BDR Report 20 July 2023

 

BDR  Report                    20 July 2023

On the night when we could have stayed in the warmth watching the Matilda's win their soccer game,  the following reported for duty on the Border Downs Railway-

Geoff   chief ringmaster
Steve master of all things at the Downs
And the 4 clowns,   oops , drivers being Ray, Tony, Reg & Ron perform their usual circus tricks.
It was Sunday morning - things were slow at the Downs

The Chief Ringmaster made reference to problems he had with locos & numbers - almost to the extent, he may have gone backwards to analogue
( I heard him during the night muttering several times about sound decoders.... )

I had the cream job of the Poison train driver ( after the loco was changed as the first one died before leaving Border Downs) but I think the work crew did not like getting out of the brake van to poison using knapsacks in hard-to-reach areas. It interrupted their card game.

slowly leaving Coonara spreading poison over the mainline

A few grain trains and locos

 

The Boss calls these locos " Coffee pots"

Charter passenger

901 leads on the Up stonie

C502 heading east from the Downs

Now for crew over the next two sessions

With session shifted to Monday 31 July so Steve is available, crew will be 

Geoff

Steve

Ray

Tony

Reg

Ron

Crew for Thursday August 17

Geoff

Steve

Ray

Tony

Craig

Ron

The Overland with unusual locos

No major hiccups ( just one or two minor ones like rolling stock falling over in the Downs) EXCEPT one driver ( won't say his name so we won't embarrass him but he is an ex-Victorian) kept up with his normal process of NOT reading instructions & did not STOP in the Yumali crossing loop but proceeded down the helix towards Riverbend nearly causing a head-on with climbing steel train. An accident of that size would have closed Border Downs for weeks , if not months....

Now for months I had been clamoring for a train time card at Easton, I have used it over the last few sessions & last night, 2 of the crew found it & used it

The debrief & finger buns went down well. The CEO presented a few of the crew - Steve, Reg & Ray "presents" - Tony & I missed out  boo hoo :'(

OK That is it from me

Sol