Another beautiful weekend here in Minnesota and the trees have dropped another huge load of leaves that need to be dealt with. While that is a bother, I am really happy we have the trees so I am not complaining. It just keeps me out of the basement.
Two weeks ago the PPSSW folks were by and I had the benefit of expert consultants to review the layout of the Twin Ports yard. I had put this yard in many years ago, long before I discovered operations and it just was not going to work. At the last NASG Convention Terry Harrison conducted a clinic on yard design, Steve Doyle attended it and during the drive, we discussed some of Terry's points. Later, Terry sent me a copy of his hand out for my reference, it clearly demonstrated that I needed to do something. With all this great input, I now have a great plan to add yard leads and a better route to my industrial area. I have done the disassembly and I am now modifying the benchwork. In addition to providing better operations, the new benchwork will provide some well organized storage space which I need because I cannot find the box of turnouts and turnout components that I know I own somewhere. Last Thursday, the PPSSW met at Dave Jasper's house. It was a sad night because we were cleaning out the layout as the house has sold. There were light moments as we discovered things long hidden in the benchwork, notes we left dating a particular segment of the work, a couple of eight track tape players and the eight track tapes that documented a musical taste best left hidden. Vintage S Scale kits long forgotten and of course the constant chatter, remembering 30 years of friendship and fellowship as we built the layout. While it was bitter, Dave showed us his new vision for a layout and that is the great hope we all share that we can have many more evenings working together. Friday, my latest Gaugian arrived and there is a PPSSW column celebrating Dave's layout. Nice timing. The S Fest has been well covered but I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed seeing everyone. I thought Friday was scheduled a little late but no big deal. The PPSSW guys left a little early Friday to visit Steve Lunde's layout. It was a great time and I got a few good shots of his city scene and that will be a key part of our next PPSSW series on building scenes. On the way home we visited Chuck Porter's layout. Chuck has been a good friend for many years and it is nice to see him progressing on a new layout. One other reason that I thought Friday went late was that the long day had taken its toll on us old guys and we went back to the hotel to sleep. We missed the fun as a few guys stopped to get a refreshment on the way from the show. I am sure the story will some day come out but there was one well known S celebrity who was sporting a nice blinking button that a sweet young waitperson awarded him for his antics. Steve and Roy asked me to conduct an impromptu session on building kits featuring the Pine Canyon, Trainstuff and DPM components. We talked assembly and finishing. I had brought an assortment of colors and weathering components and insisted on hands on participation. During the discussion, I shared the technique I had learned from others and it was great because I picked up a few other good ideas. A couple of years ago, brick structures were a glaring shortcoming in S and now we have a great many options to help us build great urban industrial areas. Well enough of this, there are leaves out there ready to do battle, the sun is shining in a blue sky and all too soon this will all change to snow and cold. The layout will wait, it always does but that is one of the nice things about a hobby. I did think of one benefit of my losing things around the layout, when I find them it is like I have bought something new and it does not cost anything. Let's see now, where did I leave that rake? Ken Zieska [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] Change your membership, change your message settings, use our CALENDAR, view shared files or photos, view the list archives, GO TO http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/S-Scale/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
