ecently we ran out pre-Thanksgiving operation session, a chance to escape the ravages of relatives, and to have fun running trains before having to listen to your drunk uncle explain why the Earth is flat over the ruins of the feast. We had a pretty good crowd for it – not the usual pre-turkey-packer because of last-minute cancellations, but it was still enough to run all that needs-to be-ran and have fun with all that can be fun.

But in flying over the confusion in my dispatchocopter, I realized how much I have to be thankful for. To wit-

Thankful for all the smart phone salesmen at dinner that night, making their pitches and not understanding that putting my head face-down in my plate hinted that I wasn’t interested.

Thankful Jim M didn’t die driving home, and also that he didn’t stay and die on my subdivision.

Thankful that the interlocking worked so well, and that the hand-held radios Kyle and I used didn’t work any worse.

Thankful for all those turnouts left open, giving crews valuable experience in realigning said turnouts or, more so, experience in rerailing their trains.

Thankful Mike’s 231 ran so well, and that he survived 232. Man, and I’m really thankful I wasn’t following him this time.

Thankful for the helix and the chance to learn why good train handling is a valuable skill to learn.

Thankful for Chris for leaving Matthew a holiday surprise, namely a string of freight cars abandoned (without fanfare) on a siding.

Thankful for Matthew enforcing courtesy on his line by having two trains wait for each other. And the pluck of same to cut though the paperwork by shouting out, “Just go! He’s waiting for you! Ignore checkbox 8!” And then John L, who conducted an audit to discover where that command had been officially written down.

Thankful to Kyle, and how he illustrated how my expert turnout soldering was not quite perfect by heaving levers brutally and breaking the new seam.

Thankful to Christen, who actually tried to switch the mill and (at first glance) did a very good job of it.

Thankful that our club is so strong that there were countless times when crews assisted other crews.

Thankful that Horacio finally got 97 into Pittsburgh after his odyssey. And that Joshua finally got out of those tunnels.

Thankful to Shannon for streamlining his warrants to move 921 along the line so very quickly.

Thankful that the poor brakeman who was abandoned by his crew in the Mingo Interchange was able to walk his way back to civilization.

Thankful to Zach’s plans for carding, and how someday a 20 car train will come on the line with 12 cars for Martin, and 14 for Calypso.

Thankful for checkbox 8. Thankful at how it speeds things up and also how many amusing cornfield wrecks it causes.

Thankful that after I issued a number of orders, Auxiliary Dispatcher Jude came on duty and changed Zeus’s orders. And that Zeus carried them out without question or delay.

Thankful to Tuviah for boosting 271 over the line with great enthusiasm and notable skill.

Thankful for Steve’s new hand brakes. I’m interested to see if they were actually used. Or did you just drop every truck on the cinders for your entire train, just to keep it from rolling?

Thankful that all the team efforts (myself and Matthew and Kyle, Zach and Bob) worked in such great concert together. The interdependencies on the LM&O are really amazing.

Thankful that I don’t know half of the bonehead things that took place on the railroad.

As you, dear reader, are likely thankful that if you read this far and didn’t see your name, your secret is safe.

Seriously, I’m literally thankful for what we have – this massive layout with all its problems, the huge and numerous trains we run through the session, the operators improving their skill-sets with every session, the fellowship, the humor, the fun and the grace. I thank whatever agency you offer thanks to for what we share together at Orlando N-Trak.

>>AND I’D THANK YOU TO BUY A BOOK DOWN THIS LINK<<<