Friday, Mar. 30th 2012 at Rick's

It was a sort of lazy "work session" Friday night at Popsicle Rick's place since he's going to be shutting down the layout when his house sells. So, what to do? The answer of course is to chew the fat, eat the goodies, and do a little "mini" operation session.



Here the guys are in the new crew lounge (Rick's office) which was a necessary move since the normal crew lounge is filled with moving boxes filled with model railroad goodies. From left to right: Band Camp Mark, Packrat Paul, Cave Man John, and Coalfinger Ken. Later Glue Bob arrived with a friend David, but unfortunately no pictures were taken of those guys.



Here conductor Mark keeps a watchful eye on engineer Paul as he brings his train around to the switching area. Both teams started with the trains elsewhere on the layout so they could get a little run time before the switching begins.




Paul brought his own throttle since he is also a Digitrax guy and here he's running his train towards the Lake Linda Industrial area.




Nothing like watching a train go across a trestle by the waterfall! The Hoovertown (unfinished) extension is in the foreground.




Engineer Ken runs his train into the Deer Hollow Industrial area while conductor John studies the work order. Does anyone smell something burning? Could it be John's brain?




Mark and Paul get right to work pulling and setting out cars in the Deer Hollow area.




Now, in all fairness the work to be done by John & Ken in the Lake Linda area was a little more complicated than the other team. Here engineer Ken mans the throttle while John figures out their next move.




It may look tight in this little alcove but somehow the guys made it work. Just imagine if Scott were here! Just kidding Scott - we love you!




For both teams there were some cars sitting on their passing sidings that had to be picked up or spotted at one of the industries which add a little extra fun to the session.




Hummmm.....now if we drop this car and pick up the red one.....or maybe we should pick up the blue one and................... Mark engages all of this gray matter - I definitely smell smoke!





Here Mark and Paul are about finished. Ken & John will finish a few minutes later (remember, their assignment was a little bit trickier).

The operations took about 30 minutes and Rick enjoyed taking pictures and ribbing the guys. After the session was completed we retired to the crew lounge to eat snacks and watch some DVDs of trains (some L&N of course!). Bob showed up with his friend David and Rick showed him around the layout and we ran some trains. By 10pm we were all "trained" out and the guys left.

Thank you men of the NCIOG for a wonderful evening!