This past weekend (somewhat picture intensive)

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
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This past weekend, I attended the LDSIG/OPSIG meet in Santa Clara, CA. As it turned out, so did fellow forum member Mark Pierce ( more on that later). Not only that, but we had both signed up for an operating session on Rick Fortin’s large (very) 1973 era Santa Fe layout. Rick’s “what if” layout depicts the 4th district of, IIRC, Santa Fe’s Coast Lines as it might have been if Santa Fe had built a line north to Portland OR. Rick’s layout depicts Chico, CA to McCloud, CA. Lemme put it this way. It’s about 500 feet from Chico staging to McCloud staging or about 6 scale miles.

Some layouts were open for visiting on Friday evening (01/23/09) and I managed to visit Bob Bowdidge’s 1932 era Vasona Branch. Bob’s layout is not a mega-layout, occupying a footprint of about 10x15 in a California basement (i.e. garage). Since Bob’s interests are similar to mine (SP Monterey Branch), I was especially looking forward to seeing his layout. I was impressed, to say the least. Unfortunately, I left my camera where I was staying (my stepson’s house). Fortunately, Bob’s got a website. http://homepage.mac.com/rbowdidge/railroad/vasona.html

I also managed to visit Rick Fortin’s layout to scope it out before the opsession on Sunday. As I said, I forgot my camera. I did, however, manage to remember to bring it with me on Sunday and managed to snap a few pics during the lunch break. You’re just too encumbered with operating paraphenalia and too busy operating to take pictures while operating.

I ran one train during during the morning part of the operating session and that was Amtrak #3 (still in Santa Fe garb). At the same time, Mark Pierce ran Amtrak #4 in the opposite direction. I also served as Mark’s conductor on the Kingsley Turn in the afternoon. That’s as interesting as being an engineer. It’s also a w

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Looks like You had a good time! I went to the Eastern States Expo in Massachusetts Yesterday. I’ll be posting some pics soon too.

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Yeah, I did have a great time. I was also exhausted by the time it was all over. All day Saturday was clinics and seminars. All day Sunday was devoted to operating sessions.

I could get used to that. [swg]

Andre

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Your experiences replicate what we found at the last club meet, when it all “came together” for the first time on our 42x8 club layout Anson Yard: DCC, all sound-equipped locos, waybills, interlocked switches and signals, dispatcher control, timetables, and radio sets for the Dispatcher and every operator plus the Anson Yard Master and Switcher. Every person said how brilliant it was, even although we made mistakes and it’s still very basic. “The best fun you can have standing up” indeed! It has opened up a whole new vista of stuff for us.

Although this sort of operation is common in the US, it’s rare on this scale in the UK. It was the addition of radio that clinched it for everyone.

Brian