Tales of today's Alabama Rail Gang Meet

[grande man]

Whew! The second ARG meet is is behind us. We cohosted this month's meet along with cprman (Ray). Everyone met at our house this morning to hang out and talk trains. Before lunch, LGM did a seminar on DCC programming for anyone interested. After lunch we headed to Ray's house for more train running and a wondeful dessert his wife was graciuos enough to prepare. On the way, we did a quick railfan stop on the CSX. We had to wait for an eternity to see a train (inside joke).

Here's a few pics...

A little breezy January railfanning. Man, that train was moving fast!

CJ, Rex and Glenn scoping out a mixed freight.

The crew "at play" on Ray's layout. L-R, David, Ray, Rex, Jimmy, CJ and LGM.

One of Ray's passenger trains waits for a clear main.

 

[chrismoore93]

Nice photos Gman. Now I gotta figure out who's who, lol!
Chris

 

[Cjcrescent]

Chris;

I'm the good lookin' one!!!!!

CJ

 

[RexHea]

I'm the slim and trim young one! First photo, bottom right, hair

Man oh Man! Eric just doesn't put enough emphasis on just how much fun we all had. With layout fun and lunch at GM/LGM's, Railfanning, and more layout fun and snacking at Ray's...good humor...lots of tales...and a basket full of friendship. Is there anything that could be better. Didn't we end up with about 13-14 of us?

Eric forgot to mention that after the train past...we were out'ta there is a jiffy. Didn't want the "Bulls" to show up with their hickory sticks . With Cjcrescent in plain view, they were bound to think we were up to no good.

Thank you so much Eric and Ray for a very fun filled day. I really enjoyed visiting and playing on your great layouts. Your Boss Ladies need a bigger thanks for the hard work they did and for putting up with such a rag tag bunch.

 

[RexHea]

LGM trying to give a lesson to the Seniors. Dad is all thumbs.

 

[Cjcrescent]

I'm the slim and trim young one! First photo, bottom right, hair

Man oh Man! Eric just doesn't put enough emphasis on just how much fun we all had. With layout fun and lunch at GM/LGM's, Railfanning, and more layout fun and snacking at Ray's...good humor...lots of tales...and a basket full of friendship. Is there anything that could be better. Didn't we end up with about 13-14 of us?

Eric forgot to mention that after the train past...we were out'ta there is a jiffy. Didn't want the "Bulls" to show up with their hickory sticks . With Cjcrescent in plain view, they were bound to think we were up to no good.

Thank you so much Eric and Ray for a very fun filled day. I really enjoyed visiting and playing on your great layouts. Your Boss Ladies need a bigger thanks for the hard work they did and for putting up with such a rag tag bunch.

Quite true, Eric doesn't really tell the whole story. Given that we all look like Hobo camp rejects, I'm surprised the bulls didn't come for us in one of those famous black helicopters.

The food really was great, the friendship was fantastic, the discussions...... everything was just pure old fashioned fun. Seemed like everyone was either teaching something or learning something. Even LGM got in on it.

Ray's layout was fascinating! He has his layout signaled and it looks and works well. Crossing gates, semaphores, searchlight signals, triple aspects, they all worked well! A truely great day for us.

Here are a few pix from the day and as soon as I some more resized , I'll post them!

 

[Cjcrescent]

Here's a few more

CJ

 

[dthurman]

Excellent photos. Looks like a great time for all. I was lucky and was at an operating session also today, but had overslept, in a hurry and forgot my camera.

Maybe I should movedown that way. Looks fun.

 

[Cjcrescent]

Last bunch for the night! I gotta go to bed! One of the pix is similar to one of Eric's but taken at a slightly different angle.

CJ

 

[NoSpaceOreCashRR]

Guy's
Looks like everyone had a grande time and FUN too.

 

[IronBeltKen]

Wonderful pix everybody! Reminds of of my teenage days at the BSME, with Friday night op sessions followed by Saturday railfan outings.

 

[enjineerbill]

That's it I'm movin to Alabama!!! You guys are the epitome' of what this hobby is all about!! Keep up the great work and keep posting the meets. If nothing else it should inspire those of us to try and accomplish the same.

Johnny (jealous in Wisconsin)

 

[GatorDave]

I've said it before and I'll say it again... Looks like y'all have lots of fun. And
I'm with Johnny, jealous('cept I'm in Florida). Keep the photos coming. Dave

 

[grande man]

LGM trying to give a lesson to the Seniors. Dad is all thumbs.

This pic Rex posted reminds me how much fun David had. He was like a kid in a candy shop at both places. We met him at a train show a while back and he's been over to see our RR once before. He's got a Digitrax Zephyr on order because of a problem he was having with his BLI locos on his old system. He was going to send the locos back to BLI but I told him to bring them over (I knew we would have some folks to help him out). Well, to make a long story short, they ran great on our system and Ray's. I reprogrammed the cab numbers (they were still at 03) and we checked David out on a DT400. He took to it pretty quick! Ya'll should have seen him running at Ray's! He had a blast. So did the rest of us! It was a great day. I'm looking forward to next month.

 

[chrismoore93]

Wow it looks like you guys had some fun Great Photos everyone!
Chris

 

[RexHea]

This pic Rex posted reminds me how much fun David had. He was like a kid in a candy shop at both places.

David did have a great time and it was really fun watching him and his excitement. It was a pleasure to meet such a nice man and I hope he will continue to a part of the ARG at future meets. Now that I think about it, all of us looked like kids in a candy store .

 

[grande man]

Yep, we did have some serious fun. Sorry for the quick post last night guys. I was about worn out from "training" all day! As for the ARG folks, they're a great bunch to hang out with. All are knowledgeable, friendly guys that I'm glad to call friends.

Things should be getting even more interesting in the near future. CJ is about to begin a new layout, Glenn has one under construction, Rex is about to do signalling and LGM and I are probably going to get involved in helping Ray get some scenery projects up and running. Those are just off the top of my head, I'm sure there's more going on. Anyway, we'll keep everyone up to date on future ARG meets. I'd encourage everyone to consider starting a round robbin type group if possible. There's much to be learned. Every time I meet with these guys I learn more. They inspire me to build a better RR. One of these days all this info will come in handy. Not yet though. LGM isn't ready to start over.

 

[cprman]

A B I G THANK YOU ALL for the totally sucessful ARG meet !!!! I know I had more fun Saturday having you all over than I have had in many years of model railroading ! Everyone seemed so busy either asking questions about the layout or operational issues that I really didn't get to disscuss some of the future scenic possibilites I'm planning. Well, maybe in time, but I did very much appreciate all comming over and especially memoriable , for me anyway, is hearing all those " Transition Period " steam and diesel sounds emmmanating from all points in the now "phantom" selkirk mountain ranges of my layout !!! That was great & meeting new friends and seeing old ones return . I couldn't have asked for better company that day and will continue to extend my invites in the future to even others. It was also very entertaining to see the senior group members ( you know who you are ) , seeing their motive power pulling the sometimes 3 % grades near the top of the big hill ! ( Mr. May , candy shop, DEFINATLY!!!). I loved watching him enjoy himself on the main line action ! Again, thanks for the first of hopefully many memories to come , your friend in "training", Ray .