Prepping for OPS - Commutes are coming!
The layout really needs to get back into operation. Really. A lot of rolling stock is just sitting there, begging for a wheel to turn. Sure, we run a few trains every so often, but nothing like a month op session does. Before COVID hit, we operated a few times to get the bugs worked out. All in all, it went well. But there was a lack of work for the road crews to do. So it ended up that a lot of work was put on the yard masters (YMs), with road crews doing short hops. Not much industry is on line yet.... more on that later. So what to do? Commutes! We had run them in the Phase 2 incarnation of the GNW. We had not owing to (1) lack of experience with the layout and not wanting to overload the operators, and (2) no means of turning the locomotives at Warm Springs. Recall Phase 2 had a wye at Mesa City. But now... with the Mesa City wye back in place (see the last blog post), commutes could run again! (yay!...