The 7th
Operating Session is in the books. We forgot everything we knew over the
summer and stumbled into the roundhouse at the end. Great friends make
great times and it was a joy to see everyone again.
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| (Curly, Larry & Moe) Larry, Mario, Niel, Gene, and Bob hard at work. |
Tim couldn’t make it so
Larry filled in for him. We also had a guest observer, Niel, who wanted to
learn about operations. Most of the session went very well but this time around
we seemed to have periods where one crew (Mario/Larry) or the other (Bob/Gene)
went un-busy. I’ll have to work on that (but it can be difficult due to the
unknown requirements of freight orders generated for the day’s runs).
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| Gene looking for an engine. |
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| Mario & Larry trying to uncouple cars behind the refinery. |
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| Who says yard work can't be fun? This is the smaller South Woodbury Yard. |
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Larry watching WY33, the
Millville local, heading south out of Woodbury.
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Post Mortem: The Red Oak
tower crew did well with the waybills. The only discrepancy I could find with
them was 4 waybills in the Westville card holder instead of the cardholder in
North Woodbury.
The Brown crew (Camden
Pavonia Yard) left me totally baffled. Only one string of cars was left on the
correct track and I can’t tell if the cars on the Millville local track belong
there or on the Millville terminal track. They are fortunate that I have run
out of demerits to give them. :-)
My Pennsylvania-Reading
Seashore Lines layout is based in the early 1950s but we have been running a
1974 freight schedule because that was all I had found at the time. Recently I
became aware of a 1954 freight schedule and was puzzled by an extra freight to
Millville (now there were 3) which I didn’t understand.
The old heads on the
PRSL Historical Society informed me the train was referred to as the “sand hog”
and did no local switching since it was about 100 cars long. So now I have to
add another train to my schedule. As a kid, I was always about a block away the
tracks and remembered all the 50’ gons loaded with sand. I could never figure
out why anyone needed sand and why you would want to move it (and what kept it
from blowing out of the cars?). But this was the post WWII era and construction
was booming with all the returning servicemen starting families and building
homes. Concrete (sand+) was also needed in the massive road constructions
following the war and the glass industry was booming. So off to eBay to add to
my available gondolas (the front 4 are recent additions).
Larry came bearing
gifts. The 5 leftmost sand loads are the work of his hands (the 2 rightmost
were Hay Brothers loads I already had). The model “sand hog” is well underway.
