I‘m driving home in that easy-smiley way I am once club ops are done and we (as a group) hammered it out of the park. Running west on the 408 in the right lane, just passing Dean Road. To might right, there is an on/off ramp, a short little interchange with two cars coming into merge onto the expressway. I should move over but a glance in the rearview shows a guy overtaking on the left lane. I frown – he’s just in the wrong place for me. Touch of the brake to give the two mergers room in front of me, and then I signal and slip to the left lane to follow the overtaker down the left side of the slower entering traffic.

And NOW he signals that OH! OH! he needs to get off here. He’s got two cars on his right side and me behind him. I go on the brake modest to open him some room, but he decides to handle it by diving suicidally between the two cars to his right. Just perfect.

Only two hours before, I was moving two passenger trains, three freights, a wobbly coal train and a set of helpers through the very tight confines of Harris Glen. I was cutting warrants to keep them apart, and the crews were working the oversize issues on the ground, sawing by each other.

And that’s why I like trains and hate traffic. Trains make sense. There is an orderly progression to trains, especially when the dispatching is in the groove and the crews are hot. We were up to 100% capacity on that mountain pass tonight and it couldn’t play out any more efficiently.

In comparison, a bunch of half-assed, non-signaling motorists almost got in a four-car pileup on an otherwise empty road.

He’s probably a slot-car fan.

Anyway, great session, guys!

>>>MORE INTELLIGENT THINGS – BOOKS! BUY ONE HERE!<<<