Jason Smith
Ralph Heiss
Craig Bisgeier
Tom Callan
Neil Henning
Henry Freeman
Wayne Shortman
Tim Harrison
Rob Hinkle
Jay Held
Nick Held
Jerry Dziedzic
Ted Pamperin
Ted DiIorio
Rich Taylor
Kevin Katta
Friday May 1st, 2009
Tonight’s session started off with introduction of five new locomotives to the railroad. The New York Central had the addition of four new locomotives including 2 RS-1 with Tsunami decoders and 1 B-11 0-6-0 on a lend lease deal from Craig with DSD sound decoder and a SW-1. The Erie got the new Atlas HH-660 sporting the Micro Tsunami decoder delivered by the AM carfloat. A special shout out to Ray Louis and Craig for doing the installations of the Tsunami decoders on Wednesday night’s work session. 304 arrived just as the Proto 2000 S-1 308 gave up the ghost on Friday night. Henry Freeman and Tom Callan took delivery of 304 and put her through a flawless night of operations! This Atlas model of the Alco locomotive was well worth the wait!
The crew tonight numbered 17 an all time high for the railroad. Most of the railroad’s crew positions where doubled up and it seemed to work well. Craig volunteered to take the position of Active Staging Agent and as the evening went on he discovered that the position work really well with a second man helping out. Tonight Craig had help from Jason Smith, of Modelrailcast.com fame. I had made another change to the ASA position by preprinting the waybill so that Craig and Jason only needed to pull the right type of car for the run and then only enter the car info on to the waybill. Ralph took the other crucial position as Pavonia Agent. Ralph as always did an expert job. I really appreciate Ralph’s effort considering he was under the weather.
28th Street ran very well. The HH-660 ran so much smoother than the S-1 that as of this point it is retired and is now the spare unit for 28th Street. Henry and Tom ran the yard well and I was really happy that Henry enjoyed the experience at 28th Street. . This was Henry’s first time operating at the New York Harbor Railroad. I kept Tom and Henry hydrated with assorted beverages tonight. Even with 17,000 BTU of air conditioning it was not enough. I will be adding a second unit this summer! I have an additional 12,000 BTU unit ready to I just need to run power to the location I want it in.
Tonight 30th Street Yard was manned by Rich Taylor, Ted Pamperin and Jerry Dziedzic. This was Jerry’s first time operating at the New York Harbor Railroad. Jerry operated the hostler position at 30th Street which required him to make many trips down 12 Avenue to switch out Terminal Stores. Jerry did a great job. Rich and Ted kept the rest of the yard flowing extremely well and we did have some car issues which will be addressed in the upcoming work sessions. They also switch most of the night using the 0-6-0 B-11 that Craig has lent to 30th Street from his personal collection. He spent 25 hours of the past few weeks painting, decaling and installing Don Ball’s enhancements for better power pick up. Craig also installed a sound decoder that brought her to life!
St. John’s Park Terminal was operated by Ted DiIorio. Ted kept St. John’s Park Terminal jumping all night and we carved out the procedures for handling car over flow from the sidings on the High Line. Ted really has helped in developing the rule book for St. John’s Park Terminal. The rest of tonight’s crew where shuttling trains to and from 60th Street and St. John’s Park Terminal. Neil, Jay and Nick Held, Tim Harrison, Kevin Katta, Rob Hinkle and Ray Louis all ran freights on the High Line tonight.
Wayne Shortman came down. Wayne had suffered a stroke a few months ago and had under gone major eye surgery and this is the first operating session he was able to make. Wayne’s eye sight made it difficult to run a train tonight but he seemed to have a good time with the crowd tonight.
Difficulties on the railroad tonight included phantom derailments of cars that never had issues before. Also two blue points fail and I was able to repair one but the other will need to be replaced. There was also a broken point on a double cross over on the High Line that I was able to fix on the spot. The most important issue is that it became apparent that I must pick up a dehumidifier for the basement ASAP. I also need a second air conditioner two cool the room off better. We also had about three cars make it all the way to the floor with one being re-kitted and the other braking a truck and spinning the glad hand about 180 degrees from where it should be. Those will also be address during the upcoming work sessions.
I had a great time and I thing everyone else did as well! Until the June Operating Session!
