Comment: This was the beginning of Session 2. Train #601, a local freight train, began at Coaldale, and travelled west , ending up in Jasper.

Session 2a:

Loco CN7985 (SW-4) formed the consist for Train #601 in the Coaldale Yard. The activity began at 10:15 am and the consist was ready on track 7 by 11:00 am. No problems.

Loco CN7847 (RS-3) was sitting in bay 6 at the turntable. The locomotive had no difficulty leaving the bay and entering the Coaldale yard to pick up the consist. The turntable makes a huge difference in ease of operation in getting the locomotive facing the right direction to connect to the consist.

Train #601 left Coaldale and immediately encountered 3 problems:

• there was a short stall near switch 3 in the yard. This was soon fixed by adding some cardboard to the road bed
• the locomotive consistently derailed the front wheels on the curve leaving the double track bridge. This was also fixed by adding some cardboard to the road bed.
• CN552942 (boxcar) was both derailing and uncoupling while on the outer mainline. I replaced the trucks on the Canadian National end and that solved both problems.

Although it took some time to get these problems solved, once they were fixed the remainder of the run went very smoothly.

The train set out 9 cars in the Jasper Yard, so it is now quite congested.

Comment:

I cannot believe that it has been almost 2 months since I last had an operating session!

I was a little rusty at first, but the procedures soon came back, and I didn't have any real difficulties. I continue to like the combination of the a few outer mainline circuits to give a balance between mainline running and local switching activity.

It was disappointing to have the initial problems, but once that was overcome the session was smoothly completed. I really liked the addition of the turntable to the Coaldale Yard.