Texas City Model Train Festival, November 4, 2017

This year was the first time this show has been changed to a one-day show. This was due to the extremely poor attendance on the Sunday of last year's show; all the activity was on Saturday. So, we set up on Friday afternoon, and left knowing that the layout was operational. The big news at this year's show was Dan's introduction of his "secret module"! He has built a lift-bridge module. It allows us to lift up the bridge to get in and out of the layout without having the bend down or crawl on the floor.

Here's a photo of the builder! He had done a fantastic job. We only had to swap two wires, file down two rails, and the whole system worked perfectly. It breaks down into a collection of individual parts. He used Central Valley Models' bridge rails, and Bragdon Enterprises' Geodesic foam to make the rock walls.

Here's a view of the back side of the module. All of the wiring connections are easily available from the back panels, making "debugging" easy.

Dan is an Sn3 modeler, so he added a third track that is Sn3, in the hopes that we can figure out a way to connect to that track with a future expansion of our regular modules into narrow-gauge. At the show, since the track is just for show, he set up a number of pieces of narrow-gauge work equipment.

He also added lots of scenery details to his bridge module.

Here's a view of the work camp, and the background trees scene he's built.

This is the view on the other side of the bridge. The section of straight track you see right before the bridge starts, is automatically disconnected from power when the bridge is lifted up. We tested it several times throughout the show, and it worked perfectly, with engines stopping within two or three inches before hitting the bridge.

This is the show where we have enough space for the wye as well, so we set that up, too. It worked well. It appears that the electrical problems we had last year were resolved earlier this year.

Continuing the theme of "new stuff" at this show, Peter's scratchbuilt PRR twin-bay hoppers made their debut at this show.

The other new thing at the show was that the Houston G Gaugers introduced their new modular system. They commissioned Kam Konnect to built the system for them. The club then attached the track, and did the electrical work. The electrical is done via built-in connectors at each joint. The track is cut flush with the edges of the modules, so building the layout goes quickly. All in all, we had a good show. Attendance was really good.