Last weekend I pulled the #212 Mississippi Merchandiser, east bound out of Chiloquin Oregon. The run ended up being one delay after another. Right off the bat after getting clearance to pull up onto the departure track, the locomotive would not respond to the throttle. I reported the malfunction. In the real 10 minutes that it took to get that straightened out the #601 Passenger train was due to depart so I had to wait for them, followed by the #141 Hot Pigs Rail Blazer. Both priority trains over my lowly merchandise. 15 real minutes later I got permission to pull up to the departure signal. I did so and got my wheel check done, but once there still had to wait for two more west bounds (don't remember which) to get into the Chillquin yard. Another real 10 minutes and I was finally off. Off to a very short distance (less than three scale miles). The first town out is Kalamath Falls, where I ran past two trains working in the yard. I got a yellow half way through and had to wait another hour (now I'm on scale time so 10 minutes real), for my west bound counterpart the #211 to come down the mountain.
From there it got better, apparently all the westbound traffic had gotten backed up nose to tail, and I was past them all because I ran green lights through Sprague all the way to Quartz Mountain. Quartz was yellow going in but green on the other side meaning I was following someone. I suppose the passenger and pigs had also been hung up and I had caught their tail. Going down the hill one of the trains that had been working in the Kalamath Falls yard started calling dispatch telling him to get that slow train (me) out of his way. Note that speed limit for a general train like the #212 is 20 smph. Speed limit for the passenger, pigs, and express is 30 smph. To start from dead in the yard and catch me when I had no stops this #281 had to be running over 40.
There was a facing train at Bly, so it was impossible to run the 281 around. Then something happened and Dispatch stopped the 281 at Bly so he wasn't on my tail. I coasted down the rest of the hill in full dynamics. When I saw the green light on the east end of the siding I hit notch eight to get there before Dispatch could stop me and run the 281 around there. I made it and didn't see or hear him again.
All told the trip took about two and a half real hours, meaning I spent one and a half waiting to get out of the yard or at red lights. Sometimes realistic operation is just waiting.
Here is a shot of the lead unit climbing out of Grizzly River Valley toward Sprague.
P.S. I had a matched set of 5 GP9s on the point and 2650 feet of train. So average 50' per car - 47 cars.