Last Saturday, I had the pleasure of operating on Brian Scace’s SVS&SS layout. Brian describes the layout as more of a series of connected dioramas than a typical layout. That may be the case, but I was impressed by how much railroad was in a relatively small space.

The railroad managed to keep about a dozen guys busy for about four hours. I rode over there with Ken Kime. He had told me about the upcoming ops session when I met up with him before the York Show. I had seen images of past ops sessions and had wanted to set time aside to attend one of the sessions. I just hadn’t had the opportunity up to this point.

Brain changes up the operating premise with each session. This session was to be Lehigh Valley and Lehigh & New England in 1960-ish. I really wanted to make that session. Brain changes out freight cars and locomotives to match an era and location.

I had the chance to operate one of Ben Brown’s models. A L&NE RS-2 built from a Weaver RS-3. The model operated just like the whole railroad, flawlessly. That was the last task I worked and I have to say, it was my favorite because I got to do some switching with that L&NE RS-2.

Attalee Taylor spent most of his time working in the yard. As the session was winding down he was found doing some dusting on the railroad.

I will say that I really enjoyed the operating session. It has made me questioning some of my beliefs of what a layout should be. More on those thoughts later.