This was our second year attending the North Carolina Live Steam Meet in Apex, NC. The event is held twice a year and is open for invitation only. We had the pleasure of having Ben join us this time around and he had a blast too!
The property is located on 55 acres in Apex and just off of Kelly Road and is owned by Tony Sears and his wife Judy. The 7.5" track runs 2.5 miles through wooded and hilly terrain throughout the site, and includes many passing sidings, bridges and a staging yard area with a turntable, roundhouse, and a staging area for loading and unloading the locomotives.
We arrived around noon on Saturday and first saw Judy riding around on the golf cart with her cute little dog “Fluffy” a 10 week old Yorkie. She said that Duke had given her the heads up about the Cajun food that we bringing. She and I then rode to the barn and picked up a folding table for the culinary delights. Once the table was set up Duke finally made his appearance and after a few short introductions he and the family grabbed all the food and disposables from the Sienna van. The Cajun Chicken and Sausage Jambalaya was a hit! Just about everyone ate some, and even came back for 2nd and 3rd helpings. 
While we were eating and talking we meet Tom Watkins who is from Virginia and he builds 1.5 gauge diesel locomotives for a living now. Apparently he has a back log of orders for these custom build locos and has just hired on a helper for production. We also meet Joe Holbrook and his son, Joe built the Southern switcher locomotive 15 years ago and it runs on gasoline. This is the train that we were invited to ride on. The fi