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| Photos of December 11, 2007 Ops Session |
| It was the last operating session of the year for the Chicago & Mackinac Railroad, but we had a very good turn out. In fact, we had the largest operating crew ever for the C&M, with 10 operators and the Superintendent present. Below you will find a variety of photos, unfortunately, some are not as sharp as we usually publish here on the website, however, you will get the idea of the photo. Before we get to the photos, here are the stats for the night: |
| The Operators We had a total of 10 operators and a Superintendent. The Dispatcher was Seth Neumann, the Grand Rapids Yardmaster was Andy Schnur and the Mackinaw City yardmaster was Jeff Osborn. The road operators were Les Dahlstedt, Jim Diaz and Stanley Keiser. Plus we had four operators that were attending their first C&M operating session. They were Chuck Mitchell, Tom Lawler, Keith Gillette and Brian Liljeblad. Tom wins the "operator from the farthest away" award, coming in all the way from Oregon. The equipment seemed to work well. Since we added 30 some new cars and a half a dozen new engines to the layout for this session, I was reasonably pleased with the overall performance of the railroad. We still had some early-on problems with the headsets that need some attention before the next session. Here are the pictures: |
| 5 passenger trains (#101 Local Passenger was annulled) 9 turns (5 out and 4 back) 8 through freight 1 PRR interchanger's (out and back) 2 boat interchanger's (estimated - out and back) Online customer deliveries and pick ups totalled 70 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 12 express loads in our passenger operations. Congradulation everyone, the above numbers set a new C&M car movement record. |
| Click images to Enlarge: |
| See you next year - have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year |
| The move of the day: |
| This month Seth took over the dispatched the C&M in the past, things went pretty smooth. Since we had a full crew, Seth kept This month Seth took over the pretty busy all night. He kept dispatcher's duties. Since he has things under control - most of the time-(see bottom of page-near cornfield meet). |
| This month's Move of the Day took meet between Southbound X-328, Turn. In the pic at the right, the the This month's Move of the Day took left). The northbound X-309 is on meet between Southbound X-328, the Station Track (on the right - Northbound X-309 and the Cadillac caboose is shown) and X-328 (C-425) is heading south toward the camera. |
caboose couldn't quite clear the
The problem was that X-309's main
line. It missed by that much. Both
X-309 and X-328 were too long to
clear on the Station Track.
The problem was that X-309's main
line. It missed by that much. Both
X-309 and X-328 were too long to
clear on the Station Track.
| The solution was to have the Cadillac Turn pull the rear-end off of X-328 and move it into the clear so X-309 could proceed north. You can see the caboose of X-309 moving north past the station. |
With X-309 out of the way, the
Cadillac Turn tacked on X-328's
rear-end and it was off seen
moving past the Auto Valve of
Cadillac Turn clear to continue it's
work.
Cadillac Turn tacked on X-328's
rear-end and it was off seen
moving past the Auto Valve of
Cadillac Turn clear to continue it's
work.
| Here are the first moves of the night. The RDC Commuters (#86 and #87) meet in Traverse City, right on schedule, while the Traverse City Turn waits in the industrial track. |
| The yardmasters: Andy in Grand Rapids (above) and Jeff in Mackinac City (below). |
Grand Rapids yard pretty full by the end
of the session (above). Jeff had the
Mackinaw City yard nearly cleaned out
at one point in the evening (above right). With the random nature of our
car card/waybill system, you never know exactly how the traffic pattern will
be in any one session.
of the session (above). Jeff had the
Mackinaw City yard nearly cleaned out
at one point in the evening (above right). With the random nature of our
car card/waybill system, you never know exactly how the traffic pattern will
be in any one session.
| Here's Jim working the Cadillac Turn. He seems to be having a good time! |
| Hey Les, no the job!! Here Hey Les, no he is checking Hey Les, no the job!! Here Hey Les, no the job!! Here he is checking his paperwork before taking a road freight out of Grand Rapids. |
| Here is Stanley working the Grand Rapids Industrial Turn (left) and Tom working the Petoskey Turn (center) and Keith running a through freight near Traverse City (right). Tom and Keith were first time C&M operators. |
| Another 1st time C&M operator, Brian (a little out of focus) is working the passenger train #102 up in Traverse City, spotting cars at the Express Depot.. |
| Chuck, the 4th first time C&M operator, is working the Grand Rapids Industrial Turn with help from Stanley. |
| Tom and Brian are figuring out how to get the #102 passenger train through Petoskey. They finally figured it out! |
| Although it is difficult to see, here is the Commuter #88 ready to meet a southbound freight on a section of single track! Fortunately, astute operators recognized the potential cornfield meet and contacted the dispatcher for resolution. |
| Here is a meet at Boardman Lake. Keith was the engineer in the X2410 and kept everyone apprised of his presence with his bell & whistle! |
crew. We moved 15 coal loads into
the GTW Interchange and took 15
empties back to the Soo Line.
the GTW Interchange and took 15
empties back to the Soo Line.