My friend Todd @6005EnterTRAINment told me of an operating session on Tony and Joe Pellegrino's ICG layout this week and inviting me along. I'm always looking for new layouts to run on, and looked forward to getting some video.
Unfortunately, I left my house without my GoPro, so the video quality is not as good as normal. All I had was my cell phone, and had to juggle trying to hold it while handling a radio, throttle, and copying track warrants.
This day actually included 2 separate sessions, so we stayed the whole day and ran during both of them. For the first session, I ran the P55 Slingshot Pig Train. After I tied up with that, the next job on the Call Sheet was the SC4 Through Freight, that included a stop at Federal Yard to swap a block of cars.
For the Second session, I marked up as the Federal Yardmaster. That time was spent sorting cars, coordinating arrivals and departures, and most importantly, sitting on the comfy stool.
The group of operators this day clearly had a lot of experience on this layout. They copied track warrants, switched cars, met trains at passing sidings, and never once left a switch lined wrong or had a cornfield meet.
Be sure to check out the Signal Up Productions Facebook page to see some of the photos I took of the Godfrey depot and Mead Packing background building.
/ signalupproductions
0:00 Introduction
0:44 Departing with the P55 TOFC Train
11:08 Weathered GP40's leading the SC4 freight
16:55 Sorting cars at Federal Yard