The States Train on the low deck, stored with love and care for a better time. (Dan L)

hey used to say that there are a thousand stories in the naked city. I’d respond by saying – first – put some pants on. I don’t want to see that. And second – that it’s very true for a model railroad op sessions. We’re basically in four places (dispatcher office, Portland and Spokane staging room, remote operations room, and the main layout room). So, even though most of us are in one place (with flock camera coverage across the entire area), it seems that we don’t know WTF is going on.

I got called for crew service, basically two freights (525 and 815 (two manifests (you know, Doc, trains are generally named a little less randomly))) and Local W (the Walla-Walla local job). So I’d be in the layout room, which ain’t that big. But even with two-and-a-half hours of wiggling past others, asking for switches to be thrown, trying to see through people to check switch alignment and wondering where the damn Oreos were, I still can’t tell you everything that happened. I know there were moments of crisis, belly-laughing comedy, annoying derailments, and some unknown saboteur who kept shutting the power off to the layout. Yes, I rerailed a passenger train, I threw the “M” turnout a dozen times, ran my manifest hot on the tail of another and had to wait for Shannon’s Lumbering-Jack job to get the heck out of my way. I watched with pride as my wife ran past with a remote train and listened to all the radio chatter. I even watched the wonderfully impractical State Train run across the line. Yes, lots happened to me, but more happened around me. And I simply didn’t notice it. Some blogger.

But, of course, you can’t make this poop up.

So, first thing, the Cheney Meet. Dispatcher Zack was in the session’s twilight, about 6pm or so, and ended up with four trains trying to get around each other at Cheney. Two east manifests (second back was me) meeting a long oil train and a west manifest. Even though Cheney has lots of yard capacity, it was totally jammed in that Doc Andy way. The only track without standing cars was occupied by a idling local, the crew off for beans. So this four-by meet only had a somewhat long main and siding to work it out.

I’ll say this – Zach took a gutsy roll of the dice to have this work. Monday morning quarterbacking this (literally on a Monday in a coffee shop), perhaps holding the east manifest at Pasco would have been a more conservative move. But he tossed them all into Cheney and they squeaked by. I’ll admit to being rather impressed by this move.

On the main (outside track) you have one manifest (upper right) and my own one (foreground), tucking up. Meanwhile, a tank train prepares to depart while another manifest comes up behind it. Congestion and gasoline – what’s not to love? (John C)

Less impressive was Zach getting hoisted on his own “state” train, a monster-long iron glacier of a move that didn’t fit anywhere and forced saw-bys wherever it went. John Christensen was in the cab of that one, and he got ordered into the siding at Walla-Walla (a location, if you were paying attention, that I would locally work later that session). So John pulled in as far as he could for a meet but was still fouling the trailing turnout. Not good – a deadlock. His solution for “working it out on the ground” was to nose into the Amcor plant spur. Still fouling. Again, Monday-morning this, he might have tried to break his train into one of the many trailing spurs. And break the train he did, in a way that defies logic.

And this defilement is basically an impossibility. There is no way you could break a train into several facing point turnouts. Not only that, he was still a wee-bit short of clearing the main, and to get that final thirty feet or so, he evidently picked up the car finishing its loading on the Amcor dock and tossed it into the weeds. Good solution, John.

Anyone know how this is possible? The yellow car fated to vanish has been pushed to the bumper (John C)

I was only aware that the States Train was now serving as a Canadian border wall of sorts – it simply couldn’t get out into the flow for some time. Eventually it did.

Cut to my limited worldview aboard the eleventh-hour Local W, serving all things Walla-squared. Sure, I worked my way over from the Army depot, and did the various trailing points as I came into town. Dropped my cut on a runaround track so they’d be out of the way for when I got to Amcor for my final work. Three cars to drop. Quick mainline runaround for the push in. Smooth. Dropped the cards into the box and found an outbound card for a car that wasn’t there. Looked up the sidings carefully (there is a bit of an overhang there (heck, half of the Wazu is overhangs). Nothing. Well, not there means not there – paperwork failure. So I ran back to the far end of Walla^2 and grabbed my string of outbounds. Saw Doc over the backdrop and mentioned the missing car. He looked around and then raised a yellow boxcar and paper. “This one?”

The arrow shows where I expected the car to be. Circled, it’s where it was. (Dan L)

Given that this is a “family blog”, my answer was incredulous and expletive.  I came around to see just where it had been. And that’s when I found that John (late of the States Train) had “shunted” (rhymes with “punted”) it well off the spur, off in the weeds.

Yeah, so John, in ways, model railroad operations are like soccer. No hands, you know? If the dispatcher tells you to do something that cannot be done, the correct answer is to pick up the radio and say, “Houston, we have a problem”.

My blame-painting aside (hey, I’m just looking for amusing content), it was really a good session. The beginning flowed smooth as it could, with a traffic buildup at the end making things spicy (just as our crew meal, prepped by Doc and Klauck, filled our bellies and made everyone sated and sleepy). It was a great session and we all had a fun time getting through our maximum-capacity railroading. Hats off to Doc and his MOW crew for setting up and hosting another great run-n-fun.

And thanks to Matthew who kept my wife informed and instructed.

Great work, guys!

>>>BOOKS, BOOKS, BOOKS!<<<

Dispatcher Zach in his lair, watching his evil plans come to fruition. (Leonard J)