It’s Playoff Season!

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

Posted in BS&T Times, Operating, Reports.