Today is the first day of OPs on the Bluestone Southern in rural southern Illinois below Nashville, Illinois, for 2013. The weather is clear, but we did approach freezing overnight, so a cool day is planned. The Ops go on for both days this weekend, beginning at Noon. Reports and pictures to follow.
Have fun!
Yea, What Jon said. Have fun, looks like nice weather for running.
Nick
Good luck. And get all the bugs worked out before the rest of us get out there…
Hi temp for the day was about 62 degree’s… a little breeze…
Day started with a gust of Wind knocking over 2 freight cars as they left the Bluefield Yards via the Window…
Things greatly improved after that…
First to run, were the 4 setup trains… Train lengths have been increased by 3-4 cars per train… Train lengths today averaged 11-13 cars per train… Mostly made up of 3 & 4 bay covered hoppers and 50 ft boxcars & reefers, a few deep wells and a few 2 bay covered hoppers thrown in.
After all the setup trains were run, Operations started and we moved a total of 11 trains during the operations for a total of 15 trains run for the day…
Only one passenger train was run, with the rest all being freight…
One run, was a thru fast freight, consisting of 2 60 ft boxcars, and 3 autoracks, powered by an SD-45 Hustle Muscle #400 leased from Great Northern…
EVWR locals were run with EVWR GP-38-2 #3833 and a leased Alton Southern GP-38-2 #2000…
Other freights were run by numerous leased locomotives, to include a Challenger, and a set of Rock Island GP-38’s, Bluestone Southern GP-40’s and leased Boston & Maine GP-40’s.
Bluefield yard power was a leased Cotton belt GP-40, until it fell out of action with a battery failure, and was replaced by a Bluestone Southern GP-40…
For the most part, the day was a success… A few little cliches here and there…
Weather was great, and good friends were around… Who could ask for more…
Have some pictures, but need to figure out which pictures to clean out in my freight shed, as it is well over the freight sheds limit…
I should be around tomorrow, hopefully my (upgraded) locomotive is capable of increased pulling power from last time.
Today’s Ops was a bit lighter, due to high winds… We called the Ops at 1536, due to winds…
We did however run 11 trains, including the pickup trains.
Was windy as we were under a severe wind warning for most of the day, but temps were wonderful… High was 76… at 8:45, it’s still 66 out there…
Pics, or it didn’t happen. 
Nobody took any photographs? Simply amazing.
Steve, I got a few, but can’t post, cause my freight shed is too full… 
Try Dropbox.
It gives you a folder to drop files into, it automatically uploads them, and gives you a “share” link for them.
Andy Clarke said:
Steve, I got a few, but can’t post, cause my freight shed is too full…
Email 'em to me. I’ll put them in my web storage and send you the links.