'Tis the Season...

[jonathan]

This weekend, our RR club set up a modular layout in our local county library.  I went along to help set up the display and to run a train I brought along.  Didn't expect much of a turnout (pun intended).  Just thought there would be us old guys, playing with our trains, in the corner of the library.

Was I ever wrong...

The place was very busy with parents and young children, all excited to watch the trains goin' round.

We had a few stools, so the little kids could get up real close.  How close?  We had some mysterious uncoupling and derailments (from little fingers).  Plus, one of our truss bridges lost a few I-beams from some 4-year-old Godzilla.  All fixable stuff.

Be that as it may, I now know that feeling when you're running trains, and there are lots of folks watching and getting excited about it.

Kudos again to the folks at Bachmann.  I double-headed my Connies, with a 20-car coal train, for most of the day without a lick of trouble.  Well... for some reason, I can't get the headlights to come ON on our Digitraxx system.  That's OK, they still work at home on my layout.  Motors didn't even get warm.  They will getting a good going over at home this week (clean and lube).

Just thought I'd spread a little Christmas cheer.

Regards,

Jonathan

[Jim Banner]

Welcome to the wonderful world of model railroad shows.  All those smiling faces, young and old, are what it is all about.  From 3 to 103, seems like everybody loves a railroad.  The only problem I have with shows is that I enjoy talking with people, especially young children, old retired railroaders, and, of course, model railroaders of any age.  This tends to get me in trouble with my buddies when I lose track of my train and let it crash into the rear of one of theirs.

One trick our model railroading group has learned - always have some chairs handy.  Some children can follow the trains around for hours and their parents need somewhere to sit.  And they are good for little ones with busy fingers.  Standing on a chair with its back toward the layout gives them a better view and the back gives them something to hang on to.  Without being obvious about it, the back also works as a bit of a barricade to protect the layout, particularly if the chair is set an arm's length (the child's arm length, not yous) away from the table.  Our group, being a bunch of old geezers, always makes sure we have enough chairs for us too.

As the Aussies say, good on ya, Jonathan.  I hope this leads to many repeats in the days and years to come.

Jim

[jonathan]

Thanks, Jim.

The experience did encourage me to continue on.  It was enjoyable.  By the way, I put the decoders in BACKWARDS.  That's why the lights wouldn't work.  Surprised the trains ran at all.  Well, I'm learnin'. 

This afternoon was pretty slow (bad weather), so we had some time to take a few pics and let the kids run the throttles (scary indeed):































Regards,

Jonathan