It's that Time of Year

William pulls some cars onto the wharf while his dad, Sean, looks on. 

Each year about this time, I get recruited to help my neighbors' children with their Pine Wood Derby entries. Today, 9-year old William Heather and his father, Sean,  stopped by the shop to use my drill press to drill holes in William's car. He hasn't designed it yet, but he knew roughly where he wanted the holes as they will be filled with weights.

Since the drilling job didn't take too long, we put William to work running trains on the Aquia Line. He quickly got the hang off being the engineer, while I was his conductor and brakeman. Dad watched and offered advice. He suggested a humidifier for the basement to help with the seasonal contraction issues that the layout experiences. It actually isn't a bad idea. If we replace our HVAC system, a whole house humidifier is a good option to add. In the meantime, I may look into a localized humidifier.

Sean also agreed to act as a PoC to organize an open house for the local neighborhood kids to see the layout. We have over a dozen kids in the  neighborhood now that are just the right age to get them exposed to model railroading.

Meanwhile I have been working projects for Alkem Scale Models, and some more track plans, including some for home and some for my next book.

v19c

v18b

Here is a revised plan for v19. This flips the peninsula for Robert's Ridge.  If I were to extend the layout into my office, I think I favor this plan over v19, but I don't think I want to invade the office. So V18b is still the leading candidate.