By Ed Ives
It’s not often that you can say that model railroading is possibly life threatening and at the very least challenging. After spending a week studying the weather forecasts we decided to go ahead for the GTS Ridgefield train show. The Friday trip down I-5 was the best in a long long time, almost pleasant with a dry highway, little traffic and snow plows looking for work but none to be had.
We arrived at the venue with two hours to spare and we were greeted with news that the site map had to change due to cancellations and the new map was not ready. Eventually we were relocated to the middle of the hall and with that location it was desirable to build our layout in the mirror image of that originally intended or as best that we could. We pre-set the height of the individual modules to 36″ as over the years they were all over the show making it difficult to level the layout. It all went together quite well and trains were running by the time we left for our hotel five miles to the south in Vancouver Wa.
Saturday dawned with snow falling and we arrived at the venue by 8:00 am to complete the layout by hanging the drapes and completing the scenery. We had trains running at true three rail 0 gauge speed by the time the show opened. Surprisingly for me at least, there was a steady stream of public, not crowds, coming through the doors for most of the day while the snow continued to fall.
By the end of the day the parking lot was deep in snow, up to the wheel centers in our car, or so the snow had drifted. All the restaurants local to our hotel were closed but Fred Meyer was open with the offering of fried chicken and more fried chicken.
On Sunday the public were a bit slower coming into the venue but the numbers built up during the day. The trains however ran quite well and with no trains on the floor which is always good. Soon it was time to tear down and pack out with the big question, for me at least, dare I attempt the trek home that night or wait until the morning. A quick check of the highway led me to believe that the best action would be to stay another night in the hotel and make an early morning run north. The snow had stopped but there was plenty of it on the highway and was not conducive to pulling a trailer.
Monday morning once north of milepost 30 found the highway in excellent condition, air temperature about 15 degrees, light traffic moving at about 60 mph. There was just one stretch of fog to deal with but I made it home in three hours.
On the lighter side, for me at least, my wife had gone to the grocery store that morning and on arriving there found that the car doors had frozen shut and she could not get out of the car. She had earlier defrosted the doors with hot water and now paid the penalty. Not to waste the exercise she stopped at the side of the road to play Poke Mon Go just as I drove past. On pulling up at the house she followed and I was able to free her from her icy cage. My timing was excellent and I got an attaboy for that.
Ed
