| The Dispatcher |
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| Photos of December 17, 2008 Ops |
| The Holiday Season is upon us and in recognition of the time of year, we relaxeed Rule G for this operations. It was the last ops of the year and the first with the new track configuration in Cadillac. We had a small crew so Bob dispatched, Superintended and Photographed, and we all move a whole lot of cars. I think everyone kept pretty busy. We broke the record for car count on an individual through train. All in all, a very good operation. |
| The Operators As mentioned, the Superintendent performed the dispatcher duties plus was the official Company Photographer, consequently, not very many photos were taken, but at least there were no cornfield meets. That's a good thing. Seth Neumann and Andy Schnur volunteered for the Grand Rapids and Mackinaw City yardmaster jobs, respectively. The remaining crew members were Jeff Osborn, Les Dahlstedt and Sam Romerstein. Sam, although an experienced operator, was a first time C&M crewman and seemed to fit in very well and I think he even had a pretty good time. Jeff & Les, of course, are young and old, respectively, experienced C&M crew members. Since there were only 3 road operators (plus a part-time Superintendent) running trains, everyone kept pretty busy. Here are some pictures of the operations: |
| Statistics: The total number of cars moved was 321 in a total of 29 trains: 2 1st class passenger trains 1 2nd class Fast Freights (#210) 11 turns (out plus back) 5 through freight 2.5 PRR interchanger's 2.5 boat interchanger's (estimated - out and back) Online customer deliveries/pick ups totalled 71 cars at industrial sidings and in addition, we even picked up/setout a total of 12 express loads in our passenger operations. |
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| The Superintendent, Bob, was again the dispatcher. room in search of problems, questions, loafing crew members and whatever else he could find, including a spare throttle! He found all of the above! |
| The Yardmasters |
| Seth (above) was the Grand Rapids yardmaster and Andy (below) as the Mackinaw City yardmaster. Both yards stayed free of clogs and gridlock all evening. Trains rolled in and out without much delay. Great Job yardmasters. (What do you think - was it luck??) |
| The move of the day: |
| There were many neat moves through out the session, however, there are not very many neat photos of those neat moves. Not to worry, we did capture (but not too well), through freight train ever run in a live C&M ops session. At the top, Extra 196 crosses the Ann Arbor interchange heading into Cadillac. Middle, the engines approach the Cadillac station. Below, the caboose finally comes into view with Jeff carefully watching his consist. |
The rest of the crew kept pretty busy,
rest of the crew kept pretty busy,
paperwork in Petoskey (top right) and
including Les working the Cadillac
finally at the bottom is Sam working the
Walton Junction Turn.
rest of the crew kept pretty busy,
paperwork in Petoskey (top right) and
including Les working the Cadillac
finally at the bottom is Sam working the
Walton Junction Turn.
| Here are a couple of random shots - above is the first two way meet of the night in Cadillac and below is a shot of the passenger train #101 just north of Petoskey (I like passenger trains!!). |
| they had a good time except maybe for Seth, I think he is still planning his next move!! Good fun - thanks guys - see you next year. The Superintendent/Dispatcher/Photographer Brakeman Bob |