Tuesday night at the Huff and Puff Mar 27, 2018.

Lots of traffic moved during the night, causing the usual congestion at Lincoln and Springbank. I waited 15 minutes to get into Springbank. As I ran my train I noticed switching errors around the layout caused by not following our current running system. Do the majority of our members Care?  Where do we go from here?  My thought is to continue this way until the majority of our members feel the need for change as everyone seems to enjoy themselves the way things are. You also hear complains about rolling stock. Everyone should take the time to remove and record problem cars or we will always have this problem. The same goes for trackwork problems. We need a process to fix trackwork.  As an example, I had a problem switching Hillside Lumber,  backing 2 box cars into the siding. Bad turnout would be the first thought,  the box cars always derailed at the turnout. Are the point rails low, are they closing correctly, funny thing, the 2 box cars that were there gave no such problems.  This my be a topic for next week' meeting.

Switching Coastal Oil 

Coal train switching the power plant 

Brigham the Mover gets some empties.

Tuesday night at the Huff and Puff Mar 21, ,2018.

For the last 2 weeks I forgot to take my camera so no pictures. However the layout keeps moving forward. The 2 new turnouts installed in Herons Landing were wired up with only a few minutes delay in operations. The loss of power when running through these turnouts was very annoying so no one minded the break in operations.
When the system was turned on operators got right to it, including 2 exchange students who came up to see the layout.  They were both quick to grasp the basics although Montana had trouble with the momentum on Don's doodlebug. Waiting passengers got their exercise chasing the train down the tracks. The other student's train also suffered the consequences of momentum while switching his train in Springbank. Tank cars were exploding, people were running, .... OK 1 car was derailed. A fun night for one and all.

Tuesday night at the Huff and Puff Mar 6, 2018

Work night was a great success. Some rail bumpers were installed, these were 3D printed by 1 of our members. The turnouts in Miller were ballasted. The 2 broken turnouts in Herons Landing were replaced and ballasted. The electro-frog turnout in the Wellington yard was removed and replaced. It was also wired and ballasted. The repaired sawdust car was put back on the layout. Track cleaners were also hard at work. Many thanks for all the hard work.

Rail bumpers 

Replacement turnouts 

Ballasted track in Miller 

Replacement turnout