August 17, 2013 Saturday Public Run Day Report

August 17, 2013 Saturday Public Run Day Report

The weather was bright and sunny with a nice breeze keeping the temperature in the high 70s. Just another beautiful day in Torrance. ;-)

Today we had  about 15 special visitors from the South Bay Camera Club located in Torrance. They descended on SCLS with cameras in hand and proceeded to photograph everything! I cannot wait to see some of the shots they got during the run day.

The clubs general business meeting was held at 10:30 AM after which Daisy served up a nice breakfast. A sausage & cheese quiche with coffee, iced tea and POG to drink and some little breakfast cupcakes for desert.

We were running shorthanded today as Kelly and Joanne were out playing on full sized trains and Tom and Tobey were out playing race cars at Perris Motor Speedway. Mark could not make it as he was laid up in the hospital. Mark, our prayers are with you for a speedy recovery, and quick return!

Trains running:  Rory and his Rio Grand 1394, Howie and his UP 1205, the club's Santa Fe F7 driven by Alec and later Aaron, Kelly's Santa Fe 1244 driven by Dale, Bob had his Pacific Electric Red Car out running the inside mainline. Jeff had his dad's Blue Line out showing it off for the photographers. And Jim brought out his RMI Prairie the C&P #2 driven by Charlie G., later replacing it with his RMI 70 Ton, C&P #12 which Jim drove. The clubs Sw1500, WC 777 as well as Dave's Sw1500 were kept in reserve, should the crowds overflow the station.

The crowd was fairly light as we gave 722 rides during the 3 hour period. The flow was continuous, but the line was not out to the street as it was during the prior run day.

There was a big shindig going on at the park so there were a lot of visitors from outside of Torrance. More on that later.

Today was the first day that we had our new SCLS T shirts for sale. They look absolutely great! We had sizes all the way from Child small to Adult 4XXL and sold a ton of them. If you want one contact Phil Cohen or Tom Downing before this batch is gone!

Thanks to Kelly we had a fresh supply of rail clippings and they went fast, I think he will need to make some more!

Conductor duckies and lemonade were also a hot commodity on this beautiful day.

We ran the Crenshaw Line as well as both internal loops. The figure 8 was closed for the day. Average ride length was about 25 minutes. The line seemed to move at a good rate with short wait times.

Daisy prepared a wonderful lunch for us of Sweet & Sour meatballs with colorful bell peppers, rice, Chinese chicken salad, with pineapple upside down cake for desert with Hawaiian POG and raspberry tea. Every thing was great and there were no leftovers!

The Great Train Mutiny of 2013:

The very last train of the day, Jim's 70 ton had a mutiny out on the Crenshaw Line. This was a first, and we are going to change operations to handle it in the future.

Apparently on the way out to the turntable, as the train was passing the band stand area of the big park shindig. A group of young visitors (not our normal riders) decided they would rather be at the concert than on the train. So they just stood up and proceeded to hop off the train! Problem is they all stood up on one side of the train at the same time and tipped it to the point where the train uncoupled. The train separated and as designed the air line that supplies the braking system pulled apart, dumping the air in the line. This immediately brought the cars and locomotive to a complete stop! Just like on the big trains!

The mutineers then proceeded to jump off the derailed train and climb the fence on Crenshaw to get back into the park, however they couldn't quite make it over,  as the fence was a bit too high for the young hooligans so they ran back down the Crenshaw line towards the station!

Tim was the conductor and brought his cannons to bare on the gang of young mutineers, but alas they got away before he could get a shot off! Curses, foiled again! Ah those sneaky mutineers!

After a few moments of shock by Jim, Tim and the remaining loyal passengers, everything got back to normal. The train was put back on the rails, air lines hooked up and everyone had an enjoyable trip back to the station with an interesting story to tell. This was one for the books! We are re-naming Jim's engine the "Bounty"!

Lessons learned: Future mutinous crews will be accompanied by a loyalist parental unit to act as Sergeant at Arms!

Tim is studying keelhauling methods on a train and fixing the sights on his cannon.

Overall, it was a great day and a lot of fun! Looking forward to next run day on Labor Day Sunday the 1st of September. Come and join us! Mutineers, come at yer own risk Arrrrrr!


 



 

Edited by PhilC - Aug 17 2013 at 11:51pm