kay, so this was a test flight. We were confident in our flight worthiness. Experienced crews. Casual weekend. Fully planned.

With crosswinds. And thunderstorms. And the lights and radars were out. And a UFO was stooging about the boundary fence.

We’d all come out for a Saturday Night Special, where fewer people means more elbow room and a chance to engage in more difficult operations. It’s rather fun, a challenge. Tonight was a two-for – TT&TO ops in a new and untested format, and an interlocking district (run by a towerman and signaller) in the Lehigh to Bethlehem stretch.

First off, we got a late start. Most of the attendees were there, staged and ready, but we had to delay the start (and the pre-briefs) for a late member. This rushed the prebrief (which, coupled with the length of time since our last TT&TO, left people a bit rusty (if not totally corroded and rotted out). There were a lot of little goofs and overdue overhead instructions all night.

Further, the dispatcher and tower really hadn’t worked out the interchange policy, meaning we were fumbling with it for half the night (by midpoint, we came to an accord on this and finished smoothly). The interlocking worked well enough, but it was busy (God knows how Terry got all those little blocks flipped).

But with ALLLLL that, the crews did really well. First off, there was general laughter but without the screaming our last session provoked (when things got tense, members took a moment to secure their trains and breathe, which helped everyone get through it). But while crews were a bit remiss on calling their OS points (at those discrete shiny red cups that are the biggest structure on the layout outside of the Basic OX furnace), they took their orders sharply and from what I could see, obeyed them. The new format worked much better than the old system (did you notice that you didn’t have to walk back get get paperwork?). I have noticed a few tiny changes for the packets that will make it better. Also, I worked out a system to ensure all orders are issued. This jumped out at me when X414 was running out of Zanesville and had THREE meet orders coming at him. Anyway, he got through it.

Congestion occurred mostly at Pittburgh from a number of dual track meets. The yards reported smoother ops with fewer trains and a slower time pace. Our real problems happened with several overlong trains that really tied up the line. Since I’m busy just keeping the movements from cornfielding, I really don’t have an attention focus to catch trains who are too long for their meets. Next SNS session, we have to determine if we’ll run length limits. Also, it would be better if anything running before, say, noon is signed up (so the dispatcher can set up meets and not react in mad-cap session). I really need an idea of what’s running – unlike Warrants, I can’t do it on the fly as well.

Overall, the crews handled things well. I’ll make sure that all Train Offices have their packets on clipboards with pencils at the ready. The interlocking should work better since the communications are now worked out.

But I’ll say this – given the long trains, the tenuous familiarity with TT&TO and the interlocking sub-division, it was still a fun session. We ran 20 trains (12 were extras). 28 packets were issued. And even with all the wrecked equipment and broken dreams, it seemed that everyone was having fun and picking up more skills. This is why Orlando N-Trak is highly considered at other layouts.

Good work, guys.

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