y final blog post for the year, and a model train operations one. We just squeaked this in, last minute. Club president Shannon asked for a quiet little puzzler (he came to a six-person session in September and got smoked). So we slipped over to the club in the waning days of the year for a quiet little to-do. Since Shannon is building a lengthened version of this, he wants to see how the town of Tuscarora does business. When his layout is up, it’s going to put mine to shame.

Anyway, running more like Greg and I did in the days of yore when just the two of us ran and nobody knew or cared about Tuscarora, we changed operations format. Normally Tuscarora is a small interlocking plant in the middle of Nowhere Pennsylvania, surrounded by a sea of TT&TO. With smaller staff, we move it a few years earlier when interlocking was more common and the Pennsylvania Railroad would run a chain of interlockings, passing trains from plant to plant, running indirectly off timetables but really just following signals like some sort of cog-driven steampunk CTC. Westly and Easton are interlockings in their own right, and trains are protected between all the towns. So we pulled down levers 10 and 11, cleared TUSK train order board both ways, and went into the day.

After midnight, the PRR coal engine is retiring to Jacobs for refueling (late, I might add) and blinks as they encounter foreign power working a ballast detail. (Photo: Shannon S)

The puzzles were easy, basic Tusk. No Bexley runs, no special car moves. Greg plowed coal and tried to talk up the intrinsic value of empty hoppers as he thundered back and forth (he moved a bunch of black diamonds, but once or twice (mostly mid-morning) he got held a couple of times, thirty minutes to just over an hour). I checked the Tusk Tower station log and see the true session at the end. Shannon came in with his last train, the PeeDee, and nailed the switching – took him one hour of elegant shunting and he was up the branch line and heading to Pittsburgh. Meanwhile, Greedy Greg was trying to stuff as much coal as he could into eastern ports. By the time the Tidewater came through (wheels squealing as he “thought he could” under the long load), EM-2 was out of town and Greg ran unopposed. However, he did bite off more than he could chew, not getting back to Jacobs Distributors for refueling until just after midnight. So, for his next session (possibly New Years’ Day), his engines won’t be ready to drop the hoses and get to work until 1am. That’s what you get for getting home late.

Still, he did run fourteen movements east (including westward Tidewaters) so yes, I’ll do that time honored railroad management thing where I profit from his efforts and still punish him. I love that almost as much as throwing the long levers up in the tower and watching the trains roll by.

So, a relaxing day at the club with just the three of us, running trains like old friends.

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