Bear Creek and South Jackson Operations - BC&SJ III Op Sessions - April 12, 2014
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Bear Creek and South Jackson Operations - BC&SJ III Op Sessions - April 12, 2014
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April 12, 2014 |
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Saturday, April 12, 2014 The second op session of 2014 was supposed to be in February. It got snowed out. Then it was supposed to be in March. That was cancelled due to the plague. Finally in April wheels rolled again on the BC&SJ. A group of 18 boomers assembled in the Bear Creek valley, anxious to run trains. Last September the Bear Creek switched from using TWC (track warrants) to TT&TO (time table and train orders). We had a few sessions then took December off for the Christmas season and resumed operrations in January 2014. In the two month hiatus I managed to build the benchwork for and lay the next mile of mainline bringing the total, non-staging, mainline run to three scale miles. This was the second session on the enlarged layout. Once again, the extra mile of mainline and the addition of a siding at what will eventually become the Bear Creek yard made a distinct difference in operation. But in April, after a 3 month layoff it was interesting trying to remember how to run under TT&TO. We did manage to get it figured out. The crew continues to improve in their ability to run this way. It's certainly a more hands-on thing for the crews than TWC - decisions as to whether to head for the next station or stay put are in the crew's hands making it more exciting (nerve-wracking) than obeying track warrants. The session would have been better however, if the Superintendent of Nearly Everything hadn't set up the initial train orders in February, then forgotten what he'd done in April when he wrote the train line up. Somehow, Extra 27 West went missing in the train line up. Being an extra, this wouldn't have been a problem except that train 200 had a meet with it at South Jackson. Train 200 also had a following section which couldn't get into South Jackson until the first section had passed. We hurriedly found a crew for X27W and ran it up the hill from Pocatello and things started moving again. But this faux-pas made quite a lump in the scheme of things with ripples lasting until well into the session. I guess in the future I'd better do all the session setup at once! The company photographer managed to take some photos. Selected shots are presented here for your enjoyment. Click 'em to expand 'em. Charlie Comstock Superintendent of Nearly Everything The Bear Creek and South Jackson Railway Co. |