OpsLog – 10/17/2020

OpsLog – 10/17/2020

nother op session at the club today, with AJ running his coal and Ben as the switch crew. In the logistics side, Greg ran the DS panel and I worked the nonlocking interlocking. And, as Greg put it, I also worked as the superintendent (and an auxiliary brakeman).

First off, this little beauty was in place, my very first structure, the Tuscarora Station. You’ll notice that it’s been out of service for twenty years, that the paint is cracked and peeling. Not added yet are the boards over the windows and doors (or the roof weathering). And station signs. So there is still more to do.

Tuscarora Station in 1962

Oh, yes, the session.

Ben’s an old hand at operating – he dove into the drill (the first real job the scheduled engineer performs). He worked through the details, doing the four switching jobs very well. To add to his problems, I’d added one extra car to the mix and two hopper drops, so he was shifting cars at about 50% greater work (or more) per job. I think next time we’ll go more standard. But hats off to a good performance.

AJ continues to run a tad fast. We’re working on slowing him down. Some of his coupling will knock the conductor right out of his cupola. But he moved the coal and the empty hoppers so that’s fills the bill.

And Greg, he showed marked improvements over an already decent dispatching ability. We had a line delay that wasn’t his fault which put a freight behind (I think his timekeeping got a little off but this should be fixed when we hang the flip clock up for next time (so everyone will know when things occur)). The thing is, we’re using a new version of sequential operations that is not like anything out there. More in this magic clock next time.

And I’m happy to say that the new train orders that get handed out worked really well. No more reading orders to glassy-eyed engineers – now they have train orders that can be found clutched in their cold dead hands.

Real railroading!

Looking forward to the next session!

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