CA&E operations report

Joel Ahrendt, our intrepid cub reporter, turns in the following report from the weekend:

Hello there, Joel Ahrendt doing a guest report.  I had the pleasure to operate CA&E 308 and 309 for this past weekend.  Being RPO (Railway Post Office) weekend, the star was the mail pickups that were done both directions on Saturday, and one direction on Sunday. Also to add to the mix was it being U.P. Family day on Saturday. The Union Pacific had an excursion train for their employees and family running on the Belvidere Sub.

Saturday, we made 7 trips with the two cars and they behaved wonderfully.  In fact, I had no issues with my 106 and 107 year old cars, but the U.P. train delayed me about 20 minutes while they re-booted the computer in the engine.  I don't think that there will be many of those engines that will make the 100 year mark.  The trains were pretty well packed for most all of my trips.

Sunday, we only made 5 trips, but it was a smaller crowd.  The weather did hold out the whole day, and was able to finish with the clean-up trip.  The picture will show two of the three that worked on Sunday.  Sorry, Randy, I didn't have a camera to capture the run crew on Saturday.  Again, the cars performed well.  Only a few minor issues, one of which Frank will probably mention when posting this. The cars were put up and stored back on Sunday clean and ready for the next service.

Jeff Freyman (left), conductor, and Joel Ahrendt, motorman