The Gang, At Todd Treasters!

[keystonecrossings]

Todd had an open house today. Others took pics, so hopefully they'll post some.

The "usual" gang was there -- Rick Spano, Pat McKinney, Bill Lewis, Max Magliaro, and more. Ed Kapuscinski made an appearance (your first time?) and we were treated to finally seeing Dave Vollmer this far north.

I got to run my Key Imports J1a for the first (and last) time. Ran like an absolute champ! I think we had it pulling a 24 car train, but it really wasn't working at all.

Max had his T1 pulling a nice set of Pennsy varnish. Many other Pennsy locos were running as well as on display.

And, oh, Becky's meatballs!!!   

Thanks, Todd, always the terrific host! 

[Dave V]

http://vollmerdp.blogspot.com/2008/05/drilling-with-kids-dave-and-jake-are-on.html

Thanks for giving Dave (and our 5-year-old son Jacob) one of his best weekends ever!

-Patricia

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Heh heh heh... Dave's wife posted for him. That means he owes everyone else who posts in this thread a round...

Anyway, it was awesome. I'm working on downloading the photos and video now, but aside from being a fun layout, it was also a really fun time seeing all these talented and gracious people in one place.

[davefoxx]

Heh heh heh... Dave's wife posted for him. That means he owes everyone else who posts in this thread a round...

I posted.  Beer me, Dave V.

Dave Foxx
Rising Sun, Maryland

[wm3798]

I had intended to come, but a work obligation for my wife left me no choice but to stay home and slather paint on my house, and make sure my kids had lunch.  Does it count that I'm using a variation of Tuscan Red as the new color on the house?
Can't wait to see the pics Ed...  I presume there will be a "Where's Lee" video...


and Dave, I'll have an Old Fashioned, and a Grasshopper for Mrs. Howell... Thank you my boy!


Lee

[Chulvis]

Heh heh heh... Dave's wife posted for him. That means he owes everyone else who posts in this thread a round...

I'll have a double!!

[TiVoPrince]

Heh heh heh... Dave's wife posted for him. That means he owes everyone else who posts in this thread a round...

I'll have a double!!

I'll have
whatever Chulvis-Flav is having...

[John]

2 Mai-Tai's please

[Ed Kapuscinski]

I got all my pictures processed last night, and now that I'm not incoherently tired anymore, here they are.

This is the local power at Todd's intermodal facility (Pitcairn I think). It's blue, of course, because Todd has taste:








I debated about shooting this, but it IS a nice model:


Looking west up the Pittsburgh Line. This is CP Cannon with no trains:


A closer look at the brains of the CP:


A better version:



Todd has a yard FULL of blue power, but none were better than this. It's a Kato Snoot that he did the chop job on the nose and made a correct CR SD40-2. I'm inspired:




Todd is an incredibly gracious host. When we arrived, the local PRR steam heads (Max Magliaro and a few others) were trampsing their brunswick green works of art around the layout. They ran beautifully. I was really impressed. I wanted to get a bunch of pictures, except in order to do that, they'd have to stop them, and I didn't want to be annoying and keep asking for posing help. Anyway, after the PRR parade, I got a chance to run some of my recent works around with a 100 car coal train.

Here we are along the Pittsburgh Line in Western Central PA:


Shooting from the 322 overpass:


And down low:


Banging through CP Cannon:


I swapped the power my go-to visiting power, SD40s 6303 and 6287. Here they are between Newport PA and Cannon along Lower Bailey Rd. Todd has really captured the essence of the area:


Slicing under PA 322:


And running light the other direction to serve as helpers:


Passing over Shermans Creek:


After that I tied them on the BACK of a coal train and SHOVED it all around the layout. It was incredible. Oh, and there WASN'T power on the other end. It was awesome. 80 cars, shoved from the rear. I couldn't believe it. Todd's trackwork is the most precise thing I have ever seen. I only had trouble in one place, and that was as I was yarding it pushing back through 10 turnouts. It was insane.

Anyway, it was an awesome trip, with great people to a really fun layout. I don't know if Todd visits here, but I hope so because I really want to thank him for opening his house and layout up for all of us. There need to be more people in this world like him.

[bobcat]

Heh heh heh... Dave's wife posted for him. That means he owes everyone else who posts in this thread a round...

I'll have a double!!

I'll have
whatever Chulvis-Flav is having...

Shirley Temples?

[choochin3]

Spaten Optimator please!

Carl T.

[Dave V]

Note to self:  Don't leave yourself logged into wife's computer...

What a weekend!  Between railfanning the Middle Division and an amazing day at Todd's house, I'm essentially speechless!  But I'll try to sum up:

Bill Lewis put my son Jake and I up at his house for the weekend, sight unseen.  We were complete strangers, but he took us in anyway.  He and his wife Sally were great hosts.

Got to see Ed's amazing door layout.  That's some awesome winter scenery if you haven't seen it.

We all trucked up to Burnham by way of Enola and Lewistown (where we caught five trains in 40 minutes' time!).  Todd and his wife fed us like royalty and let us run his amazing layout.  I was able to take my kitbashed M1 out on the main for a few loops.  I also got to run my L1 with a period freight in an amongst some amazing models by a host of famous folks.

The real highlight was meeting everyone.  The short list includes, of course, Bill Lewis, Todd Treaster, Ed K, Jerry Britton, Max Magliaro, Rick Spano, etc. 

On the way home we paced a doublestack on the Middle Division and caught a coal drag at the west flyovers at Marysville heading out onto the Rockville Bridge.

What a great time.  My only regret is how much smaller my door layout looks after operating Todd's ginormous NYS&A.

[ai5629]

Very nice stuff.  I always appreciate other PRR/PC/CR modeler's work.  Who make the signal bridge in the photo?  I know Alkem makes one and doesn't Traincat make one too?  I might have to order a couple based on that nice looking representation. 

[Walkercolt]

Sounds like everybody had a good time, and ran some trains. That's what's fun anyway.

[MEC_FAN]

Ed, awesome shots of Todds layout thanks for posting them, sounds like a great time.

MEC