Grab Iron Posts

By Ed Ives

The Hi-Railers attended the 26th annual Maple Valley Train Show. This show is a not for profit event and any excess monies will be used for those in need within the district.

Set up for us started about noon on Friday October 18th. This is not the easiest venue for set up and tear down as all equipment must be carried in and out through one set of doors. Nevertheless we got our 24 modules in place in short order thanks in large part for the plea for help from within the group. So great was the help that the layout was assembled, running and the scenery complete within 2 1/2 hours, a far cry from some of our 7 hour exercises.  A few of us remained as guardians of the layout and running trains for an exercise, while other groups moved in.

The show ran from 10 am until 5 pm on the Saturday and 10 am until 4 pm on Sunday with about 300 attendees per day, or about a usual number for this event. The public were generally enthused with our efforts. 

Garrett, always one for pushing the limits, at one time had three trains running concurrently on the outer track, all controlled with his smartphone and without a hiccup, that is until he switched out one locomotive for a Pennsylvania centipede, with the whole consist drawing in excess of 200VA and triggering the circuit breaker on our power supply. It’s been a while since we last did such a thing. Other than that this exercise showed that one had to be quick and agile, something that we are not noted for, in entering or leaving the layout through the personnel bridge as there was always the train either on the bridge or approaching the bridge. Garrett was a real asset over the weekend with his participation and the public enjoying his multi train operation.

Toby, a potential new (younger) member brought his candy train complete with candy. The train would slow as it approached  children, and some adults, so that they might sample some of the delights. The children were very respectful of the train taking one candy at a time with no derailments or other accidents. Touching the trains is not something that we usually encourage but this was different and quickly became quite popular with children and adults alike.

Teardown on Sunday went at quite a fast pace and low and behold we were packed and ready to leave in one hour or as Wayne said, 58 minutes, a far cry of four hours in the past. We left the HO modular group and the N-trak modular group in our dust.

Ed

By Ed Ives

This year was the 39th running of the Lynden Train Show with the Hi-Rail modular group participating in this event since the last years of the last century and have witnessed this show grow from strength to strength. The organizers of the show are very welcoming and accommodating.

Our reservations for this show were made many weeks ago on the assumption that something new and different would be created for our layout, whereas it turns out no such a thing took place. Ah well, that’s the way it goes. Anyhow on arrival at the show we were given as requested a space of 25′ x 33′, a bit wider and a bit shorter than was expected. This is the danger of not keeping a copy of the reservation form.  After a bit of fiddling around we settled on a 4 x 6 module layout and this rapidly came together. A quick piece of track cleaning with Scotch Brite and all worked well. 

Running on Saturday and Sunday went well with no trains on the floor, one or two derailments and lots of interaction with the public. We did have one incident that was unique, to this writer at least, a train was running down the track rapidly coming to a stop, reversed for about five inches and then went forwards for about five inches again before reversing again. It repeated this dance and we wondered what the heck was happening?, while contemplating what exotic electrical failure we had. On going over to look at this erant locomotive we noted that a traction tire had come off and got hooked onto one of Gordons French barrier crossings. The traction tire was acting as a rubber spring being stretched and then relaxed. The erant locomotive was replaced for the engineer to effect a tire replacement job. 

Gordon Sandell has produced a very nice overlay for one of the corners, an English theme (and why not) with hedges and fences and a degree of false perspective. Very well done.

Jack Klapwyk has added more to his modules with at least an automobile dealership complete with a 1958 Plymounth on a turntable on the roof. It reminded this writer of his first American car, a similar Plymouth station wagon, two speed push button transmission and no power steering and no power brakes. You had to drive the thing with care. Ah, what times, an old car and a young wife and a new country to live in. Anyhow, well done Jack.

In the event we, or our display, received two awards over the weekend, 2nd place Best Layout and 2nd place People’s Choice Award.

Teardown and packout was completed in 1hr 50 min, an excellent time and a big thanks to Mike Holder who came up to help with the teardown. An excellent weekend indeed.

Ed