Friday Fun and Fellowship

Friday afternoons are usually pretty quiet with only one or two members showing up to run on the layout versus the usual Tuesday night sessions where multiple trains are running from both Wellington and Elsewhere yards requiring numerous train crew breaks in order to access various yards. 
When train locomotives do not respond as expected to DCC controllers, the first gremlin suspected is usually the 9V battery. You've probably replaced multiple batteries over the past month, resulting in a large collection of such batteries that continues to grow on the left side of the sink area. Tom Smith wondered if those batteries really were the problem so last Friday afternoon he used his multimeter to check them all and, indeed, found many that, according to Digitrax are still useable, ie have more than 7 volts indicated

   

As well, last Friday afternoon, we had a visitor, no stranger to our layout, when John Wright came through the door shortly after 1 pm and stayed the whole afternoon. As most of the club old-timers know, John is a long distance trucker with a local firm who is currently off with some health concerns. He has a great sense of humour, an easy laugh and a pack of stories that kept Tom, Jim Long and I well entertained. His trucking job has kept him from continuing with our club.