he first perimeter defense, the outer gate, was wide open. It was almost like a trap. Cautious ingress.

The second defense, the savanna out front, was similarly trespassed. While it was rumored to be the killing fields of several apex predators, the grass had been foolishly mown back, allowing perfect visibility.

The final obstacle was the steel door. Even clearly marked – Members Only – the knob was loose, unlocked. There had to be a trap – ninja blades, kill lasers. It had been too easy.

So, taking hold of her ten-year-old decoy, she shaved it through the door to trip any traps or pitfalls.

“Traaaaaains!” the child shouted, holding up his own N-scale engine from out of the past, possibly thirty years out of date.

Dispatcher Raymond had been focused on getting the coal safely around EW-2, just coming into Tuscarora at 8:10 AM. Reverend Jim was crossing Tenmile trestle, picking up a yellow aspect into the siding. Leverman Kyle leaned on lever four, ready to drop the eastbound home to red and clear the freight out, and Station operator Zach was OSing the meet in. In EW-2’s cab, Engineer Shannon and Conductor Greg were cleaning up their waybills after an inner industrial drop. The railroad was picking up the pace.

And then visitors.

Where we were at, right before the 30 minute shutdown. You can clearly see Kyle in the mini-tower. (Photo: Jim M)

Visitors are okay – on club nights. But we were all busy, as sunk into the Tuscarora session as a good book. Reminds me of a day at Speakers Corner in London, when a Global Marxist guy was up on a soapbox, screaming about the Rothschilds or some other nonsense. That’s when a woman stepped out of the crowd, excused herself to the speaker, explained that the highlight of her late husband’s life was the three times he’d spoken at Speakers Corner. Then, with economical gestures, she tossed his ashes into the backdrop shrubs. With that, she thanked both the Marxist and the crowd and slipped away. Of course, we of the crowd applauded her. And the Marxist, with his wild hair snaking out from under the beret, looked around. “Now what do I say?” he sputtered, his rant derailed.

Sorta like that.

They hung around – Shannon ran a train for him, we chatted with should-have-known-better mom (I will henceforth refer to this as “Bithlo Hospitality”) and finally they left. It sorta staggered the session and it took us a while to get back into the swing.

Jim backs down on the first coal run of the day (Photo: Jim M)

Still, I’d be remiss (and called out) if I didn’t mention losing a clearance card and bothering everyone, looking in their card holdings, under their timetables, in the Tuscarora shelves, only to find that it had been under my foot at the dispatcher’s seat all along. Of course, while on the topic of inattentiveness, I could mention Shannon and Greg, who heard me say, “Okay, pull the unloaded coal hopper out of the brickyard and waaa waaa waaa” (Charlie Brown teacher-talk). Since they didn’t spot it correctly for a Tidewater pickup, we just had them run it down the main until they returned to Tuscarora and insert it into the trailing coal run there. And of course, since football season had started, there were a number of phones set in “distract” mode. I mean, the big game is going on here, right in front of you!

My favorite little corner with its industrial blight (Photo: Jim M)

I did like Zach’s unconventional move or ordering a meet (which was already covered by a prior run-ahead order and then train superiority from Tuscarora east). I could have told the coal train that that did not count as an “opposing meet” (what the order is intended for) but I’ve run the dispatcher desk on the Tuscarora and it involves a lot of looking ahead and trying to figure out what everyone will be doing for the next few laps. TT&TO can be done on a 2X4, but it ain’t easy. Slack was cut.

I found out that the ghost covered hopper on the switch list was a legit move from a session a while ago. I don’t know how long it’s been there and how long we’ve missed the erroneous spot order. Might have been from the last Tusk Coast. Either way, I was relived that it was just a data problem, not a code problem. So that’s cleaned up. Railroad paperwork…

But overall it was a lot of fun. We made all our deliveries and ran eleven coal loads east (a sound amount). Nobody crashed, nobody died, and Shannon finally got a chance to see the railroad he’s patterning and expanding on in action. I think it gave him ideas (like don’t do TT&TO). So we’ll see how this goes.

And next week, it looks like we’ll be running a Tusk Coast session. And we’re working in ideas for weather. So we’ll see.

Watch this space!

>>>AND, AS ALWAYS, BUY A BOOK<<<

Operators hate double-headed F’s for coal ops. And that’s why I run them (Photo: Shannon S)

Jim on Coal Patrol works his next move while Zach is the man behind the times (literally) . In the edge-frame, Robert and Greg wait for something to happen (Photo: Shannon S)