pecial Leigh, Monongahela & Ohio session for the evening of Father’s Day (or, for me, Dead-twig-on-the-tree-of-life day). On occasional Saturday nights, we turn up the difficulty level and run the LM&O in the early fifties, with train orders and the Bethlehem tower in service with its block signals (actually, little joke, they are interlocking signals. If you were there, you’d know what the deal was). Suddenly the crews are forced to think on their literal feet, determining their own movements, ducking into sidings and meeting opposing trains while running on their schedules. And I’m happy to say that we had a solid crew and ran with only one major goof of the night (and a little unsanctioned Christmas tree running). But otherwise, the railroad ran fairly well under the new packet system.

Briefly, the packet system allows me to combine all the elements of TT&TO (clearance cards and train orders) into one convenient sheet. This means that crews getting read train order signals at stations can just pick up the phone and jot down their train orders, rather than trudging back. Big improvement. And everyone seemed to catch on quick (except Shannon, who was doing WTF-ever. We’re going to have words on this).

Anyway, the crews rolled out on time and everyone got their orders. There was a little forgetfulness on catching their train order signals but I can overlook that. Really, my excitement came down to monitoring Reverend Jim on the coal extra, running east through Zanesville (having just met the rights-over-everyone Zanesville Turn at station ZV), with another extra, the juice train under John’s throttle-hand, coming over the summit. I knew that they should be able to meet at Martin on double track, but was indecisive on this. I even wrote up a meet order for them at Martin but voided it at the last minute. Even through they were unaware of each other, I was banking on them running smooth and meeting each other there. And it seems they did. Got the call from the juice at Martin Station, and while he rolled off the main into the yard to exchange cars, X414 west rattled past. I knew they’d do it right.

(And if X414 had called first, I’d have pulled the cheap shot and dropped the station signal on him, holding him there until the juice showed up and then clearing him out on a no-orders clearance card. That’s a dispatcher dirty trick. We don’t even do that on the Tuscarora).

The dispatcher’s ulcer – would X747 and X414 make the meet at Mingo? The dispatcher was sweating bullets… (Photo: Jim M)

The ORE restaging move (X453) rolls past Bethlehem Tower. Ahead of him, doomed 97 gets ready to clear the last interlocking signal and meet his fate. Note the block signal protecting 97 from the trailing extra (Photo: Alex B)

Meanwhile, the towermen at Bethlehem kept things running through the night. I was really pleased that they held an MT ore run back to the docks to let passenger 97 sweep past. These new-fangled devices do have their uses. Of course, they’ll all be fired and the tower boarded up in 1960 when the line goes to warrants. That’s railroading.

Best moment (from the dispatcher’s POV) was when 202 got held in Calypso yard by overdue 247 (who was swapping power but still nowhere near ready). Rather than make Mike wait, I kicked out a train order (had the station boy carry it out by bike to the cab) telling him that 247 would be running one hour late, giving 202 the ability to advance to Bound Brook. Of course, now 247 couldn’t ever really catch up to his time but I think he did, nibbling away at his delay even though he really shouldn’t have. Once you are told to run late, you adjust your timetable by that amount and run as if that’s how it is printed. But it was getting late and I think people just wanted to wrap it it so I allowed it without comment. Besides, outside of 68 (who could take care of himself with his lofty first class status), there was really nothing ahead of him.

The juice train makes the safety of dual track for his coming roll by with X414. He is fully protected by… yellow signals. Sigh. (Photo: John DV)

Worse moment (from Bob K, who confirmed it via Ouija board from the afterlife) came when he advanced up to Harris Glen after getting the paper that 247 was an hour late. So it was good he advanced to the next siding. it wasn’t so good that he called the meet, got no orders and noted he was departing. I was chatting with someone in the office and didn’t give it a thought until I looked back at the dispatcher sheet and realized he was on 97’s time, who was now out of Lehigh and gunning it up the hill. It seems they saw each other and didn’t collide in the tunnel, but yeah, Bob was embarrassed and told me he was so focused on getting it right with 247 that he completely forgot to look for what was up the line, timetable-wise. Since I did the same thing at La Mesa, I’m not going to fuss. We all learn from our mistakes.

But really, it was a good session. Everyone got to run at least a train. It was quiet and pleasant in the room. Even newbie Matthew got to run a pair of trains, the first, 223, on the timetable, then he upped his game and ran extra 453 ore back to the docks (from his position at Lehigh, he saw the smoke from the train wreck). So it was a good night and our club keeps getting a little better. Maybe in August we’ll try this again. Maybe we’ll decide if we should allow Shannon to run again, or perhaps ban him to “JRT” night, where he belongs.

Great session!

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Without yardmasters, the yards were more crew change points than anything else. Here, the juice train self-services at Martin (Photo: John DV)