t’s all about rules, I guess.

Weekend of a stress-inducing show – stressful because I wasn’t allowed to lift more than five pounds with my right hand due to post-surgery rules. This made me pretty useless, so I got the useless job of being the “show boss” (i.e, supervisor). Without Steve there (he was on another of his many vacations) and no prior show boss in attendance, I was rather on my own. Oh, I’ve done just about ever show we’ve attended by not as the “official” show boss.

My team got there at 7pm (well, most of it, anyway). We were on station and rolling in when the doors opened. Measured the spot quickly, lined it up, arranged the setup with a minimum of fuss and off we went.

The first rule we broke was the hallowed four-men-on-legs rule (formed in response to the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794, but don’t quote me on that). Usually you line everyone up like elite soldiers and make them call out their numbers (and even do a rifle drill). I didn’t use four – I used two. I’d check the leg counts for the “Out” side (which I gave first) and the “In” side. Two guys would get legs based on the first and second pairings. The advantage – less people scurrying around like panicked rats and a quieter and more sedate assembly. I’d check the connections going in for snugness. We had someone clip as they went together and a wiring guy following two racks back, hooking up. Seemed to work well. Gratified when someone said it was a quieter set up. So let’s talk this over when the General returns.

We did have problems with the corner module (13A, I think?). A little damage to the crane (saved the pieces from the grapple, easy fix). But a wire pulled off the inside yard track panel and we had a devil of a time getting it soldered (rather than the soldering tool in the box, next time I’ll just go out and buy a hot dog from the roach coach outside. At least it would be hotter). Anyway, Jeff C and I got it to work (it was very tenuous and came apart in take down). The take-away? Better soldering tools for the tool box.

The railroad was so busy, even the auxiliary yard was packed. (Photo: Chris T)

We were up and running pretty easily – everyone did what everyone was supposed to do. Trains got out and we were pretty much busy the entire show (oddly, we never had any “lulls in the action” – the line was packed). But here’s the next rule: nobody was tagging themselves on the run board. Now, several issues here – the first being that you’re a bunch of lazy bums. I’m thinking of assessing “penalty laps” in future: I catch you out on the main and not marked, you go into the Folkston siding until the train you were running ahead of catches up again after passing you. Still thinking that through.

However, the problem we faced is that we didn’t have name tags for everyone. Going forward, I’d rather carry in the entire collection of tags (even with my five pound restriction, I could have managed that). Also, we only need ONE tag for “running<<<waiting” and ONE for “waiting<<<yarded”. And we need a maximum of four “LONG TRAIN” markers (yes, at one point, we needed them all). But it comes down to this – not having tags for everyone made people have to use “Guest” tags, and then I don’t know which one they picked and everything got confused. So, in future, bring ALL the tags and we’ll sort it out.

And there’s the next rule everyone is screaming about – long trains. We don’t need a rule – we need people to use and update the run board so everyone knows what is going on. Long trains are nice when traffic is low but we don’t need any more regulation on this than we do for flushing your poo down the toilet at the club. The social order should govern it. Rules are convoluted and complex.

There should be a rule about running weird foreign trains on the main (Photo: Kyle S)

And for you “mandate” folks, I’ll point out that Marty was the ONLY person who came to me and asked if he could run a long train. I held him until the traffic was low and put him out (he’d waited quietly and patently). But then a bunch of you tore out of the yards in his wake (without marking up) and then came complaining that there were long trains out there (and that “there should be a rule”). Marty followed the rules. But all you shorter and un-registered trains did not.

And listen, I know that traffic levels were high. I put my SP Geeps out and did a Great Locomotive Chase deal, stealing Mark’s consist. I ran a half a lap, realized we were close to deadlocking and backed into the yard across from the Amtrak station (thanks to Terry for assisting with the derailements) (and Mark, your cars are too light. And there’s a blindspot – I could have been killed!). And that, grandkids, is how your old grandda ran a train at the April Deland Show of 2025.

So as I have said, the rule will be to mark the board when you come out, remove your tag when you leave, and we’ll agree to what capacity is. You can call it a rule if it helps.

This dangerous hobo has something worse than a shiv – a painful stinger. Yard detective Christensen flattened him (Photo: Leonard J)

The only other adventure to note (which I wasn’t aware of) was a wasp riding around on our trains during the show (and I’m not referring to Reverend Jim). Apparently it was a show favorite. I didn’t know anything about it until he flew off a train and landed right on my shirt (likely, as a yellow jacket, it found an affinity to my club shirt). Startled, I bushed it off. It hit the floor, whereupon John C did that hunter-killing-Bambi’s-mother thing and stopped it into the concrete. Alas – I think we could have gotten a membership out of the wasp – it had seemed so interested.

But that was it, really. Take down was orderly and by the book. I have some follow-up checks to do on the layout, and a couple of repairs. Some takeaways but nothing major. Thanks to all who came out and ran (as I said, we never had to dragoon people to run at the show). The organizer is happy with us and things continue to look well for us. We’ll clean things up and be ready in three months for the next one.

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The circus packs up the big top after a day-long show (Photo: Dan L)

Home units from the CCRR have CSX trackage rights into Jacksonville, it seems (Photo: Rev Jim M)

Earning our 501-(C)(3) designation while making learning fun! (Photo: Wasp-squasher John C)

Colonel Mustard’s regiment is in transit. As noted, any war would be over by the time we got them to their destination, what with our traffic slowdown (Photo: Alex B)