o this is what an easy train show is like.

Instead of getting up at 5am and running out to Deland to build our layout in the dark, then walk around it all day, with this show at Lake Nona Middle School we were able to go out on Friday and casually put things together. The next day, it was a leisurely  local drive out. The layout was already up and ready – we just put trains on and ran.

We had a lot of help this time around, with new members wearing their bright yellow bullseye shirts and really doing everything we told them (I should have gotten my car waxed). And the railroad was pretty much at capacity all day, with trains running full out, often in the red zone of the assignment rack.

Kaden’s fearsome army train gnashes its teeth at the passing Amtrak, frightening the passengers (Photo: Alex B)

Other than the hosting organization holding its business meeting in the hall with a megaphone, everything was copacetic. We still had a lot of trains out as we got towards closing (usually we are down to one train with an understanding that it would get yanked just as the power cut off). We had a couple still out as takedown started but nobody really cared.

Since I always whine about something – one takeaway. Some people were setting up multiple trains on the layouts. This packed the staging yards and made it difficult to operate. Please, we only have fourteen tracks to stage on. If seven people set out two trains, all staging is filled. And we had more that seven people. So set up one or maybe two trains maximum. And when you’ve finished running one, perhaps you should store it away.

An example of how not to close out the show was Zeus, who was packing away more trains than a hobby shop, sitting on the floor with cars and boxes all over. It looked like Santa’s sleigh exploded. We had to break down around him and it was a near thing, not stepping on rolling stock or that dropped table leg. Yeah, you guys really need to keep an eye on the clock and start clearing your equipment thirty minutes before the show ends (with the understanding that after two days at Deland in January, we’ll be really to break and scoot as soon as possible).

One thing about our displays – we painstakingly recreate true railroading, down to the scenery and equipment. Sorta. (Photo: Kaden S)

Me, I ran my usual Dash-9s from Bowden Yard around to Conrad Yelvington. There, I picked up all the gravel hoppers and came out onto the busy main to make less than a lap (got back to Conrad by cutting through the long yard) before surrendering my spot to the showbirds. It’s fine – I’ve run something like sixty shows – been on that route for hours and hours. So I’m covered.

Amtrak boosts out of Jacksonville station, running past Greg, working the repair shop cuts (Photo: Christian M)

Funny thing – Mark and I (with cameos from Terry) were lifting modules into the racks for tear-down until I noticed that all our young members were hanging out, chatting with phones out. With that, I “workhoused” them, forcing them to labor the rest of the modules onto the racks – it will make men from them. But the takedown was easy and everyone went home with smiles on their faces and $100 in the club accounts.

But I am left with a sense of disquiet – my wife JB won’t tell me what she and Steve’s girlfriend Lynn talked about on their hours away from the hall. Am I in trouble? Not sure yet.

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I write the blog. I pick the photos. So, a day on the Southern Pacific (Photo: Kaden S)

An massive steam powered Big Boy meets a probably steam powered Amtrak ACL-42 in South Folkston (Photo: Leonard J)

The big, the small and the toothy (Photo: Christian M)