operations – Page 14 – Robert Raymond’s Blogtorium

March 19, 2024

OpsLog – TBL – 3/18/2024

hat? Didn’t I just have a session the other night? Yes I did, with friends, as reported HERE. But I had an urge to run (I was managing the tower all last session) and I wanted to run my SW-7 in a little more – it’s so sweet now with a Paragon 4 chip. So I set up the layout and ran after the work session was complete. Hey, I was out there anyway. Rather than the blow-by-blow I usually do, let me mention a new “scenario” for operations on my Pennsy line. Now, boomers on my line no the […]

March 25, 2024

OpsLog – Tusk Hill – 3/24/2024

Dear Mother, I’m happy to relate that my employment on some nameless Midlands railroad, specifically in the area of Tusk Hill Tower, is going swimmingly. I started as a controller, and my progression since then has been been astounding. Controller (as I said) to passenger train driver, to goods driver, to shunter. I’ve put in for a wiper job now that I’ve confirmed it has nothing to do with the WC. My career has been meteoric, specifically when one considered where impact craters come from. It was quite astounding to see how seven operators could run an eight-square-foot layout, moving […]

March 28, 2024

OpsLog – LM&O – 3/27/2024

kay, to be blunt. Operations stank last night. Stank to high heaven. Literally. I was told that some unexpected guests came in and they reeked of cat piss. Members were literally coming in to complain and to steal some of my fresh air. I considered sealing the airlocks and going to internal air. I suppose that people who live near pulp mills and canneries “get used to it”. So what, you have a sand dune of unchanged cat litter in your house? Thanks Steve for prompt fumigation efforts. Every session, something new. Now that we cleared the air, what happened […]

March 28, 2024

OpsLog – CSX Taft – 3/28/2024

ith our influx of new members, it takes a little getting used to: guys showing up at sessions sleep-deprived and/or hung over. Hey, that’s youth. But Chris Strecker invited me to run on his CSX today and after the massive session at the club last night, detailed HERE, we went out with Yardmaster Zack for a late night meal. I just had a beer. But I didn’t get home until 2am and the alarm went off at 7:15am – time to head to breakfast with Chris and then the CSX Taft Yard! So yes, we both looked like used food […]

April 25, 2024

OpsLog – LM&O – 4/24/2024

he moon dapples the western Pennsylvanian hills with splashes of silver. All is still. Suddenly there arises a low rumble and large slabs of forest slowly part, sliding away, the wire armatures of Bill White fake trees twanging. An exposed lair. And then a dark shape vaults into the sky! It’s the Dispatchocopter! Whirling along like a large, dark, criminal-fear-inspiring bat, Eastern Dispatcherman rides the night air, having left his ward Western Dispatcherboy in charge of the railroad. His mission – to combat the confusion that holds the Lehigh, Monongahela & Ohio Railroad in its deadly grip. The Robert-button has […]