Click images to Enlarge:
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Photos of November 20, 2007 Ops Session |
| The holidays took their effect on the November C&M operating session. We ended up with the smallest crew yet for an operating session - four crew member plus the Superintendent. Although we were short on crews, I believe we all ended up long on fun. We all kept very busy and moved a very good number of trains and cars. Because we were all so busy, we did not get a large number of photos of the session but I am including the ones we did take below. Here are the stats. |
The Operators We had 4 operators and a Superintendent. The Superintendent, Bob Osborn pulled triple duty serving as the Superintendent, the dispatcher and a road crew. Andy Schnur was the Mackinaw City yardmaster and Cliff Linton was the Comstock Park Grand Rapids yardmaster. The other two operators were, Stanley Keiser and Les Dahlstedt. They, along with Bob, handled most of the road freights and local turns, along with a PRR Interchanger run. With only three train operators (actually only 2.5, since the Superintendent was doing triple duty), everyone was pretty busy getting the freight and passengers over the road. From the statistics above, the engine crews were not only busy, but pretty darn effective. We had the same mysterious problem with one of the Pere Marquette passenger E-7's, with jerky operation on the southbound trip of the passenger train #101. This time I know what the problem was. With the new chipset from CVP Products, it is necessary to reset CV #11 to zero to eliminate some known problems. When I re-set the decoder on the locomotive #95 after last sessions meltdown, I failed to set that CV to zero. After this session, I properly set that CV and the locomotive ran perfectly. Superintendent error (again!!!) The problems with the E-7 made for an interesting move. The passenger train #101 made it out of Mackinaw City to Petoskey where it's engine was bad ordered. The Mackinaw City yardmaster sent out a C&M 300 Class Alco Century on a lite move to carry the train south from Petoskey to it's final destination in Grand Rapids. |
| The total number of cars moved was 216 in a total of 21 different trains: 2 passenger trains (the commuters were annulled) 8 turns (out and back) 7 through freight 1.5 PRR interchanger's (out and back) 2 boat interchanger's (estimated - out and back) Our on-line customers were served well, as we delivered and picked up a total of 59 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 16 express loads in our passenger operations. Good session, especially with a small crew. |
| Click images to Enlarge: |
| Thanks Everyone |
| The move of the day: |
Petoskey. Things got a little busy when the
southbound through freight through Petoskey while
the Petoskey Turn was working the town. Three
trains in one town made it a little tight.
The southbound through freight engineered by Bob is
in the Petoskey "0" track on the left. His engine is out
of sight on the top left of the photo. The northbound
through freight, headed by the C&M 300 Class Alco
Century and driven by Les, is on the main track
(second track from the left).
Stanley is running the Petoskey Turn on the siding
(third track from the left) and the Petoskey Express
Track is the track on the right (right in front of the
Petoskey Station.
The crews worked together, utilizing a saw-by to get
everyone through and on their way.
Good fun.
southbound through freight through Petoskey while
the Petoskey Turn was working the town. Three
trains in one town made it a little tight.
The southbound through freight engineered by Bob is
in the Petoskey "0" track on the left. His engine is out
of sight on the top left of the photo. The northbound
through freight, headed by the C&M 300 Class Alco
Century and driven by Les, is on the main track
(second track from the left).
Stanley is running the Petoskey Turn on the siding
(third track from the left) and the Petoskey Express
Track is the track on the right (right in front of the
Petoskey Station.
The crews worked together, utilizing a saw-by to get
everyone through and on their way.
Good fun.
| This month Bob gets the spotlight as the dispatcher. In addition to being the dispatcher, he maintained his usual Superintendent duties plus ran a bunch of through freights. Unfortunately, as he gets older, juggling more than one job gets difficult! |
| Clif was the Comstock Yard (Grand Clif was the Comstock Yard (Grand (sitting down on the job!) running a PRR Rapids) Yardmaster. He is shown here Rapids) Yardmaster. He is shown here (sitting down on the job!) running a PRR interchanger out of Fort Wayne (staging) and then north into the yard. You can see the Pennsy interchanger (two Century 425's in Pennsy freight green) under Cadillac. Because of the shortage perform different job, making the session more interesting and certainly not boring! |
| Les is shown here working the Cadillac Turn. The Cadillac passenger station Les working the Mackinaw City Yard. |
Here is Andy (Mackinaw City
Yardmaster) and Stanley discussing
how to get a train out of the yard.
As I recall, Stanley was helping Andy
hostle engines in the yard.
Yardmaster) and Stanley discussing
how to get a train out of the yard.
As I recall, Stanley was helping Andy
hostle engines in the yard.
| who is behind the camera). Do they look tired? They should, as they just moved 216 cars in a fast 24 hours period. Because of the low crew cost and the high volume of traffic moved, the C&M Railroad was extremely profitable in November. That means we can afford to operate in December!!! See you then. |