ometimes these things can be tough to write.

Outside of a turnout being left open, some paperwork getting misfiled, and little snigglets here and there, there wasn’t much material for a fire-n-brimstone ops report. No insights, no breakthroughs, no flashes of intuition.

Except one.

Bruce and I drove over and met Bob and the FEC crew for the holiday/last-session-of-the-year shindig. There was food in cornucopia amounts, side dishes and deserts and everything you could want to stuff in your gob.

And then we ran. Bruce and I ran as a team, lucky to find ourselves on local jobs(which is the most fun you can have on a railroad, if you don’t mind a bit of puzzling). We rattled down to the Eau Gallie cement track and played the shuffle-the-hoppers game. Then we picked up a fast rattle-to-Titusville-n-back turn. But then we got a brain-twister move, working City Point Industrial (about the last place I hadn’t worked on the line). But Bruce and I shuffled our way down from trailing point to trailing point, coaxing the cars home and scooping up the loads. Up to the power plant siding where we turned and we able to do the dispatcher a minor service by clearing for a couple of hot northbounds. Then we spotted cars at an auto plant, some hoppers and a covered hopper at the mineral dump, and a quick dive into the industrial trackage at City Point to get the last few cars home.

So we ate together and laughed together and played (ahem – “operated”) together. We had a blast on a magnificent layout and rounded out a nice year with a great session.

Hard to write a blog about fellowship and teamwork.

Well, Bob did leave that turnout open. Smoooooth…

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