Operations on the J&B is always on the tiny side, but always enjoyable. I invited Ken down to run two trains on the J&B today.
While Ken drives down, I start setting up the railroad, always waiting until after school has opened. A lot of the kids pass by my layout, and I’d rather not be responsible for them being late to school. 
Jean’s surgeries have cut back on operating sessions this year and I have not had many cars out on the layout. I did appreciate the “natural” weathering on one of my hoppers, though. Some sort of strange growth, but rather interesting all the same.
Anyway, Ken showed up in time to help finishing the set out of the cars and it was much apprciated.
Here’s Green Spring Yards in the foreground, with the Lexington staging area train behind Ken as Ken starts locomotive #4 on the road to initiate Train #1 out of Green Springs.
One of the first things we did was to retrieve a boxcar from Oates Furniture in town.
Our next stop is Occoquan, where we have just a bit of work to do: pick up a car from the interchange, Smith Pond Mill and the team track. Here we break the train in order to get some work done.
As we progress towards Jackson, we encounter an odd situation. Typically, the switching here is often viewed as “diabolical”. Today, it’s about as opposite as could be. Even though the industries are crowded, all we are required to do is switch the bucket coaling station. One pick up and one set out. How simple is that?
We soon finish Train #1 and pull into Lexington. Lexington is actually a staging area and holds the already built Train #2. We pull out of Lexington and our first stop is Jackson. Switching is still well below the diabolical stage. We set out 5 cars and pick up 5 cars, but not all that difficult.
Our first move sees us dropping reefer #55 at Salmons Produce, while we pick up reefer #513.
While we trade cars, we also reorder the train a bit, putting the rest of the drop offs together.
Next, we pull out the cars to pick up. Conveniently, they all come from Matheson Textiles which also happens to be the set out location for 3 boxcars.
Then we head back to the passing siding and get the 3 cars destined for the same spot.
Next stop is Occoquan, where we are swapping out 2 cars. After that, we terminate the train in Green Springs.
Finally, we put everything away and head out to lunch. What an enjoyable day and many thanks to Ken for the long drive down to my place.
