o this is evening session of Zeus and my two-for-Thursday operations marathon. After finishing up wrecking the Virginia Southwestern, we raced up I-4 to get to Tom Wilson and our session on his Pittsburgh & West Virginia. This is a coal-hauling, steel-making layout with a heavily-traveled main line and long branch up to Mifflin and Clariton, all serving a gigantic mill complex.

We were the first to arrive – found host Tom trying to string intercom cables like a sapper under artillery fire. When we couldn’t get it to work, I told him to just seat me at a tiny table in the adjacent laundry room – I’d “intercom” through the doorway. My lineup and used forms would be on the washing machine, my workspace the small table before me (hey, I’ve worked in the I Western Bay dispatcher cubby so all’s good).

West Rook yard, the engine shops.

The big surprise of the session was, after getting me seated and set, Tom started calling for jobs. First one, Rook yard (a very tight, very busy classification yard on the main line). First hand up? Zeus. I remember looking at him. “Really?” Okay. As someone once said, a point for style, minus a thousand points for sense. But sure, why not.

Next problem up was the lineup list. Tom had corrected some crazy errors on it from last time, and introduced more crazy errors. And to make matters worse, he wanted to get his crews staffed up quickly, no waiting. Understandable. But this meant we didn’t follow the usual sequence. He told me that Avella Freight East would be going out first. Fine, but with 91 and 99 passing in the division (see the Line-Up problem? Two odd-numbered trains running in opposition). But okay, I set up a meet at Bridgeville for AVE to meet the westbound Alfa-jet, and then I’d get meet the 90s at Bridgeville while AFE got in position at it’s turn-around point, and everything would be right in the world under my brilliance. Except that with the Alpha-jets on the way, I’m suddenly told by the superintendent that Rook Yard would be taking in 99 first and shelving AFE for now, and that all my warrants were dicked up. So, great start to the session.

But it gets worse – Normally there is a flow trains that lets me work the line correctly. Not now. The superintendent was calling them out of order and with no warning. And this lead to the Avella Disaster.

See, Avella is the last siding short of the eastern division point at Pittsburgh Junction. It’s got a coal washing facility located there, and just beyond (past the siding’s end) are several facing-point coal mines. Only one train can work that location and flag through trains past. Fine. But I now had one local ready to work Avella, and THREE (!!!) turns coming in to work the area, all of them committed on the main. Hey Rocky, watch my pull a rabbit out of my hat. Anyway, I got the first turn in, down from Bridgeville with a quick turnaround and exit west. Then the shifter, the local job, who savored running prototype slow (i.e. glacierial) while two locals blocked the line, waiting their turns at Bridgeville. Everyone is glaring at me, Rook is bottled east, and the shifter is taking its sweet time to finish essentially a single run-around job (topped off with confusion on spotting instructions). I felt like climbing into the dryer. Finally he was done and clear. I sent the longest-waiting turn down with flagging instructions – this let me run throughs past and clear up the main. So eventually things settled.

Zeus and I worked out a system on the fly where I’d call approaching trains in for him. Also, I took special pains not to meet trains at Rook (while the Virginia Southwestern has no passing track at Norton Yard, you can usually have the yardies run one down an open classification track. Rook Yard has no passing capacity at all, so I had to be very strict at getting trains through the limits).

But Zeus managed really well on his first Yardmaster away game. I think I did pretty well, considering the communication issues, the ad-hock lineup, and the weary operators (that delicious spaghetti dinner didn’t help), We managed to limp through to completion.

Still, it was a great session, so I have to offer thanks to Host Tom for having us out, all bitching aside.

We hit the road without much chance of making sunrail in time. Given that, I fulfilled my promise to drive Zeus back home to Deland. We chatted about the session for bit until I realized I was doing all the taking – the guy was crashed on the seat, batteries flat.

But yes, a great day full of ops and oops. Hopefully we’ll get invited back as session backups next year.

>>>BOOKS FOR SALE HERE, AS ALWAYS<<<

All photos “Sleepy” Zeus H

Part of the central steel mill. I’ve run one of the many jobs topside here and had a blast (“furnace”, that is. It’s a joke, son!)