f you want to know what it feels like to be a astronaut flying away from Earth, into deep space, try getting to the Deland Fairgrounds at 5:30 AM. I just sat in my car and sighed, thinking my lofty thoughts. One thought – I sure overestimated my travel time. Another thought – I wish I’d brought a book.
We got good attendance for setup, other than the Polish Precision Rifle Drill Team performance. You see, it’s quite simple. Two people hold the layout in place. Four people, christened One, Two, Three and Four each take a called-out leg type (short or long) and walk it to their assigned module corner. Slip them all in. Ease the module into place. Move on to the next. We’ve done it before and it worked brilliantly.
John slows down to let my freight into Bowden. Um, I think your signal was a little behind you. (Photo: John DV)
This time… well, what can I say? Suddenly we only had three leg men. Sometimes five. People were reporting to wrong corners to install wrong legs. They even put legs in upside down. How we managed to get the layout built without braining each other with metal legs is beyond me. No fatalities and the layout was built and ready for action.
So the first day we ran smooth as silk. Couple of minor adjustments early on. I set up a long general freight train (all you flashy guys with your eunuch, or rather, unit trains, so dull) and got to run it for half a lap (Bowden over to the NS yard) before shutdown. The only problem was when Christian pointed out that the siding at Folkston was dead. No power. Okay, first thing on that; Kaden, the mainline in that loop is not a reserved parking spot. The siding at that location is the pee-stop; it only exists to pull over if you need to dump your bladder (or lower intestines). Not for parking. Never for parking. But the main was blocked and the siding dead.
And for reference, this is what a green “go ahead” signal looks like (Photo: Red-runner DeVasto)
I ended up climbing under the layout, looking for any loose connections or plugs. Eli’s dad top-decked for me with the voltage wand, confirming what was down. We messed around with it until Zach pointed out we had two lights lit on the booster panel (both for staging areas). So we checked all engines in both holding yards. Nothing. Then we pulled all engines. Still nothing. When, while running from yard to yard (possibly weeping profusely) I saw that Pete’s chargers had drifted out into a turnout. Pulled them off and everything came back up.
Including Folkston’s siding. Steve tells me (in his armor-plate way) that it makes perfect sense that we are wired that way. He sees the Folkston siding as just another small staging track. I see it as part of the main line. Steve might consider himself right, but all I know is we wasted a lot of time trying to figure out just why we were dead. So, a take-away on that – we need a much better description (even a map) of the power districts.
During all this confusion, Pete was out having lunch. He hadn’t secured his throttle and when he put it into his bag, it must have bumped the knob. Next time that happens, I’m going to bump his knob.
The second day was another crazy day. I finished my first lap before the show started, moving my long freight back to Bowden. After that, the layout seemed to run itself. I was in and out, helping in little ways (and watching the fun as Zeus whipped visitors’ brains to cream – more on that in a bit). After lunch, I decided to get back out onto the railroad and came out of Bowden just as Patrick was trying to get out of JEA with a coal drag. Okay, so here is our object lesson. If you are going to do anything that delays the main, do it quick. There was a lot of quibbling going on on the power plant rails, push-back derailments (right off the end of the stub), car counting, all those things. The take-away is that once you have your train built, you go. Don’t stop and count your cars. Go. I looked back and every train on our main was in Jacksonville, all waiting. Three-quarters of the layout were empty. Patrick, I’m not trying to bust your ass on this. You just need to know that you are at a show. It is critical to keep the main line running. Otherwise our guests are getting a true railfan experience – empty tracks and not a train in sight.
Nobody runs trains like this on a display layout. Heavy metal on high iron. (Photo: John DV)
And a second point on all this – if you are moving, keep moving consistently. Anyone who has ever run at the show knows that when we run with a kid who stops and starts a lot, our mainline becomes rush hour I-4. When the old sweats run, within a lap everyone is pacing each other, riding yellows for lap after lap. That’s the ideal, a smooth roll without hardly any throttle input. Sure, station stops are cute. Photo stops are always nice. But really, you need to keep your trains moving.
A train enters the NS Yard, the switchman standing clear, holding it aligned until the train passes. (Photo: Jim M)
The big event on Sunday was when the entire layout went down hard (about 1 pm or so). This time we were slot-maxing and the throttles were a bit wonky (I saw my 400 do things it’s never done before. It was like Skynet rebelling). Kyle finally figured out that we were throwing all sorts of rubbish onto the line. I cleared the slots twice, and either that or Kyle’s dark magic got things running. But again, it comes down to (a) us not clearing the booster on day one and (b) someone consisting six locomotives together. And, of course, when it comes to shutting down the sectional layout, look no further than “Six Pack” Pete.
Please, guys, don’t consist. It takes about ten seconds to set up uniform addresses. It really does make a difference in how the layout operates.
Our only other issue was during breakdown when a loconet cord was overlooked. No blame on that one. Regardless of what Steve thinks, rolling around on a cart after a long show in the dark is not easy, and with all those cords it’s easy enough to miss one. We’ll fix that in the next week or so.
On the good side, Zeus managed the West Fork switching puzzle at his table. They had easy fun with it until I mentioned what the limitations were. After that, it was a lot harder. Zeus kept a number of visitors head-scratching as they tried to get the five cars on the center track. Also, a number of show-goers watched in fascination. This was really great since it showed how model railroading is more than just a Christmas tree loop. Kudos to him for doing that – we’ll have to make more of a commitment to displaying that layout in upcoming shows. Signage might help. Rules would certainly help.
We gained $300 from the promoters, $30 in donations (very good), one new member and two possibles. We also got four dozen donuts over the two days (thanks for the Sunday fat pills, Leonard). All in all, a great show. And thanks to those who walked round and round and kept those trains moving.
In closing, I think we should take some of our cash and use it to buy that Disney music player those G-guagers were running. Then we’ll have a club auction and raffle off a chance to smash it with a brick. Nuf said about that.
“So these are my boys” -Oddball, Kelly’s Heroes
An N-Trak first – a smoking engine rounds the layout. Remember to bring Visene for the next show. (Photo: Leonard J)
Alex conducts for an excited engineer. This is what we do. (Photo: Mark D)