Time plays a central role in how McKinley Railway operates. Everything is driven by a timetable, and that timetable is controlled by a clock. But unlike a normal clock that ticks at real-world speed, McKinley’s clock can be adjusted — and that flexibility is key to making the railway run smoothly.

Why do we change time?

Let’s say an express train runs from London to Manchester. In real life, the journey might take two or three hours. But on our model railway, the train would be out of sight for most of that time — which isn't much fun for operators. So instead, we speed up that part of the timetable. The train might still "depart" London at 10:00 AM, but it could "arrive" at Manchester at 10:20 AM. That keeps things moving and maintains interest.

However, this creates a challenge. While trains can jump across the layout quickly, operators can’t. They still need 10–15 real minutes to carry out tasks like unloading wagons, swapping locomotives, or preparing stock. You can’t do that in 90 seconds, no matter how many biscuits are involved!

Making time work for us

To balance this, we simply pretend that the train took longer. When a train arrives at Manchester, we tell the operators it left London much earlier — maybe 7:00 AM — even though it only appeared 20 minutes ago. This gives us a more realistic feel without rushing the operators.

We also tweak the speed of the layout clock depending on how busy each location is and how experienced the operators are. If a team is still getting used to a particular yard or station, we can slow the clock down even more to give them the time they need.

Real and virtual locations

McKinley’s timetable covers more than just the visible stations — London, Manchester, Birmingham, Sheffield, Wakefield, Halifax, and so on. It also includes many virtual locations hidden beneath the layout (we call this area "Hades"). These include things like collieries, industrial sidings, off-site storage yards, and van stations.

The timetable, driven by a computer, manages train movements across both real and virtual locations. It keeps traffic flowing and supports the operators at each of the seven visible stations.

Managing the flow

The operations manager uses Train Controller software to move trains according to the timetable. The system can even run some schedules automatically — launching or receiving trains in Hades without human input. But just in case things get out of hand, we can pause or slow things down to avoid chaos (like dozens of trains appearing at once!).

At the same time, the district controller monitors the entire network. If a location suddenly needs a locomotive or extra rolling stock, the controller can create a new timetable entry on the fly — sending help from one location to another. The timetable is flexible and always adapting.