ummertime, and the ops are uneasy…

Yeah, summers – we always have a dip in attendees. Our roster drops off. Worse, some of our good operators are off to college soon, so we’re screwed in the near future.

It was pretty light tonight – had all the opening train warrant moves figured. Then I got one of the weirder calls from the Mingo Turn, just out of Martin Yard, crossing over to track two to work the quarry.

“Snakes on your train?” I had to ask, not sure what I heard from him.

“No, snakes in my house. Wife called. I’ll back this into the yard and I gotta go.”

Like, WTF?

So this caused a ripple. I needed the local to run, so suddenly crews were shifting down, trying to get the lower-order trains out. In fact, with all the shuffling, it was easy to miss the slick three-trains-by-at-Harris move.

With the usual peeter-outs, by the end of the session we were making drastic moves to get all trains run. Even the yardmaster and myself, the dispatcher, ran a train. Some people we jumping from cab to cab, scrabbling trains back out. In the end, I have to thank Mike, Frank, Matthew, John and Jonathan for really pushing the Johnson Bars. We got the entire roster run with a very smooth session. Thanks, guys! This makes restaging a lot easier when all the planed moves actually take place.

Okay, and now, a call to repair. We’ve got to get some of the worst sections of the layout relayed. And that starts next week!

>>>WHEN I’M NOT DOING TWO JOBS AT ONCE, I’M WRITING. BUY SOMETHING, PLEASE! BOOKS HERE!<<<