Reviewing the comments from the Black River Road post with this photo in mind, I see that someone didn’t take his own advice. This photo shows what can happen when a load is just a little too tall. I won’t say who is responsible, but he’s pretty tall as well. Ha!

Fortunately for him he is not responsible for replacing the equipment or repairs to Chappellton Station.  It’s a good thing the roof supports were strong enough that the street above didn’t cave in!

Thanks for the photo, Greg!

Scott

Yes, it’s that time of year again! Wouldn’t you know it, the only team that didn’t make it into the semi finals is the Stevenville Stalkers!  The three other local teams: Tidewater Titans, Chappleton Crushers, and the Bayside Bashers all made it as well as the rival Wholinthall Wolverines.  Operations on the BS&T have seen an increase in passenger traffic from all the local fans that want to attend as many games as they can.

Photo: The Milk Train passes the “Hockey Specials” on it’s way to Wholinthal. The RDC is heading to Bayside with Titan fans while the larger train carrying Wolverine fans is heading to Chappellton.

Last night the Titans played the Bashers in Bayside and the Crushers were host to the Wolverines.  Fan specials ran from Wholinthal to Chappellton and from Tidewater to Bayside.

The Wolverines won against the Crushers 12 zip.  Local fans could see the defeat coming so left early and jumped on the late combine.  They knew it would take longer to get home, but felt safer than if they had traveled on the special with the Wolverines fans!  I think it was a good decision since, judging from the amount of cleanup and repair the maintenance crew will have to do, Wolverines fans are rather rowdy.

The Titans were bashed by the Bayside Team 6 – 3.  It was interesting to note the difference in fan disposition between Wolverines and Titans fans.  The RDC that carried the latter received very little damage in comparison  I guess they were not in much of a celebratory mood after their loss.

Next week should be interesting!

The Wayfreight crews doubled as passenger crews last evening.  In keeping with Union regulations those operators received bonus pay – 1 extra Kimmie Treat at break time!  Barry ran the Wolverines fan train while Ewen ran the RDC with Titan fans.  After taking the fans to the games those guys had to run over and grab the local switch engines to get their Wayfreight trains ready.

Photo: Tom stands back to watch a rare sight on the BS&T. The Special Passenger run carrying Wolverine fans to Chappellton rolls through Stevenville.

Tom ran the local job in Stevenville.  It’s been a while since he was able to make it to an operating session on the BS&T (since he tried to take a picture of me – and failed miserably).  It took him time to get into the swing of things, but once he got on a roll he did a fine job.  I haven’t gone through the switch list to make sure everything got delivered to the right places, of course, but I’m sure there were no mistakes.

Photo: The East Bound Wayfreight cleared the west switch a few minutes ago so the Interchange from Wholinthal is able to leave town heading for Tidewater. The local switch crew has a string of cars ready for the Wayfreight.

Ken was late arriving so Chris grabbed his usual place switching the local industries in Chappellton.  I’m not exactly sure what Barry is doing (running the East Wayfreight).  Perhaps it’s some new hand signal system that Management is not aware of.

Derwin is running the CN Interchange train from Wholinthall into Tidewater.  You can see it just leaving town in the distance.

Photo: The East Bound Wayfreight is heading onto the station track in Stevenville as the Transfer from Bayside waits on the mainline.

Here’s a rather common pose for Derwin.  Ha!  I guess I should say, in all fairness, that he is waiting for Barry and the East Bound Wayfreight to finish swapping cars with Tom in Stevenville.  It’s just coming through into the station now so Derwin will soon be on his way.

Photo: The Combine has just cleared the switch so the Transfer is able to leave.

Unfortunately Ken missed a lot of the early activity on the railroad.  I was just getting the Coal train into Chappellton when he arrived so I handed that task off to him.  He completed that and then performed local switching in Kenville and Derwin’s Drop.  Sorry,  I was too busy turning trains for their return runs and I did not get any photos of those areas.

I didn’t get many photos of Ewen either.  He must have been behaving himself, otherwise I’m sure I would have gotten a photo or two of him.  He ran the West Bound Wayfreight in the first half of the session and the East Bound in the second half (Barry ran the second East Bound).

All in all it was a great session.  There were the inevitable equipment failures – tank car fell apart after it was knocked by a big hand (wonder who!) and a few coupler springs went “sproing”.  Barry lost a loco for a few minutes after the decoder in it reset itself.  Thank goodness for DecoderPro!  I had the loco reprogrammed and back in operation in a few minutes.  Unfortunately it was not until AFTER he had to get helper service over “The Ridge”.

So next week (May 2nd) we are back at Derwin’s “Canadisle Rail”.  The following week is Mother’s day so we will not be operating.  We’ll be back on the BS&T on May 16th!  Derwin and I will be just returning from the MFMR Annual Convention on May 23rd, so we will not be operating that evening.

Remember, if you are planning a trip to Prince Edward Island you should contact me to set up some layout visits or an operating session.

Scott

Well, give or take a few.  The program I use counts the number of sessions printed and last evening was the 84th set.  There have been a few dud orders due to a messed up database so it’s probably somewhere between 75 and 84.  Still, it’s a pretty big number for a layout that’s been operating for only 4 years.  Yes, next weekend marks the 4th anniversary of the Bayside and Tidewater Railway!  We’ll be operating at Derwin’s so the residents of the towns served by the BS&T will have to celebrate without us.  HA!

So, last evening’s session started with some harsh words from Management.  Management’s wife had to leave for work by 10:30 so the crews couldn’t waste time socializing.  Management was pleased that it can still put fear into the hearts of its employees since they were done in record time – shortly after 10:00.  Good job guys!  You’ve earned your bonus of extra cake or cookies at the next session!

We were all pleased to see Tom was able to make it last evening.  For the first weekend in a few months he wasn’t driving a bus somewhere.  Because of Tom’s appearance we were able to fill the position of Local Switcher in Kenville & Derwin’s Drop which helped to make the session run smoother.

Derwin has been getting a lot of practice running the Interchange and Transfer jobs and last evening was no different.  He’s just pulled into Tidewater with the Transfer in the photo on the right.  Now he’s getting ready to sort out which cars are to be put on the CN Interchange and which are to remain in Tidewater.  Then he has to sort cars to build the return Transfer to Bayside.  Fortunately he will have the yard to himself for a little while so he can get it all worked out.

Ken ran the Chappellton Local, as usual.  He’s becoming very familiar with that job as well.  During a typical session he moves close to 50 freight cars to and from industries in the town.  The second East Bound Wayfreight (Barry) is in town to pick up and drop off some cars to provide Ken with more work.  Barry’s spotted the passenger combine at the station platform while he switches cars with Ken’s assistance.  When he’s done here Barry will take the Wayfreight to Kenville where Chris is waiting with the Kenville switch job.

Chris took one of the easiest jobs on the layout working as the Local Switcher in both Kenville and Derwin’s Drop.  The job does requires a lot of running between the town, but there aren’t usually a lot of car movements to and from each town.  I was not able to get a photo of what he did during his off time, but suffice to say he discovered my stack of Model Railroaders.  Anyway, the Wayfreight has pulled right into town to spot the combine at the station while Chris pulls off Kenville cars and adds the east bounds.  Then Barry will have to back onto the main and head up the hill to Derwin’s Drop.

He’s made it to Derwin’s Drop.  While he’s waiting for Chris to arrive to run the local switcher he checks the line ahead to see what’s up.  Normally he would meet the West bound Wayfreight here but it’s nowhere in sight.  He’s a little concerned that he might meet it before Stevenville.  A quick call to the Dispatcher tells him the West Bound is a little behind and will wait for him in Stevenville.

A rare meet in Stevenville as the West Bound wayfreight waits while the East Bound passes on the main.  Ewen is looking a little disgusted since he knows he’s usually in Derwin’s Drop by now.  A little fetch up with the Bayside Yard crew has caused him to be behind. He was the Bayside Yard Crew, of course.  Once the East Bound is clear the West bound can continue on to Derwin’s Drop, finally.  Then Tom (running the Steveville Local Job) can pull the combine off the East Bound to spot it at the station platform.  Then Tom and Barry can get on with the job of swapping freight cars.

In the meantime, Derwin is struggling over The Ridge with the Transfer returning to Bayside.  It’s a long one tonight so we had to get the Kenville Switcher to run as a helper.  Derwin met Ewen and the West Wayfreight in Derwin’s Drop.  That meant there was nothing in Ewen’s way for the rest of his run to Kenville, Chappellton, and Tidewater.  Or was there?  Hmmm… I think Management had a little surprise for the BS&T crews…

A rare sight on the BS&T indeed!  A special passenger run made an appearance.  Here it is snaking it’s way back to Wholinthall after making a run from there to Tidewater.  Management decided it was time this train made the run to pick up the passengers that have been stranded for months in Tidewater!  (Operations were actually going quite smoothly so I thought I’d stir things up a bit.  I didn’t even care that I was running a C-Liner – almost an F unit!)

Apparently someone had a surprise for me.  I like being THE photographer not completely because I like taking photos.  I like being THE photographer because it is then impossible for me to be IN any of the photos.  I heard a familiar click as I was rerailing the passenger train in Wholinthall.  The person responsible for this act of, dare I say TREASON! has been brought onto the carpet and dealt with.  I know it should have been in a less public setting, but it was a heat of the moment thing.  TOMfoolery such as this will not be tolerated.  Fortunately the photographer was not very talented.  On another note, stay tuned for a new business on the BS&T – Tommie’s Drive Through Sewer Sucking Service will added in the near future.

With his work done in Kenville and Derwin’s Drop, Chris was assigned the task of the return Milk run.  He’s backing into the milk platform in Kenville as Derwin brings the US Interchange into Wholinthall (upper track).  Things are beginning to wind down as most jobs are almost finished.

As you can tell we had a lot of laughs as usual.  We also had plenty of socializing time even though we were under a bit of a tight schedule.  It shows the advantage of having one or two more crew members.

Here is the full gallery of photos from the evening – some did not make it into the post.

Later!

Scott