A first – the Interstate RR interchanges with the ACL at Tusk Coast (Photo: Jim M)

t’s nice, after all the shit of last week, all the backstabbing pettiness, that Zeus took time off from between-classes time to push me to sponsor a session of Tusk Coast (Tuscarora with ACL equipment). This time, we figured that we’d add in the Interstate Railroad, running presumably on some sort of trackage rights, down from their lofty North Carolina peaks to the ACL mainline. What made maters more interesting was that it was our fourth new-version run of seasonal weather events – winter, specifically – and snow was forecast up in the high ridges above Westly.

Imagine painting a bridge at 3am, winter storms pressing in, and trains without bells or whistles rattling past in the dark. (Photo: Jim M)

So to start, Jim was Coal boss, fussing over a very sparse schedule of mine production. Zeus was on the scheduled Barnie-purple trains, Kyle was warning his hands before pulling the cold levers in TUSK tower, Mike running the office, and the author scribeing the dispatcher board. And with some reminders of what-the-eff-we-are-doing, we went clock-hot (flip the clock to 0:00) with a call to the Tusk desk to cut an order for the coal motive power to run out of Jacobs Fuel (where we have a refueling agreement) to head up the mountain to get his first cuts of egg-grade diamonds. Meanwhile, MT-1 was worming along the icy waters of Tenmile Creek, crossing the Brown’s Creek trestle about ten minutes after X6001 was over the west interlocked crossover and gliding through blasts of cold air towards the Blacksville and Emerald Coal mines.

And that was all in the first thirty flip-clock minutes of session.

Time passed. To everyone’s surprise, railroad management decided that 3am would be a great time to paint the Tenmile span. Kyle and I kept our respective towers going (which Mike hooping up an ever-increasing number of orders). By 5am, snow was coming down on the Westly line, the mines cut off and X5003, its Interstate RS units

And a second to the first! X5003 finishes cleaning the snow off the line, down from Westly. We all paused to watch the plow do its imaginary work. (Photo: Zeus H)

blocked, the lump coal for the Greenwich Coal Pier freezing hard in the exposed hoppers. I cut some orders to climb the railroad back onto schedule but through the early morning hours and well into the next day, we found ourselves running opposite movements and having to rely on my arcane continuous meet orders.We ran late, we caught up, ran late, caught up.

Since most of the engines used had no warning sounds, we had to find a new way to protect across grade crossings (Photo: Zeus H)

At noon, the crews asked for a job-switch. With that, Joe S found himself on the scheduled trains (I’m such a bad influence on Joe – first 202 on the LM&O, then the afternoon WEs on TBL; next week, I’ll get him to try cocaine). John W found himself on mine-time. I found the railroad repeating it’s patterns – one moment, everyone is focused on the TT&TO aspect, the next, it’s a Movable-Feast-type discussion on how switching should be done by the latest local.

And even when John W and Jim M (weaklings) had to leave, the layout tightened up. I slid over into the abandoned coal seat to finish the mines’ production day. Without anyone to dispatch (and strategize the orders) we did the trick where we expanded the Tusk Interlocking Plant all the way to Easton and Westly, turning the railroad into steam-punk CTC.

Soon enough, we were rolling the Tidewater shifts west while EM-2 did it’s herculean clean-sweep. It was at this point, when the Pee-Dee was ready to run up the Martin Branch and Tidewater-3 was entering Tusk that those troublesome trucks finally rebelled on us. Zeus’s hoppers have all sorts of wheels under them, some of them producing minor shorts.

Zeus uses Tuscarora Brewing and Bottling as a drill track, diesle exhaust filling the brew-house. The beer has a bit of a kick to it now. (Photo: John W)

Just rounding the tower-turn, I dropped three cars on the ground, and then we found that a mid-train coupler set which had gripped so tightly through the session now refused to handshake. With the clock hitting 5pm in boring reality, we decided to end things then and there. Lucky me – I had an MT hopper car in the worst spot possible to pick up. I’d have been really screwed if we’d run the final two-minutes out.

Anyway, it was a great day on one of the smallest railroads. Thanks to all the people who crewed for me – hope you had fun. For me, all my troubles faded as I sat in my cold office over in Easton, on the line to the TUSK desk and hooping orders to the passing westbounders. Great day.

>>>BUY A BOOK BEFORE SOMETHING ELSE BITES ME IN THE ASS<<<

Shift change at 1:20 pm. (Photo: Jim M)

Busy day in Tusk as the an eastbound coal train meets a westbound freight (Photo: Zeus H)

Reverend Jim leans way, way out to hoop up some orders as he passes the tower (Photo: Zeus H)

“Remove funny bone…” (Photo: Zeus H)

“Boooong!” (If you were there, you’d get the joke, and even see John W snap the shot)

EM-2 gets ready to run up the branch while a satisfied owner-operator runs the massive Tidewater-3 in. Luckily, we quit before that hopper on Inner Industrial had to be picked up. (Photo: Kyle S)

And the picture being taken in the shot above – The final trains pass for the last time as dusk falls over Tusk Coast (Photo: Zeus H)