What happens when your 11 year old granddaughter takes it upon herself to invite four younger friends to run trains.
CHAOS
I has assembled a six loco 48 car train on the ALLY. I was in the house working on some couplers when I heard the commotion outside.
I grabbed my camera and set it on a bench to catch some action.
I had no idea that we would have visitors. They had separated the big long train and were trying to run them separately. I had to un consist the 5 locos and get separate throttles hooked up.
There were 5 operators. I have four throttle, two with dual control knobs and two singles.
Not expecting visitors, the batteries were dead. And of course, I didn’t have enough working cables to run four throttles. While the chaos grew, I tried to fix a cable that I had chewed up with a weed whacker, (don’t ask.)
I vaguely notice that Ally took over the camera operation and was barking out commands like a movie director. I got two more throttle connected and helped the little girl, Parker, get started. All she wanted to know was which way to turn the knob to make it go.
Gradually, they got more trains running, eventually getting FIVE all going at one time.
While it stared with these inexpedience operators walking on the track, jumping over the trains, and straddling the rails while the trains ran between their legs…
I kept silent, and watched.
Sure enough, after a while the challenge became keeping the trains from colliding. They settled down into lawn chairs. Ally asked me to find my buckets of cattle, people, and some more automobiles. The visitors were soon positioning the auto, people and cattle for pickup and delivery on the trains.
Without me ever saying a word to the visitors, everything just fell into place. The trains were running, and the railroad seemed safe. Ally seemed to have everything under control, and I found the heat o