Initially, operations were the sole responsibility of the chairman and the very thought of anyone even touching the train was unthinkable, but that has changed of late, and now we have an Operations Manager running the train most times. I say "most times" because recently I've taken to letting visitors run things and it seems to work really well much to my surprise. Typically I will ask if anyone possesses an Operating Engineers License or a Pilots Certificate and if no one steps forward I'll just ask for a volunteer. There's always one in the crowd! 

 From there it's just a matter of directing them as to the intricacies of setting up the train for a run.  It turns out to be a lot of fun for me and those involved get pretty excited as well. The train seems to perform better with novices in charge and I'm perfectly OK with that. 

After we've had our little fun thing I'll sometimes take the opportunity to ask for help putting the toys away and everyone seems more than happy to pitch in. Great way to end a session.