Imagine playing a game of backyard football and the quarterback from your favorite pro team stops by to play the position. Or, maybe you're in a cover band at a local tavern, and your favorite pro musician comes by to sit in.
Well, when you hold operating sessions - really, a railroad role-playing game - on your prototype-based model railroad, and a retired dispatcher that worked that territory is willing to sit in and enjoy the session, it's about the same feeling!
Bill Moll is a railroad name around Central New York. He was an intern at NJ DOT in the early 1980's, and eventually worked for the New York, Susquehanna & Western Railway (NYS&W) at their dispatcher's offices in Cooperstown, NY, in the later 1980's. By 1992 he was at Conrail, based in the Selkirk NY offices to dispatch Conrail's Albany Division including the Chicago Line, the most important main line in New York and one of the most important in the United States. He worked through the change to CSX, and retired several years ago but has stayed active volunteering at local tourist railroads as well as historical societies. After the Covid pandemic hit, Bill ended up finding the Onondaga Cutoff on Facebook - but knew the railroad culturally and operationally from his experience on the prototype!
The Onondaga Cutoff has been grateful for the visits of a variety of people both in the industry of railroading and that of modeling railroading, and having a retired Mohawk Dispatcher visit is right there as a highlight in the top of the list.
After a run around the railroad, Bill was ready to give it a spin. Under the steady guide of Chris Lee, one of the regular dispatchers on the OC, Bill was quickly qualified on the territory and proceeded to dispatch the rest of the session. It was a natural seat for him and a real pleasure to watch the railroad perform in top form, under the hand and direction of a professional.
As railroading has grown more automated, with more and more track controlled by dispatchers and centralized or computer traffic control, the role of the dispatcher has grown in importance. As a kid trackside through the 80's and '90's, the voice of the dispatcher on the radio was almost like a 'god' in the sky: someone that saw the whole picture and reached out to guide movement across the system.
The session was great, and we will be excited to host Bill and his friend Brett again soon. After the session was an even better surprise when Bill showed us an actual dispatcher's sheet from the Mohawk Desk from 1996, as well as something I'd hoped to add to my collection of railroad items for my whole life: an actual 'station sign' from an interlocking on the Chicago Line in the Syracuse area, where I grew up watching trains.
This was a total surprise, and a generous gift from a retired railroader to a current railroader and model layout owner like me. I am deeply grateful for the visit and it is commemorated by the generous gift of the nameplate from CP 278, in Kirkville, NY, which was removed during the upgrades in about 2014.
This is an evening I won't forget for many years to come. Thanks, Bill, and Brett!
