ent over this morning for the second running of CSX – Taft, a neat little layout that explores potentials for fun without throwing away hundreds of square feet. And today, we ran with a number of new additions (Chris and I had talked this over and the fact that he took me seriously made me blink). Anyway, some new – neat things, first, a magnetic plate where you can keep track of your laps (when running mainline trains). And each lap is represented in a town roughly in that location (between Miami and Jacksonville). And second, random event cards!

My first shift involved the through freight, and my first random event was a dud (it would have closed down the run-around siding but we’d already used it for the immediate future). However, the second one (on my southbound train) was funny – apparently it was a wildlife alert; an alligator climbed out of a drainage ditch and was sunning itself on the tracks, which brought me (and, indirectly, Chris since I was blocking his lead) to a screeching halt.

I’m this close to making a suitcase out of this thing (Photo: Chris S)

Anyway, after animal control had swept in and duct taped Wally Gator all up, I proceeded to Miami. Then we swapped and I ran the local. This time a drug bust (just beyond the location pictured in the above shot) closed down the team track. That meant we had to store the car that was supposed to be delivered there in another location – our next session will likely see it respotted. And some sort of expedited load of scrap (what, gold? copper?) had to be moved so a northbound extra was sent against traffic flow to get the goods.

Yeah, overall, it was a lot of fun to throw wrenches into the session. I’ve been thinking about similar things for the Tuscarora and have some more ideas.

Anyway, thanks to my host for providing us with an enjoyable session at a local location near and dear to our hearts. Looking forward to the next run!

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