West Coast Visitors

This past Thursday we had the great pleasure and honor to host two friends from California. Mark Richardson is a member of our ACWRR Historical Society and has attended several of our annual meets. He is well versed in the miniature military modeling including N scale ACWRR T-Trak modules, HO rolling stock and currently he is building a 1/130 scale aircraft carrier! Man of many talents, Mark is also a Civil War Re-enactor. He was on an east coast trip with his friend Rick who had two speaking engagements, one out near Valley Forge and the other in Albany. Rick's topic is based on his book of a NY Volunteer regimental history. Being this far east, Mark asked for a visit and if we could accommodate an operating session. A few of my reliable friends came with short notice. If you been here before you have seen Martin, Dave and Jimmy.
Left to right... Dave, Jimmy, Martin, Rick and Mark!

 

 

The ATLANTA SHIFT

After two operations sessions it came to pass that one aisle was unacceptable. Although I thought I had planned the scheduling efficiently enough, the reality of UNplanned consequences take shape. I discussed a few possibilities to minimize and not overcompensate to expand the aisle. After some consternations and reassurance from a couple of reliable friends, we decided to cut!First I took a few days to clear the deck underneath the section. Fortunately I have plenty of friends including members of the Garden State Central Model Railroad Club and those who have been contributors over the past 10 plus years.

Here is a time-lapse shot by good friend Andy Salcius of the ATLANTA SHIFT. You will see initial planning, then Ray appears with his saws-all... it felt extreme, like being at a field hospital and the doc says, "Just amputate!" Shortly after, you see the crew appear. Not knowing how difficult the shift would be I invited about 10 fellas. At first I though 4-6 would be sufficient. But given all the unexpected shift encounters I could conjure up, 10-12 was best. This was an affirmation on good planning... hours, and it paid off as the actual maneuver took about 1 minute.

https://youtu.be/WyrxSlqehII

Operations Session

February 21 the W&A hosted its first official ops session! Long time coming it has been. We were honored to have six friends partner up in crews of two, one engineer with a brakeman. 7:00 PM crew members arrived to orient themselves to their schedules and plan their ways of working. 7:30 the clock started and everyone was completed by 9:15. Of course there were many breakdowns that were communicated to the superintendent, providing LOTS of maintenance work orders. But this is to be expected, although he (I) was more disappointed than expected. Bottom line is that it appeared all had a fabulous time.  
Engineers were responsible for operating the locos. Brakemen had responsibilities for coupling, re-railing cars when necessary and ensuring switches were set accurately. 
The schedules were challenging in that the timing of arrivals caused negotiations in order to ensure that their respective time tables were successfully met. 
The image below, with a Yankee who somehow infiltrated as a brakeman, shows Paul with Jimmy at the throttle. Shortly after this shot, another consist came barreling through with DC at the throttle causing one of those "challenging" situations. However, when considering this is 1863, trains were constantly running at all times in order to meet both military and civilian demands. Hence, this was quite prototypical. However, schedule adjustments will be made for the next session.

This next photo has brakeman Christopher questioning engineer Martin's instructions on how best to build their consist in Chattanooga. Martin is a veteran engineer and Christopher... well, this was his first time in this role. He had a steep learning curve, and did quite well.

Below, my good friend from high school and college, Dave Eberhardt, is on his maiden run as a first time brakeman with DC at the throttle. Dave had a layout in the '70's, my first experience helping to build structures and learn a few basics. Here they are building their consist in Atlanta. 

This one below is the opening of the session, two crews setting up their respective runs.

Prior to this evening, one of our favorite modelers and friends, Brian Kammerer visited. It had been quite some time since his last appearance. He did not like a bird I had set into the backdrop because of the shadow. So in his nature for clean imaging, we were able to get him to add a small flock of crows to the backdrop, the latter which he had painted in the early days of layout construction. So good it was to have his rare visit to the W&A. Here is a link to his art work http://www.cwbattlemapart.com 

DC arrived early to complete his scratch build of a prototype fire house in Chattanooga. "Look what I did!" And it is ridiculously exquisite! 

Shorty after, he wanted to see the cars he had built for his own future layout run on our W&A. All was well until he begin to uncouple. He pulled the pins, however, the links were a bit tight in the coupler pockets. As he pulled one car off it pulled the next... HO dominoes resulted! Although there were a couple of casualties, they were easily repaired. Lesson-do NOT uncouple on elevations!

This ops event was a much welcomed achievement given we've been at this since 2003! Using the hindsight factor, I would have ... but hindsight also says there is only so much planning; best is to get into it and be open to learn, adjust and have great friends to share the joy along the way.