ohn Wilkes, host of the impressive Virginia Southwestern  line, invited a couple of us ONT runners (myself, Kyle and Zach) to come out and operate with the Tampa gang and some out-of-towners. Of course, I was out on the L&N panel with Royal as the Southern dispatcher – it was his first time in the seat and man, he was a bit jittery. And of course, we’ll start off our usual joke at the expense of the owner – how many years did you work for the phone company, John? Because, as usual, the phones were a bit wonky to start.

And it didn’t stop there. I quickly found out that one of turnouts down at Blue Jay was down for good, meaning I’d lost use of the Long Siding in that area, a thing I’d feel in the coming hours. But, hey, this is railroading and nothing ever works right.

Granfield basks in industrial prosperity will all shipments made (Photo: Zach B)

For me it was just old hat, but both Kyle and Zach were on their own personal performance missions. Kyle wanted to see if he could run the Three Post switcher actually using warrants (unlike some of the invisible ninja performances we’re seen in the past). And Zach wanted to do the Granfield job and get it done before lunch (i.e. under two hours). The ground rules for this attempt was (a) normal switching speeds (b) no trespassing on Southern rails without permission and (c) no leaving rail cars in the weeds. Kyle’s job was under Royal’s eye so I didn’t really monitor that. But Zach boiled out of Norton Yard first thing, not wasting time, heading  down the his job site to get underway. To help him, I gave him a single warrant down with rights to all tracks and flag instructions. I kept an eye on the camera and saw him making logical moves and logical speeds – no cheating detected.

I’m not sure how Kyle did – Royal was writing warrants for everything (if he went to the kitchen to get a drink, he’d write himself a warrant) Still, bunny-hop warrants are expected with new dispatchers. He was actually keeping pace, warrant-number-wise, with the busier L&N line (I’ve never seen that). Another cause for this – John had spaced out his timetable and so I really wasn’t having trains bunch up – other than the Honey Bee (a northbound passenger train), I never had to pass trains at Norton. So the warrants were pretty smooth, all things considered.

I know you’re waiting for the results. Zach finished up at 11:35. I had a pre-written warrant for him to come back to Norton and got him back before lunch hit the table, which stands as an L&N record of sorts. So congrats to him on this achievement.

With apologies to John, I’m still not a fan of the interlocking. The dispatchers were struggling with it all day. In the afternoon, I had to keep rebooting it. The problem in that is that it clears and recycles all the turnouts. For all his pride with the Granfield Challenge, Zach’s afternoon was spent rerailing coal trains after I’d boot the system while his train was passing over turnouts. As luck (quiet smile) would have it, I torpedoed him several times in inaccessible locations. At least he got to tour John’s benchwork while fishing out derailed hoppers.

Zach rolls innocently along as I monitor his location on the camera and prepare another reboot. (Photo: Zach B)

But overall, a great session. Even with the interlocking issues, I think it was one of the smoothest sessions we’ve had there. Possibly because I didn’t lose two pints of blood this time.

Thanks for having us, John.

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The Three Post switcher works under full warrant control. And here, you’d better Stop, Look and Listen. A new crop of Crossbucks has come up (Photo: Kyle S)

Just a cool shot of a working railroad (Photo: Zach B)