Summer Is Here!

Regular summer weekend operations started today, and things went well, although attendance was lighter than we would have liked.   More about that later.  I was running the 3142.

Due to some necessary trackwork, we were unable to run around the complete carline loop, so instead the streetcar has to "ping-pong" as we say: run most of the way around the loop, then change ends and go back.  It's more work, but this is sometimes necessary.  In any case, I need the exercise.

The Old Reliable was on the coach train again.  This time I was able to get some pictures of it.

While waiting for the 1630 to couple onto its train, and visitors have gathered to watch the proceedings, Bob Opal gives a lecture about air brakes.  IRM is always educational.

Sorry, that's about it for pictures.  But I had a good time running the car, and met several interesting people during the day.  Lots of other things were going on, in the shops, and track work, and switching, and rebuilding one of the car barns, and so on.  You just had to be there.  And the weather was pretty nice all day.  That reminds me....

OFF-TOPIC RANT: THE WORLD IS NOT COMING TO AN END

More and more, I believe we're being hurt by hysterical weather reporting that's intended to make you think the world is coming to an end, and you'll regret going outside when you could stay home and watch the reporters on TV instead.  With all the improved data collection systems and multiple weather predicting models, the weather reports are a lot more precise but not, on the whole, more correct.

The weather is a chaotic system.  Without going into the technical details, that basically means that completely reliable predictions are impossible.  It used to be, for instance, that people accepted summer afternoon showers as an unpredictable but normal part of life.  You just deal with it.  Now, however, it's a big crisis.  I could go on and on, but since I don't have any constructive suggestions for fixing the problem, that's enough for now.  Back to our usual programming.