After the Show

Well, the show has come and gone. All told we had just shy of 2000 attendees, a 14% increase from 2017. We got there with the layout and had it set up and running in about 30 minutes. Indeed, the layout ran superbly throughout the show. We had about a half dozen minor derailments, generally related to two track joints that seemed to go away as we did a little filling to smooth those two joints a little.

Here is a video from near the end of the first day.

At this point we had run mostly Hanku9000s and a little bit of JR103s. My general impression was that while a 4 car train is not oversize on the layout, the layout looked better generally when there were 2- or 3- car trains running as a rule. There was even some media coverage of the event.

Sandy Eustice being Interviewed by Channel 4

The attention continued the second day. In fact, I heard from some visitors that they had been eating at McDonalds and the staff there told them that they needed to go see the T Layout at the Train Show. So they came! Thanks McDonalds!

We continued running, and I shot a few more pictures, mostly of an abbreviated HST Train set.

So, what did I learn from the first show?

Track Cleaning - I experimented with a couple of approaches, but found that Q-tips seemed to do the best job. For a cleaner, I used both rubbing alcohol and Goo-Gone. About 3 hours of running seemed to be the limit. In addition, a lot of our observers would come up to and even stick their heads right over the layout. I even extracted what looked to be an eye-lash out of a balky loco the first night. I might need to do something about that.

Locomotive Performance - Without question, the 2nd generation mechanisms were much better than the 1st generation mechanisms. However, we may have some casualties. One of the club Hanku9000 power units is running poorly, and both of the HST power units did not run well. I will have to look them over. On my side, I saw a couple of JR103s refuse to run, and my Kiha40 (NIB) would light up, but not run. One of my Hanku9000 power units also went down on the 2nd day, along with one of my HST power units. Part of the problem may have been run times. We ran the Hanku units a lot, and both units that came up balky did so after about 3 hours of continuous running. We estimated that in two days, we ran nearly 1200 scale miles during the show - or about 2.5 REAL miles. Considering that we had only about a half dozen derails, one child godzilla attack, numerous earthquakes induced by observers, and a dozen or so stalls (usually dirty track), I feel pretty good about the runs. However, at future shows, I am going to limit the run time of any one unit. And now I have some rehab work to do.

Scenery - I got a little keyboard cleaning vacuum, and that proved to be a good choice to help clean the trackwork. It was surprising how much stuff kept finding its way onto the tracks. Getting the buildings finished and fixed down is going to be important, and as you can see, one tree was added to the layout. another 500 or so will help too.

Lights - I luckily brought a light to help with some maintenance work. We ended up putting it on to show the layout. We needed MUCH more light. I'm now looking at a valence for the module.

Sound - In this case, an ambient sound module, and even some train sounds could be quite helpful and effective.

Backdrop - It is not too light. It actually looked pretty good. Some of the backdrop is delaminating though, so I will have to rework the backdrop a bit before the next show.

Train Speed - I was able to reliably run the Hankus at about 60mph, and I got the HST units down to 36mph. I don't think that the JR103s ever dropped below 100mph. It was somewhat surprising how fast the trains were going, even when they looked slow to the eye. With magnetic wheels, going much slower is really difficult. Generally, I would say 60-100mph seemed okay with all but the most discerning observers.

Bridges - These were a big BIG hit. So much so that I had multiple requests to buy them. So, up on Shapeways via the Modelworks they will go. In fact, finishing the stone bridge is now a big priority. I did not expect the enthusiasm for the 3D printed aspect of the layout.

So, I got a lot to do before the next show in April - Central Railroad Day. Tonight, I am going to remove the track, and several bridges to clear the way for the installation of scenery and the finishing of the bridges.

As a close, here is a short slideshow of the show on Friday, shot by another member of the CRM&HS.