As I wandered through today's train show at Columbia, SC, I found my nose leading my way to the source of Lionel smoke. I found this layout operating with some beautiful trains, both sound equipped. The N&W J's whistle was an authentic N&W hooter. The interior of both trains were fully detailed, lit and with passengers. The little train in the distance was a Disney 50th Anniversary train with all sorts of lighting effects and it was a favorite of the kids.
The local train club had a Christmas Open House today. They offer O, HO, S and N layouts for members, but upstairs some temporary layouts were also on display. A member had this killer pair of SOU SD-40s with full sound and they were quite a treat to hear and watch work. In the background is an SAL Orange Blossom Special and elsewhere were a pair of B&O Fs, both of which also had sound. I'm an N Scaler, but spent far more time with the O Scale. Really cool stuff and everything ran flawlessly.
Nice! I didn't get to see as much of the upstairs layouts as I'd have liked, I was mostly busy downstairs keeping the N layout's gremlins at bay.
Ack! If I'd have known you were there, I would have said hello. Maybe next time. The show seemed to have a nice turnout during the time I was there. Caught another photo of the O Scale:
Likewise! I'm usually lurking around the N layout whenever the club is open. Typically with a voltmeter in hand.
Were you the guy who's F unit (was it?) went astray on the layout? I love the yard on the N Scale layout, plus the turntable, roundhouse and a nice trackplan too. I'd love to have the space for something like that.
I mostly had my 70-tonner puttering around the upper level. I did help out with troubleshooting on the F-units though; that whole sound-equipped consist was amazing to see running. The yard and engine shop is great for a shared layout, being able to queue up everyone's equipment to run in turn.
