t was good to get out to Tom’s place again for another running of the Pittsburgh and West Virginia. It wasn’t good to get out to Rt 27 and fight all that traffic but, oh well, good things come with costs.

But anyway, yes, I got a chance to dispatch his line, always a pleasure. Using warrants, I went with his train sheet and ignored the magnetic board. A good slow pace which gave me a chance to really stay ahead of the railroad, lining up ideas for coming meets and moves. Had a bit of a problem with some operators not calling in and clear at yards (since the overhead was busted, I had to ask those wanting new warrants to go look for them – yes, I commissioned bounty hunters!).

While I gather there were a couple of small sticking points during the session, it was all nice and quiet for me. I’ll admit that near the end, enough people were running the top deck (the steel mill) that the traffic on the mainline slowed down. I read my Russian classic for a bit then started to fall asleep. However, a couple of people slipped out early and Tom needed a steel mill operator more than he needed a snoozing dispatcher, so back to work I went, running an engine about and shifting gons down to the departure yard.

All in all, a great session. You can see a couple of minutes of the action at Tom’s video below. Great session as always, and looking forward to the next one in early January!

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