A Day at Gerry and Sue

Nice. Looks like a good time.

I had a great time meeting and running trains especially with MTHS wifi, I'm sold.

A big thank you to Gerry and Sue for having us over to their wonderful home and an incredible layout. The food was also just great. A big thank you to Skip who guided me to the canolies ( Skip did I murder the spelling ? lol )

All in All a great day 

Dave

Yes, my sincere thanks to Gerry and Sue for hosting our gathering today and sharing their home and fantastic layout!! 

I can't think of a better way to spend a day than to be running trains and socializing with friends!  I thoroughly enjoyed the day.

- Greg

Just rolled into my place.  We had a great day with everyone present.  Great people, great food, and great trains.  It does not get any better.  Thank you Gerry and Sue.   

Thank you,

Marty

Thanks Sue and Gerry.  Great seeing everyone. Great food. And, the layout....Lights!!!! Lights!!!! Lights!!!! Beautiful   It was a fun day!

I'm glad all of you had a good time. Sue and I did too.

Sort of funny, but David had posted on the Forum that he was interested in the MTH wifi. I  told him that he could play with it at the house. So after he got here, I started the MTH Red Arrow Liberty Liner (mine is a proto2) and showed him how to run it. David, Greg and I all lived in that area and are familiar with all the stations. I had typed them in on the engine sounds portion of the wifi, and started playing them -- "69th Street", "Haverford", "Brookline", "Norristown", etc. It was almost like watching a 6 year old with a new train. This stuff has great play value and I've barely scratched the surface.

In the meantime, Kevin is poking around under the layout and asked me why I had relays there. So I showed him how I use the wifi with the AIU to trigger relays and turn power on and off to sidings (this is all in Barrys' book, which was really helpful). We talk about it a bit and he realizes that I don't have a control panel. I tell him, that's exactly right; it's the tablet using wifi in my hand. I also use relays with my block signals, but that's automatic with an insulated track.

In disgust at the UP Business train (a western RR), I had decided to run (mostly) dead eastern RR's. like the NYC, PRR, B&O, NH, Erie, etc. And at least a little bit of NS, because there is this very warm spot in my heart for the Southern RR. So I did that. One of the trains I ran was my "sin" train which is made up of (mostly) Lionel boxcars from the 70's and 80's. I have potato chips, cigarettes and hard liquor. And the 2 new NJHR beer cars. That Piels car is a real stunner. Thank you MTH and Kevin. All done as planned until Kevin put his UP 1943 on the tracks and ran it. Neat engine.

And Marty ran the Trooper Engine and Fire Engine with the flashing LEDs which a couple of the guys had never seen before. Marty was deep in discussion with Greg and David for a bunch of time. My bet is that it wasn't about the Super Bowl.

And Merrill had a neat old K-Line RS3 which he ran a bit. I really do miss K-Line.

Gerry

Gerry, football never came into the conversation.  It is not every day I get to talk to great guys like Greg and David.   Remember, my youth was spent in Hatboro Pennsylvania.  If we had to blow a game I was glad the Eagles won.   I was also happy for the fans.  Pennsylvania has some great memories for me and I hold the folks in that state in high regard.   Many a day I sat at track side as a youth watching the GG-1 locomotives, box cabs, and other electric locomotives.  We lived a short walk from the Reading station in Hatboro.  Many trips were made from Hatboro to the Reading Terminal.  The Reading MU cars under wire were very cool.

I don't think we said one word about football but just talked in general. I also kept watching Marty running some trains with his cell phone, it's not unlike the tablet but only smaller. 

I loved talking to the likes of Marty, skip and others to get a fresh view on the hobby and life in general. It was allot of fun and wish we could do something like last Saturday more often. 

And again I would like to thank Gerry and Sue for the great food and friendship. Just a note, your house is beautiful. 

Dave

PSU1980 posted:

Thanks to Gerry and Sue for hosting a bunch of us at their beautiful home and run trains on their spectacular layout. Everything is completely automated and we are totally impressed with this fun layout that can run 8 lines plus a few trolly lines and super streets.

What a bunch of friendly looking people.Looks like every body had a very good time.