Our first physical meet of 2023 was, in my opinion, a well-organised one. Set out to setup quickly, the HO was up in record time thanks to another decent amount of helpers. The N Scale was not far behind and both layouts were running something by at least 11:00. With this quick win, the livestreams were able to return with some reasonable successes on the day, with an hour on the N Scale, overlooking the bridges at Taggart, and then another at Essex Ethanol on the HO Essex Belt Lines.
Our first spot on the livestream was a SF Alligator hauling a track-cleaning box car, and there was a big push to get some equipment moving in the early stages. I spotted a personal favourite from Dennis’ collection, the CB&Q E9, as well as that familiar logging order now being what I believed to be David’s two truck shay. There were some issues unfortunately, and a decision was made to move the stream over to the HO to support some much needed maintenance on the N Scale. It seems there was a short happening somewhere down the line near the reverse loop, and after the lunch break the MOW crew had both return loops down and were working on them, so hopefully they got it sorted…
In terms of the HO, I set about fixing some pulled up rail at Ethanol, Paul P & Paul H looked at replacing some of Laxton’s points, as well as fitting some end boards to the standing fans, making all of the EBL modules now arranged in pairs for easier transport and handling. This month’s stock rosters included the usual express passenger trains and coal drags, but this time around the EBL had a brief dabble into the RDC locals, bringing about one of my personal highlights of this meet.
Both myself and Michael T had brought RDC pairs to run; Michael, from memory, had a pair of Reading & Pennsylvania RDCs, with one of them being an older model manufactured in the UK (It happened!), and I bought my newly acquired Rapido ATSF RDCs. We both had them out on the road for at least a lap back to back following one of the express passengers. This event unfortunately happened off screen when the N Scale had control, so there is no footage or pictures capturing both pairs. Maybe in future…?
Taking some author privileges I’d like to take a small tangent and talk briefly about my RDCs (I’ll carry on about the meet after the next picture).
The purchase of these represent my final decision to stop investing in at least two separate eras and instead focus on a single era, including to my past self’s horror, offloading some equipment which no longer matched my chosen era. One of these “successful offloads” you’ll see later, but in line with that final decision came my first proper look into my models and their histories. To my delight I found not only Rapido’s description, but also another on the internet here:
ATSF RDC-1 DC-191
That’s it; I just wanted to share. What this means for my modelling plans is still unknown, but what I do know (a little) now brings me some satisfaction.
Back to the meet…
Another highlight for me came in the form of newly-delivered pre-order which suffered a small fall the night before the meet. Thinking nothing of this little accident, I packed my new Scaletrains Dash-9 to run on the EBL. Little did I know the engine obviously had some internal mechanism damage as the front axles were refusing to spin, forcing all of the engine’s work onto the rear axles.
Since this was on the livestream, there were many notable instances of the hand of god. Eventually I managed to get her parked at Peach Meadows station awaiting rescue. The rescuer was none other than our younger modeller’s Conrail Dash-8, passed on to him from my collection as a Christmas Present.
It was here the next highlight came, in the form of a meet between the Dash-8, and Michael T’s mallet; something I imagine never did happen and may never happen outside of possibly an excursion gone badly wrong…?
After the mallet’s train pulled out, the Dash-8 reversed back onto the main to proceed to rescue the Dash-9, and back to staging. I hope to have the Dash-9 repaired in time for the next meet, provided my lack of care hasn’t caused something too serious. There was one final highlight of the day…
Not as well researched for ATSF express consists as I am with the RDCs, I decided to bring what I believed to be a common express passenger consist of the ATSF. Whether this would be the Super Chief is up for debate, but until I can paint and light all cars (and especially a drumhead), it serves just as well as another freelanced express passenger such as the Essex Belt Limited Chief.
The highlight around this was in the face of some troubling derailments for the other modellers, this train ran every lap without a single issue. I believe I managed to score 5 laps in before it was time to pack up. It’s nice having at least one of my trains run very smoothly for once. We agreed to start packing at 15:00, and much to our surprise (and frustration) we were almost done by the time it was 16:00. You know what they say about it being better to be early than late…
Overall a good day I would say, and an okay start to 2023. My thoughts are with my parents and nephew on this the 16th anniversary of my sister’s passing, and my thoughts are with the group and the individual close to them whom recently was diagnosed with a serious illness.
Please keep them all in your thoughts and hearts for us. Stay safe, happy modelling and hold your loved ones close.
Neal K
Thamesiders MRG 