t was the sort of club night you join a train club to enjoy.

Sure, there was a little politicking and back-biting going in. But hey, had a nice dinner with friends and then headed over. It was an open night – no carding, no MOW, just hanging out. And since I’m not sure what my attendance will be in the coming days, I decided to run a furnace job in ops.

Now, one thing you gotta understand – the ops committee is trying to tighten up requirements on what can run in the mill. We’ve assembled over the last few years a number of Bethlehem units. The other night, Zach and I figured out which engines would be used for which functions. And for you guys who simply come in and back your foreign units into the mill, no, that won’t work anymore. It makes as much sense as running a set of four CSX engines around the Disney World loop. So don’t. Use the home units.

So I ran on what is known as (Chris S looked it up for me) the Philadelphia Bethlehem and New England Railroad (the only railroad that should be turning wheels on mill iron). I rather enjoyed my little run – took about twenty casual minutes to work the foundry. The new ingot move is much easier to perform. Around me, people ran trains and chatted, just a friendly night at the club, the entire reason you form train clubs, really. Chatted with friends and pushed the slag cars around (yes, there should be a white handler caboose in play when doing this, and yes, it’s on the slag cut now). Matthew J came by with the three small switches lashed up to tow the coal cars out and the MTs in. I was cool to work around him with the proper units.

And this is coming from the guy who runs SP power all over the line.

Anyway, nice night, quiet, relaxed running. I gotta say that if I do come to ops (leaving my options open for medical reasons right now) I’ll probably run the mill again. Really, if you haven’t tried it, you should. Great fun!

And worth a seniority point!

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