July 26 - 27, 2003

Many folks writing articles about our setups also say “Semper Gumbi” was in effect. Well, not to repeat that here, but the small trailer was going to be towed to the mall by Dale Rinker Saturday morning. Dale had an accident Friday night, spraining his ankle and spending hours in the hospital emergency room. So no trailer Saturday morning. No big deal, the trailers were just down the street from where we were setting up. We would just go to the trailers and get what we needed with our vehicles. Sounds good, right? Wrong. The only person present with a key to the trailer (not mentioning any names) managed to set his keys down in the mall long enough for the cleaning crew to come by and pick them up thinking someone had lost them. They were right! After many searches through equipment, parking lots, and discussions with mall security, Paul (sorry, no names) was reunited with his keys. Now with the trailer key (and the rest of Paul’s keys) once again in our possession, Paul and I headed to the trailers to retrieve what we needed to complete the layout. Edd, Leonard and Howard were ready with a large flatbed dolly to help off-load at the Mall upon our return.

We quickly assembled an 18’ x 34’ rectangular, all DC layout and had it up and running by 1040. A little late, but when you consider what had happened, not bad at all. We all assembled and clamped modules, Edd worked the electrics, Howard established the perimeter, Paul set out connecting track while Leonard and I followed him making the connections. A really smooth operation.

The location by J.C. Penneys provided some great natural lighting, as we were right under a large skylight. Needless to say we had a lot of opportunities to run trains with five folks and three lines available. Dave Davies stopped by with his wife, daughter-in-law and granddaughter. He took some pictures and video, I believe. Dale, sprained ankle and all, on crutches, came by with his wife to lend some moral support later in the day. Bill Palmer and Noll Horan also stopped by during the evening. The crowds around the layout seemed to come in bunches and were steady all weekend. I spoke to a couple of folks who said that they would like to come to our next Backshop. I believe we will have some new members soon. We probably went through 100 or so NVNTRAK flyers. I brought about 50 Fairfax Station flyers and they were gone by 4pm on Saturday.

Sunday morning when I arrived, Chester Freedenthal, Edd, Howard, and Bill Baldwin were already there. It was really good to see Bill out and about. Matt Guey-Lee, Mitch Brown, John Steitz, Jeff Peck and son Christian arrived throughout the day to run trains and help with the teardown. Dave Freshwater was there on Saturday and Sunday. He brought the trailer with him on Sunday to make the teardown go a lot easier than the setup (thanks Dave!).

Thanks to all who participated during the weekend. Without a few dedicated individuals, this setup would have been in serious jeopardy. I can only assume that everyone in the club does what they can, when they can to support our group endeavor to have fun, run trains and show the public what we are about. I feel that the public appreciates what we do in providing a little extra entertainment and education as many folks said that they really enjoyed seeing the trains and thanked us for being there. 

Take a moment to look at the pictures from the layout!  Please be patient when loading the galleries - they will take awhile...

I wasn't at the mall but it looks suspiciously like we've got an arms race started!  Edd, as usual, is making most effective use of the space beneath his module!