Open House

 Well, we had an open house that I have spent the past 3 months getting ready for. A total of about 21 fellows came from as far away as Buffalo and Gettysburg. Most were from the Washington DC area and were part of our old Friday night gang. Here we see Rich Randall operating one of the main lines and concerned that he is controlling two trains at once. He came down with Art Selby who is one of the longer serving members of the group.

 Looking across the benchwork (a view soon to be gone as I put up more view blocks) you can see close inspection of the engines and turntable by Andrew Dodge, Chris Smith and John Sethian. I get a lot of good suggestions from the fellows who all have skills in different areas. It is a very productive visit from my perspective!

 Chris and John seem to have found something! I have to go over and check what I missed.

 Peter Gentieu had a fun time operating the branch line and ran many trains up and down. Here he is up on a stool checking out the yarding of a train in the holding loop at Mt. Carmel.

 Discussions took place all around the room. Ed Rappe is expounding on a subject with Ray Grant and others. Can't tell what it is but he might be talking about the merits of DCC versus my standard DC and block control. We talk about that a lot!

Here is most of the gang at the end of the visit. This was the end of a long day for many as they had left the NOVA area about 7 am and driven down to see Ed's and my layouts. Now they face a long and rainy drive back north. We do this every November and it is really a fun time for us to show everyone what we have accomplished in the past year.