Greater Houston Train Show, February 20, 2016
Click on the thumbnail image to see a much larger photo.
(photo courtesy of Peter Vanvliet)This annual show was another great success in terms of visitor attendance, despite a competing train show in San Antonio. This first photo was taken early in the day just prior to the doors opening, with a test run of Peter's PRR freight train. All of our active club members were there and that made set-up do-able. We had less than 3 hours to set up this layout, which was somewhat larger than we had done before at this show (20'x30'). However, at 15 minutes before the doors opened, we discovered that our entire layout's DCC system was indicating a short-circuit. The only train we were able to run was the battery-powered FA-2 shown in the photo.
(photo courtesy of Peter Vanvliet)However, after an hour of trial and error, we were able to at least get the outside passenger line to be powered. Bob, in the darker blue shirt, is running the freight train seen in the photo rounding the corner, while a grandpa is introducing his granddaughter to the wonderful hobby of model railroading. There were lots of other layouts and vendors at this show, as well as a contest room and two clinic rooms ongoing throughout the day.
(photo courtesy of Peter Vanvliet)Our newest member, John (seen here on the left), brought his River Raisin 2-6-0 for its inaugural run on the club's layout. The engine ran flawlessly. John is considering installing the S-CAB battery-powered system into this (and other) locomotives. A turnout was not reset to the mainline, so the PRR freight train made an accidental detour through the (luckily) empty siding at Bob's grain elevator.
(photo courtesy of Peter Vanvliet)This photo shows a close-up of Bob's grain elevator. It is an impressive structure, as it would be in the real world. Bob still has more work to do on it. He built a special wooden case to safely carry it to and from local train shows.
(photo courtesy of Peter Vanvliet)This family had just admired our farm scene on this corner module, but I was too late in capturing that. There are many structures and details in this scene.
(photo courtesy of Peter Vanvliet)This is a photo of our staging yard for the freight trains. Unfortunately, we weren't able to resolve the electrical short-circuit issue with the inside freight line until later in the day, so the freight yard remained fairly static. But, we had a layout large enough to allow two trains to run on the outside passenger line, so that provided enough entertainment.