Multiple meets at Rattlesnake Hill, foreground, and Jane Eyre Siding to the rear. (Kyle S)

ince I was in the hospital with issues from speaking for two hours straight, running multiple Tuscarora sessions, setting up and striking two layouts and a head injury, I’m leaving this Clinicy Finicky blog to those who were there. So, multiple impressions coming atcha!

Doc Andy

The October Programmed Operations Session held by the WAZU Railroad yesterday is being compared to the heroic WWII Naval Battle off of Samar during the Leyte Beach Liberation of October 1944.

Just like the legendary Native American (Cherokee) captain who famously told his crew, “This is going to be a fighting ship.  I intend to go In Harm’s Way and anyone who doesn’t want to go along had better get off right now.” I told the meager Krewe of WAZU we’re a little light-handed, but we’re going after the prize with guns a blazing.  Both scenarios were like a classic “David vs. Goliath” mismatch where a tiny, heavily outmatched crew faces an overwhelming “armada” of moving parts.  The Krewe approached, entered, and tackled the situation with a high level of force, energy, aggression, and intense determination.

Zach Bischoff was like The Commanding Officer, Ernest E. Evans, Cmdr. USN, except Zach didn’t die during the battle.  He did, however, command an excellent Dispatcher role and took over completely, ordering the postponement of certain trains, controlling the Fast Clock with precision and motivating the working crew.  His Executive Officer, represented on the WAZU by Bob Klauck who, not only functioned as the Yard Master of Hinkle Yard, but also took on the task of the “Beast”, Boardman Local.   And, representing the Gunnery Officer, Lieutenant Robert C. Hagan (who survived the battle) was our trusty Pasco Yardmaster, Jeff Chisholm.  Other than leaving the West Gate Throat switch open to the Mainline creating an extra wash opportunity for the Lumberjack Train, Jeff was flawless.

The team-in-exile, banished to a “remote” control station. (Terry B)

Dan Lott, Terry Breese, Kyle Sarnik and Shannon Sikora contributed greatly to a smooth running session.    With Dan stating the fact that he did not CRASH and Terry expressing his relief that he did OKAY, mostly, except the Reverse Loop turnout into Portland, Kyle’s quick repairs to the JMRI network as well as suffering through the Potash Hoppers and Shannon’s comment, “It was a great day,” after running four full trains along with two half-trains and a Local.  This vital group of “sailors” might have earned similar awards the the crew off of Samar with their Presidential Unit Citation, Silver Stars, Purple Hearts, Valor Stars, Navy Cross and a Medal of Honor (posthumous).  They all served well and it was noticed.

Like the Chief Engineering Officer and Assistant Engineering Office, John Christensen and Mike Donikowski mastered the entire Remote Division for the WAZU Railroad.  Mike was terrific at taking the helm of the Remotes without any prior training or experience.  He also assisted Chief John Christensen diagnose, repair and order supplies for an injured locomotive.  John’s patience and knowledge of the Remote Trains was on complete display and they will be honored along with the rest of the Krewe.

The good news – a long coal and oil train meet where I think they are supposed to. The bad news? They are running really, really late (Dan L)

About 3/4 of the way through the Session, most of the ten exhausted, but satisfied, men slumped around the layout antechamber (Dr. Andy’s desk), sweating, panting, but wearing triumphant grins.  They had done the work of fifteen men, and they hadn’t suffered a single derailment.  Maybe a few extra “shorts” and failures to reset switches, but still quite satisfying.

Just then, I hear a “bell sound” on my cell phone indicating a text message.  Wouldn’t you know it was Robert Raymond asking me to call him.  He had missed the session because he would be Trained-Out from the Convention.

Zach Bischoff

The man who made the trains run on time, whatever that was (Terry B)

The time variance authority (TVA) was on high alert, new multiverse branches were being created at an alarming rate. Their only weapon against the new branches was pruning, deletion. Reset.

First in line was the branch that contained our club secretary. This multiversal Robert had convinced his wife to go run trains after a fun filled 2 day train extravaganza. Not on our watch. Pruned.

Next in line was the branch that contained our club vice president. This multiversal Chris had created a Time Machine that has transported him a week into the past. It didn’t really work well because his mind was also transported. Not on our watch. Reset.

Then our interlocking master Matthew, for reasons unknown, ended up in a timeline that has him off dealing with things that didn’t involve trains. The TVA has not been able to prune this timeline yet, more to come on this.

Even the session got affected by the TVA. Jeff and Bob both started working trains before the clock went hot, and when it went hot, boy was it hot. 60 to 1 on the fast clock. TVA pressed reset and although the trains were unaffected, time did slow down to a respectable pace.

Later on, the railroad was eerily quiet. Only the lone 981 with engineer Terry was traversing the wild tundra of the WAZU. Not on our watch. “Attention all engineers, all trains run 1 hour early” came in crackling over the radio. The TVA at it again, forcing time to run faster, for whatever reason.

Bob’s Eye View of Hinkle Yard (Terry B)

Some notable other instances of TVA meddling:

TVA pruned the road foreman tasked with realigning the Pasco yard switch and setting up the derail. The result was a supersonic washing of the Lumber Jack and a welcome home tribute wash to Coast Guard 2.

TVA pruned the conductor of 156 as they left Portland leaving the switch aligned for the reversing loop much to the dismay of engineer Terry, who had to back up his train once over.

The TVA was working overtime on Dr Andy, keeping him on time and on schedule with the Lumber Jack.

In all seriousness, this was a good session. We ran everything despite being short operators.

Not sure what caused the JMRI issues at the start of the session but it sounded like it was just a loose wire.

I will say as dispatcher it was interesting running the coal and oil trains at the end of the session. It makes the middle of the session kind of bland, which I made up for by moving everything an hour earlier. (Although as time went forward this hour early turned into 1 hour late haha)

Thanks to Doc for having us out and to Bob for the ice cream. See you guys at the next one.

Dan Lott

Times are tough at the WAZU with recent layoffs (or maybe it was the NMRA conference). Even with promises of jambalaya, gumbo, and another batch of homemade ice cream, we only numbered 10 at the prebrief. It was going to be a light running day, perhaps too light? Adjustments had to be made. Coal and oil sat in yards (who needs power anyway?). A few locals mysteriously completed their jobs while time stood still. Then an entire load of lumber from Attalia teleported to Portland.

A lot of trains loiter in the yards at session start, attempting to adopt crews (Dan L)

If you’ve been to the train shows in DeLand, you’ll notice a certain time when things start to lighten up, usually around 12–1:30. It’s much easier to walk the aisles, and lunch starts calling. That was what the room was like during this ops session. I didn’t see a single person bend down and take “the underpass” from Pasco to the doorway. Warrants were also pretty easy to come by. When I ran 808, the reefer train, I only needed three warrants on my journey. I had one stop to meet a train, then did the swap in Walla Walla before bringing multiple lifetimes of French fries to market.

We were running smoothly, well, apart from when a #4 switch decided to pick every third car on your train, without a care in the world, frolicking through a meadow of daisies. But then our decadence started to catch up with us. First I forgot my cards in the yard room, then I subconsciously peer-pressured Shannon into doing the same. Switches left unthrown led to that wonderful sound that definitely doesn’t send a shiver up your spine: a Digitrax base station clicking. But in contrast to sessions long gone by, everyone kept a cool head, and we worked it out. I hope no decoders were harmed in the running of this ops session.

Overall, it was a great day: great food, great people, and a great session.

The railroad tests boats in the wash racks to see if they leak. Just another service of the WAZU – marine readiness. (Dan L)

Robert Raymond

I ate a really good omelet.

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A nice shot of coal meeting commitments on a class one railroad. Which isn’t the WAZU at all… (Robert R)