’s railroad with either selection.
To sign up for operating sessions, list your first three preferences by group. For groups A, C, and E, indicate your choice for the smaller layouts. If you are undecided about the smaller-crewed railroad to attend, you can state “No preference.” These are all excellent running railroads. I have personally operated on many of them.
Below are the railroads that are available to operate on, listed by group:
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