Scattered Thoughts . . .

There were a lot of great operating model railroad layouts at this year's show. I think there were over 50 layouts this year and that didn't include all the hands-on layouts for the kids to play. I put together a very short video of the "Best In Show" layout modules at this year's Amherst Railway Society's Train Show. I have to say that this particular layout was quite impressive and even evoked an "oh wow..." when I first approached it!  The layout was built by the 'Four County Society of Model Engineers' from Central Maryland. This layout was highly detailed with great lighting and I feel both of those points should be mentioned here. Beyond the exceptional detail, what I found exceptionally impressive was the realistic, cohesive color scheme used throughout the entire layout. The color of this model world was consistent and about as realistic as I've ever seen in a model railroad. The consistency from module to module was key t

Actually, the last two weeks of 2017 and the first three weeks (so far) of 2018 have been exceptionally lousy but this is giving me a very uneasy feeling about this new year.  In our case, it seems that things are constantly breaking. If it is not one thing, it is another. Touch this... it breaks. Look at something else... it breaks. Fix something... turn around and there are two other things broken. The list is so long at this point that I can't even remember everything that has broken in the past four weeks! The first two problems I can remember four weeks ago were related to our electrical and our furnace.  Our electronics were all acting a bit odd and quirky. Things were shutting down on their own. Other things weren't working correctly. After a couple of hours of troubleshooting with an electronics tester, I found myself at our circuit-breaker panel with the cover off testing the monster main lines coming into the house (something I'd prefer to avoid) ... the vol