A stellar crew made up of the “Three J”s”, L to R Jerome, Jarrett, and Jeremy flawlessly put Y320, the Downtown Spur yard job through the paces. I’ve been giving a lot of thought this year to the long-standing approach to operations in the hobby. Although well-intended, it’s analogous to putting a blindfold on somebody, […]
The yard job pulls a cut of cars out of the Fruitland Team Track, lays on the horn, and prays it doesn’t spear any motorists as it crosses Leonis Blvd. (LA RailProductions video) As long as I’ve been studying it, I still continue to be amazed at the modeling potential of the Fruitland Avenue Team […]
Matt Sturgell and Kelly Regan guide the local off the CSX main onto The Downtown Spur at the start of the op. session. It’s been far too long since I’ve had an op. session on The Downtown Spur. It should come as no surprise that getting off one’s fat ass and actually inviting people over […]
Although these tank cars look identical, they are not, and therein lies a lot of operational potential. Looking up the placards, I could see that as a minimum, we have diesel fuel, ethanol, and carbon disulfide. The cars need to be blocked in the yard and spotted at specific locations within the Exxon Mobil complex. […]
A very recent (April 2025) Google Streetview image of Arrow Reload Systems. Note the variety of car types. YouTube videos filmed on other days show a large volume of flat cars carrying steel products. Prompted by a recent email from a blog reader, I thought now would be a good time to discuss operations on […]