time

February 24, 2023

On Sheet – Tuscarora Realization!

ddest thing. We’ve been running my diminutive Tuscarora Branch Line for two an a half years. Now, this tiny layout runs under Time Table & Train Orders (a method where trains follow their timetables but modify their efforts based on train orders from the dispatcher). Now, I’m not going to say that we’re perfect in our execution of the method – selective compression and all that. But it seemed to work and everyone likes the sessions. Orders got passed. It felt “railroady”. So, here’s the actual track schematic on the west side of the railroad. Westly is the coal mine (and while […]
March 23, 2023

Out of Time (DOG EAR)

n Google Maps, look up “Colonial Photo & Hobby” (in Orlando). The street it’s on (on the east face) is 17-92, or Mills Avenue. On a day too cold to ride a bike, I put on my walking shoes and my floppy hat and walked a section of it- I had an errand to run (north of there) and something to get at that hobby shop. Also, there is coffee on the return trip (Frameworks, on 17-92 and Lake Highland, about a mile north). So I had to walk down and then back up 17-92. First off, it’s pretty much […]
April 21, 2023

On Sheet – It don’t come easy

get a lot of complements (and bragging rights) from my dispatching. I’ve sat down cold in many, many sessions and made the railroad jump. I’m blessed at being good at something I really enjoy. But it didn’t come easy. Sure, years ago I was the hot-shot dispatcher in the Orlando Round Robin group (the big fish in the poop pond). Most of our dispatching was mother-may-I (which is a very simple way of dispatching where the dispatcher tells the trains (often by the engineer’s first name) where to go and what to do). If you are just starting out (or […]
June 15, 2023

OpsLog – LM&O – 06/14/2023

ight has fallen and the chill has sunk in between the low Zanesville hills. The auto plant is humming as is the furniture factory (a pity since the local never showed up today). And me? I’m stuck in this rotting tower, most of the levers out of service, nothing but a second story train order office. Looking west, I suddenly see a headlight stabbing out of Below Notman tunnel. I check the watch – 7:30 PM. That means… to the east, the low form of a drag freight comes around the raised hillock under the GM plant. I lift up […]
July 20, 2023

Time in ReTyrement (DOG EAR)

ne thing that the wags are quick to point out is how much spare time I have in retirement. Yes, after thirty years of programming and management, I’m apparently lounging on a Nile barge, eating grapes, looking out over vast horizons and sighing. Or something like that. Let’s see. Right after I retired, the world went to shit with Covid. During that time, I built a brand new layout (fundamentally different from everything). I also biked about 4000 miles. And I reffed a role playing game online, and hosted a Scurvy Dice game weekly. Then, as Covid went into the […]
December 1, 2023

On Sheet – TT&MMI

ou’ve all heard me go on endlessly about TT&TO (Time Table and Train Order). I love the idea that the operators are forced to put more skin in the game, to read their rules, understand how the railroad works, and consider what moves they will make. On my Tuscarora Branch Lines, we do run TT&TO with pre-printed orders. My operators will hoop them but will not consider what they say sometimes. For example, in the session last week, we had an extra coal movement departing Easton (the eastern end of my little division). Right behind him was a scheduled train, […]