It was a beautiful fall day, and the aviation enthusiast in me was really tickled to see the AEP contracted helicopter trimming tree limbs near the farm, BUT I knew that they sometimes cut limbs that fall on power lines. You guessed it, 10:30am, the power went off!
I scrambled to try and get a generator hooked up to the above ground basement for the op session, but it wouldn't work! But, by 12:30pm the power was back up...whew!
By 2pm we were operating at last. Here Steve Robbins gets his train at the Rio hidden holding area.
Phil Taylor choose the VBR, and that of course is mostly a sit down job.
Keith Stillman was Monroe Yard Master, and he has it under control in this shot.
His assistant was Dan George who has stepped out for a second to watch a southbound just past Tye River.
Just around the bend Jerry Ritter watches the Monroe crew handle his train's switching duties.
We had two new guys operating this day. New to the VBR&S, but obviously not new to operating. Here Doug Barry switches at Charlottesville.
And here Dick
Munnikhuysen handles a passenger train about to cross the James River Trestle....well one day there will be a trestle here I hope.
Cary Campbell has his southbound out of Charlottesville heading into Red Hill.
Our Dispatcher was again Bob Burke who is demanding overtime since he began Dispatching this "Day in 1956" in March of 2011, and finally finished the "day" in October of 2012.
He's got a point. I will really try to have another session very soon.
I hope everyone had fun. I even manged to run the Southern and C&O Charlottesville Switchers between "fix it duties" on the layout. It was fun!
