Comment: This was the beginning of new set of reports from Ship It!. I printed the car starting positions and the switching report for Session 1. I then placed the cars in the prescribed locations and used a diesel switcher to form the consist for Train 601, a local freight which travels from Coaldale to Jasper. I completed the run in about an hour, largely because there was very little switching.

Session 1a:

The cars have all been placed in their starting locations. The diesel switching locomotive, CN 7895, an SW-4, formed the consist for Train 601, a local freight scheduled to leave Coaldale at 0:30 am. This is a very enjoyable switching activity.

During the process the locomotive experienced some stalls near switches #2 and #3. I eventually determined this was caused by a slight dip in the track due to fastening the ties down too tightly. I also noticed that the couplers on the Australian gondola car (AOBX 527) were too high. This was corrected by changing the wheels from the original wheels to Kadee 33" freight wheels.

I then followed the steps in the Prodigy manual for creating a "route" which allowed me to control 7 outer mainline switches with one single command. This turned out to be very easy and straight forward but for me it was a new step in running the layout.

Train 601 lead by CN 7847, an RS-3 diesel locomotive, pulled out of Coaldale on the outer mainline where it performed flawlessly for 7 loops. The first loop was at a slower speed of 6 in order to verify that everything was working fine, then the speed was increased to 8 for 3 loops and then to 10 for another 3 loops.

The train then branched off the outer loop, passing through Queenston without stopping and began 4 loops on the inner mainline. No problems. Train 601 stopped just outside of Prairie Dog where CN 7847 uncoupled from the consist and entered the town. It picked up an empty boxcar (CN 520502) from Hillside Lumber and set it out in front of the Alberta Wheat Pool grain elevator. The locomotive then reversed back to the consist, connected to the consist and moved on, passing through Pine Ridge and on to Jasper where it setout the cars on Track #2 and #3.

Comment: This is becoming a lot of fun.

I added one new command to my repetoire with the handheld control. It is now programmed to set 7 switches that are under handheld control with one command. This ensures that the outer mainline switches are all lined properly for mainline travel.

I am still experiencing some minor problems but they are being solved. Track needed cleaning in a couple of places, the roadbed needed leveling near two switches in the Coaldale Yard, one car needed new wheels in order to adjust the height of the couplers. I also moved two switches in the Queenston town in order to have more flexibility for my switching activities.

I have decided to forego detailed descriptions of all the switching activity. It simply takes too long to make notes and thus interferes with the actual running of the trains.