n high craggy mountains lost in the mists of the grim Borderlands, old wizards practice the dark arts of Time Table & Train Order operations, demanding times of 1:1 (and perhaps slower), of steadfast observance of their Book of Lore (The Condensed Code of Operating Rules) and archaic rites to deny access of acolytes not established in their order. Their membership is secret, excursive and, frankly, dying.

At a beat-up cinder block building in the rundown edge of Stupidville, a youngish group assembles to try TT&TO our way, with the clock buzzing at 8:1, with a lot of guys who aren’t quite sure what’s happening (and a couple sidelining as observers), with young members on their first sessions and old hands willing to give our tentative third or so attempt at this (the others were okay, but could be better), we tossed aside clearance cards and train orders, gave our packets to our two station operators (Jim on Martin, Zanesville and Harris Glen, and Matthew up in Bethlehem Tower), ran through a five minute pre-brief, signed the insurance wavers and went hot!

So, for you dark wizards of the olden schools, we were running TT&TO via packets (warrant-like paper that can be generated between a dispatcher and station operator quickly, with multiple forms of train orders handed up in one go. Rather than number the individual train orders, the entire collection (the clearance card on the top, and the circled orders as the body) are read, read-back and slipped into an order box (one of two, East and West) located at each station.

We do have train order signals at each of these stations, 3D printed wonders that are very visible. If the station operator adds an order, he drops the signals (for reasons of limited ability of SOs to cover their stations, signals are left UP, and only dropped when an order is waiting in the box. If a crew passes the station with a DOWN signal, they check the box for their direction. If they have an order, they grab it. If it’s the last one, they bump the signal back up with a finger. Simple, fun, and everyone picks it up easy.

So we stumbled through the first hour of the session. The clock hiccuped and bumped up to 15:1 (a little too fast, even for us). And three extras appeared. The first two were running nose-to-tail, not a problem. But the third was running opposite, meaning some quick packet writing for a meet up in Red Rock.I’m told that my clever move of addressing both westbound extras on one packet was not appreciated. Crews wish to keep their orders in hand. Next time, we’ll have the SO generate the copies, one for each crew.

Overall, we ran five of our six scheduled trains and a whopping twelve extras. To get us through the session, I wrote something like 25 packets (most of those to get trains out and to keep  the extras from tangling. I was very gratified that all the timetabled runs did their moves and made their meets without any reported incidents. There are a couple of places where meets occur at non-controlled sidings (Red Rock and Carbon Hill come to mind). But I’d get station calls as they entered this void, then time would pass and new calls from the SOs, showing they’d performed their timetabled meet and were on their way. Really cool.And so thanks to all the on-sheet engineers who ran the railroad and followed their timetables.

The extra guys (I think) didn’t quite understand what they were getting themselves into. I’ll quote a late member of ours who one said (loudly (and accusingly)) “YOU GAVE ME ORDERS TO RUN AS AN EXTRA! HOW COME I CRASHED INTO ANOTHER TRAIN!?!?” Happily, the crews felt their way through it and we were able to keep them from scraping. As time went on, I felt more comfortable with the extras (and

they were more comfortable with me). The Station Operator sounded like he was taking some of my packet pandering personally – and no, I wasn’t writing any orders just for orders sake (with one exception). And I did give breaks out to crews – I had no way under TT&TO rules to get an overtaking extra around an extra working in and out of an industrial yard. Originally I gave him rights over the overtaking extra, Weirton to Zanesville. However, we turned a blind eye towards that train, and told him if he eased up on Mingo, located the crew and determined it was safe to continue, he could do so. And he did.

Oh, and that bogus order? 95/97 had been running clean across the entire division, running on time. He got no order boards set against him. I didn’t even tell him that 66 was annulled (after all, he was superior so knowledge was the booby prize – he didn’t need to look for it). Just in fun (i.e. since I’m a dick) I called Harris Glen (his last station) and hung out an order for him – run one hour late. So he got to cool his heels for an hour before continuing. Still, it was Zack’s (the new one, not the getting-older-by-the-second one) first session with us and he did extremely well. He made his stop, we managed to load the huge lady with all the luggage into his train at Harris, and then he could continue.

Special thanks to the aforementioned station operators who put up with phone issues and opening confusion as we figured out how to do things. The yards seemed to run great – interestingly, they said their yards were slow, even though it was the same traffic densities they usually get. And Matthew carrying BETH tower did a super job. Unlike warrants, when we have to all every dang train on approach, with you guys running tight on the timetables, he knew who was coming in (and could carry them right through). No need to call – as far as I could tell, when things run great in TT&TO, I don’t need to do anything.

I’m really looking forward to doing it again. And food for thought – perhaps we should run at 1pm on Saturday and then go to dinner afterwards. That might make it easier for long-distance operators to attend. We’ll discuss at next week’s meeting.

Thanks again for a fantastic time!

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