A telephoto shot facing southward (towards Fruitland Avenue) into the Arrow Reload complex in Vernon, CA. There are at least four customers in this shot, the hoppers on the left, the coil car, two gondolas, and a different hopper customer barely visible on the right behind the switchstand. There’s lots of action and car variety […]
Category: Operations
1 Industry, 2 Locos
GP38-2 #715 idles in the distance while SW7 number 2 does ALL of the work in this April 2024 shot at Waste Management’s Jessup, MD facility. I learned yesterday that such is not always the case. At times, two switchers work simultaneously side by side. Waste Management’s Jessup, MD facility is one of my favorite […]
A Day in Georgetown
1951 USGS aerial view showing the endpoint of the B&O’s Georgetown Branch. (Washington, DC.) Photo courtesy of Ben Sullivan. Ben goes into much more detail on these aerials on his site HERE. Last weekend, I attended what was probably the most relaxing and enjoyable operating session I’ve ever experienced. It was graciously hosted by my […]
Dialing in Session Length
Having just left “A Yard”, an LAJ switcher shoves its cut across District Blvd. and down The Horn Lead to begin work. The cars have already been blocked in car spot order. Even so, it took me about thirty minutes to run through everything. Today I tested the LAJ layout in its new 1960’s operational […]
More On Plastics
Another one of my readers, Sawyer B, sent me a detailed account of working a plastics facility. Since it may be helpful to many I’m posting it here. Sawyer wrote: I was reading your blog tonight and got to the post on plastics industries and thought you might enjoy hearing my experiences with a rail […]