Train Blog – Page 80 – Robert Raymond’s Blogtorium

March 22, 2026

OpsLog – LM&O (Saturday Night Special) – 3/21/2026

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 […]

March 27, 2026

OpsLog – LM&O – 3/25/2026

o I thought it would be a breeze session. Zack and I were going to joint-dispatch (him west subdivision, me east). Seriously, I kinda felt that it was like two master pianists sharing the same bench, skillfully weaving a beautiful melody on a single piano. In reality, it was like we were at the same piano, sharing the same bench, and it was rolled it out of the music hall and tipped down the long fight of steps and into the street. Crash, sprang, bong, bewang! Didn’t go so well. Well, no, it went as well as it could. We […]

March 28, 2026

OpsLog – YVRR – 3/26/2026

fter the complete railroad spin-cycle from last night, I rode out to Cocoa to run on Jack Ferguson’s Yosemite Valley Railroad. And this was just what I needed – easy going sequential ops with some interesting switching and no screaming operators or scribbled warrants. Just what the railroad surgeon ordered. Anyway, I got to run the yard first thing while new-comer Mark D ran our first massive train in. Broke it up nicely in the yard – good thing it was semi-blocked and went apart easily. Once I got the first train done, I sent the John out with it. And […]

March 30, 2026

Opslog – Sarntalbahn – 3/29/2026

un little hang-out with Kyle S today at the club – he invited me in for a test-running/conceptional-thinking of his new Sarntalbahn line, a layout constructed largely of T-Trak (and kinda T-Trak) modules. So the way it is organized – the larger station, Sarntalbahn, is on one side, and on the other, Wilnau. Sarntalbahn is a larger rail yard, all turnouts manual (presumably they have the personnel for that) whereas Wilnau is a line-station, a small passenger building with a couple of light industries. And Wilnau is going to be CTC controlled (Kyle had a working interlocking/CTC board for it […]

April 12, 2026

ShowLog – Deland – 4/11/2026

nother train show way up in Deland, and all you can say, it’s not getting any closer, or later in the morning. We decided to switch drivers going in, if only to throw off the KGB (seriously, over-scheduling difficulties, but it worked out fine). John W was our set-up boss and we set up with a solid crew in sharp time. We did have problems with a full booster (remember what Steve told you about consisting? This is what it looks like. We’re going to have to work with Kyle to clear it). And there was Mike with a dead […]

April 19, 2026

OpsLog – TBL – 4/18/2026

ince we had Deland behind us and a spare weekend, and Zeus was hammering me for a Tusk Coast session, we set up for a Saturday and made it a clubhouse open house for general members. Some did show up but my attention was locked on my Tuscarora. It was a busy summer day on our railroading epic. Of course, Zeus couldn’t be found the day before an I had no confirmation of what he’d bring for his ACL version of my railroad so I printed up Pennsy switchlists and set up with that in mind. We started with […]

April 24, 2026

OpsLog – LM&O – 4/22/2026

t took me ninety minutes to get to the club on my drive out. My adventure involved a missing man, a roadside emergency, a diversion to pick up a member, a missing key, a missing dinner, a found key, and then 6pm Colonial Drive traffic. And then there was the layout failing to come up inexplicably, of Kyle and myself rushing about as people checked engines, and finally a solution (sorta) that we are not sure about. And THEN, when we finally got to run, my Pennsy F’s which had run so nice on Monday’s test ran faulted and sputtered […]

May 3, 2026

OpsLog – LM&O (TT&TO) – 5/2/2026

alking across the weedy gravel of Bound Brook yard, stepping over rails and making my way to my waiting train. My brakeman is up on the nose running board, hanging out the X271 number board, slotting in the white flags. We’ve got a fast extra freight to Cincy. As I climb aboard with my no-orders clearance card, I gotta smile at the newby dispatcher -he cut me the order yet didn’t insult an old hogger like me by telling me to hold for 202 to arrive (which would have been a touch insulting). I’d have bet that a first-time DSer running […]

May 10, 2026

OpsLog – WVN – 5/9/2026

OLLISION AHEAD 22 MILES. RIGHT TWO LANES BLOCKED. I didn’t like the looks of this electric sign while driving I-4 to the Komars’ West Virginia Northern session. Maybe they’d clean it up before I got there. Maybe. Was wondering if I should just get off Warpath One and let my funky GPS work me around it. Sipped my mocha and considered. Came over that ridge where you see open expanse to the west, with two bridges soaring over the highway. First thing I saw – a couple of CSX engines blowing along, general freight – MT hoppers, loaded ballast, some intermodals, couple […]

May 14, 2026

OpsLog – PB&NE – 5/13/2026

t was the sort of club night you join a train club to enjoy. Sure, there was a little politicking and back-biting going in. But hey, had a nice dinner with friends and then headed over. It was an open night – no carding, no MOW, just hanging out. And since I’m not sure what my attendance will be in the coming days, I decided to run a furnace job in ops. Now, one thing you gotta understand – the ops committee is trying to tighten up requirements on what can run in the mill. We’ve assembled over the last […]