This last week, the ninth edition of the BayRails operating weekend was held. As has been true in recent years, my layout was on the schedule, and I hosted two sessions, on March 17 and 19. The usual four-person crews visited to run the layout.
On the first day, the 17th, my crew comprised Tom Callan, Bill Jolitz, Mike Jordan, and Steve Schiffman. I was especially happy to host Mike, as I had really enjoyed operating on his layout in Minneapolis and exchanging information and ideas about reefer operations (PFE in particular). Since Bill has very similar interests as Mike and me, the two of them really had great fun. Here they are, switching at Shumala, with Mike acting as conductor at left.
And because Mike and I have enjoyed getting to know one another, and operating on each other’s layouts, Bill Jolitz took a photo of us together. I see at photo right that the crew was about to spot a gondola of sand at the Shumala sand house.
The other crew was also photographed when it was their turn at Shumala, with Tom at left. At this point, Tom was clearly doing the engineer’s job, since he’s holding the throttle.
On Saturday the 18th, I was acting as yardmaster at Paul Weiss’s Central Vermont, a job which I’ve documented <grin> in a recent post (see it at: https://modelingthesp.blogspot.com/2023/03/layout-operating-can-be-demanding.html ). Then on Sunday, my layout was active again. This time, the crew was Dave Clune, Al Daumann, Eric Dervinis, and Jeroen Gerritsen. Below, Eric (at left) and Al Daumann, clearly the conductor, are working at Shumala.
The other crew, Dave and Jeroen, were at Ballard, with Dave as engineer. They appear to be quite puzzled by something, hopefully not my paperwork.
This was a good weekend, as far as I could tell, and all the operators I spoke with, at my layout or at Pal’s, seemed to really enjoy it. So after missing our chance to host a BayRails in 2021 during the pandemic, it is nice to have this event back.
Tony Thompson
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