The McKinley Railway is primarily about how we operate trains, whether under human or computer control. From the trackplan you will see that the existing layout has three large stations and one freight-only location, with an additional 12-track central staging yard outside the main layout room.

These locations are all connected by two independent double track main lines which weave their way around the layout through visible and hidden sections.

The Red/Green Mainline 'weaves' it's way towards McKinley Road Station

The timetable is the metronome to operations and each station has a printed copy of the timetable for that station.

The Timetable Manager sits in a dedicated area outside the layout room and captures information from the Station Managers around the railway.

At each location around the layout up to three operators are responsible for all of the train movements at each station.

Operating Birmingham is very different from operating London or Manchester.

This is the operator who oversees Train Controller, the layout’s computer software.