Returned this evening from another Free-mo/Timonium trip. Hopefully I'll keep it short and post a part 2 tomorrow as I am tired and a bit cranky - the worst part of the trip is of course taking everything down, getting it into our van, sitting in the sunday traffic jam on I-95 thanks to the retards in Delaware that first need to clip me a few bucks for driving through their whole dozen miles of highway and additionally have managed to have a tollbooth under construction for two years with no high-speed Easy Pass yet - I mean didn't they build ships in a day or two during WWII, what's so hard about a toll-booth. It's probably the six time I've sat in the same traffic jam. Then I get home and have to put everything away and then reload my work truck with equipment - I'm beat.
But, despite all this, the trip, as usual, is more than worth it. I don't actually end up running a lot of trains, but I do a lot of shopping and a lot of talking. Some highlights of this trip included: hooking our Free-mo stuff up to the Slipping and Switching Societies of North Carolina and Ohio's massive modular layout. There was something like 12 scale miles of mainline available to run on (One of the photos show a side view - basically our Free-mo stuff is on the far right, followed by the NC groups "branch line modules", then the Ohio Group, and then the NC main modular setup); finally meeting, and seeing, Steel Mill Modeler Extraordinaire, Randy Constanza's 3'x40' steel mill, and 3'x24' coke works (see photos); plus bumping into a bunch of other steel mill modelers throughout the show; hanging out with the Free-mo and S&SS folks; and finally, some of the great modeling throughout the displays - the final photo for tonight is an example of some of this modeling, a module built by I think Joe B. of the North Carolina group (correct me if I'm wrong) - besides the fine structure modeling, check out the Code 70 hand laid trackwork - count them, 13 DIAMONDS and 6 TURNOUTS!! additionally, 4 of the diamonds are dual gauge and if you look real careful there is a diamond over a diamond (three tracks crossing a one spot - one of those dual gauge to boot)
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