Train Blog
May 24, 2026
ell, it was a week full of sucking, specifically inlaws sucking cash and me siphoning water from a blown washing machine (which will also suck cash). And eyeball surgery, which made my vision a bit “off”, which sucks, too. And then there was the sucky second-guessing conversation about when, specifically, in the PM this session would take place. So I wasn’t sure if I was going to come or just sit at home and try to read anime subtitles. But I got three offers for rides out (since my driving kinda sucks right now, too) and accepted Terry B’s gracious […]
May 18, 2026
his time, I’m letting the owner blog his own piece for his own layout. Really, it was a nice write-up and I didn’t have anything to go with (other than being the “bad cop” in the debrief when everyone was blowing sunshine up Doc’s ass). But I liked it, asked him, and he said I could quote him. So, here’s what Doc had to say. Thanks to the Krewe of WAZU for making our little re-boot a fun and enjoyable event. Special Thanks goes to “Shoeless” Bob for making the sacrifice to work his shift even though he was dealing […]
May 14, 2026
t was the sort of club night you join a train club to enjoy. Sure, there was a little politicking and back-biting going in. But hey, had a nice dinner with friends and then headed over. It was an open night – no carding, no MOW, just hanging out. And since I’m not sure what my attendance will be in the coming days, I decided to run a furnace job in ops. Now, one thing you gotta understand – the ops committee is trying to tighten up requirements on what can run in the mill. We’ve assembled over the last […]
May 10, 2026
OLLISION AHEAD 22 MILES. RIGHT TWO LANES BLOCKED. I didn’t like the looks of this electric sign while driving I-4 to the Komars’ West Virginia Northern session. Maybe they’d clean it up before I got there. Maybe. Was wondering if I should just get off Warpath One and let my funky GPS work me around it. Sipped my mocha and considered. Came over that ridge where you see open expanse to the west, with two bridges soaring over the highway. First thing I saw – a couple of CSX engines blowing along, general freight – MT hoppers, loaded ballast, some intermodals, couple […]
May 3, 2026
alking across the weedy gravel of Bound Brook yard, stepping over rails and making my way to my waiting train. My brakeman is up on the nose running board, hanging out the X271 number board, slotting in the white flags. We’ve got a fast extra freight to Cincy. As I climb aboard with my no-orders clearance card, I gotta smile at the newby dispatcher -he cut me the order yet didn’t insult an old hogger like me by telling me to hold for 202 to arrive (which would have been a touch insulting). I’d have bet that a first-time DSer running […]
April 24, 2026
t took me ninety minutes to get to the club on my drive out. My adventure involved a missing man, a roadside emergency, a diversion to pick up a member, a missing key, a missing dinner, a found key, and then 6pm Colonial Drive traffic. And then there was the layout failing to come up inexplicably, of Kyle and myself rushing about as people checked engines, and finally a solution (sorta) that we are not sure about. And THEN, when we finally got to run, my Pennsy F’s which had run so nice on Monday’s test ran faulted and sputtered […]
April 19, 2026
ince we had Deland behind us and a spare weekend, and Zeus was hammering me for a Tusk Coast session, we set up for a Saturday and made it a clubhouse open house for general members. Some did show up but my attention was locked on my Tuscarora. It was a busy summer day on our railroading epic. Of course, Zeus couldn’t be found the day before an I had no confirmation of what he’d bring for his ACL version of my railroad so I printed up Pennsy switchlists and set up with that in mind. We started with […]
April 12, 2026
nother train show way up in Deland, and all you can say, it’s not getting any closer, or later in the morning. We decided to switch drivers going in, if only to throw off the KGB (seriously, over-scheduling difficulties, but it worked out fine). John W was our set-up boss and we set up with a solid crew in sharp time. We did have problems with a full booster (remember what Steve told you about consisting? This is what it looks like. We’re going to have to work with Kyle to clear it). And there was Mike with a dead […]
March 30, 2026
un little hang-out with Kyle S today at the club – he invited me in for a test-running/conceptional-thinking of his new Sarntalbahn line, a layout constructed largely of T-Trak (and kinda T-Trak) modules. So the way it is organized – the larger station, Sarntalbahn, is on one side, and on the other, Wilnau. Sarntalbahn is a larger rail yard, all turnouts manual (presumably they have the personnel for that) whereas Wilnau is a line-station, a small passenger building with a couple of light industries. And Wilnau is going to be CTC controlled (Kyle had a working interlocking/CTC board for it […]
March 28, 2026
fter the complete railroad spin-cycle from last night, I rode out to Cocoa to run on Jack Ferguson’s Yosemite Valley Railroad. And this was just what I needed – easy going sequential ops with some interesting switching and no screaming operators or scribbled warrants. Just what the railroad surgeon ordered. Anyway, I got to run the yard first thing while new-comer Mark D ran our first massive train in. Broke it up nicely in the yard – good thing it was semi-blocked and went apart easily. Once I got the first train done, I sent the John out with it. And […]