The first arrivals turned up at the village hall around 08:50, with Paul H delivering the remainder of the items from Martian’s store. For the first part of the morning, both groups pulled together to get the new storage in shape. We then moved on to setup.

Due to a limited presence, the N Scalers decided to perform some important maintenance on their end loops to get them up to operational order.

The HO group tried a new 7 x 2 setup, without signals and Ethanol Buildings because there was no control panel created yet. We made use of our (long time in storage) additional x2 staging modules, moving the “Dan” modules from the outer sides onto the opposite straight.

Noted trains in attendance was the usual Pennsylvania Express Passenger, an Amtrak later era passenger, an Amtrak early era passenger, a large modern freight hauling box cars and tank cars (unashamedly the tank cars were not as modern!) and a CNW commuter train.

There was still some issues with the Ethanol Module, and there was point I swear I saw smoke coming out of the APT Module following an extended short. Hopefully nothing is too damaged or if there was damage, it is easily and cheaply recoverable.

I had brought my new Walthers Trainman Amtrak F7 AB set with ESU DCC Sound with hopes to run it with the early Amtrak Passenger. The B Unit came on without issues, however the A unit was refusing to activate or respond. It was possibly still stuck in an earlier consist (curse the Gaugemaster System at the Mid-Essex Club)!

We wound down not long after lunch with many thanks to Dean stepping in for us to secure the food. Notably, we were able to fit a lot of the EBL boards into the new storage space. The last trains to run was my modern box freight (cut down severely following misbehaviour and starting to pack away), and a Southern Pacific U-Boat with a caboose close behind.

The HOers agreed to have this setup next time, and by the time we were ready to start packing up, Paul H confirmed a new panel was ready for the signals and switches. Next physical meet will certainly be an interesting one!

Overall, a very nice meet for all and a (not advertised) great birthday ops session for myself.

See you all online or at the next physical meet!

Neal K