s usual, we are never sure how many people will come out for a night-before-Thanksgiving session. We’ve always underestimated our turnout. And this year, as in years past, you’ve shown up just how much you dislike your family and relatives by coming out for a good night of full ops. And as always, we are glad to have you.

As John C’s photo shows below, we had a large number of club members (plus a couple of friends and family, a guest or two, and even our favorite den-mom) to run with us.

So our overall perspective from the dispatchers’ desks…

West Subdivision: The pre-warrants went out but there were delays getting Silver Bullet 2 on the road. This cause several trains to hold for it to go past. Of course, it did allow the turns (921 and 927) to make their sidings without busting their warrants. Eventually everything unplugged and we were back in operations. Other than late-evening congestion in Pittsburgh, the railroad ran as it should.

East Subdivision: The dispatcher awoke on a stained bed, his head pounding. Thick fumes hung in the air. Blinking, he saw an Asian woman lean over him, an opium pipe in her hands. “Five dollah, Joe, for another magic hit off the dream stick”. (Really, the author has no idea what happened East-Side. I know that Phil won’t talk about it and when you ask crews about Harris Glen, they either wince, weep or dry-heave).

Road Engineers: After a hectic yet fun session at the club, they packed up their things and drove down empty holiday streets. Unlocking their front doors, they entered, dutifully kissing their wives on the cheeks. They then fixed a sandwich and a glass of milk and settled down to watch a little late night TV before retiring. In their beds, looking up at the ceiling, a final thought drifted through their sleepy heads. “Did I OS myself off the railroad?”

Dispatcher: The dispatcher sits in the silent darkness of the empty club, looking at his train board. The train room is dark, silent. Looking at his last train marker, he wonders if that train ever got into staging…

Yeah, so there are a number of pain points we saw repeatedly last night. They were…

• Crews not OSing when they cleared the main into a yard, a destination or staging. Other crews lose time because we don’t know you are clear. Also, it would be handy of you called the DS when you clear out of the Red Rock division point. Hand-offs are hard when we don’t know if you are rolling or not.
• Crews leaving turnouts open: A young member burned an engine last night (which sucked because he’s dependable and works better than some of the adults). I heard several people comment on how many turnouts were left open. You know, we can work backwards to figure out who is doing this. When you leave an area, the panel should show all green lights.
• Untested Equipment: People are running new stuff. While you’re brilliant with your toys and all, we need dependable engines that won’t cause problems. Everything should be tested.

Maybe we should start docking people for violations, like a half-point or so for every turnout left open and every final OS not provided. We’ll discuss at the meeting. But then, there is the good side…

• Crews were upbeat and good-natured. Yes, I know it was crowded and delays were manifest (even with the clock going hyper-speed on us, I know we were running really late). But nobody got punched or shot, so that’s good. I hate having to take the death board over to the trophy shop to add names.
• The Steel Mill ran at full capacity. Every job was run. I thought that might be a two or three cycle job but you guys finished smelting in one day. A lot of people worked over two maintenance nights to restore things after a scenery malfunction and a lot of crews dealt with dirty track and sticky turnouts. Again, thanks to everyone who jumped on those jobs.
• Phil hung in on the East End, even though I thought he was going to leave at one point. Together, we wrote a total of 146 warrants (West End: 79, East End: 67). Running alone, my personal high water mark was 109, so that shows just how busy it was. Everything ran, including three extras.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lord, how many pictures did you all submit? This is becoming People Magazine…

 

Anyway, I’m sure there were a hundred stories last night. I know that I gave Greg some long warrants to get him home by session’s end, only to have him bust me on a technicality. I know Leonard is chomping at the bit to give East End a try (and I might even run, if Zeus runs West Side) I don’t know how many collisions we might have had – I had one or two crews mangle their warrants. Also, I’d like to talk to anyone who had Loop-problems – I have ideas but I want to know what went wrong.

Zach and Bob ran the yard perfectly and supported the session wonderfully. I don’t think we have any significant delays from Martin.

But yes, regardless of the problems, I am thankful during this holiday that so many friends could come out and run with us. We shared good times and tough rerailings, the silly lights getting shut off, the fast clock that ran even faster, all of it. Even afterwards, I went out with the younger members of the club to share midnight beers and talk about the session. And I listened to their chatter and watched their phone passing and felt a deep feeling well up inside me.

I felt old.

Happy Thanksgiving, anyway!

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(Photos by John C)