On30
John Cantwell’s On30 layout under construction. I dropped by John’s last night for an op session on his hybrid HO/On30 layout. His original HO layout is slowly morphing to On30, every time I go there there is more of it and its starting to look great. Fun to run too…
-Tim
Off to Vancouver….
William D. Ackland, MMR
A great time was had by all last night as we bid farewell to Bill Ackland, MMR. He is moving to Vancouver shortly and we decided to spend an evening with him for dinner. Bill’s contribution to the hobby and model railroaders in the area can’t be overstated, his tireless effort to organize the annual Doubleheaders Layout Tour always resulted in a flawless event.
Among many things too numerous to mention, Bill was responsible for keeping the art of hand laid track alive in the area. Many visitors to the layout tour often remark how many layouts in the area sport hand laid track, and it is because of Bill’s tutelage that many of us learned the craft, including me.
His layout, the STR (Stump Gulch, Torrent and Rock Junction) , built over 30 years ago reliably hosted a weekly operating session for its entire life, and will hopefully still be kept operating as it was passed onto one of the operators. Many model railroaders learned the ins and outs of building a layout designed to operate from Bill and his weekly sessions. The result of a few operating sessions at Bill’s was usually a layout being torn out and restarted after one had “seen the light”.
Bill’s constant badgering on the importance of design and planning before building resulted in better work from all who took his advice.
This is just a scratch on the surface of Bills contribution to the hobby. We all wish him the best, his presence will be missed, especially on Monday nights…
Mark and Kevin laughing it up. (I think Kevin wanted me to pull his finger)
Chris and I taking reciprocal pictures….
Ok, normally I don’t like to stick my face in on the site, but since I stuck questionable pictures of everyone else here, I’ll be fair…
-Tim
Auntie Em would be nervous….
Snapped this one yesterday afternoon just as a welcome storm blew in. Classic tornado weather, fortunately we were spared.
-Tim
