Review by Casey
 

Review--NEEM92-01-Oil Run by Karl (Karl Brannigan, Eketahuna, New Zealand)

This activity, set in Rich Garber's East Metro route, beautifully exemplifies my personal favourite kind of act, since it contains all of the elements that I really enjoy!  For example, it starts-off with the engine in the shed, and you must "journey down the way" for a mile or two to the yard, where you pick-up the components for your consist. Right away, you just know that this is going to be an interesting run.

So then it's a bit of road work as you're off to Oil City, where you'll set-out your empties at OC Oil and pick-up your full tanks.  This makes a nice change from the routine, head-out-the-window scene as you fuss with the cars and make the exchange, before working your way back onto the main.

A little more road work as you journey down to Big City, where you set-out your cars at BC Refinery. Again there's the welcome change of pace, plus there's a nice little puzzle for you so solve as you prepare your consist for the short run down to BC Yard.  Again, there's that nice "Karl" touch as you end the activity by parking your power in the shed.

It's the nice little changes in pace between switching and road work that make this type of run so interesting. Karl has done some really nice work here, producing a nice, "robust" activity that's really good fun to play out. So whether you're partial to road work or switching, you can't fail to enjoy this one -- a personal-top-ten for me.