ow that was depressing.

It’s my birthday. My wife is in the hospital for observation for her dicky heart. I need something to take my mind off everything. It’s ops night! Great!

Nobody showed.

Honest, our other pre-Thanskgiving events were always well-attended. Everyone stayed late because it was a holiday tomorrow. But this time some people had to work, some people were traveling, and some people took the cheap way out and had passed away. We had six guys running the layout on their own. So no dispatcher and not a lot of chatter.

A lonely URR switcher looks for an active blast furnace to service (Photo: John DV)

We ran two freight trains, a Silver Bullet, the Mingo Turn, the Shelfton Turn, the yard and the Harris Local (John DV scored a double). But it was still fun in a sort of fix-the-problem way (Frank, that track down to Shelfton lost power again but I was able to prod it into life).

What did I learn? Well, I thought my keep-alive chip would allow my SW-7 to operate with cunning and vigor in Shelfton. No, not true. There are so many gaps and shorts that it kept knocking the chip offline. Next time, two four axle engines, please. Sparky and I did fix a jammed turnout in the yard and I spun up a drum motor in Harris. But we got the early morning jobs run. So next session (in a few short weeks) we’ll pick up at 5:30 am and run the last four freights and a couple of passenger trains. We’ve also got Zanesville to do. This means our paperwork is still valid, so don’t move anything you can’t put back, please!

I really appreciated the guys who did show. We had a great session. Well, other than that Shelfton spark-fest.

Some slick GP-38s ease past the quarry widow-makers (Photo: Mike A)

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