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The Central Suffolk Dispatch A News Service for the Central Suffolk Operations Group

Located in the F. P. Carlsen Printing Co. Building Carlsen, New York 11738

BFL - Owner, CEO, Author, Editor and Delivery Boy 163564

dateline: The Stone Canyon Rail Road, February 23, 2017

Hold the press! Hold the press! We just received a batch of photographs that we

will have to evaluate for their authenticity.

he Central Suffolk Operations Group (CSOG) met at the Stone Canyon Rail Road (SCRR)

on Thursday night, February 23, 2017. Tonight there was another grand group in attendance

for this session. The gathering included operators John F., JJ, Steve, Howard, Ward, Dave,

Jeff, Mike, Ron and Byron. John ran the show as Dispatcher. Ward was the Stone City Yard

Master and Jeff was the Assistant Ward Master. It was a very busy night and as we best remember

there were a total of 14 trains that completed their operating assignments tonight.

It all started out quietly enough and for the first half of the session things were running very

professionally without any mishaps that we were brought to our attention. Then all h--- broke

T

Issue: #72 Circulation: 17

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loose. Everyone, with the exception of the Superintendent and the Assistant Yard Master Jeff,

were stuffed into the Dwyerville/Ryan's Corner area of the layout. That is, from left to right, Ron

(having a good time), Dave (who appears to be surrendering), Steve, Howard (a little to

nonchalant), some other guy (probably a walk on), Ward (working his butt off to clear up the

mess he made), Mike (camera shy), JJ (also having a good time), and Jeff (the only guy who

seems to know what he is doing). Ward had all he could do to keep things moving. This

photograph, great as it is, doesn't come close to capturing all that was taking place. The reefer

train is on the right in the yard trying to get out. TF10 is next to that. Mike and JJ's train is trying

to pass on the main in the background, Howard/Steve and Ron/Dave are working trains in the

Dwyerville/Ryan's Corner area, and Ward is trying to get somebody's train off the eastbound

main. Byron's big locomotive derailed on the main turnout on the east end of the yard and delayed

everything while Ward attempted to re-rail it. It was not like Byron was going anyplace since

Howard and Steve had blocked his movement onto the eastbound crossover at Ryan's Corner with

unattended freight cars. The shouting going on was typified by the following. Dave, "Byron,

where are you?" Byron, "I'm right over here behind Howard!" Dave, "No! Where is your train?"

Byron, "Stuck on the turnout behind you." Dave to Byron, "Well, you have to move so I can do

something." Byron to Steve, "Steve, you have to clear those cars off the turnout so I can proceed

onto the eastbound crossover." Steve, "Who is Byron?" There were many more discussions like

that. One might ask where the Superintendent was during this fracas, and rightly so. Well, he was

observed filming this entire event from the sky portal behind the Stone City industries. He said it

was going to be included in engineer training videos on how not to operate on a RR.

There was our reporter watching the operation of a local freight being handled by Howard and

Steve as they conducted business at Ryan's Corner. We don't know how they got into this mess

but the rear of their train, three freight cars and a caboose, was left standing on the main with the

head end of the train nowhere in sight. With all of the commotion going on in this section of the

layout at the time, Howard just snatched up the first of the three freight cars on the main, a Union

Pacific box car road number 903659, and placed it on the Ryan's corner siding, between the last

spotted car and the little steam engine usually parked at the end of the spur. That little switcher is

very convenient to push out the pick-up cars and drag back the spot-up cars on the siding. Well,

we can't describe the shock our reporter had when he released who just committed this act. When

Howard saw who was standing behind him and witness this lapse in judgment, he then tried to

bribe our reporter not to put this event in the paper. But since he had nothing to negotiate with,

our reporter said no deal. Then, when we refused, Howard threatened physical violence. What a

sad chain of events. You know who we are speaking about here, right. This is "my railroad was

featured in Model Railroader" and the big shot in the NMRA, Howard!

UP903659 on the Ryan's Corner siding after being fingered there by Howard

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This is not the end of this story. It just so happens that a little later in the session a similar event

was observed by our crack reporters. You may not believe what is written next but we are telling

you, it is the truth. Ron was spotted running around the Rockwell Mine section of the layout with

a freight car in his hands which he deposited on the Ryan's Corner siding behind Brody

Engineering, next to Howard's UP903659. And what car did Ron leave there, none other than a

Union Pacific box car with road number 903659. Yep, two identical box cars sitting side-by-side.

Another UP903659 on the Ryan's Corner siding after being transported there by Ron

We couldn't believe our eyes. It was like deja vu all over again. A "Doubting Thomas" might

claim that our photographs are the same one posted twice. However, a trained railroaded with a

keen eye would be quick to pick up the subtle differences between the two cars. (Hints: check the

light spot above the "N" in "UNION" and the dirty left most side panel. Also, Howard's car is off

the tracks.) Now you know the full story!

There was a lot of excitement in the tunnel between Red River and Stone Canyon. Byron's

passenger train P5, Union Pacific's City of Los Angeles, got stuck in there heading westbound for

the Stone City Station and the Superintendent had to perform his magic to get it moving again. A

little later Dave's freight separated on the eastbound track in the same tunnel. Byron's following

freight, we believe it was TF20, the fruit train, was called into service by the Superintendent to

push Dave's train out of the tunnel. Did we happen to mention that Byron's locomotive was

already pulling a long consist of reefers. With no effort at all, the massive steam engine pushed

and pulled everything clear of the tunnel. By the time we got around to the Red River portal, the

tractor flat car was sitting in the Red River and the rear of the caboose was lifted off the tracks by

the steam locomotive's cow catcher (no coupler on the front end). Dave explained that the flat car

was "high-on-hooks", or was it that it had hooks that were too high? Yeah! That's it. Anyhow,

the flat car was later extricated from the muck and mire of the river and sent off for repairs. The

sad part of this encounter is not Dave's operating skills but the fact that these two tractors

Area where Ferguson's tractors ended up. Flat car back at the Stone Canyon RR's repair facility.

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amounted to the entire inventory of the Ferguson Tractor industry recently established on the

new Flat Rock siding. This was their first big sale and this calamity may just very likely put

Ferguson out of business. These tractors were being shipped by rail to the coast for transportation

to China to help offset this countries 300 billion dollar trade deficit.

Now we arrive at the section of the paper which could very well be called True Confessions. A

few engineers have been noted to approach our reporters to get their "Sins of Operations" off

their chest without having to confess to their Superintendent for absolution. Tonight one engineer

came up to our reporter and confessed the following misdeed. It appears that local freight LF16

must negotiate two crossovers according to the operation instruction sheet issued for this train.

This particular engineer stated that due to being distracted by the other wild events taking place

tonight, he failed to follow the steps on his instruction sheet exactly and ended up missing the

first crossover. As a result he merrily proceeded all the way around the layout from Red River to

Flat Rock on the wrong track. God and the Superintendent forgive you, son; but don't let it

happen again!

Here is a good one. TF20, the fruit train, had finished business and was given clearance to

proceed onto the westbound track and into the staging track tunnel lead at Ryan's Corner. The

engineer waited for the caboose to clear the turnout and enter the tunnel. He re-set the turnout to

the main, and scampered to the rear of the layout to insure the turnout at the staging yard was set

in his favor. While he was waiting for his locomotive to appear out of the tunnel, something

extraordinary happened. A caboose, then a freight car, then another freight car slowly emerged

from the tunnel. Byron got very excited, as this brought back riveting memories of the Southern

Pacific Daylight episodes from sessions past, and he blurted out over the radio, "Something is

coming out of the hole back here!" Some smart a-- came back with, "That sounds more like an

intestinal problem than a railroad problem!" Then the Superintendent came over the radio, "TF20

and TF5 stop your trains!" We almost had a head-on collision down in the bowels of the SCRR.

The Superintendent came to the back and instructed Steve to back TF5 out of the tunnel and to

make room for TF20 to clear the tunnel turnout so it could back into staging. How do you

suppose this happened? It might have been interesting to see who would have won that battle, the

massive steam engine or the big turbine, both pulling a long load of cars. Maybe not so for the

Superintendent though!

The helper train appeared to work pretty good tonight, maybe the best we observed. Steve was at

the controls for the turbine, UP74, and Howard operated the helper. Ward connected the helper

properly, in our humble opinion; freight cars, helper locomotive, then caboose. The turbine

experienced some minor connecting wiring problems but all-in-all a good show, especially

Howard's performance extracting the helper from the train at Red River Canyon.

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Helper locomotive ready to get underway.

Byron got yelled at for speeding when operating TF10. In his defense, one must remember that

he was hauling 18 freight cars (his personal longest) and after getting up a good head of steam it

just seemed criminal to lose all that momentum. Later he got yelled at for going to slow with

TF20. Go figure.

It must have been a while since we last visited the SCRR. We missed the Christmas decorations

at Red River Canyon, but thanks for leaving up one tree for our retro enjoyment.

Decorated tree at Red River Canyon.

Also, a number of new tracks were installed along with a table extension at Flat Rock. The

following photographs show the new run around and siding at Flat Rock on the left of the picture

and the new spur at Little Fork to the rear of the water tank.

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New tracks and businesses at Flat Rock. New siding at Little Fork.

The following three photographs show the new industries that popped up in Flat Rock.

Ferguson Tractor is on the left. We are not sure what the business is in the center photograph but

it looks like another structure winner for John. On the right is Supersweet Feeds Farm Service

Co. We would have liked to show some of Ferguson's tractors but, alas, Dave dumped them in

the Red River.

There seems to have been a lot of police activity this evening, much more than usual on the

SCRR. The following photograph shows the men in blue from the Red River Canyon PD

scoffing down their donuts and coffee on the outskirts of town.

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Yum. We hope you can see that it is a chocolate covered donut.

While the above scene was unfolding other members of the department are earning their pay

responding to a mugging downtown. Aaaahhh, look just a little to your right, fellas.

Members of the elite Red River Canyon PD search for the victim of a reported mugging.

We didn't think John would stoop to this kind of activity on the SCRR. It looks more like

something one would encounter over there on the Jerome Central!

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Just to round out tonight's activities, we offer the following.

Jeff, Mike and Ron make sure Dave is doing it correctly. Ward hitting the bottle after a hard night's work

JJ and Mike doing something? Jeff running the Engine Service Facility.

Steve conducting an unidentified train. The Boss, ready to pounce at the first sign of trouble.

The following photograph shows engineer Howard giving his conductor a thumbs-down on his

last directed maneuver.

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Well, I guess we discovered the location of the missing head-end of Howard/Steve's train. Photo by Ward.

Ward thought he saw a Rock Troll but it just turned out to be a Bald Eagle heading north for the

approaching summer.

Bald Eagle flying over the mountains headed north.