Monday, February 11, 2013

Op Session #8 Recap

The first operating session of 2013 is in the books. The session had more than its fair share of bumps and fits and starts.

With the long layoff since the last session, getting back into the swing of things was a tough road to take.

I had made a few changes to the schedule; one of the big ones being removing the times from the dispatcher's sheet. (Big mistake)

We forgot to run the fast clock, but without the schedule meaning anything, that wasn't that big of a deal.

The upper level was somewhat in service; still need to finish trackwork in spots and power a few sections.

JMRI crashed again; I had replaced the PR3 with a RR-Cirkits Locobuffer and it seemed to be working fine but about 2/3 of the way through the session, it crashed, needing a reboot.

Of course, the changes that I had made to the panel to accommodate some new signals were lost on the reboot.

Had a set of points break in the yard that required a 10 minute power off to resolve; was able to patch them together, but they require some more thorough rework.

I've got a pretty long list of fix-me's and tweaks to make, starting with updating the schedule.

Attendees:
Keith S
Wayland M
Mike P
Dick M
Doug B
Don W
Scott L
Bryce L

A few pictures follow; as I didn't do anything but put out fires, pictures are sparse.


Keith works the panel while training Wayland

The yard crew (Dick on left, Mike on far right) discuss something with road engineer Doug

The grandpa/grandson crew perform a move

Dick works hard getting cars sorted

An intermodal holds the main as a coal drag detours through the yard.

The first CB&W Interchange run heads down the main to Acca

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Op Session #8 Saturday

Been since last June that I have had an operating session on the railroad.

I have a crew of 7 showing up Saturday afternoon to put the railroad through its paces.

I'm going to try to have 2 industry spots plus the interchange on the upper level in play for the session, but it will probably depend on when I can get out of the office on Friday so I can test and complete a few things.

Should be a fun time!