feel kinda bad about this one.

See, my friend’s CSX Taft railroad has a job change-over. One guy takes the mainline freight, another runs the local. Twelve-hour shifts, lots of fun. So I started on the switcher and started working to get set for the north bound before working the southbound.

I was like one of those guests that eat you out of house and home, then belch loudly.

I thought the outcard box was for the shift, not the entire session. So I selected a bunch of pickups (allowed) and then noticed “easy to grab” cars that were also in the box, so I took them too. Not controlling my ravenous coupling, I eventually picked up almost all the cars (there was one that hid behind a building that I didn’t quite get). And really, I’d have been screwed – the northbound freight would have arrived and caught me with my pants around my ankles and cars all over the place, not grouped up, but it was delayed through a random event.

And Chris, the perfect host, didn’t say a word as I did most of the Taft work (including a coal drop at the OUC plant). In the end, it was a clean sweep with that last northbound (the one that had hidden from me) dragged out of its hole and nicely coupled to the switch engine. How I blushed when Chris pointed out that I’d done ALL the switching.

Do I feel like a schmuck.

In the debrief, we talked about what we’ll do for the next go-round, and we figured that rather than let the first crew select some of the cars (yet greedily pull them all) we’d put an AM/PM shift divider in the box so you can only pick up your cars, not all the cars.

I guess next time (assuming there is a next time for me) I’ll just sit with my hands in my lap, not budging my engine, and let Chris get his turn at moving everything.

I’m so greedy…

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