Weekend Photo Fun 5/5/17 HONGZ

An old photo here of the lake area of my layout.

The HO layout in the Black Hall at York.....

Peter

N5CJonny posted:

An old photo here of the lake area of my layout.

Your pond looks fantastic.

Great picture's guys keep them coming!!! 

wild mary posted

Your pond looks fantastic.

Thanks Nick!

Had a wonderful Timetable and Train Order Operating Session on my Spokane Southern last night.  There were eight participants, plus the writer. 

At the start of the session, there were six trains to "dog catch".  My sessions continue where the last session left off.  My last session was four weeks ago. 

The photo below at the start of the session is in my town of Bessemer ID.  Extra NP 6014A East is on the main, and has orders to meet Extra GN 2023 West.  Bob and Tom are studying their orders, and the timetable, since there is a first class passenger train, #15 heading west towards them. 

Extra GN 2023 West had a special instruction from the operator to pick up five log cars from Rayonier siding in Bessemer.  The local that was supposed to pick up those cars last session didn't do so because of a paperwork error (an oversight from the "traffic department", ie, me ).  Extra NP 6014 West had already departed, and #15 had went through when this photo was taken. 

#15, the westward North Coast Hiawatha just crossed Tenshodo Gorge, and is heading for his stop at the vacation resort town of Kirsten Mills.  This train was 11 minutes late leaving St. Regis, so he has some time to make up. 

Train #4 is the eastward Southwestern Star, with a GN S-2 class 4-8-4 on the point. 

There was a scheduled meet between two first class passenger trains, #4, the eastward Southwestern Star, and #15, the westward North Coast Hiawatha.  By timetable, Eastward trains are superior.  The photo is taken facing north.  Which train is where it doesn't belong?  One of the crew members can be seen with the timetable trying to figure out who was in violation of the rules.  The good news, nobody died, and everybody involved laughed.  Photos were taken documenting the event. 

A lot of the fun doing these sessions is the good natured ribbing that the offending party gets, and like I said, everybody laughs, and we all have fun. 

Towards the end of the session, we ended up with four trains at Bessemer at one time.  None of the crew members did anything wrong, they knew there were scheduled meets, the guys that had to meet were not aware that the siding, AND the drill track for the yard were both occupied.  The dispatcher should have held the westward train in the previous town, Worley, for the meet, instead of Bessemer.  Since all trains were running slow knowing a meet was going to occur, nobody died once again, and three of the four crew members of the trains had to sort out the situation, which took about 30 minutes on the fast clock. 

Our dispatcher is hard at work dictating a train order to the Operator, who sits in the other room in my basement where my new extension arrives. 

At the end of the session, Engineer Lloyd ties down Extra 5509 East at Moravia, which is known as the "Worley Turn" to the regular crews.  The motive power on this train is a TTT-6 that the Spokane Southern purchased from the Union Pacific.  We purchased a group of 10 of these locomotives, and got them for a song.  They will wallow away their last days before succumbing to the scrappers torch in 1955. 

Since I restarted operating sessions on 29-July-2016, we had completed 9 sessions.  The railroad is a LONG way from completion as can be seen in the photos, but that doesn't keep any of us from having fun, and sharing good times and laughs.  Something new is always done on the layout before the next session, and having these sessions keeps me energized to constantly move the ball closer to the goal line. 

By the way, due to delays, #15 arrived 56 minutes late into Spokane. 

Regards.

Jerry

Laborer, 3rd Shift, Worley Shops