hort entry tonight. Not much to say about the sleepy week before Christmas. Everyone was in a good mood. The layout was purring. When it came to writing warrants, I had them pretty much figured when people called – no waiting.

So here’s what I want to know. I ran on the L&N recently. In a four hour session, I wrote 84 warrants and was bushed at the end of it. And it was full-bore dispatching, working non-stop to get all those trains over the division.

But on the LM&O (which is scaled as a longer railroad and has more passing sidings) I moved trains for two hours and only wrote 64 warrants. And it was a snap – lots of joking around and queuing orders up in advance.

I’m not sure why this was – the ratio should be off. At the rate I was writing tonight, I should have kicked out 120 at the L&N but I didn’t come close. And yet I felt slammed there.

Co-dispatcher Bruce thinks it’s layout familiarity. The fact that our crews have been running the LM&O for years, once a month. Everyone was smooth on the radio and took jobs they liked. On our counterpart, everyone comes in from all over the state and we run about twice a year. It was certainly more confusion, explanation and noise (along with a apocalyptic explosion at Ramsey). We didn’t even come close tonight (even with minor jams on the summit and between Mingo and Zanesville).

All I know was that tonight was easy-peasy. And that’s great. Work was a stress-grinder. And then I come to the club and the radio was crackling and the trains moving.

Another good year with Orlando N-Trak. Merry Christmas, guys!

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