Last Sunday evening marked the 1st anniversary of operations on the BS&T. The week previous was a mad rush to get things back together and cleaned up from two months of scenery and rearrangement work. Add to that figuring out how operations would work with the addition of the new staging area.
First of all I must apologize for not getting any pictures from the evening. Between trying to figure out the operating scheme, helping the operators figure out the operating scheme, and running a train once in a while, I didn’t have much time to take pictures.
So, here’s the train/job line-up:
Bayside Yard
Tidewater Yard
Stevenville Local
Chappellton Local
Kenville Local
Derwin’s Drop Local
Hotshot Freight (turn)
East/West Transfer (turn)
East Wayfreight
West Wayfreight
Things went fairly well, overall. There were a few track issues. Not all the ballast was cleaned up through some turnouts which caused a few problems until it was cleaned out. The over-center springs on some turnouts are a little weak. I will be adding proper ground throws to most turnouts over the next little while (as of last evening, all the turnouts in Chappellton have ground throws).
Early on in the session the Chappellton switcher developed some mechanical difficulties and a replacement loco was called in from Kenville. The repair crew had a look at it on Monday, fixed the problem, and moved the replacement back to Kenville.
The operating scheme must change to reduce the minimum number of operators required. Actually, I think I’ll have a couple scenarios I can use depending on the number of operators that show up. I’ve got it down to as few as 4 people (4 very busy people), or as many as 8 (16 with brakemen).
Anyway, at the post-session review the guys said they had a great time. The things they said they would change were mostly related to turnouts that the ground throws should fix.
So, until next time!
Scott