fter a night of jittery half-sleep at a hotel (and, like, who thought it was a good thing to hang neon lighting along the outer window frame of a hotel room? Is this the newer version of a flashing “HOTEL” sign?), I had a nice breakfast and headed over to the museum site near the Miami Zoo. Got there early and eventually they opened the gate for the site and I went in.

The railroad museum here is impressive – there was once an airship hanger here. Now it’s an open train shed with all manner of equipment here, including a couple of trains that roll out every-so-often to get visitors short rides around the grounds. I was helping to man a table with Zeus and Jordan, two nice guys (of course, I’ll note if you added their ages together, I’m still older). I set up our West Fork switching puzzle so that the crowd could give it a go.

After yesterday, I wasn’t sure how much fun this would be. I was kinda muggy in the shed, and a show is a show. But really, we had a lot of people stop by and look. Everything else was just static tables and a couple of display layouts. But our layout did things (which always surprises people – trains that do more than chasing their tails). I think we probably run ten to fifteen people through the puzzle in the five hours I was there.

I gotta say, the first kid, I young guy name Jose, knocked me back. He’s only, I dunno, eleven or so but I’m told he’s the yardmaster at the local club. And he was good. Stunningly good. I explained the rules and set out the five disks and he went right to work. One or two false starts (he didn’t have to be told that you focus on the rear car first and not bother with any other sorting). The kid ran it fast – twice – and did what few kids can do: he impressed me.

Jose absolutely nails West Fork, The critical first move (the white boxcar in to the caboose) is all lined up. (Photo: Zeus H)

I ran a couple more people through. Some did it, usually with a hint or two. Some got stuck or had to go. But overall it was fun to bring to light this aspect of model railroading to the masses.

I also took time to visit the layout of the East Coast HO Exhibitors Society. While they are an HO module club (like we were, in N, in the distant past) they are nibbling at ops and thinking of how they can do it. Their members were very gracious and fun to hang with. I really enjoyed all the wonderful modelling they were engaging in – they had a functional yard and several modules that could make for some meaty switching.

In the early afternoon, I left the table to grab lunch. Sat outside and thought of our switching puzzle and all the variations (some good, some pointless) I’ve seen on it. I was in mid-chew of my burger, just sitting in the sun and ruminating, when it hit me. Suddenly I could see exactly how to switch the puzzle. It is critical to get the back car on that caboose – this is your first goal. And now I know how to do it, regardless of the setup. It is just so obvious – now – that it makes me sad. Now that I can do it by rote, it’s pretty simple now. It’s kinda like the old novel Scaramouche, where the main character figures out all the moves in fencing and commits them all to memory, all the moves, the counter moves, everything, just like chess. He becomes unbeatable. Well, Inglenook can’t beat me either, now.

Anyway, it turned into a really nice day, casually running the table, moving the Espee engine up and down the line and asking “Want a hint?”. Given the crazy driving that bookmarked this show, it really was an oasis of fun between trying adventures.

Thanks, Zeus and Jordan, for having me out.

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So many ways to do this. Most off them wrong. (Photo: Zeus H)