Father's Day Memorial City Mall, June 18 - 19, 2011

We had another fantastic show. This time we were up against the back wall rather than by the ice skating rink. We were able to incorporate the wye modules, and several extra modules to connect to the wye, in addition to our standard layout modules. Most of the time we had four trains running (two on each main line), with only the occasional rear-end accident. We also had a couple of impromptu switching (train-building) sessions, which seemed to draw a nice-sized crowd.

We were right by the west side entrance into the mall. This photo shows the third leg of the wye. Bob is standing in front of the freight yard, which we put up against the back wall. The passenger yard was facing the audience (out of view to the right of the photo).

This photo shows the layout from the other direction. The backdrops of the passenger yard is on the left. Looking over Don's straight modules, you can see into the wing of the mall.

There were also an HO-scale (shown in this photo), an N-scale, and a Z-scale layout set up next to us. The mall has a semi-permanent store set up where the O-gauge group meets, so visitors were able to see all the scales, except for G.

Don's modules are coming along nicely. Each time he brings them out, they have been improved. Don also decided to dress the part with his engineers cap on. The ice skating rink can be seen in the background. At night they had hockey games there.

Here Jack is busy placing his collection of tank cars into the freight yard. Peter's oddball train (the only eastern railroad, the mighty PRR) is passing by the yard on the freight main line.

Sandi points to the train that Don is running. Sometimes we forget ;-), especially with four trains running, and operators handing throttles to others. This photo shows the passenger yard, including the passenger station based on the San Antonio prototype.

A particularly busy moment on the club's wye modules was captured here. We had so much freight to carry that we even ran freight trains on the outside passenger main line. A switcher awaits its turn at the main line. The trailing car of a passenger train can be spotted on the third leg of the wye, on the left.

This shot shows the modules we set up on the third leg of the wye. This allowed us to pull off a passenger train from the main, do some switching work, and build new trains. This is the visitor's view. Many watched as we did some switching work.

Rusty and Sandi's grandson got a prime spot for train watching, as Bob whizzes by, too fast for the camera to capture. Although this was a rare shot with only a lady and her son looking on, we had a tremendous turnout, especially on Saturday.

This photo is of the passenger yard side of the layout, showing the passenger station. Overall we had some minor electrical issues on Saturday morning to resolve, but the trains and the layout worked flawlessly the rest of the day. Sunday, however, many of the operators were a bit worn out and we had some accidents and other issues. Of course, crashes are always exciting for the audience!