I just completed the first scenario, "The Setup", on the Clinchfield RR, earning 21,235 points and a Gold Medal. The former, of course, I could see mounting up, but the medal came as a complete surprise, since I tend to drive slowly and cautiously while switching, the activity that fills this l-o-n-g activity. Like other Clinchfield odysseys, this one presents numerous switch changes, each raising the question whether the engineer should leave the cab, change the switch, and return (as firmly instructed in both locomotive tutorial sessions) or not (imagining the presence of a brakeman, which to me at least makes more sense in a long switching session. I alternated the two techniques, largely depending on the distance of the switch to be changed from my locomotive. By the way, some of this scenarios switch settings are quite tricky, since there isn't always a clear blue-green line to follow and, in fact, sometimes the same yard area presents more than one such path indicator. Due to personal circumstances, I had to drive this session by fits and starts, but once my life returns to "normal" I intend to take it on again, working straight through.
