here are things I’m thankful for. For example, I’m thankful they detected the cancer before it hit a nearby nerve and spread through my body. And I’m thankful that when my ultralight engine failed on a steep takeoff within five hours of soloing, I didn’t panic – stick forward, get speed back, and glide down to the lake to kiss it with my pontoons. But my latest thanks goes to the fact that I didn’t push to run the Highland Line under TT&TO. Talk about a narrow shave with death.

Up in the tower, I had my hands full. Host Gross (love that jingle) has made all sorts of positive changes in the long months since we last ran. But this introduced a bunch more issues. While I could line my turnouts in staging better, I wasn’t sure who went where. Also, just keeping track of a couple of trains (mostly by memory) was very busy. I also had two places where others could set turnouts and that meant my own toggle could get “out of phase”. That, and with my long arms, I was rerailing and climbing under the layout to do all I could to keep things moving.

Waterbury… in the sun….shine! (Photo: Kyle S. Lyrics: Dewey Bunnell)

I know others were under the gun as well. The throttles were acting wonky and there were misbehaving turnouts. I know Yardmaster Zach was going full out in Waterbury. All three locals were busy dodging through trains and yelling for time increases (I was like some Marvel Supervillian, the “Keeper of Time”). Rob looked like he was going to suffer host-meltdown.

But you know what? We all still had a great time. While some of the engines worked a bit odd, we got some nice meets out of the session – great to see two trains slow-roll past each other at Bristol. I know that the switch lists have improved (a far cry to when a yardmaster walked off the job and left me with four or five switchlist sheets and a frapped yard). Outside of one steam engine dying in the terminal (which is historically what they do) we had a great session.

So thanks to Rob for hosting, for giving us a great lunch, and for a look back at transition era New Haven.

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Greg W pump air on the Bristol Turn, ready to head home after going for beans (Photo: Kyle S)