Train Blog
April 2, 2023
hat a horrifically bad train show! I woke up feeling good about going to a train show after all my missed-events. But then Sparky got pulled over while pulling the trailer and the cop demanded a roadside inspection and wrote us up for five infractions. And First Coast club took half our layout space! And then set up took two hours – how many ways can we put the layout together in wrong order? By the time it was up, attendees were standing around our build-area, silently watching like ghouls as we screamed at each other. After that, there was […]
March 31, 2023
as writing another blog and saw some of my train pictures there. Got me to smiling, remembering the moments this hobby has given me. So this week, I’m just going to break out my slide projector and show off some operational moments… Anyway, that’s just a pick from the many, many happy sessions I’ve attended. Thanks to the hosts, to the guests, and to all those who make this hobby what it is! >>>AND, YEAH, BOOKS FOR SALE HERE<<<
March 27, 2023
hat a difference a day makes. In this case, the “day” that existed between last op session and this one. Everyone grabbed the same jobs as last time and, really, everyone improved immensely. It might not have been apparent but from the Waterbury Tower, things were really under control. My locals were following orders and moving out of the way of the passenger trains (which we ran this time, unlike last time). Freights ran when they were supposed to. They did what they needed to do. The jobs wrapped up quickly (well, except for Zach, who decided to spend half […]
March 26, 2023
ame into the yard shed for the Florida East Coast today, looking to improve running the Trim job (which I did a lukewarm effort on last time). Now was my chance. I’d show them. I’d show them all… Just at the end of the off-spot track, I noticed an engine and what looked like a wreck train. When I asked Ken about it, he glanced at the dispatcher (Doug) and shushed me with a wink. Ah hah. Someone was getting a surprise. So the first part of this OpsLog deals with the Trim (which is a job that hostels engines […]
March 24, 2023
rom my Throne of Power (i.e. the P&WV dispatcher’s seat), I told Tom Wilson (when he turned on the layout video cameras), quote: “I don’t need such idle toys. A real dispatcher does not rely on them.” And when a visitor entered my keep just before the clock went hot and commented on the magnetic board for train markers, I laughed (“Moohahaha”) and said, “Puny engineer. I shall use the train sheet. A real dispatcher does not use such toys.” And then the session started and everything went to shit. I had two locals who went out to Avella and […]
March 24, 2023
his isn’t really a bit on ops, but on scenery, model railroading, and weird coincidences. So I was getting ready to put my one paved road on the Tuscarora. It was to run from an N-scale scene in the front, across a grade crossing (engineers will be expected to sound warning the first time through, then a crossing guard takes over) and then drop down to Z-scale (where appropriate buildings are tucked into a tight wooded valley). That was the plan. I got the grade crossing in okay. For the road, I looked at a lot of ideas online and […]
March 23, 2023
kay, let’s break down the disasters into two primary events. The Dispatcher Panel: There is a bug somewhere (I think it comes from double-clicking someplace you shouldn’t). It crashes the program. I never see it. Bob Martin used to get it maybe once in every other session. Cub dispatcher Steve got it about five times tonight. That meant we had to reset the board and try to remember where the trains were. It also threw off Steve’s careful lineup of warrants (he’d figured the first four hours of issued warrants before the session started). But then again, no plan survives […]
March 20, 2023
ith a combination of sweet-talking and blackmail, I managed to get Kyle to take the DS seat on the WAZU Line and fly into the maelstrom of mother-may-I, controlling the sprawling, confusing, and statically-cracking division. Me, I got to run trains (which I do every couple of months). So, with my new-found freedom, I busted out of Hinkle Yard (four fast-minutes early; you’d think Yardmaster Sparky was having a baby; such screaming). It was a quick run to Umatilla and after some quick switching, a quicker run down to Walla Walla. And that was fun – a long siding with […]
March 18, 2023
y order of the dispatcher, I’d dismounted from my CSX switch engine and walked down the industrial siding. A flat car was being worked by a crew off a remote loading dock. Then an off-spot box car. And then the center of the crisis, an industrial loading dock. At it sat a boxcar and a reefer, the latter’s refrigerator engine running with nobody home to unload it. The Brotherhood of Knuckledraggers 107 had walked off the job. And worried about the time this car could run off it’s internal tanks, the railroad had set me down to check it out. […]
March 17, 2023
‘ve recently seen some fusses online about small layout designs. While some critique should always be welcome, criticism shouldn’t be. I’m a big proponent of small layouts. Sure, if your house is located on an division-sized bomb shelter, you can afford to throw out your minimum radii and ladder-lengths. But for the rest of us, it’s all about cramming as much railroad as we can in a tight space. In a sense, it is an art form. Anyone can do the Sistine Chapel with a roller-brush and a Sherman-Williams account. But doing a Wedgewood portrait pin takes a certain attention […]