I spent most of the past weekend at an annual “Danathon” where about 30 people celebrate the birthday of a former BNSF Yardmaster of BNSF’s Eola Yards, about an hour west of Chicago. Over the past two years, my brother, Bob, has been working with JMRI and LOGIX to help with establishing the rules and animating the signals and CTC panel indicators for Dan’s layout, which represents the Twin Ports of Superior, Wisconsin and Duluth, Minnesota, shortly after the BN merger, in 1970.
Bob’s code, along with a snippet he realized needed updating the night before we visited Dan’s, ran PERFECTLY for the twelve hours we were there of Friday, and the two and a half hours we were there on Saturday.
I contributed nothing to his code, but all the same I’m proud of the work that Bob has done for Dan. He helped achieve one of Dan’s major goals for his railroad. He also made the new upstairs Dispatcher’s Office operational which allowed another member of Dan’s operating crew to participate, in spite of layout access problems resulting from a number of medical procedures in recent years.
Bob’s efforts are the stuff that has made a couple of people’s dreams reality.
I’m more than a little proud of him.