ig one-day show for us over in Deland, make quite exciting because I’d be show boss and Old Man Raiford would not be around for set up. Had a new driver, Leonard, who took away any concerns on my part by moving the trailer around like a seasoned switch crew with a boxcar (though that plastic parking post was a little worse for wear after we went through). But anyway, even though the fairgrounds are now locking up their gates overnight, we still manged to worm both mini and maxi (the truck and trailer) on for a 6:30-ish arrival. Since the skies were clear, we dumped the loads by the door and then proceeded to park the trailer (oh, that poor plastic parking post).

Setup went … okay. What happens in Deland stays in Deland (and since Steve reads these blogs, I’m not going to incriminate myself). Our space (and the space of the adjacent vendors) were not marked, meaning they pressed in and we had to line things up on our own. Overall, it was a bit tight and required some “repositioning” on our part. I’m going to try to get a longer tape measure (50 feet) to make this easier next time. Also, we’re going to carefully measure and get our shit figured out before dropping the tables into place. First-time jitters, I suppose.

Once we were up, things ran next to flawless. We had one turnout fail in the NS Yard (I fixed that one) and we had to fiddle a bit to get Mike’s train out of Bowden (the track alignment looked perfect – I think it was his low-profile wheels which caused his problems). Lowering the nearest corner helped a little – once he got on out on the main, he didn’t have any other problems. But no, I’ve never been a fan of the low-pros.

We kept the board up to  date – first time that’s happened. Good thing too, since we had a lot of enthusiastic engineers. Still, with that board we could spot traffic problems and sort things out. Everyone got to run trains, including a couple of long ones – also, the fact that not too many one-lap wonders were out meant we cut down delays (except for some little fireplug guy who tried to back one of those long trains into NS Yard. Massive delays, the kids were crying, and there was a sizable move by the public for the doors. Honorable mention goes to Marty who held his coal train in until we could clear space for him – appreciated that.

I did get a chance to get my SP Jeeps out and pull the FEC hoppers and get some long running in. Of course, when I coupled them up, nobody suspected that they would never be returned to SouthSide. This is ominous foreshadowing. It’s what we writers like to do.

Photo Credit: Dan Lott

Hope everyone has their bells on, meeting in the station… (Photo: Alex B)

The show’s Butt Monkey award has to go to Mark D. He moved heaven and earth to bring in a large TV all set up so he could push a camera car around the layout. After a lot of fuss, it was realized that the camera’s power would only last about fifteen minutes. Poor guy – he looked like a drunk at the bar sitting at the inner table, like he was reevaluating his life choices. Happily, he did manage – amidst suicidal despair – to get it recharged. Since my coal drag was going his way, we dropped it on the front and off I went. Then we all collected in front of the flickerscope and watch the fun. It was actually really a kick to drive the layout on signals, watching each of the opposing trains rattle past. I could have done that all day. As it stood, I got a lap-and-a-half in before blackout. Well, it seemed Mark was much happier after that. I didn’t see any smashed TVs along I-4 going home.

But no major problems. I’m told the wifi ran really well this time – no control issues. Overall, everyone looked happy, except poor Horitio who spent the entire day looking for Dan “Supply Side” Lott. Anyway, they did their dark deal in a corner and everyone was happy.

Steve did come by and give me crap about little things. But he wouldn’t be Steve if he didn’t.

Surprisingly, Charlie called the show done at 3pm. He’s never done that and told me (when I confirmed it) that nobody comes after three). Still, that caught me off guard, and I had just settled in with running a train when the news hit. I hope this isn’t a sign of troubles in this trade – we’ll have to see. Anyway, since my coal run was still on the line (Jeff C had taken over for a bit while I checked with Charlie) I just had him tuck them in at Folkston and pulled them off there. Yes, never returned to SouthSide.

Otherwise, a good show. Everyone pitched in and really made it a success. The crowds were generous to a fault. ($13 in tips? Really? Yeah, the fault isn’t on us, you cheapskates). The layout went down smooth and we got out a bit early.

Thanks to all who made my job easy. Now I can take that money we worked all day for and get the lawn mowed again.

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Everyone was so busy that I only got ONE RUNNING SHOT submitted this time, by Kyle S. of course. Peep-peep! (Woops, got a late one from Alex, posted somewhere above)