ShowLog – Deland – 1/13&14/2018

ShowLog – Deland – 1/13&14/2018

irst show of the new year and the railroad was staffed and run at full capacity for the two day Deland show.

FEC crosses McQuade Street

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A good group showed up on Saturday morning for the miracle (with donuts) set up – one hour from truck tailgate to basement-sized railroad. And all day we were packed. Lots of visitors. Lots of favorable comments. Lots of kids running. Lots of money in the donation buckets. And lots of lots of trains on the railroad. Like a leaky hull, trains kept squirting out of the three yard exits. When one train came in, you’d see two or three guys stand up and sidle over to their throttles to dip out onto the main. Honestly, it was like rush hour with all the reds. Not that this is a bad thing – it’s great to see all that participation and friendship on our double-main (man, imagine if that was single track with sidings?).

Also great to bump into three founding members of our club. Two of them I hadn’t seen in thirty years. It was great to see their reaction to our work – when they left decades ago, we were still on a random collection of wooden modules running DC-stations. Now we’re on space-aged milled aluminum frames, DCC controlled with signals, the trackwork bulletproof, the scenery neatly representative of the area we run through.

Also picked up another CSX transfer caboose (perfect for adding resisters to for complete train protection) and a log car to push the saw-mill guys into getting their project moving.

Normally I’d take Monday night off after this sort of a show. But I’m jazzed to ballast the Folkston module – once that’s in, the roads will be secured and the scenery installed – the town is already half-built. So yes, if you came to our event and thought what we do is amazing, it’s about to be more-so in three months. Come out and see our new scenery then!

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Big steam, little coal, tiny Xmas trees (Photo: Frank Z)