I was also in the same boat and found a couple of handouts like Geralds¡¯ very valuable. If you have access to YouTube, search ¡®JMRI Operations¡¯. There are numerous videos that will lead you through it. I¡¯d also do a lot of playing with the demo files that come with the Operations software. The learning curve can be steep ( and occasionally the frustration level) but you can make it do almost anything you need.
Mike Heintzman