Session 19 - Diesel September

The heat wave hovering over the province of Ontario kept the skies sunny and clear for yet another Saturday morning of train ops.

And a glorious morning it is.

Yes, this is our 19th session of the year...no. not our 19th nervous breakdown as the Rolling Stones put it in one of their classic hits.

The main actors on the stage are our diesel friends.

Colourful characters they are!

Speaking of colourful folks, we find Doug and Pat already in the shade at Craig Leigh.
Thanks to Bernie for sending along a batch of pics for this edition of the blog!

While George and Paul chat it up.

"Beam me up, Scotty!  There's no intelligent life down here!" says the birthday boy.

Lawrence and Paul with huge smiles.

Bill, Neil and Paul in discussion while the house continues to rise in the background.

Chris, Doug and Steve share the same activity as the lads in the previous picture.

Lela ensures all cars get where they are supposed to go.

Moe taking a breather from the heat.  Don't blame ya, Moe!

I've got my camera at the ready for the presentation of the birthday wishes for a very youthful Henk.

As we sing "Happy Birthday" to the boy.

A dirty joke never hurts!

Let's check in on the "goings on" at Craig Leigh.

Bernie gets down to work assembling 301, the first freight out from the eastern end of the line.

Pat is his understudy on the day as Bernie will be away next Saturday.

Henk commanders a seat while Pat, Barry and George check out Douglas Yard.

Barry and Pat run the trains while Doug Hayes looks on.

Barry, in red, has joined Pat at Craig Leigh meaning we'll have three operators in this location.

I snap a photograph of two lovely diesels while my crewmate Neil pulls a train out of the yard and Barry walks toward the camera that snapped this picture.

Paul and Bill are the crew aboard the CN unit.  They will depart shortly as Train 301.

Neil and I will depart with Passenger 2 at the beginning of the session from the other end of the line although Bernie has snagged this shot of the two of us much later in the session aboard Pool Train 15.

Paul is the yardmaster over in Firgrove.

He ensures all runs well at Ralph Yard.

The yard holds a series of classification tracks as well as a few industrial spurs with no physical plants for the industries due to space constraints.

Looks busy on this day.

A look across the yard from the other side.

And from the peninsula end.

A look across Ralph Yard to the depot in Firgrove where Passenger 2 will depart from in short order.

George, Lawrence and Paul set out cars pre-ops.

I only managed a few shots of Nelson Yard this day.

Here, the lads are setting out the cars.

Verifying numbers.

Garry is the yardmaster on this day.

He enjoys a chat with my crewmate, Neil, much later in the morning.

Neil and I have Passenger 2 on the roll out of Firgrove.

Downgrade near the interchange with the RP&M.
Thanks to Steve and Seanna for the loan of their locomotive!

Seanna and Lawrence trundle along across the aisleway aboard 327 out of Glenn Hammond.

Bob beat us out of Firgrove with the ore train.  We catch up with him at Bell.

Looking over my shoulder we see Pat, Chris  and Garry handling things in the yard handily.

It's a full yard on this morning.

One of my favourite cars full of colour.

Neil hauls Passenger 2 into Bell.

Passing by the large Brewery.

Bob has headed out of Bell and has taken the main at Watkins Siding.

We are cleared to Peter's Pond.

With the ore train experiencing a "service interruption", we bypass him on the siding.

Two gorgeous locomotives.

And...two handsome lads.

I look over to Spruce to find Steve and Lela working the area.

With the unit Steve has recently painted.

Our train travels beneath Mount St. Helens so I am able to snap a shot of the crew aboard 301, Paul and Bill with Doug and a young lad looking on.

Enjoying the shade.

We arrive Peter's Pond on the station track.

Where we meet Seanna and Lawrence with 327.

Neil handles the throttle.

I take a glance across the pond at the new houses that are being erected out back.

We depart the pond at run along through Mercer Siding.

Neil keeps a close eye on the wheels as we traverse the diamond on a slow order.

Rounding the bend into Glenn Hammond.

We encounter Henk outside the dispatch hut.

Nelson Yard still appears to be a busy location.

On our approach to the Glenn.

Garry works the western front at Nelson.

Pat and Doug enjoy the activities.

While we depart Glenn Hammond and thread the needle through the big trestle.

While Bob heads over to Fallentree Mine to collect a few ore cars.

And Garry keeps an eagle eye on the proceedings around Nelson Yard.

Chris and Pat use the mainline to the west of Glenn Hammond as a yard lead.

As they work the sidings in the Glenn.

Chris sends a fun "hello"!  Hehehe!

Bob watches his feet carefully.

Passenger 2 is struggling to make the grade!

While the crew of 301 continue with their work in Ironwood.

Aha!  Made it successfully into Spruce after all!

George and Henk are found in Cedar Rock with 302.

We meet 318 in Spruce.

With a crowd of onlookers.

A railfan's hotspot!

Will it be a close shave?

By a whisker!

The audience enjoyed overlooking the meet of the two trains.

Then it was back to work for all crews.

We stop along the station track in Ironwood.

Where we greet Bill and Paul.

With the onlookers continuing to follow our train.

318 follows us into Ironwood.

We depart and say goodbye to the crew of 301.

Lela and Paul begin their chores in Ironwood.

Steve works with diligence to keep all trains safely apart.

We round the bend into Mount St. Helens.

Upgrade.

Across the aisle we spot the crew at Cedar Rock.

On into Craig Leigh where we meet Bernie, the yardmaster.

Barry brings his locomotive down to assist us with our train.

We'll pull forth and Barry will take over from the rear of the train in order to wye it.

The lads enjoying watching the maneuvers.  Bernie's suggestion of wyeing the tail end cars of the train only is a brilliant one.  I suggested wying the entire consist, but it had to be done in two sections.  The smiles on the faces of this trio tell us that running trains on even the hottest of mornings is better than doing almost anything else.

Check in for Part Two later on!  Mike Hamer, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada