The East Rail layout was designed from the outset with operations in mind. Since the track plan is fairly close to the prototype most sessions just follow what the 'big boys' would do. Typically the local will head out of Hialeah yard around 9am and switch the downtown spur in the morning. The bulk of the afternoon is spent handling car spots in the East Rail district. The Seaboard Warehouse in particular handles a very large volume of traffic all of which must be spotted at specific warehouse doors - a task that can take several hours for the prototype to complete.
I'll run partial sessions by myself several evenings a week for a half hour or so. For full blown sessions I'll keep with actual practices and operate with a two man crew. A typical full session will run from 45 minutes to an hour. Car movements are handled via the actual CSX 'work order' format.
In this session Randy Anderson and John King are working as a two man crew. Randy handles the throttle while John coordinates the moves, throws the turnouts and couples/uncouples the cars. The work order is on the clipboard in John's left hand.
In keeping with current CSX operating practices, a work order is used in lieu of car cards. The model version is very close in format to that actually used by CSX and is essentially a glorified switch list.
The staging yard consists of a rather rudimentary tail track mounted to a plank. Since all of the turnouts, save one, are facing point this has proven to be adequate for the time being. The issue of the one trailing point turnout is handled simply by staging the car for that industry (Weeks Gas) behind the locomotive prior to the op. session. At some point I'll probably lengthen the yard and add a runaround track.
Here's an example of how the layout will be staged prior to a typical operating session.