he Longwood & Sweetwater, always an old favorite that’s been down too long. Ran with a couple of the boys and had a great time.

Came to realize two things while switching Altamonte today. See, Altamonte is not for the timid nor the short – you need to get under benchwork to switch it and it requires a long reach. That I’ve got. So I’ve run this one more than just about anyone on the planet. The thing is, I’ve really got it down. I moved the cars in, cut them off on the holding track, methodically plucked the outbounds, then did the neat little swap-out trick to get my loads out and my empties ready for push. I had a good running engine, I had a handle on what needed doing, I had elbow room; this baby’s done!

The other thing I learned was that, since switching my first HO car on my first loop of track fifty years ago, I still, to this day, will back a car into a siding, reverse the train, uncouple the car, reverse the train, apply power and run the couplers back together. I keep telling myself, session after session and year after year, to come up with some sort of methodical arrangement for doing this. But over and over, I keep slapping the car I just spotted with the front coupler. The brakemen (the ones who survive working with me) must hate this.

But a great session. Thanks, Jim, for having us out!

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