kay, this one is a tough one to write.

This was quite possibly the worst session on record. This one ties that “fault 16” session from years ago.

Okay, without naming names: What went wrong? It was pouring rain (in buckets) so everyone was wet and uncomfortable to start. The person we’d organized the session for didn’t make it. One person was a little lax in attention (sorry to call this out) and another faded near the end. The entire session seemed to crater. At the mid-afternoon point, I asked if they wanted to call it – the enthusiasm seemed to be waning (a polite way of saying “nobody was giving a fuck”) but I guess me asking that got them to pull their shit together and see it through to session’s end. I wasn’t happy at all at the results.

Pin-effing-point accuracy at stopping at red boards. Eventually the engineer gave up on all that blinky-light stuff (Photo: Zach B)

Leverman Leonard grumpily refuses to wave from Tusk Tower as another MT hopper move goes through. (Photo: Leonard J)

But there were good points. Zach and Leonard were rising like phoenixes from the ruins of Tuscarora: Zach did a superb job dispatching (other than myself, nobody else on the planet can DS it). While I was playing the role of Tuscarora Station Operator, I got a chance to really work in prototypical fashion with  him, calling the trains through and issuing orders. And Leonard (who did his first shift on the tower levers) settled in great (even through a certain engineer was filling cup after cup of urine for his endless signal running), but the towerman kept setting signal even after they’d already been violated. Anyway, I’ve now got another trained leverman, and with Zach fully competent in everything but coal hauling (just because he hasn’t done it) I’m getting more and more flexible crews (and just like corporations, that gives me some pick-n-choose latitude). Hey, remember my original coal ace? Like, that guy is in the literal gutter now.

I suppose that beside the wreck and ruin of my beloved railroad, I still have to admit I had a good time. I did enjoy running the coal, logically thinking about what needed running and making 3-lappers all night. At one point, I was ascending the imaginary grade out of Easton, paper in my hand that let me run on the time of EW-2, with Easton holding him back ten minutes. Hit the distant signal, then the home, all while knowing that my rights expired at TUSK tower. But EW-2 had cars to drop at Tuscarora with a ten minute loiter time built into his schedule. This allowed me just enough time to forgo stopping to let him by and run ahead to Westly. Smiling at my cleverness, I noted the whistle post across Morgan Street, started blowing long-long-short-long, saw the red TO board, leaned out as I finished the last toot, snapped up my orders, glanced at them, then ran the west starter signal. Zip and piss. Dammit. But it was a fun dash through town.

I think the most elegant moment of the night was when TW-1 was coming into Westly while a loaded coal cut was being shoved into Easton. Normally this would be a disaster except Zach worked it perfectly. The freight came into staging, and the extra (which did need to shove in) was actually ready to build the first tidewater run to head west. So he pushed (and coupled) to the MT cut, then did a reverse saw-by to clear for EM-2. From my station operator seat (I was booming all night) I was impressed. I figured Zach would put the Tidewater out first with papers to all, letting the extra run ahead (as I’d done in the paragraph above). But by sawing by, it let EM-2 run on schedule down to Tusk, then take the siding to figure his switching orders and start cutting his train, while the Tidewater rumbled past him, westbound. I have to admit being impressed by that.

I’ve thought a lot about my train order system – which I still like – but need to talk to Zach about altering some of the orders. I think the “continuous meets” need to be altered so no “annulment” needs to be issued. In the place of the annul order, I’d like to add a new order that holds the extra until ALL timetabled opposing trains are past. Sure, it means the coal waits, but it might mean (at most) one or two trains go by. No big deal and a bit more simple for everyone. I’ll need to talk with Zach after Monday night maintenance and figure things out before going for another session. I’ve got all sorts of changes to paperwork to do.

So, maybe now that I’ve written this, it wasn’t a totally bad session. But there have been better. And we got the TBL over the finish line for another session.

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Thirty minutes after midnight and MT-1 rolls in, dead on the dot. DS Zach works in the background (Photo: Leonard J)