The ICR Crew - Feb. 20, 2010

Our first stop was to Doug Devine’s Island Central Railway.  An operator with considerable seniority on the Island Central, Bob Kane, was on hand to help keep things under control.  I guess Doug expected to be a little too busy to look after everything on the layout.

After a brief introduction for the newbies, and refresher for the ones that hadn’t operated there in a while, we lined up to sign up for morning job assignment.

Derwin worked with John in McAdam Yard – a decision that apparently bought them a lot of free time.  At one point I took a moment from my very busy work schedule to grab a quick snack in the crew lounge.  There weren’t many cookies left, but plenty of evidence of the amount of work Derwin was doing!

Their first (and possibly only) task was to get my train, a fast freight heading to Saint John, assembled and ready to leave.  I could not believe how long this train was!  The four locos assigned as power for the train were barely able to handle it.  After a lot of work climbing the slight grade out of McAdam I was on the ICR main heading for Saint John.  This train was quite a sight as it snaked around the room.  I had to keep a close eye on it as it would gain considerable speed on downgrades and would require more power to climb.

When I finally pulled into Dever Road Yard in Saint John I was sure there would not be enough room for the train.  As it arced around the end of the yard and headed toward the passenger station I was doubtful it would fit.  But the end of train cleared the yard throat with the locomotives only inches from the end of the line.  Whew!  Then, with the guidance of the Yard Master, Bob, we split the train up into the proper classification tracks.  That’s when I became the Dever Road assistant – and any hope of free time to beat Derwin to the cookies vanished (not to mention ability to take some pictures)!

I lost track of what the other guys were doing.  Jim was in West Saint John pulling the local cars – and generally making an annoyance of himself.  Especially when he ran smack dab into a cut of cars we had pushed onto a siding from Dever Road.  He tried to blame us, of course, but when Bob reminded him that he should be watching where his train is going he got quiet again.  Jim’s always a little more tolerable when he is quiet!  HA!

Ben apparently worked in Mill Street since he arrived in Dever Road with a cut of cars at one point, that we swapped for a fresh cut heading for Mill Street.  I’m sure Milne was able to grab a passenger run.  Doug (C.), Murray, and Ken ran a mix of through freights and way freights.

At one point someone asked when we were supposed to arrive at Steve McMullin’s Carleton Railway.  I looked at my phone and was shocked to see it was 12:30!  Where had 2-1/2 hours gone!!??  The old saying that time flies when you are having fun is very true!  Anyway, we had to finish up so we could get to the train store (Valley Hobby) and get some lunch to be at Steve’s for 2:00.

We managed to arrive at the Carleton Railway shortly after 2:00.  We were greeted with a warm welcome from Rosalie since Steve was in the basement frantically making last minute preparations.  Again, after a brief intro we signed up for operating positions.

I wanted to redeem myself in South Newbridge after the last trip when Jean and I put everything leaving there onto the same train (thinking “Well these cars are supposed to go west, your train is going west, here you go”) making for the longest train in Carleton Railway history.  The Steve asked if I had read the operating instructions,  Ummmm…. No.

Derwin caught again!

Anyway, I was so intent on making sure I did things properly in South Newbridge I lost track of what the other guys were running.  I think Derwin was helping John in the yard at Avondale.  I’m sure he thought it would be another slack job like McAdam on the ICR.  He was lounging around later in the session.  Steve caught him and suggested his time would be better spent running a wayfreight (the Newbridge Turn).  Then he made a very big mistake and assigned Jim as his brakeman.  Steve, Steve, Steve….  tsk tsk!  You’ll know better for next time!

Milne and Doug (C.) ran a couple passenger trains.  Jim was having fun derailing, err… operating a wayfreight.  Ben took the Nortondale job.

I vowed that I would “follow the rules” this year and do the job properly, but apparently everyone else was about to make that very difficult for me.  Murray decided to leave early (4 hours!) with his train.  Now this really messed things up in South Newbridge!  I had one train in 4 hours early, Ben arrived with the Nortondale train, a First Class passenger train had to get through and there was another freight train waiting to arrive.  Things were very disorganized for a little while while I tried to clear mainlines for all this traffic.  Igrabbed cuts of cars that were destined for my yard, shoved out the cars that were supposed to go on the particular trains (trying to follow the proper instructions this time!) and tried to get trains moving again as quickly as possible.  Unfortunately there were some delays and a few cars got onto the wrong trains.  But at least I didn’t make any extremely long trains this time!

The last train on the line was the one Steve assigned Derwin and Jim – The Newbridge Turn.  Good thing I checked the cards for the cars they brought in.  There was a tank car with no card that was supposed to have been left at another industry along the way.  They had dropped it off there, but then proceeded to pick it up again.  Then there was a stock car with a card that said it was supposed to have stayed where it was.  So, back on their train with them to be put back where they belonged.

Jim gets caught!

The witnesses

The tank car was going to be tough since they were facing the turnout the wrong way.  Jim was going to use one of his favorite switching tricks to get the car spotted at the industry but he was caught.  You can see the mischievous look on his face!  But there were too many witnesses.  I got back to work putting cars away in South Newbridge so I’m not sure how the car made it to its spot.  When I looked up again they had placed the stock car back at the meat plant and were about to head on to Avondale.

The last train of the day.

While we were having fun in the basement Rosalie was busy preparing a wonderful meal for us.  When these two finally arrived in Avondale we headed upstairs to talk about the days activities and enjoy some great food!

We want to thank Doug, Steve and Rosalie for being great hosts and allowing us to operate their incredible model railroads.  I hope we’ll have an opportunity to operate on their railroads when we are in Saint John for the MFMR Convention in May.  Hopefully we will see you there!

Scott

We left my place a little after 7:00 am.  I must say this in my own defense and before anyone else mentions it – I was distracted with conversation as we came to then end of my street and, by force of habit, I turned right as I do 95% of the time.  There were a few (3 to be exact) comments about “Where are you going!” at about the same time that I realized I should have turned left.  A quick turn-around got us on the right path.  Fortunately the rest of the day went quite a bit more smoothly.

A motley crew - photo: Milne H.

Our first stop was at 9:00 at John S’s.  We had to have a pit stop at the Tim’s down the road from John’s so we were about 5 minutes late.  John, Milne, and Jim were waiting.  After a brief verbal overview of the layout for the benefit of the new guy we got underway.  I had worked in Riverview on previous visits and liked how it operated so I chose it as my job.  The work pace there is just enough to keep you busy, but not swamped.  Plus you’re not in the way of other operators so it is easier to get work done.  It wasn’t until near the end of the session that I managed to get a few pictures.

Tom has just finished his task and hands the throttle off to John.  Milne is just about finished working in Coverdale.  As you can see the layout is multilevel (3 if you count the lower staging fiddle yard).

It is always fun working with the Codiac Operating Group.  They like to joke around and have a good time while they “play with model trains”.  Jim, of course, was very quick to point out that he was not the latest recipient of the Golden Demerit Award and pointed out John’s achievement (which was prominently posted on his bulletin board).  John seemed proud, and Jim was relieved not to have received the award for once.

I apologize for the quality of this image.  I had to sneak up and take it quickly so he wouldn’t get up to avoid the embarrassment.

This was a common pose for Derwin on a previous trip to Moncton Please note photos 4 and 10 in that post.  Photo 3 of that post is a variation on the theme – I think it was the reason he took the job.

I was worried it would be a trend again this time.  My intention was to catch him in this position at each of the three layouts we visited, but oddly enough I was unable to.  I think he actually worked on the other two layouts!

The first 2 photos in that post show a very happy Jim presenting the first Honorary Golden Demerit Award to Derwin.  It is quite rare that Jim does not receive the award.

We left John’s for Dave W’s basement empire and got there, in his words, “early, but on time” and caught him in the middle of cleaning up.  John and Milne came with us and Doug C. and Ben O. joined us shortly after we started operating.

Ewen was behind the photographer. Photo: Milne H.

After a brief into to the layout and his operating procedures we got underway.  No one else volunteered for the job so I took the Riverview Yard job.  The location had the same name as John’s but the level of effort was nowhere near the same!  It’s really a task for two people.  I’ve worked there before and the experience did help but unfortunately not enough.  I struggled through, but I’m afraid I left things in a bit of a mess.  Sorry Dave!

Derwin, as usual asked which job was the easiest.  I don’t think he got his wish.  I could not catch him sitting down.  Ewen worked with Jim in West Riverview and Tom helped John in Baltimore.  Doug and Milne ran mainline trains to keep traffic flowing.  It was very enjoyable and the time flew by.  It was lunch time before we knew it.

After lunch we went to Chuck’s (Don’s HO) to shop, spend money, and chat.  We were able to leave on time to stay on schedule and arrived at Doug C’s right on time.  It was the first time we operated on Doug’s layout.  It was a real treat!  Thanks Doug!

Neither John nor Milne could make it to Doug’s so there was just the four of us plus Doug, Dave, and Jim.  Murray joined us not long after we started operating.

I picked another yard job – Moncton, but Dave offered to help out. I’m not sure of the location names where Tom, Ewen, and Derwin worked, but they were as busy as I was.  Again, Derwin did not have time to sit down during the op session.

Doug’s layout is a fairly large multi-level layout.  There is quite a bit of separation between the levels making the upper level high.  Ewen worked a yard on the upper level which was quite funny since it was almost above his eye level.  Doug has lots of step stools and platforms around so Ewen found the tallest one to stand on.

Tom even felt more comfortable using a stool.

Derwin worked a job on the lower level.  He was quiet and kept out of trouble so he must have been working hard.  (highly unusual!)

Before I show the next photo I must show this one to demonstrate that Jim actually did work during the session.  I’m not sure what he’s doing but I’m sure it’s important.

Murray is keeping an eye on his train as it leaves the Moncton Yard.

I couldn’t catch Derwin sitting, but I caught Jim having fun twirling the throttle cord.  HA!

It was a long day but well worth getting up early on a Saturday and driving to Moncton.  The Codiac guys are always great hosts and really do like to have fun.

Thanks guys!

Scott

Since it was such an historical event the photographers were out in full force.  There was even a guy there from the Headache Corner Telegraph (local paper).  The angle he was taking with his story was that it was the end of an era for the region.  No more will townsfolk hear the clanking of couplers and blare of diesel horns.  “We might all get a good night’s sleep for change!”, he said.  He was only half kidding since he is a train fan.  He said he will definitely miss the railway.

The evening started off as usual, but we were short a couple operators.  Again, fitting since Brian was pressed into service in the yard.  Like most of our layouts the owner rarely operates, but this was Brian’s last operating night on the NDR so he should get to operate.  Anyway, since I don’t think I’ve ever run the Island job, and I was the first to arrive, I chose it.  The Island is was a very interesting job with lots of switching and some interesting puzzles.  Fortunately for me it was a relatively slow day for freight on the Island so I was able to partake in the festivities celebrating the last run (and take some photos).

As I mentioned, Brian ran the yard.  He did a pretty good job of keeping ahead of things, but he really should operate more.  He’s a little out of practice.  HA!

Here he is switching a cut of cars onto the barge for the trip across the great divide to the Island.  His barge is was a terrific idea to solve a problem.  He originally had a section of layout on the other side of the doorway (to the right in this photo) but it was built over his oil tank.  The grade to get to it was pretty steep so he dismantled it.  Then we visited a layout that had a static barge.  A light went on and within a couple weeks the Island was born with barge service from the yard.  It adds added almost two jobs to the layout – one local job on the Island and a barge operator.

Greg chose the Farside job.  Farside is at the far end of the layout (hence the name) and has lots of interesting switching requiring plenty of run-around moves.  The grain elevator and power plant are were both very active industries.  Four other businesses add added to the hectic pace.  The transfer shed, a new industry to the area, is was shaping up to be another busy spot.

It was no wonder why Greg was the last to arrive in the yard to pick up his cars for the return run to Farside.  He made pretty quick work of putting everything away.  Of course he had plenty of time to perform all his car moves since Derwin had the yard blocked up for quite a while.  Hmmm… was it Derwin or the inexperienced yard guy.  Naw, it’s always Derwin’s fault!

Derwin was stuck in Headache Corner.  The town gets got it’s name appropriately.  The only run-around track in town is was only one or two cars long and the 8 industrial tracks are were split evenly between east and west facing.  Add to that the fact that 4 of them are were in the town proper, well away from the run-around tracks, and you really have had to have your act together when operating there.

Jim McMahon will love this picture.  It shows why Derwin and Jim like each other so much.  They are each the Demerit Kings of their respective operating groups.  I think Derwin got 50,000 demerits for this faux-pas!  HA!

After the operating was done it was time to get serious.  Since the rails were going to be torn up any day we had to pull all the freight cars back into the yard for storage and distribution around the world outside NeverDone.  A crowd gathered at the wharf to welcome the last of the freight cars and the switcher locomotives from the Island.  It was quite a momentous occassion and more than a few tears were shed as the crews said goodbye to their equipment, their friends and their neighbours!  <sniff!>

Goodbye NeverDone Railway!  Until the rebuilding….

Scott

I posted a more detailed report on the Island Rails web site.  Click here to read about it.

Scott

We stopped at the local Tim’s/Esso to fuel up.  I did the gas pumping duties while Brian and Derwin went inside.  I got my coffe and we were on our way. We had one stop in Moncton to pick up Jean and Ryan.

The conversation in the car was pretty normal until I mentioned something about Brian paying for the gas (we were using his car).  He said he thought I was paying for the gas (from our group travel fund).  Nope, I didn’t pay for the gas.  It was the first time I ever did a “gas and dash”.  If I had known we were doing it I wouldn’t have been able to.  We had all kinds of thought of “APB’s” and roadblocks set up looking for us.  It didn’t happen and we did settle the bill after we got back.

Anyway, we picked up Jean and Ryan and made it to Doug’s place by 10:30.  Besides Doug we were joined by a couple of N-scalers that wanted to play trains with the big boys – Lawrence and Mark performed duties that required knowledge of the layout, like dispatching and yard work.  It was Jean’s first time there so he was happy to partner with me for the first couple of jobs.  We drew the daily container train from Dever Road Yard to McAdam for our first train.  It was a great way to see the whole layout at a leisurely pace.  Although, Doug did come around shortly after we left Dever Road and made an off-hand comment referring to our lack of speed and the profitability of the railroad – so we moved a little faster after that.

Our second train was a wayfreight so we had a little more work to do than with our first one.  There was something to do at just about every stop.

Derwin got lucky and drew a track maintenance job – just a loco and a rail cleaning car.  He didn’t get to do a lot of switching, but he did watch a lot of trains go by while he was thawing out frozen point rails and cleaning flanges.

At some point Derwin must have got tired of every one else doning something profitable and he finished up his maintenance job.  He and Ryan then took a train out of McAdam bound for Saint John.

I’m sure Brian ran something there, but I’ll be darned if I can remember now.

About 1:00 we decided it was time for lunch and a stop at the train store before heading to Steve’s.  We found the train store easy enough and spent only a little bit of money.  I picked up a CP 1/2 ton truck,  some Woodland Scenics people, and a couple other odds and ends that you’ll see photos of over time.

Then we unleashed ourselves on Steve’s “Carleton Railway”.  He had no idea what kind of havoc we would bring.  Jean and I ran the local switchjob in South Newbridge.  The task was to pull cars from the local indistries, sort them onto the departure tracks, put the on the approriate train through town.  It seemed easy enough so we got down to business.

Brian was running the first train into town.  Since he was heading west we gave him all the west bound cars in South Newbridge and gave him a push up the hill.  We thought it was really cool to have long main line runs to make long trains look good!  Next train through was Ryan heading east so we did the same with our waiting east bound cars.  We were done, except for a few cars to put away.

Eventually Steve figured out why we were done so quick and why Ryan’s and Brian’s trains were so long.  We weren’t supposed to give them everything we had – only certain cars (empties I think).  The other cars were supposed to go on trains that would come through town later.  I guess we should have read the instructions so conveniently posted on the fascia.  Oops!  It really was Derwin’s fault, but I haven’t figured out a good way to explain it yet.

We had supper at Steve’s and after supper we finished up the rest of the work and left for home about 7:00.

We always have a lot of fun when we visit Doug and Steve.  We really appreciate their hospitality and calmness when we screw up!  HA!

Thanks guys!

Scott

We arrived at John’s  a little before our allotted time of 10:00, which was better than the 40 minutes early the Moncton guys were the last time they came to the Island.  Anyway, we chatted for a bit, looked around to see what was new and then Jim made a surprise announcement…

The Presentation

Derwin won an honorary Golden Demerit Award!  Being a past winner of this prestigious award himself, Jim was very happy to present the very first G.D. Award to someone outside of their operating group.  Derwin seemed very pleased to receive the award.  I’m sure it is already framed and hanging on the wall in his train room.

Derwin's Award!

It’s hard to read the text in this close up.  Hopefully Derwin will provide the full text on his blog.

Operating at John's

Once the ceremony was out of the way and congratulations were given, it was time to start operating.  Derwin was in the operator’s chair running the yard (a position that may become familiar in upcoming photos), Brian ran several trains, and I worked the local switching job in Riverview.  Now I’m not sure at what point things got out of control, but while I was working extremely hard I noticed this out of the corner of my eye…

Not Operating at John's

Well, when the layout owner got wind of what the new guys were up to he blew his top!  You should have heard the language that was used!  Those guys were really in trouble!

Will we be allowed back!?

Well, even after all of this, John still fed us lunch.  I thought I had made myself clear last week when I was told what was on the menu.  Derwin can not eat anything with beans, spice, or food in it.  The after-effects can be deadly.  We joked about how fast we’d get home with the back seat down and the trunk open.  Seriously, we made the 2 hour trip in 45 minutes!

After lunch we were off to Don’s HO for some bargain hunting and Christmas shopping.  Boy, am I going to be surprised Christmas morning with what I think I bought for my wife to give to me. (huh?)

Jim working in Baltimore

Then it was over to Dave’s for some more operating fun and hijinks.  Jim worked in Baltimore.  I heard him comment many times that Baltimore never ran so smoothly, or looked as well organized.  I’m pretty sure the layout owner ignored most of those comments.

Meanwhile I worked the yard job.  I noticed a lot of cars returning from Baltimore that should have stayed and been spotted at industries there.  I guess Jim discovered that traffic in = traffic out is an efficient way to keep things looking tidy.

Al, Dave, and Jim hard at work. Wait! Jim?

Everyone is reading their cards trying to figure out what they have to do.  I’m pretty sure Jim is putting on an act since he obviously just took the cards for the in-bounds and gave them to the guy running the out-bound train.

John and Brian keeping things running smoothly.

John ran the local switching job in <insert town here>.  Brian ran several trains to and from various towns on the layout.

They all seem to be having fun.

I think Dave finally started cluing in to what Jim was doing in Baltimore to keep things tidy.  Of course, it didn’t hurt that I told him.

Brian waiting for a train and Derwin...

This seemed to be a common sight.  Everyone working hard keeping freight moving on the layout and Derwin in his common position.

John leaving the yard.

This was one of the first layouts I’ve operated on where steam equipment  was as prevalent as diesel.  John is leaving the yard with his train using a small steam locomotive.  Previously we saw a double headed steam consist leaving the yard bound for parts unknown (Saint John maybe?).

Anyway, that’s the end of the photo tour of our operating day in Moncton.  We had a great time and can’t wait to do it again.  Next it is their turn to come to the Island.  Hopefully by then we’ll have one more layout to operate on.

Time to go for now!

Scott

]]> http://bs-and-t.com/2008/12/we-made-it-to-moncton-finally/feed/ 8 http://bs-and-t.com/2008/10/a-cheater-post/ http://bs-and-t.com/2008/10/a-cheater-post/#comments Sun, 19 Oct 2008 03:59:22 +0000 sajay http://bsandt.wordpress.com/?p=460 Since I’ve already posted on the UMG blog (and the coffee is wearing off) I’ll point you there for my update.

Check it out.

Scott (yawn)

We arrived at the show venue about 3:00, unloaded our gear and were starting to look for our space when Trevor asked if we were able to redesign the layout on short notice. AAAAHHHH!?

After a half hour of pacing the floor seeing where we could fit and figuring out which modules we could rearrange we had a rough idea of what we were going to do. (Left: the initial “final” plan for the show.)

As we set up modules and sales tables were rearranged we realized that we wouldn’t be able to fit as redesigned, so after a bit more head scratching we came up with plan C. (Right: the modified “final” plan.)

The redesign resulted in the 5th Street leg being about 20′ long. The Yard leg with Summer Valley was about 36′ long and the Appleton leg was unchanged other than reorienting the angle – about 14′ long. The width of the layout increased by 4′ to 32′. The overall length of modules (track) was about 102′.

Even with all the redesigning on the fly, the layout was operational and fully tested by 6:30. Not bad, and perhaps a new record for such a large layout.

We had a wonderful supper at Jean and Carol’s, where Derwin and Ken joined us. They couldn’t get the afternoon off so came over after work. After a quick tour of Jean’s layout we were off for some operating at John S’s. I didn’t get any pictures because I was so busy operating in Coverdale. There were lots of opportunities for some shots of people in embarrassing moments – being unfamiliar with the layout we made our share of blunders. John’s layout runs wonderfully. There were very few derailments that were not caused by the operators. We finished up about 11:00 and went to Ryan’s for the night.  Thank you Ryan and Jodie for hosting such a rag tag bunch!

After a very full day on Friday, 6:00 Saturday morning came pretty quick! I felt a lot better after a shower and a cup of coffee. Ryan cooked up scrambled eggs and bacon. If you’re ever in the Moncton area and need some overnight accommodation I recommend Chez Nelson. The chef has learned, since last year, that you don’t scramble eggs by dropping them on the floor first, and that perked coffee doesn’t come from a bottle of instant coffee. (Left: The morning scene – Mark It’s way too early for me!”, Ken “Give me some grub!”, Derwin “Yummm, grumm,, snort, …”, and Greg “Thank you Lord for this bounty.” – Photo by Brian.)

Anyway, we got to the show venue about 7:30 and made some final touches to the layout and managed to get a first tour of the sales tables before the doors opened to the public at 9. The weather was cold with wet snow so it was perfect to get folks out to a train show. I don’t think there were many lulls in the crowd, as there has been most other years.

Our new modules (5th Street District) were a hit with lots of people commenting on them. Thank you all! It’s nice to know we’re doing something right! I even received a few positive comments on my weathered up Geeps that I brought.

Ken moves some cars along the main to bring them down to 5th Street.

The grade there is very steep at about 8%, but a switcher with one or two cars climbs it without a problem – even Brian’s very light sound unit.

He’s heading down the grade to pick up some outbound cars.

The large building in the bottom-center is hiding part of the frame where the modules are bolted together. Because there is only 1.5″ of depth to this side of the modules we allowed the frame to rise full height at the joints to provide more surface area for bolting the modules together.  We figured we could hide these parts of the frame with some buildings. The idea worked fairly well. You can barely see an unhidden joint just above Kens’ right hand in the photo above. We don’t have a building to hide that one yet.

Looking in the other direction, he’s pulling some cars out to set on the main for pickup by a passing freight.

There is lots of potential with this module set. We could put another turnout in the area under the bridge and continue the branch off the right side of the modules to extend the switching area.

Brian has some closer shots of the 5th Street District on his blog – The NeverDone Railway.

This picture shows the bulk of our layout. I had hoped to get one from a better angle to show more of it, but time slipped away. If you look in the center of the photo you can see Derwin (black shirt & white hat). He’s switching at the far end of Spring Valley. The photo below has the areas of the layout labeled.

The crowd was pretty steady right up to 4:00 when the show officially closed. We were packed up and sitting at the Homestead Restaurant by 5:30. We arrived back in Summerside a little before 9:00.

Overall it was a great show1 We talked to a lot of new people, introduced folks to operating by allowing them to run trains on our layout, and spent time with many old friends.

Now it’s time to start preparations for the MFMR Convention coming up on May 16, 17, & 18. I’ll be presenting a demonstration/clinic there on basic layout building & scenery techniques. I must head out to the shed to start building some small modules for it.

Later guys!

Scott

Murray chose the East Side Local job (working Stevenville and Derwin’s Drop), John took the West Side Local (working Chappellton and Kenville). These jobs are full-time requiring operators to work quick to get cars pulled for the wayfreights to pick up. The East Side Local was very busy, but traffic flow problems made the West Side job a little more relaxing.

Murray at the throttle in Stevenville. I think I see a violation already! Is that a box car on the service siding?

John working hard in Chappellton. Things are pretty quiet here for the moment.

Brian took the East Bound Wayfreight while Allan ran the opposing West Bound Wayfreight. Both of these jobs had extra work due to the previous crew timing out and leaving their return trains sitting on sidings outside yard limits. So the wayfreight crews had to pull their train into the yard and put away the cars before they could make up their departing train. Both were a little late departing and created some traffic problems as a result.

Derwin gives Allan a hand (in the background) getting the Wayfreight ready to leave Bayside.

Mark grabbed the Transfer Job thinking it would be a simple straight run from Bayside to Tidewater. However, traffic issues kept him tied up for quite a while.

Ryan ran the CN Interchange train from CN Wholinthal using two CN (green and gold) units leased from a nearby railroad at the last minute. These units were another first for the BS&T. It was nice to see something other than CP on the layout for a change.

The CN Interchange in Tidewater. I should have taken a picture of this train earlier in the session, but things were a little busy.

Greg decided to run The Connector from Wholinthal to Tidewater. This train was a first for the BS&T. A couple firsts actually. It was the first passenger train on the BS&T and it was the first C-Liner (or anything close to looking like an F-Unit) ever to run on one of my layouts. Anyone knowing my aversion to anything looking like an F-unit would be surprised to see one of these.

Since I do not own any of these beasts I entered into a hastily prepared lease agreement with Canadisle Rail a few days in advance. I was expecting much more of a fuss over this train, but it did not materialize (I guess everyone was too busy). Surprisingly, it looked quite good and will hopefully become part of regular operations on the BS&T.

The Connector waits outside of Chappellton for things ahead to clear up a bit before it proceeds into Tidewater. Passengers were getting worried that they wouldn’t make their connection with The Express. Fortunately, the same traffic problems kept it pretty well locked up in Tidewater as well.

Jim thought the RDC run called “The Express” would be an easy job. Ha! It was far from it. Passengers of the premiere run of The Express were treated to 2 free meals (ok, they were just sandwiches bought from a diner near where they were waiting) as they waited on various sidings around the layout! It was far from an Express run!

The Express heads onto the station siding in Stevenville on it’s return run to Bayside.

It’s almost the end of the day on the BS&T. Power from the Transfer is running around to head east on its return run. Power from the West Bound Wayfreight is about to pull onto the service tracks to get ready for the next day’s East Bound Wayfreight.

There were only two recorded incidents during the session. Knowing most of the operators pretty well I’m sure there were lots of others that were not recorded.

At the start of the session Derwin read aloud an old memo posted on the new BS&T Crew Board (photos in a future report). The memo concerned an incident some time ago where freight cars were parked on a service siding causing significant damage to fueling equipment. The memo also stated that freight cars were not permitted on service sidings. A previous photo in this report, taken in Stevenville, is evidence of a blatant infringement of this rule, despite the warning. Since this operator was a “visitor” there will be no disciplinary action, but he may not get his choice of jobs the next time he visits.

The damaged fueling equipment is on the ground behind the caboose.

Then Management received a report that both a mid-train and rear-train helper were called to assist the East Bound Wayfreight get over The Ridge. This has never been required on the BS&T and traffic is carefully planned to avoid this. Only one helper is ever required on The Ridge. After a quick trip in the company helicopter, Management was on scene to try to figure out what was up.

The East Bound Wayfreight is about to cut in a mid-train helper from Kenville.

Apparently the East Bound crew added cars intended for the Transfer heading east back to Tidewater. Over 20 cars on a 5+% grade is not something Management ever wants to see on the BS&T. So the crew from Tidewater, intended to be the rear-train helper, was instructed to pull off the Transfer cut and return it to Tidewater. Never a dull moment running on the BS&T!

Ryan pulls in to remove the Transfer cars from the East Bound Wayfreight.

It was one of the busiest and best operating session ever on the BS&T. Yes, it was totally disorganized chaos, but it was very fun totally disorganized chaos!

The madness ended about 7:00, about 3 hours after it began.  There was a break in there for supper of about 30 – 45 minutes, so the entire ordeal only lasted a little over 2 hours.  It seemed a lot longer at the time.  Ha!

Now I have to get things fixed up so we can operate the BS&T on our normal schedule this coming Sunday evening. I think I hear a work crew repairing the fueling equipment in Stevenville now.

Later!

Scott

Mark, Al’s son, was the first to choose a job as the Farside switcher. John chose the Headache Corner job. After a quick look at the orders we discovered there wouldn’t be much of a headache in Headache Corner. John only had about 5 pickups to Mark and Al’s 12 or so. Dropoffs were about the same ratio. Mark and Al had their work cut out for them!

Mark and Al in Farside. They’ve got a lot of work to do!

Murray took the MacGregor Yard job and Jim chose the barge operator. If you’re not familiar with The NeverDone Railway, the Island is completely separate from the rest of the layout and relies on barge service to move freight to and from the area. The barge operates between the east end of MacGregor Yard and the west end of the Island.

Ryan was out of the room during this time so he was stuck with the Island job.

Where did the Farside crew go??!!

Next time, all hell breaks loose on the BS&T!

Scott