This past Saturday, my wife and I hosted our annual "civilian" Train Open House. We have been doing this for many years with invitations extended to neighbors, friends, and other acquaintances who are not normally exposed to the train hobby. With the kind assistance of some of my train buddies, for 3 hours we ran my Pine Valley RR O gauge hirail layout and my classic standard gauge layout. This year for the first time, we requested donations of non-perishable food goods or cash for our local food bank. I am happy to report that the response was enthusiastic and generous. 150 plus people attended and contributed and we were able to donate 91lbs. of food plus cash to a very worthy cause. We plan on continuing this effort and our only regret is that we didn't do it sooner.
Many thanks to my wife for all her hard work preparing snacks and co-hosting and to my good friends who assisted.
Happy New Year!
Eric Hofberg
TCA, LCCA
