Wild Creek Media Report      28^th July 2023

A sunny day with some hints of cloud cover greeted the Ops. team at the home of the Wildcreek empire on this special Friday luncheon and operational session.

A few snags on the Barby greeted operators as they arrived at the Wildcreek residence. Nothing like starting off a session with a good feed. Ron was so impressed he is thinking of starting off some of his nightly sessions with a similar spread of snags, salad and bread and of course one can’t forget the ‘dead horse’. In all seriousness the variety of Beef and Pork (with a splash of Garlic flavour) sausages was greeted with great appreciation. The Potato and Greek Salads were a bonus. In particular one said operator was very very very grateful of the main lunch as it meant that he had at least 1 meal during the day, commenting that ‘this is breakfast and lunch all at once’.

Full stomachs may assist with the operating capabilities, however, this theory hasn’t had enough research to be proven correct. Possibly with more trials, as in BBQs at Ron’s and other layout owners (Geoff M), Reg – when the shed and layout get rebuilt (apparently by October), Bob and David, then ‘test’ results can be confirmed.

A huge thanks to Ray for putting on the lunch.

The Crew included:

·       The 3 ‘R’s – Reg, Ron and Ray

·       Geoff T.

·       David

·       Bob

·       Tony

·       Craig

Drivers for the day were Geoff, Reg, Ron and Tony. David was stationed at ‘Wildcreek’. Ray was the ultimate control man who on the various layouts is known by the title of ‘Train Control’ or ‘Dispatch’. Bob and Craig were the Salt Lake and Orville Yard Masters / Shunters.

After lunch individuals were given their particular roles. No time was wasted and off to the shed everyone trundled. The Dispatcher and Yard Masters got into their positions and the train driving commenced. Steadily everyone got into a groove, although this happened at a different pace between operators. Tony was refamiliarizing himself with the Wildcreek operational aspects once again, starting off slightly late on the first run but during the session he caught up time and by his last operational sequence he was on time……..thankfully, as the passengers would have been quite annoyed if he wasn’t. Geoff was the quite achiever throughout the session. He was just going about his business with minimal fuss and appeared to master all before him.

It was obvious that Reg has worked in an industry where at times he needed to handle stressful situations with a calm mindset and level-headed attitude. These qualities showed today as there were no moments of uneasiness shown and all of Reg’s operations seemed to be completed with somewhat ease and very effective time management was noted throughout. However, and this wasn’t always the case, nothing at fault from Reg’s operational experience but more the challenge of a passenger train diesel not pulling the carriages up the incline... was a bit of an issue – something for the Wildcreek owner to consider reviewing.

Ron, well he started off well with timely operations and trains going where they should but as the session progressed it appeared that some things were going amiss. At one stage he said out loud, ‘I have no control’! What this was in reference to……who knows. Another comment heard slightly later in the session was, ‘you have to be bloody joking.’ He was at Weedon at the time. Maybe it was as a result of getting so familiar with the Yardmaster at Saltlake and Orville that he felt like a lost sheep when given a regular driver gig, or maybe it’s like, as one wise Owner of the Wildcreek said in a conversation with said media reporter after the session, ‘Young people have no resilience these days, sometimes you just need to be thrown in the deep end and work out how to climb out’. Very wise words really.

David managed the Wildcreek station with his usual prowess. He is getting like the ‘Pi’ (Steve W.) is at Border Downs station and yard – he just keeps on keeping on, does the job with minimal fuss and handles most trains and operators that come within the vicinity of the realms of the heartbeat of the railway. David shunted, guided, and managed the Wildcreek yard with what appeared to be 'trouble-free' operations with no train issues or derailments, or it could have been that the writer of this report was too far away to hear any curse adjectives get shared amongst the crews when things go wrong.

Bob and Craig plodded away at a new venture, well new for them. Craig had done it once before with Connor but the new team were considered ‘learners’ at this ‘Yardmaster’ gig. It was a worthwhile experience and while Craig had the pen and running sequence sheet in hand, Bob did the shunting and point switching was shared amongst both workers. There was an issue of a short in the yard but that wasn’t the fault of the Yardmasters but of a train operator whose throttle hadn’t quite been switched to zero – no dramas though. Bob and Craig seemed to work cohesively together with no debates or arguments. They just did what they had to do to keep the trains running on time. It was a great team effort.

All in all it was an excellent event. Even the participants were given an award at the end. A big thanks to all that were involved, especially the Wildcreek Owner, for providing lunch and the layout.

That’s all folks – Happy Railroading or Happy Training or just ‘Happy Hobby’

Cheers

The Stand-in Media Assistant for the Wildcreek Corporation / Media Manager for the D&S.