he FEC. Great railroad. The only thing the host, Ken Farnham, could do to make it better is to change the benchwork height. See, Cocoa yard is at a great height to switch, but when it comes to using it for banging your head, it’s just a little too low. I have to lean in to crack myself in the skull, over and over, when I goof up.

See, I was running 915, the train that leaves Cocoa and runs down to Buenaventura to do a lot of switching. It’s tricky, the usual balance of pulling stuff out and putting it in, trying to keep enough rail uncovered to permit movement. And I was having a bad day – I’d try it one way and then the other, and just couldn’t get a grip on the problem. Worse, there was a lot of stalled traffic so a lot of bored engineers were wandering past, giving me all sorts of free advice.

I tried this and that and this, and for every car I spotted, it took a try or two to get it right. And finally I got it all figured out. Had the final cut, just had to push it out onto the passing track from the industrial area, run around and then head home.

Would you believe it? The dang train was too long. If you cleared enough room to get out with the engine, it fouled the other turnout. I couldn’t get around to the front end.

This was made worse by a parade to trains coming through.

Finally I managed to tuck enough stuff onto other sidings so I could get around. A simple train-building effort took 15 minutes. I’ve cleared the Salinas Fruit sheds quicker on my Cuesta Division.

In the end, everything got built. Got back to the yard and the tracks were packed so I had the devil of a time getting everything stuffed clear of the main.

Fortunately my follow up train, 210, was an easy run, so easy that when I got to Eau Gallie, I had to drop three cars on the a siding three industries shared. As luck would have it, I found those specific cars in correct order right on the point of the train. Drop and go. I was owed at least that!

Thanks for the run, Ken! Fun as always!

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