Click images to Enlarge:
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Photos of February 26, 2008 Ops |
| It's Tax Season at my office, but it is still operating season on the C&M. We ended up with a small crew (small only in number, not is operating expertise and other attributes!), as we had a couple of operator cancellations. So we ended up with 5 visiting operators plus the partners |
| The Operators We had the killer "J's" in the yardmaster positions: The Grand Rapids Yardmaster was Jeff Osborn (his first time as GR yardmaster) and the Mackinaw City yardmaster was Jim Radkey (he did the MC yardmaster job last in the January Op/LDS ops session). The other operators were John Blunden, Rod Smith and Andy Schnur. The Superintendent Bob Osborn was the dispatcher and a road operator. Dispatching was a breeze with the lower number of operators so Bob had a chance to "run some trains" as well as keeping cornfield meets to a minimum. Here are some pictures: |
| Statistics: The total number of cars moved was 270 in a total of 22 different trains: 2 1st class passenger trains 2 2nd class Fast Freights 11 turns (out and back) 3 PRR interchanger's 3 boat interchanger's (estimated - out and back) Online customer deliveries and pick ups totalled 83 cars at industrial sidings (not including the Walton Junction and Kalkaska Branch setouts/pickups) and in addition, we even picked up/setout a total of 11 express loads in our passenger operations. |
| Click images to Enlarge: |
| The move of the day: |
| Here is the dispatcher! Actually, the Superintendent was the dispatcher and he dispatched while he was running away from the tracks). didn't crash into anyone, despite the dispatcher! |
Here is Rod working the
inaugural Walton
Junction Grain Train.
The Grain Job left
Grand Rapids yard and
went to Walton Junction
where it "worked" the
Northern Michigan
Framers Co-Op.
inaugural Walton
Junction Grain Train.
The Grain Job left
Grand Rapids yard and
went to Walton Junction
where it "worked" the
Northern Michigan
Framers Co-Op.
| Here you can see the empty covered hoppers being pushed loading shed. Rod indicated that it took about 1-2 minutes (fast time) to load each covered hopper. |
After loading, the Grain
Cadillac, heading south
on its way to the Grand
Rapids yard, where the
GR yardmaster will
switch the loaded cov.
hoppers into a PRR
interchanger to move
south to Fort Wayne.
Cadillac, heading south
on its way to the Grand
Rapids yard, where the
GR yardmaster will
switch the loaded cov.
hoppers into a PRR
interchanger to move
south to Fort Wayne.
| The first killer "J" was Jeff who took The first killer "J" was Jeff who took the GR yard and he did a great job. control of the Grand Rapids yard for There were times that it looked like he pulled it out and left his yard is very good shape. Andy is seen helping Jeff with some yard work. |
| The second killer "J" was Jim shown here working the Mackinaw City yard. He, like Jeff, got some help from Andy to keep his yard working well. Jim worked the Mackinaw City yard in January so he was an "old hand" at Mackinaw City and handled his yard accordingly. Good job Jim. |
| Here is John working Traverse City. off the Cadillac turn, the Grand Rapids Industrial Turn and finally the Traverse City Turn. He kept the railroad profitable all by himself! The photographer tried to get a good picture, but considering the subject matter, it was not easy!!! Hope your wife approves. |
| during the day. His main job was running our passenger trains #101 and #102. He delivered 13 express cars during his two passenger train runs. While waiting for the passenger trains, Andy assisted both yardmasters with their duties. |
| Here are shots of the Northwoods Fast Freight, train #210, snaking its way through the Grand Rapids yard. The mainlne and siding were pretty well tied up so #210 had to use secondary tracks to get through, but get through it did, and the high priority freight was delivered. This train is a run through, high priority refrigerator train running directly from Fort Wayne to the Mackinaw City Boat for expedited delivery across the Straits of Mackinac to the Upper Peninsula. Then it returns south with southbound priority freight Take the siding, the Northwoods Fast Freight is comin' through and he's just a flyin'. |
| A meet in Petoskey |
| paychecks are in the mail?! |