isitors usually set me off.

When I’m running with a visitor, I see our layout through their eyes. Instead of just focusing on my little job, I look over all the peninsulas, all the moving trains, all the jobs getting done. What we’ve done is amazing, and to see it working is just phenomenal.

Tonight’s session was a hot one. We ran up through our 1000th warrant (which means the count rolls back down). Matthew was back on the panel, keeping things moving. We had Nick doing top-notch service in Martin. And all over the layout, people were pushing into new jobs and running things well.

One of the Silver Bullets labors up the long grade to RedRock.

I ran two trains, westbounds 247 and 271. The last one was already late by the time I pulled into Cincinnati, uncoupled and ran down the next track over to pick up the other freight in Bound Brook (it’s a little warp-gate thing we do. By the time 271 broke out of the tunnel for Calypso, it was already hours late. By the time I hit Martin Yard, Nick was shutting things down, the dispatcher was going home, and pretty much everyone had left. Frank and Mike hung out with me as I swept along the river route for Cincy.

And that’s when I realized that, even when I was alone, our trains were a beautiful thing. Just a sweeping line of old boxcars along a river valley, the sort of thing I dreamed of doing as a kid and now did with technology I could not have imagined. Rolled into the yard and shut down, the building still, just the low chatting of the other guys as I shut off my units and boxed them up.

So it was a good night for everyone. I got to see the magic again.

>>>IT’S LATE. YOU KNOW WHERE MY BOOKS ARE<<<