Well, we were short one expected operator, but with 5 it was more than we’ve had on the BS&T in many months.
As usual, jobs were picked on a first come/first pick basis. Mark – the newbie and first to arrive – chose to run the Thumper, the west wayfreight from Tidewater to Bayside. Greg decided to keep his usual job as the local switching in Stevenville/Derwin’s Drop. Ken followed suit and chose the local job in Chappellton. Derwin and Brian arrived at the same time. Derwin chose the Rambler, east wayfreight from Bayside to Tidewater, and Brian ended up with the Wholeinthall and Transfer Turns. I decided to give Ken a hand since he had a lot of work ahead of him by taking the local job in Kenville.
The Rambler arrives in Stevenville. Here it will leave cars for the local to deliver and pick up freight heading west.
For some reason Derwin decided to leave the Stevenville cut on the service track. Unfortunately, the service track wasn’t built for freight cars and the fueling rack was damaged.
Brian has already run the Wholinthall west into Tidewater and is now busy making up the transfer from Bayside to Tidewater. The transfer will carry freight destined for Wholinthall so it needs to get to Tidewater before the Wholinthall turn departs.
Derwin had his share of trouble during the op session. He continued his bad luck into Derwin’s Drop. Apparently he overlooked checking turnouts ahead of him while he studied his setout instructions. He very nearly ran his train into a string of cars sitting at the coal mine!
Ken is busy sorting out his orders in Chappellton. He got the short end of the stick this evening. His pickups and drop offs were easily twice as much work as the Stevenville orders. Good thing I took up the slack in Kenville.
The West Bound Transfer is rolling through Derwin’s Drop where it must take on a braking helper. The local switcher is picking up that duty since the helper from Kenville is missing an operator (he’s busy railfanning).
The braking helper is required so the large freights don’t pick up too much speed going down the grade at The 
Ridge. It can be quite tricky taking up some of the slack but so so much that the train is “stretched”.
The helper (right) is cut off near the bottom of the grade and returns to Derwin’s Drop.
(left) The West Bound Transfer arrives in Tidewater. Now Brian can start breaking it up so he can build the return train to Wholinthall. (right) Power from the Rambler sits in Tidewater waiting for the service facility to be freed up.
Mark drops off a cut of cars for the Stenville Local to put away. We discovered that the Rambler’s luck continued beyond the run into the Mine. He apparently picked up an east bound car from Derwin’s Drop and took it all the way to Tidewater. It was put on the first train departing Tidewater and delivered to 
Stevenville, late.
The Wholeinthall Turn is making the run home as it heads into Wholeinthall Tunnel. It’s work day is almost done.
The East Bound Transfer needs help getting over The Ridge. Rather than taking the assigned helper the Kenville local hops in front of the lead loco and provides just enough power to get the train up the hill .
All in all it was a very enjoyable operating session. Next week we’ll be operating on Derwin’s Canadisle Rail.
Later!
Scott