o we had a wonderful rainy-day run on the WAZU in the Pacific Northwest.

It started off with Doc Andy attempting to one-up Bob Gross’s legendary lunches with his own personal Chef, Philippe “Bon-bon” Klauck, who provided us with a pulled-pork lunch with all the fixing, and homemade ice cream for the debrief. Used to be that I’d toss out a couple of sacks of oreos. Now, on the Tuscarora, I point to the club galley area and remind operators that everything’s a dollar. So yes, that culinary performance upstaged everything. Hard to think how we could top lunch.

Gentlemen, start your engines! Midnight in Portland (Photo: Leonard J)

DS Zach in total totalitarian control. Our success was from his efforts (Photo: John C)

But top it we did. Doc gave the briefing and only then did the dispatcher show up, stepping from his personal shiny limousine to conduct our sound-check (and yes, the disruptive element was confirmed to be off the air). Since time waits for no man, especially on the WAZU where the clocks run off radioactive isotopes and cannot be paused, we jumped in at session midnight and rolled out.

Zach was dispatching and moving the traffic in his usual efficient manner. I ran 525 and 815, being Mr. Manifest, I guess. I also ran the Walla-Walla turn between the two.To my surprise, I went out like a lamb (six cars) and came back like a lion (twenty-three cars). Doc saw me returning to Hinkle and asked where my other engine was (he thought I was a manifest).

But yes, everyone ran sharp and sweet. People were helping each other and the remotes were running cleanly (except for fouling on the trestle, which says a lot. Mike D could even get his Chinese spy balloon car through those things). It was interesting at the 2/3rds mark – that when the railroad really gets the most busy (that’s when the Hinkle Yard disaster took place last time). This time, I noticed that when people stepped on each other’s communications, there was a long pause as they politely sorted it out. I even saw it – two guys transmitted, they looked up and spotted each other, one nodded “go”, the other spoke). Given the fact that the WAZU coms are equivalent to a hog auction, we got through things just fine.

Lunch is served! (Photo: Bon-bon Klauck)

Zeus arrived late and, hearing that there was free pulled-pork, made a terrible mistake in Attalia. He’ll be okay. (Photo: John C)

Doc’s clinic must have been built on an Indian burial ground. Two derailments on different levels (Photo: Dan L)

Overall, it’s great to see both the WAZU and the LM&O to work out their kinks. If we could get the FEC’s yard phone back into operations, and that coal guy on the TBL to settle down, well, my job on Earth would be done and I could  rapture up to my twenty-seven versions (I don’t quite understand that last bit. I might have heard it wrong). But yes, solid running by ONT.

The debrief, as mentioned, as tasty-good with Bob’s ice cream. This time, the only excruciating headaches came from eating it too fast.

We’re looking forward to another session, possibly on the last Sunday of September. I think Doc is going to roast a pig in the parking lot for this one.

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The debrief. Having ice cream was better than last time, when we had “I scream”. Photo: John C)

I’ll get you, my pretty! (Photo: John C)

Bob Klauck: Chef. Yardmaster. Piano tuner. No end to this guy’s skills. (Photo: Dan L)