here were two great things that happened on Tuesday, November 4th. I had a very pleasant drive out the Cocoa Beach, Florida. Plenty of time, Micky-D lunch with a book, even a McFlurry. Got to Jack F’s house a bit early so I walked around the park until the ops session start time and then I showed up.

And the second thing was that, when we started the session on the Yosemite Valley RR and John L was bringing the first train from offroad, I realized I was now familiar with the railroad to anticipate how the yard works (yes, I was working in a classification yard and yes, it was lotsa fun). I got the yard paper and could easily switch out John’s arrival onto three tracks, nice and tidy. Then, while John ran one train down to one of the industrial yards, I worked the Valley Job, sorting out the sheds and tank facility while not breaking rules as certain predecessors have. Overall, it was fun work with lots of runarounds and I thought I did well.

That is, until at session’s end, when Jack admitted I did well but there were easier ways to do the valley.

Fighting words!

Anyway, it was a great afternoon that makes us happy to be alive (and retired!). An afternoon’s ops before heading home to dinner. Jack even gave me the leftover crew cookies.

The big admission is that I realized Jack was right. As I drove, I thought of ways I might switch that are a little easier.

Next time!

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