RETURN TO OPERATIONS!

May Day was a BIG DAY on my railroad as we returned to “full” operations!  As vaccination opportunities opened up in March, many of my regular crew were successful in getting vaccinated.  With my own first shot in my arm, I surveyed my crew and quickly had the slightly reduced crew I wanted for this first session.  A base requirement was that all had to be vaccine-effective by May 1.  I had to turn down several who did not meet that requirement.  They understood and now are on the list for the next ops session.

 

My railroad is in a large, well-ventilated basement.  My aisles are large—by design.  The care I took to ensure good people flow for operators around my layout pays huge dividends in these trying pandemic times.  

 

Last summer and fall’s small group sessions experimented with eliminating the helper positions.  Road engineers had to handle two throttles from Oakridge to Cascade Summit (often on return, too) as they entrained their helpers at Oakridge and removed them at Cascade Summit.  This resulted in less people in the aisles for what became a full line-up of traffic on the railroad.  Similarly, the locals ran with a single crew-member—a job ordinarily done by two:  engineer and conductor.  The yard crew was kept to just three:  Yardmaster-switcher, Switcher, and Santa Clara Tower Operator (Arrival-Departure Yardmaster).  The crew was about ¾ of a normal “full crew” with all jobs essentially single-man.

 

Follow along with a few photos from the session.

 

Craig L. and Mark K. man the Eugene classification yard as Jeroen G. works a road freight through Springfield in the background.

 

John B. took the Santa Clara Tower job, managing the arrival and departure of the road freights.  Although John had not done this job before, he adapted well to the current yard operating plan.

 

Bill M. worked the Marcola Turn.

 

Joe B. works with a RR-West road freight at Cruzatte.  His train has taken siding as a meet is underway with a RR-East train.

 

Rodger C. works his RR-East road freight downhill on the main past the RR-West on the siding, as Joe B. waits for clear track to continue RR-West.

 

Jim L. brings a helper set down from Cascade Summit on the point of his RR-East train, crossing Salt Creek Trestle.  We tried to return helpers to Oakridge in this way, although we eventually did need to run two helper sets down light, but together.

 

Rick A. dispatched the session.

 

A couple of other crew members did not make it into photos, but definitely were there, running road freights and the Oakridge Turn.

 

After the session, I sought feedback.  A key piece was to bring back the helper engineers for the next session.  Although we did OK with the two-throttle operation last fall and for this session, the crew felt they were ready for the helper engineers.  The Eugene Yard complex also will receive a couple more switchers to help keep up with mainline traffic.

 

A day of friendly chatter doing something we enjoy resulted in lots of sparkling eyes.  Vaccinations and the larger than average aisle space on my railroad make it possible to return to operations.