It’s no surprise to anyone who knows me that I’m a curmudgeon – I don’t really like kids.They follow manufactured fads like lemmings. Youth is wasted on them. They had door-stops for heads.

We were getting ready for the session tonight – not many of the usuals were there, but in contrast, we had a couple local visitors (guys who know how to run) who we pressed into service. And we also had two kids, JW’s son and another new member named Matthew. Junior JW signed up for the Silver Bullet #1 (his old man said he’d give him the operational lowdown) and Matthew opted for the Zanesville Local (this was nothing short of a bad idea – he’d only run helpers before and had managed a couple of easy warrants. Now he was taking the toughest local we had. But choosers are not constituted from beggars, no?). And so the session started.

Had my hands full with the summit, as always. Lesson one – we can’t give away our helpers to run line freights anymore. With the increased tonnage, helpers are no longer optional. Larry had run 414 into Calypso and was looking for a nice ride home when he got pressed into helper service – poor guy, he never returned to the coal he loved. But it was a big night on the high side, with warrants going out as quick as I could write them.

The Silver Bullet ran through its stops dead on the dot, running up to its clearances and no further. And the Zanesville local? Well, I’m told it had a bit of a tangle out on the main with a mis-application of warrant logic, but some of our old hands have goofed the “wait until” checkbox. Fatalities I don’t care about – what’s important is that he did all his switching, down the line to Zanesville and over to Carbon Hill, working the industries like a pro.

So it was a successful session.

Do I like kids?

Not really.

But will I use them to further my railroading gains?

Of course.

Thanks for running like old hoggers, guys!