D&S Operational Report
Crew and Location:
- Owner / Dispatcher / Train Control = Ron
- Tawnton West = The Scotsman (alias David)
- Tawnton East = The Scotsman's offsider (Craig)
- Watchit = The Ex.......Traindriver (Paul)
- Laid back Charde = The South Australian Railway living encyclopedia (Geoff M)
- Marabost = The long distance traveller (Reg)
Overview.
The evening started with the usual routine of coffee, tea, Iced Volvos, Choc Mint biscuits and Wagon Wheel delights. General chit chat prevailed and at 7.35pm an exodus from the dining room to the train room occurred. Yes, note the slightly late start.
The usual entry order is becoming like an Army marching ritual with Ron barking orders as to the next in line to enter the room, 'single file' of course. After 8 minutes of familiarisation and controller check the clock started. A breakdown (pun) is below.
Laid Back Charde.
Obviously the most knowledgeable South Australian railway guru had this station but alas, there was no South Australian railway stock in sight. The English orientation did not fool the operating qualities of the Charde operator. Basically Charde did not appear to have any issues. His running issues were caused by other operator error, one such error being when he was driving a goods into the Tawnton yard and had the points set to the route but a point on the East end got changed at the last minute onto the main. No logical explanation was forthcoming, however, the Charde operator was on the ball and stopped his train just prior to the point - hence no derailment or accident occurred. There was certainly plenty happening underneath Charde but more about that later and trains the Charde operator drove to and from particular destinations.
Charde operator giving the Thumbs up. Charde Operator with cards and a controller.
Something must be happening at the Laid-Back station
The Charde DMU
The Tawnton Twins
Sometimes teams just click and this is proving the case with the current operators at Tawnton East and Tawnton West. They are like an Olympic Rowing Pair - In Sync and very 'smooth' operators. Communication was valuable in this partnership and it was a matter of when to listen and when to speak. The shunting movements at Tawnton were extremely efficient and very timely, with the first part of the session being particularly well timed. Wagons were shifted into their respective sidings at a rate rarely witnessed at Tawnton. In saying this and not wanting to blow one's own trumpet there were 2 Tawnton errors for the evening and both of these involved the track not being set properly for goods trains coming into the yard. There weren't any derailments or head-ons with these errors as they were picked up very quickly. Even though Tawnton got busier toward the end of the operating session all wagons and locos were still shunted away into their correct sidings.
All sidings clear, ready for the next train
Marabost
Reg likes Marabost, well that is what he said at one stage during the operating session or was it post the operating session? Doesn't matter, he is not alone as there are others on the operating roster that quite enjoy operating at Marabost. The Marabost operator was also effective in his shunting movements and even though he too had a train he was operating derail, it wasn't his fault........we think. However, (starting a sentence with 'however' can indicate there is more to the story, a flip side). A comment from the Charde operator at one stage was in relation to 'Pigs can't fly', well we didn't see any pigs flying but there was a hand-in-the-sky flying a brakevan from Marabost to Tawnton. Apparently it got left behind and to be honest.... The guard was not happy. But wait, there is more. Later in the session a Marabost conflat appeared on a train from Marabost that was going to Tawnton, so thanks to the Charde operator for flying it back to it's home at Marabost. No other errors were noted from the Marabost part of the world and it was the Marabost operator who had to take time out from operating to fix a number of derailments that occurred at his end of the layout. One in particular was the derailment of the cattle train. It ended up being quite a shitty problem and took a bit of cleaning up. Cows can really shit lots when they have been fed green feed after drought conditions and after wobbling around in wagons.
A picture of concentration.
Watchit
The Watchit operator was quite efficient for most of the evening. He ensured the Platform and other tracks were available when other trains were coming into the station region. Shunting was done effectively and the operator appeared quite focused on the tasks at hand. There was one issue of note and still to this hour there isn't a logical response that has come forth. The Tawnton operators operators witnessed a Goods train driven by the Watchit operator doing something unusual, something rarely seen on the D&S, Wildcreek or BDR. Put it this way; the Station Master at Brownbill Halt was screaming and shitting himself when he observed a train that (3 minutes previously had gone through his station) was coming toward his station Brakevan first. Now, for those unfamiliar with English operations there were trains that ran pre 1950 that were push-pull sets, usually consisting of an autocoach or Push Pull coach leading. This only occurred on smaller branchlines and occurred West and South of London. BUT a brakevan running first.......NO! This did not occur unless it was accident waiting to happen. It was like slow motion viewing from the Tanwton operators. This goods train was going to the west, led by a class 20 loco and all of a sudden it changed direction (near the West End Bridge) and backwards it went - thankfully not fast. A quick 'who is driving the Class 20 goods' from both Tawnton operators soon raised the awareness of said Watchit operator and thankfully the train was eased to a stop before it entered the tunnel, It was envisaged that the train travelled 4 real miles before the directional problem was rectified. Wonder if he ever did that in real life train driving operations?
Taken after the Backward train incident.
Train Control / Dispatch
Clock was stopped twice during the session. This was due to the cattle having the shits from their derailment and some major derailments in the Durston region (underneath Charde).
You wouldn't believe the carnage that occurred behind this green board. Blurred to protect the innocent.
Other errors noted included a Irish coach on its side which caused a derailment. This occurred on the track that enters Brownbill Halt and a couple of point changes that caused derailments, in particular Durston. There were a few 'my fault' words coming from the where the dispatcher bases himself and it didn't sound like Paul's voice. As per usual and like on a number of layouts we know operational nights would not work if it wasn't for the Dispatcher / Train Control, so hats off to these folk. But one must not be too critical because even with the best intentions or preparation there is still a possibility that:
- Murphy can join the operating crew on the night and the
- FU Fairies can be present as well.
* For those unfamiliar with the letters FU they are representative of terms that have recently been used to describe those invisible fairies that appear in layout rooms. The 'U' represents the word 'UP' and the 'F' represents an acronym that was first coined in Medieval English whereby certain people could only partake in Fornication Under Consent of the King.
** Also the reference to the phrase Pig's can't fly!, 'It's impossible', which is precisely what the expression means. We say it as a response when someone tells us something that we think is impossible or very unlikely.
In times when everything was running smoothly - happy dispatch camper
The D&S Media Manager.
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