OpsLog – VSW – 1/9/2025

OpsLog – VSW – 1/9/2025

usy weekend for me. The Protorails convention is going on but I cannot attend since I’ll be managing a two day display setup of our sectional layout in Deland. But as part of the convention, they sold spots on both the Virginia Southwestern and the Pittburgh & West Virginia. I ended up to getting invited to a double dose of dispatching, running the railroads from back rooms, sight unseen – ignore the man behind the curtain. And first up; John Wilkes’ VSW.

I gotta say that I love this railroad (or rather, two railroads, the L&N (the busy stressful line) and the Southern (the bucolic line)). I’m usually on the former, running train after train. Tom Wilson generally wingmans me on the other, and we have to get along since there are two sections where we share track (Edison, owned by the Southern, and Goodbee, owned by the L&N). Since we sit next to each other with a small CTC panel between us, we have to work together or nobody moves.

I’ve got to say that the protorail guests were top-notch, A-game operators. Most of them were courteous enough to OS when they’d finished a job (something every dispatcher likes to know). They were quick on their warrants and hardly ever wandered off their paper. It was, frankly, a joy to work with them. Sadly, since the crews were so efficient and the dispatchers so cooperative, that meant that we were moving trains (we pretty much ran our full lineups). But this meant that the poor Norton yardmaster got swamped by me. Oh well. Another nemesis to add to my growing collection.

A Southern hot shot, loaded with auto parts, storms across the Guest RIver. Below the bridge, the busier L&N mainline waits for yet another train.

Even the CTC board (so problematic in the past, when the computer was polluted by malware introduced by curious grand kids) was running smooth. I got to use Goodbee/Bluejay lap siding to full effect. At one point, my ball-breaker long coal train was overtaking the Cawood Turn. Ducked him into Bluejay and then ran the big green coaler around him, which was about as pretty as a picture as you could see (I watched it from three different camera angles).

So yes, a solid railroad, two dispatchers, top-notch operators and a lot of trains made for a great day on the line (or, rather, lines).

Thanks to John for hosting! (All photos credited to him)

>>>AND THANKS FOR BUYING THE BOOK DOWN THIS LINK YOU ARE GOING TO BUY<<<

How dispatchers look when they are competently running two railroads.

And how trackage rights through Goodbee are calmly discussed.