very adventure needs tension. Not an evil opponent, simply tension. You know, man vs. nature, man vs. self, man vs. Model Railroading.

My tension was Turnout 1, just below the Westly Mine, which was sticking. Noticed it at the end of the last session. At first, it wasn’t quite normalizing. Then, after tossing it back and forth manually a few times, it wasn’t resetting in either direction. My stomach knotted. I decided to just finish the session and then deal with it on the following Saturday, when there would be time and tools for the job.

When I tried to put the layout back on its rolling rack, I didn’t quite get it centered and dropped it fairly hard on that corner. Well, how could I make it worse?

Of course, I’d think about it. Plan how to replace it. What a pain in the ass that was, but at least it would be nowhere near as tough as the turnout in the middle of the zipper, surrounded by other turnouts.

Went out with paper for a coal run, which I’d wanted to try for the longest time (just in case the impossible happened). So, fired the layout up, sat behind the levers and pulled Number 1. The switch went over snug. Pushed it back up. The switch reset perfectly. Evidently dropping the layout hard knocked whatever was deviling that Kato #4. All fixed.

Idea by Robert R, figure by Woodland Scenics, Wishbone by Chris S, Photo by Pete F.

Since everything was right as rain now, I fell back to pre-sesson plan B. I’d asked my friend Chris to make me an N-scale wishbone hoop for TUSK tower, so orders could be passed up. Cutting this tiny piece off the 3D printing splines was a trick (the backup one broke before I really learned the touch). So I’d gotten it off and cleaned, then painted it, and Saturday I glued it to my waiting trainman’s grip. So now I’ve got a guy to pass up orders to crews as they roll through.

And with all that done, it was time to roll some coal.

I was handling several jobs – the coal run itself, plus the leverman, plus the Station Agent (I was writing orders using my packet system).

At first, it was pretty easy. The Emerald Mine Prep Plant let me get a triple run East. Then I could make a double MT run back to the mines. Good so far. Squeaked out another multi-mine lump-grade run east and returned with three empty trains. And I’ll say this, its really fun to make multiple runs around tusk. First, I pull down the starter lever, the home and distant signals. I get the train rolling. As it gets within sight of TUSK tower, I set the train order signal (if appropriate), then start playing the crossing sequence on the horn for S Morgan Street, leaning out to pluck up orders if coming. With that, I accelerate slightly, passing and dropping the home signal and only then dropping the train order board to red. With that, I’ll ease into Easton, another great run.

Well, this was how it should be. After my second triple run of coal, everything (loads and MTs) dried up. This is a problem in depending on the law of averages to give you an even distribution. Looking at the station log, it was mostly single runs and occasinal doubles. I mark runaround moves (for the the final lap of a set) as “RA” in the station logs. Suddenly I was stacking “RA”s and, if you are doing runarounds in an interlocking, well, it’s a lot of lever-pulling. I just dragged through this long simulated afternoon until the Tidewaters ran and I got three more rumble-throughs with a big fifteen car train.

My RS glides down the length of my loaded train, bell ringing. I’m sure the good people of Tuscarora are reconsidering that bond issue for a bridge for Morgan Street. (Robert R)

Wait, shouldn’t that have been sixteen hoppers? Well, one of the loads had been dropped at the outer industrial earlier for the phantom local to work. I managed to retrieve it on the final Tidewater run, but it was now a facing point fetch and, frankly, in the way. I finally had to brute force it for the final run-in with a double-runaround – it felt like there should have been a better move but I couldn’t see it.

Anyway, all told, I ran ten loads of coal east (a meh score). As for moves in the station log, I show twenty-two moves originating or passing the tower. Not counting the tidewater shuffle, I did seven runarounds (which is a bit much) and three LEMs.

But a fun session. Glad at turnout was back online.

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A helicopter shot of another runaround, this one a push into the barely-producing mines (Pete F)