Saw an old friend. Learned LC is way better than the performance of my LC PE, learned the Hogwarts Express runs REALLY great without the smoke lever, AND next years layout got a boost, from my wife! And my son wants to help build the next improvement! Best day on the layout, by far! But the details!
A friend I hadn't seen, until recently, after he moved to FL 20 yrs ago (hes back), brought his 7 yr old twins, to see the layout. They even brought their LC Pennsylvania 0-8-0, with them. It's only the second time someone brought a train to run on the layout. They were so excited. Running the trains, launching the MTH Navy helicopter, lying on the ground to watch my "big steamer" ( a premier Berk) and the GG1 pull lines of cars. They ran all 5 trains (6 once they found out I had the Hogwarts Express), and the handcar. It was like I was 7 again too! We swapped in their 0-8-0 to pull 7 PE cars. It did better than my PE. We had it pull a line of MTH Madison cars, it did great. We swapped it for the GG1 and it pulled 12 or 13 cars, like a champ. I think it could have done more, but I don't think the boys would have enjoyed testing to see when the 0-8-0 wheels would slip. Every change was initiated, by the kids. What a day! I will definitely get an LC set, for the next nephew, on the list (and probably one for me... maybe...). Anyway, great day.
They leave and we start breaking down the layout. We are discussing what we liked, what might change, etc and my wife suggests another tunnel!!!!! Which means it isn't mature and the new loop I put under the tree gets bigger, maybe I can sneak in 2 loops! 6 trains and a hand car running. Is it November yet? I left to pick my son up from work and I told him about the change and he said (and he hasn't said these words, since he had a brief interest in N scale in 2009) "Great, sounds like we can make it a Summer project".
This Hobby is awesome.
