Before Western Rail took over the Geiger spur, I believe the Hiball or the Rat Turn did the honors out there. Now, both of them are history. Perhaps the CDA arranges their work so that they don't have to spend that much time on the branch on Thursdays, and I suppose there might be days when they don't even go out on the branch. I have seen them returning to Yardley late on Thursday afternoons. If they don't die on hours, I bet it is a 12 hour day for them. The CDA has a great crew and we enjoy working with them. All high seniority guys and on a short timeline for retirement.

Sometimes I am amazed that we are able to make a decent connection at all. Our running time is quite predictable but we have to go thru four locked gates at Fairchild. We call security and their response time varies wildly depending on what else is going on at the base. Sometimes they bring the wrong keys, etc, etc. Our record wait at Rambo road was 2-1/2 hours! The CDA local has to run the gauntlet of other trains on the Wenatchee sub. Sometimes they get stuck at Lyons for an eastbound. A couple of weeks ago there was an eastbound stack stopped there when we arrived. Turned out he was too long to fit into the Lyons siding and would have blocked crossings if he continued. He met a short westbound at Lyons and the CDA didn't get to leave Erie st until that huge eb was by. We waited about 1-1/2 hours that day at W. Fairchild.

Everybody is looking forward to the new bypass next year. It should make things much simpler.

BB