We had 20 people visit us over the weekend to look at the Hidden Pass Junction RR. Ages ranged from 18 months to well over 70 years of age. The school field trip ended up being 10th graders. Everyone seemed to really enjoy the trains, and the groups stayed between just over two hours to almost four hours.
After much deliberation, Judy offered the packaged cookies; however, she decided to also serve a couple of plates with her specialty desserts, and these went over well – all gone! The small boxed drinks, as some of you suggested, were the ticket for the kids. Adults had water, soft drinks, and coffee.
Besides thoroughly enjoying everyone, and especially the kids, I was very fortunate because everything worked just right – speaking of the trains, that is.
After the guests had had a chance to walk around the layout for about 20-30 minutes and look at the details, I let the kids run several of the operating accessories that have push-button switches on the fascia of the layout. Although they liked all the accessories, the automatic operation of the log unload car onto the saw mill, and then the saw mill ‘cutting’ the logs was most admired. They also liked the fork truck oil drum loader.
Then I ran a 15-minute MTH DCS Record & Playback session involving two trains (a SF ABA passenger and BNSF-SF double headed freight) and 12 turnout changes. All eight times I ran it, it executed without a hitch. I also ran a double-headed Legacy diesel freight train, the SP Daylight GS2 train, and a couple of steam locomotives to demonstrate the turntable operation. I finished by running the VL Big Boy.
The 10th graders were impressed with the Big Boy articulated action, and they followed the train around the curves closely looking at the locomotive – they thought it was “really cool”. So much for the protruding front end of the Big Boy in model curves (mine are Ø108 and Ø99) being ‘not right’.
The biggest joy was to see the 3-year old and his younger, 18-month old brother point at and attempt to follow the trains as they disappeared into and then reappeared from the various tunnels. Either one of the adults or I carried the kids around (as they requested) so they could see the trains. I let the 3-year old operate some of the Legacy remote buttons, and his expression when he pushed the Engine Start and the Big Boy came to life, was priceless. Of course, his younger brother wanted to participate in the action as well, so I let him blow the whistle.
All in all, a great time. (And we have several more groups coming . . .)
Alex