hardly ever write an OpsLog the day of. For one thing, I’m usually pretty knackered. For another, it’s too fresh on my mind – takes and ideas that might seem clever in the shadow of a session might not be with some thought. Also, I’m a firm believer in getting a good night’s sleep, waking up and see what you think about it then.

So today, when I work up, the first thing I realized was that my two switching jobs I did on the Yosemite Valley could be done much easier. I did fairly well, but it wasn’t ten for ten. I did a couple of out-think-frown-back moves.

So the day following our club ops, Terry B and I rode out together to run on Smiling Jack’s small but fun layout, a nice 2/3 person session with interesting switching performed in sequential fashion. Essentially, big train comes in, breaks into three small locals, lots of switching, trains come back, big train goes out. Oh, there are a few other details, but this is the gist of it. And it works great.

Terry hauled the cars in, 22 total, unclassified, and I broke them into three cuts. I managed to get the trains built but my four axle yard goat was really spinning on the tight entry curve. Next time, smaller chunks – another waking realization. When I was done, Terry took out the Wawona job, and I came out with Merced Falls (and because this is unitrack, there had been some alterations since last time). I’ve done Merced before and knew the tricks (but I could have done it better, as earlier boasted). Clicked through it and ran back to pick up the Yosemite Valley turn, an old favorite of mine. As for Terry, well, he had his hands full. It was his first time on it, and a lot of the switching involves gondolas and TOFCs, about as stable on a track as a live rat. Not only that, but one cursed car – after about ten derailments – was found to have only three axles, so saxophone notes: Waaaa Waaaaaaaaaa…

Regardless, it was a lot of fun and everyone was enjoying themselves. I even had a porter bring me a coke when I got thirsty. Superb service.

It made the fact that I spent $450 at TRF go down a little easier.

Anyway, fun session. Thanks, Jack, for letting us come and bash your cars around, and to Terry for eliminating the risk of an AAA service call in the middle of nowhere.

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