convention was held in Cocoa this weekend – Protorails. While I couldn’t attend (I had a train show to manage in Deland over the weekend) I picked up a dispatcher request for two railroads  hosting sessions for the con, both on the same day. So the first was the Virginia Southwestern, John Wilke’s fabulous coal hauler. And since it’s a dual line with shared trackage, I was able to weasel a second free pass for Zeus H, a young dispatcher I’ve sessioned with in the past. The only problem here was that he got stuck in the Amsterdam snow disaster and had only just gotten home the night before. The plan was he’d ride Sunrail down from Deland and I’d get him back home, either by train (doubtful) or by driving him.

That placed me on the AdventHealth platform at 7:40 am, sipping a coffee and chatting with Antoinette, my friendly platform master from, God, seven years back. Anyway, he came off the train as planned, we jumped into the mini and were off on our VSW adventure.

We decided that, since I’d run the heavy-hitter L&N last time, Zeus would take it this go around. Me, I’d be on the lazy Southern. The Protorail operators showed up more or less on time, Zeus and I took our seats and got everything ready. It would be a little tougher – the nine video displays were out, meaning we’d be relying on phones and the trusty dispatchocopter. With everyone in place, we got the ball rolling.

Ready to go at clock-hot.

Weird start. My line (usually lightweight) was picking up train after train while Zeus was hardly getting a soul. My line was still heavy all morning but he caught up on the warrant count by noon. The trains were running pretty well (very well, if considering that these were guest crews). Poor Tom W, who usually works my desk, had decided he wanted road work and took out the Three Post switcher, an up-and-down-the-line shufflefest. Given the reaches and session-long effort, he was pretty beat when things wound down.

We ran a brisk session and I think the Protorail guys were happy with the pace overall. Our Crowning Moment of Awesome came at the three-quarters moment at a lap siding meet. Below you can see how a lap siding works. It allows you to have all sorts of flexibility and actually save space. On the VSW, this area is controlled by a CTC Interlocking controlling all turnouts on shared trackage, owned by L&N but worked by Southern. As it turned out, Zeus and I found ourselves with two long trains coming towards each other. We handled it in the classic method – one threads down the upper side, the other on the lower side, giving them just enough room to pass.

Quality Control. Zeus and I moved the trains across our parallel divisions.

Look, I’ve worked with NASA quality control engineers so I know how to check, re-check and over-check my levers. Everything was perfect. The engines eased it. Zeus and I were smiling. Then we heard that both trains’ engines had derailed. John came in and told us that the middle crossover hadn’t been thrown. I looked again. Nope, the lever on my panel was thrown to “reverse”. Correct. Turns out that a crew doing local work earlier had left the crossover in local control, locking me out.

I just sat there grousing – it had been the perfect meet, a thing this railroad was built around, and it had been bungled by a local yokel (or would that be a yokel local). Regardless, I was slouched in my chair, steaming. But Zeus pointed out that we’d arranged the perfect meet. It was the crews on the ground who’d bungled it (and the hoggers in both cabs that had not been watching their turnouts. So, yeah, I could accept that. We’d done our job right.

After that, the Southern pretty much shut down. Meanwhile, the L&N was jumping with Zeus working three southbounds that kept tangling. I’ll admit that I was a snickering butthead on this, giving Zeus a hard time. Anyway, he eventually got them all down to Atlanta.

Anyway, thanks to John for allowing us to sneak in the back door and operate for free.

>>>HEY, BOOKS FOR SALE HERE<<<

All Photos Zeus H

With the trains rerailed, the lap meet eases towards completion.