OpsLog – TBL – 9/18/2021

OpsLog – TBL – 9/18/2021

kay, ran a solo session of the Tuscarora (which I’ve done before) but only the coal side of things (which I’ve never done before). Since it was pointed out that it was a “spear-carrier” position on the railroad, I added a card game to give the operator some decision-making abilities in the session. Now there is a back story to every train. And here’s what I learned today.

First off, it was a very busy session for me. I ran full switch-tower operations. And dispatcher. And the coal engineer. And the brakeman (on both sides of the layout) so yes, I was very busy.

On the positive side, the card element really gave me reasons for doing what I was doing. I was trying for my matches, hoping to maximize the runs and not do those single hauls (which require a run-around each time). And in that, it was a lot of fun. There was the tension of trying to get things moved in the most efficient way possible. And there was the dilemma early on when a lot of coal was available but there just wasn’t enough empty hoppers. I spent much of the session running a load down and then an empty up, trying to get enough cars and coal together. Didn’t so so well.

On the negative side, what I alluded to above. I just couldn’t get enough loads to get more than two consecutive runs. Every so often it’s fun for the coal to run through without the whole run-around thing. So I need to add more chance to get empties and loads together for the movements. For that, I will add six new cards, three wildcards on the empty side, three on the mine side, all in an effort to allow more coal to move. So we’ll try it live next Sunday (and maybe once before that) to see if I can get a better balance.

Oh, and the lamination started pealing off the cards. Staples said it would be fine to cut them out like that but no, it wasn’t fine. I’ll try them unsealed in the next run and find out how that works.

But it was fun. About as much fun as you can have on your own and not >CENSURED<.

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