Tuesday night at the Huff and Puff April 10, 2018

Upon arriving at the layout I was told I would be the dispatcher for the night. After being familiarized with the Trains already staged in Wellington and Elsewhere the Boss also assigned me with the Wellington switch. As we only operate for about 2 hours, there is some urgency on behalf of the operators to get there train underway. The first half an hour or so saw a passenger train a branch line freight, a coal train and 5 mainline freights running at the same time, and without any real bottlenecks. A testament to the thought that went into setting up the staged trains by the Boss. Basically he set up some of the Trains to switch the 3 major cities and a couple to switch the smaller towns, a system that I also followed. At the end of the session operators expressed how smooth it went. Meanwhile I was busy setting up a couple of freights in Wellington but as I turned my attention to the 18 foot long yard in Elsewhere only had a handful of cars in it. The next train out of Wellington was a through freight to Elsewhere with 2 of each type of rolling stock we have, to replenish the yard. Oh No!  Now several trains arrive in Elsewhere and I have all this rolling stock coming. A little 5 finger switching saved the day. Yes the dispatcher received a great deal of light hearted ribbing.  Thoughts about this experience. It seems like the 1 town trains have merit, but the dispatcher needs an update when the switching is done, so another 1 can be set up. We need to have the ore train and the logging train run to take pressure off the mainline. Maybe the first few trains should have 2 operators. We need to split the Elsewhere yard which will increase it's capacity. I noticed consist changes in returning trains indicating missing rolling stock on the industrial sidings. We need a rolling stock starting list that is checked either on Friday or before starting on Tuesday.