Dispatcher Raymond plays “Beat the Clock”. Word of caution – Peter can shoot across the room with that new phone (Peter F)

kay, we have all the pre-warrants out. Clocks are set. Have a conductor assigned to the newbie. The guest who was wandering around has left (does anyone read the door sign  – private event, Jack). Radio established with BETH Tower and confrimed with the room. Every train that needs to move has been signed up for. Prebrief was nice and quick. Ready to go.

And the clock strikes… 00:A6?

What?

Fuddled with it while confirming 223 entering the interlocking district and 231 was out the door. Tried to change it but couldn’t get a “real” time on it. Turned it off and on again (any IT Crowd fans out there?). That reset it. Reset time and rate while Mark was jumping the gun and getting 202 and Ohio Flyer 2 out of order on the main line coming east through Mingo (that could have caused a big ball of wreck).

Okay, the clock was running. Three minutes later it beeped once and froze time. The fug? Turned time on again and noticed it was running fast, the old 15:1 trick. So I changed rate to 10:1. A minute or two later, it beeped again. Again, holding and 15:1. And I did this fiddling until about 4am train time, resetting and resetting.

Ohio Flyer 2 rolls by an assembled 921, clearing him for Mingo. (Terry B)

223 and 202 meet in textbook fashion at Red Rock (Jeff C)

I know that Zach and Kyle had been fiddling with using the JMRI clock in place of the old Digitrax on (ironically, to “make it work better”). And Kyle had come back and readied the clock for use right before the session (I told him not to activate – it was just going to be a “gentle” session and I had a calibration clock running to keep an eye on the time). But no, JMRI and Digitrax were having a mano-a-mano fight right as all the trains were running off their pre-warrants and getting ready for new paper. Called Kyle on the overhead and had him come back. Admitted that the old clock was suffering interference and we’d go with the new. Got that up and running, confirmed with BETH the repeaters were correct, and went with that. So, yes, all you people who have DSed with “problems” have never faced the flakking I went through in those first thirty minutes.

247, doing a “Grand Theft Loco”) goes by on the high iron while the Zanesville turn goes for a long bean break (Jordon V)

Pete readies 66 for its runs. It looks like those Pittsburgh kids have TPed Shelfton again (Pete F)

After that, things settled down to a nicely paced session. Oh, we had one train miss its correct entry into Zanesville, back up and hit TPEX who was coming out on good paper (Class, what two lessons did we learn? First, always check your turnouts. And Second, don’t back up blindly into a tunnel). And I gotta name him for this – young Zeus ran off the end of his warrant at Harris Glen, came down into interlocking and ran through the the red home signal – we’re sold film rights to Denzel Washington and Chris Pine for this. Special thanks to Matthew  in the tower – had a train coming out of Calypso and another running loose and just made it his problem, which he neatly solved.

Some good things – Thanks to John DV for graciously giving Jordon 247 after he pulled a “General” and swiped it. And a second thanks to John for not just running coal or Tropicana, but filling the lineup by running Mingo. Trent was a bit shaky at first but he got the handle on warrants so good improvement there. The yard crews ran tight (Kyle worked Martin Yard solo and had trains out too damn quick for my liking). We didn’t stack them going in like busy nights, which was nice.

So, overall, we ran ALL freights, ALL locals, half the passengers. BETH tower had stuff so under control that, not only did he prove his worth (and the overall concept) but he also ran the Naz local and the Steel Mill turn.

While the engineer reported no Wifi, his engines ran out of staging (and into a live session) just fine (Pete F)

271 glides downhill into Pittsburgh, the fast freight running nice and speedy (John DV)

So, overall, a successful night. Still, I really wanted to run another TT&TO session. Of course, the idea of running Standard Time on the cartoon character of  Cogsworth makes me break into a cold sweat. Looks like we’ll have to run JMRI for this (forced under duress, I’d call it). But yes, good ops in a very clean clubhouse. I’d be remiss if I didn’t thank the guys who came out, cleaned 60% of the joint and made two dump runs with the stuff we tossed. Once the skirts are back up, it should look pretty nice.

So whew – another session done and dusted. And a follow-up session (with Zach and myself joint-dispatching under warrants) coming up this Wednesday. See you then!

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The DS has just thrown up his hands and “Let the interlocking handle this mess!” (Jordan V)

TPEX comes onto our line, with three boxcars of windshield glass for GM Automotive likely to be smashed in short order at the upcoming tunnel collision. (Jordan V)

921 neatly shifts out Patterson Quarry. (John DV)

Locals pumping air in Martin, ready to go at 0:A6 in the morning (John DV)

Sparky called this the Iron Wood Bridge. I call it a hazard to crews. You can hear it groaning. (Jeff C)