Model Railroading > Traditions

Back when I lived in Northern Indiana, our club (if I'm recalling this right, this was the mid-1990s) had a fun tradition. The time between Thanksgiving and Christmas became a dedicated timr for running trains in one way or another. All layout work projects relating to track or the operating system were halted, or set to function as well as possible without the work being finished, and the layout was just used for fun operation. We could still work on structures, scenery or other projects, but the usual weekly club work nights became run nights. We'd bring in snacks and drinks and just enjoy the fun of the layout.

Pam and I recently finished a major trackwork project on our Sugar Pine Lumber Company layout and figured this was a good time to adopt that tradition here. We're cleaning up the tools, cleaning and treating track with odorless mineral spirits and graphite, and plan to just do some operation for the duration. We have enough of the mainline and related trackage finished that we need to start trying some of our operating plans and schedules so this is a good time to do so.

We think it will be great fun.

Jeff Johnston
www.thesugarpineshop.bigcartel.com
 

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Now that is an excellent "Model Railroading is Fun" photo!
Glad you are having a good time, thanks for sharing.
And your "not building" plan seems wise, at least for the holidays; that is when we are most likely to have guests over and they may want to see the trains.

We still have some construction going on -- like replacing a troublesome locomotive decoder and finishing three more (and probably the last three we'll need) SP cabooses -- but it's all at the workbench in the next room. As you suggested, the layout is kept in operational and "presentable" form for the duration.

Jeff Johnston
 

I think it's a great idea to just runs trains sometimes. I think I'm going to do just that right now. Oh, and as a SP caboose freak, I hope you'll share those next three caboose's when their ready.