Northern Utah

NORTHERN UTAH - DIVISION 15

Shortly after we had merged the former Wasatch Division with the Utah Society of Railroad Modelers (USRM), we recognized a need for something to spark member interest and involvement.  

I had always wanted to be involved in model railroad operations.  I requested permission from the Board of Directors to investigate the feasibility of forming some sort of operations group for the Division.

Permission was granted and this led to discussion with many Division long term operations people including Lee Nicholas, Rob Spangler, Quintin Foster, Gary Peterson, Ted York and several others.  All enthusiastically and volunteered their layouts as test beds.

Now we needed a name for this operating group for our Division.  You guessed it—DOGs (Division Operations Group).  I then solicited interest from the entire Division.  In short order there were approximately 25 names on our listing!  We encouraged this activity to include everyone from rank beginners to seasoned operations people.

We accommodate the beginners by having them work with a seasoned “helper.” The more senior people go it on their own.  We set the fourth Saturday of the month at 10:00 AM as the day for our session.  We never vary this time.

We (I as crew master) do a crew call approximately 2 weeks before the Ops Session.  The crew varies from 5 for the very small layouts to 15 or so for the large layouts.  We fill the crew on a first come, first served basis, unless the applying crew member has had an AWOL problem.  He then moves to the bottom of the list.  We encourage each crew member to bring a snack and/or beverage so that the host is not stuck with everything.

We use the standard operating session for the host so that we do not need specialized session arrangements for the DOGs.  Our sessions vary from 4 to 7 hours depending on the layout.  

We felt it important to create a logo for the DOGs.  This assignment was given to a very talented graphic artist in our midst, Rick Luther.  Below you see the splendid result of his effort.

The DOGs have been operating for almost 2 years now and have missed only one Saturday!  There is universal agreement that it is a resounding success.  I encourage any Division to give it a try.  We find the hosts anxious for us to operate on their layouts.

Please contact me with any questions:  jack.r.chase@gmail.com or 801-323-1148.