Visitors

Was pleased to host a visit by a band of 13 local model railroaders headed by the infamous Lt. Steve Moyland (ret.), benevolent dictator of the HO Oak Valley Model Railroad crew in Deptford. They also let me tag along on a full day of visits to other local model railroads. (Unfortunately all HO since the group has deficits in eyesight and small motor skills. (Just kidding :-) )).

First stop: Bob Ainsworth: What stood out to me, on his Oak Valley & Western, was the many industries that had 3 dimensional signs (fuzzy teddy bears, toy blocks, etc. - nice touches).

Next we visited Paul More. What I enjoyed the most was that most of his scratch built structures had memorable personal stories attached to them (his granddad's gas station, etc.). (He also had a nice collection of antique cars and gas pumps.)

Next we stopped to see Chris Schulte's Reading RR layout and his beautiful street and catenary work.

After a visit to my PRSL layout (and you have certainly seen enough pictures of that!) we created a disturbance at a local restaurant and learned the steps needed to buy a 100' hot air balloon (Steve again). Then we visited an open house of the Delaware & Susquehanna Model Railroad Club. Beautiful structure work and impressive electrical displays.

A fun day! Thanks Steve!

Overdue Projects

I finally got around to some overdue work in the Camden area trackage:

1. Lengthened the arrival lead (now holds 9 cars instead of 4).
2. Added an engine escape turnout between the yard leads (also effectively lengthens the yard leads).
3. Added a pair of turnouts to enable a 4th staging track to be located behind the viaduct (holds 23 tankers and enables us to add another turn (2 trains) to the operating schedule).

Next up I need to:

1. Replace a Peco Electrofrog turnout that thinks it’s an Insulfrog in the other 3 track staging area (getting tired of dispatching 2 trains concurrently instead of 1 at a time) and 
2. Wire the extended yard lead