Jean and I went up for some operations today at Ken’s. I had not been there since he had done all the work of relocating his old layout. I should say I went up to operate, Jean enjoyed the local birds - and was happy to see the Great Crested Flycatcher in Ken’s backyard.
There’s really been a lot of changes since the last time we were there. This is where the old layout USED to be.
I have followed Ken’s posts here and on Facebook, but nothing prepared me for being there in person. A picture just doesn’t show the entire effect when you are there. (But, I’ll try anyway.)
It’s really neat that he has this line of shade trees, although on this June morning we really didn’t need it - it was almost cool. A beautiful day!
A shot looking towards his barn.
And another one from a bit further away.
While Jean and I had spent the night nearby after visiting Longwood Gardens, Jim Kottkamp had driven up EARLY this morning and was already running trains to set out the cars for today’s operations.
Ken kept busy by showing me around the new layout. The town names are the same as the old layout, but just about everything else is different.
Overall, it was just a beautiful morning as we prepared to run a couple of trains.
Our train left the yard with a mission to drop one of our passenger cars at the depot. A nice start, as it was just a trailing switch away. We ran with Ken’s new C-19.
The next stop required a bit more thought - even just getting this reefer onto our train was not easy - it’s a bit tight for room there.
Our work is done and we roll on to the next station, as Ken documents our progress.
Ken’s weathering is always unique, but this one takes the most unusual approach:
Very few people use a dead moth to weather their cars…ah, to each their own, I guess.
I got very involved in operations, so I sort of ran out of pictures. I had a great time! We would have finished the second train but the skies let LOOSE. LOTS of rain - and after such a beautiful clear morning, too. Of course we got exactly ZERO rain back home, but at least we had a GREAT time with some fine folk.
Thanks to Ken for the great session, and to Jim for being my conductor.
