Operating on the PBN

The 2001 Sn3 Symposium held in Seattle, WA this year featured an opportunity for attendees to not only visit - but to actually OPERATE on - some of the finest Sn3 layouts in the Pacific Northwest. Special thanks are due not only to Brian Ellerby, Paul Scoles, and Dave Woodrell who graciously opened their layouts to make this possible, but especially to registrar Jim Noonan without whose hard work and dedication, none of this would have been possible!

I wish to thank Jim Brown for this HTML format.

I was privileged to be able to operate Paul Scoles RR, and I thought that you might enjoy seeing a few pictures of the train I ran...

Photo 1 - Shows my train (Northbound Passenger train Number 1) in staging also know as Del Norte ready to depart on time at 10:20 AM.

A few notes from the Pelican Bay Railway and Navigation Company "Freight and Passenger Train Procedures, Edition Number 10" .

From the Front cover...

P.B. Scoles - Chief Dispatcher and Constant Pain in the Butt.

Management reserves the right to ignore such rules at its pleasure!

From the General Rules and Regulations...

Norhtbound trains are superior to Southbound trains of the same class.

At no time should trains exceed 25 miles per hour.

Derailments and shorts may occur, as management is often lax with maintenance (according to some). However, causing a short and tripping a breaker by running through a closed switch will cause management to assign demerits to the guilty party, and unleash uncontrollable mirth from the other operators.

Photo 2 - Here we are at Silverado, on time and waiting to leave. "Procedures" stated that we "take the track behind depot. This is the passenger main and the depot platform faces it."

Photo 3 - We have left Silverado and are headed through Diablo Canyon.

Photo 4 - This is Big Trees and our train would have been here waiting to leave if we could have stopped! We temporarily lost control of our train due to bad cable contact and highballed on through! Call it lack of air to stop.

Photo 5 - This is Rio Dell and "Procedures" state that "At Big Trees and Rio Dell take inside (passing) track, so train is next to the platform.

Photo 6 - This is Pelican Bay where we have a scheduled meet with Southbound Passenger train number 2.

Photo 7 - We have left Pelican Bay and are back on schedule on our way to Ft. Nash.

Photo 8 - Ft. Nash and following "procedures" we took the inside passing track next to the platform.

Photo 9 - Here we are at Camp Riley being held out of Klamath by a freight switching on the main past his allowed time! Sounds like demerit time.

Photo 10 - You can see the freight that was holding us out to the left. This is the end of the line for us as we have reached Klamath. The next stop is Smith River, but we will not go there till the train is turned as this is a staging location.

Back to the MAIN 2001 Sn3 Symposium page.

Pat Turner

July 17, 2001