Train Blog
November 24, 2025
ne must be careful of what one writes… and who one gives it to. –Cardinal Richelieu, The Three Musketeers (1973) So I learned about that on my last OpsLog, where a friend fed my blog through ChatGPT, told it to regurgitate it in its own words and spin it to the negative. Cute. All I can say was that I got an invite to the wonderful Florida East Coast and you, my warmest associate, did not. So consider that and reflect with new-found wisdom. So yes, we did get a nice run over at this fine Palm Bay layout (which, […]
November 19, 2025
n fantasy novels (and some religions), great events are triggered following prophetic signs in the sky. And so there I was, waiting at the clubhouse’s grassy parking lot for Kyle for a ride out to the Komar’s in Tampa for their hosting of the West Virginia Northern, looking up to see a Chinese rocket booster slowly burning up as it crossed the sky, glowing white and emerald, dropping away to the east. So that’s a differing sort of start at least. So we three wise men (myself, Kyle and Bruce) journeyed across the desolation of Interstate 4, making out way […]
November 17, 2025
ot going to say I was nervous – no, perhaps a little concerned. Doc Andy’s session on the WAZU was coming up and for some reason I asked my wife if she’d like to run with us. So the only way this would work was if she could run one of the remote trains in the other room, sitting at a desk with a forward camera car view and a bank of monitors of the train room up on the wall. This was better than the moshpit layout room, where you feel like you are jammed inside a rush hour […]
November 16, 2025
adn’t run Tuscarora (my microlayout) for some time so I announced I’d be at the clubhouse Saturday and figured I’d run the railroad on my own. That being the case, I got out all the cars I hadn’t fully tested (or struggled with in the past) set up and cleaned it, and got ready for action. Had an extra gondola car (dropped by the midnight eastbound) to spot over at the brewery and two coal hoppers deadheading about, so my session was going to be busy. The first two “scale” hours were pretty slow. Not only was I having to […]
November 6, 2025
here were two great things that happened on Tuesday, November 4th. I had a very pleasant drive out the Cocoa Beach, Florida. Plenty of time, Micky-D lunch with a book, even a McFlurry. Got to Jack F’s house a bit early so I walked around the park until the ops session start time and then I showed up. And the second thing was that, when we started the session on the Yosemite Valley RR and John L was bringing the first train from offroad, I realized I was now familiar with the railroad to anticipate how the yard works (yes, […]
November 2, 2025
can’t explain it. We’d agreed to coming out for another session at ORSS (Orlando Society of Model Railroads). My ONT guys had casually chatted about it a week or so before. But when it came time for trains, everyone forgot. I’d told my wife that I, strangely, had the day off and we could do something maybe. Then I looked at the cullender at 11am and realized, oh shit! Had a session to attend. And of course that really pissed her off. “Be back at 4pm, honey! See ya! Bye!” Got to their clubhouse and realize I was the only […]
October 31, 2025
or me to actually run a train (and not dispatch and write out dozens of warrants (sigh. Checkbox one, previous warrant is void…)) I need a miracle, a Wonka golden ticket, a 2008 election, something like that. And I got one on the 29th – pity from Zach. See, I’d already dispatched the entire day away and Zach thought maybe a model railroader would like to run trains. You think? So I decided – what job would I do? Would I defy slope-gravity with the Shelfton turn? Or run the long-haul, journey-to-building’s-end Zanesville turn? Or just cage-fight President Shannon to […]
October 30, 2025
ohn Wilkes, host of the impressive Virginia Southwestern line, invited a couple of us ONT runners (myself, Kyle and Zach) to come out and operate with the Tampa gang and some out-of-towners. Of course, I was out on the L&N panel with Royal as the Southern dispatcher – it was his first time in the seat and man, he was a bit jittery. And of course, we’ll start off our usual joke at the expense of the owner – how many years did you work for the phone company, John? Because, as usual, the phones were a bit wonky to […]
October 24, 2025
ast night was Night of the living Utes* And I gotta say, our young members really shined. I was back in the office, running Western Subdivision to Luke’s Eastern Subdivision. And how refreshing it was. After my last session on the P&WV (with the operator’s inability to run dependable warrant-operations (no reflection on the host. This was really his crew’s inattentiveness)), it was great to run with a club that’s been doing warrants for years and know how to do it. Everyone was quick with the read-backs, almost everyone called in at yards and clearing off the division, and nobody […]
October 19, 2025
kay, so a couple of things about Tom Wilson’s ops session on the Pittsburgh & West Virginia. First one’s on me. I’ve operated a couple of times in 2020 (and before) as a dispatcher here under TT&TO. I was proud of our efforts – Bruce Notman hit it out of the park as my Station Operator. But here’s the weird part. I’ve run six more times (including last Friday) and only now, after possible 100+ warrants, that I noticed there is a glaring error on them. So, for those who understand warrants, let me show you the key element’s on […]