Silicon Valley FreeMo-N at Hiller Aviation Museum Trains and Planes Show - March

[RBrodzinsky]

Silicon Valley FreeMo-N is at the annual Trains and Planes Show at Hiller Aviation Museum, San Carlos CA, again this year. We set up this morning and will be there through next Sunday, April 7. Museum is open everyday from 10am - 4pm; come visit us!

With the number of modules we have at the show this year, we had to loop in on ourselves to fit in the allotted space

(Sorry about the wing of the Wright Flyer obstructing part of the layout)

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Here is a bit zoomed in

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More photos to follow during the week (and who knows, maybe even some video)

[Bendtracker1]

Rod,
It's always good to see your group setup and running.
It's also nice to see quality and a group effort at play.

[RBrodzinsky]

As we always say when someone asks us “how is it going?”: We’re playing with trains, it’s a great day!

[RBrodzinsky]

Day 2 of the show was dominated by serious computer/JMRI problems (was really the computer, our home built Linux DCC-in-a-Box), to the point where I drove home and got all my DCC stuff, plus laptop. Of course, just as I got home, I got a call that everything was working again (after painful reboot), but am keeping all my stuff available, as well.

Today (Sunday), thought I would highlight other member's modules and trains.

First up - one of our members has built a module modeling Montara Beach (just north of Half Moon Bay, CA). There used to be a railroad through the area (not quite where it is placed here), but the lighthouse is still there (3-D printed)

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From the other side

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The waves are really cool

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Looking down at the beach below the trestle

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[RBrodzinsky]

Looking down the track of Montara, as an MKT freight came towards me

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Some MKT close ups

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[RBrodzinsky]

One of our younger members has built a long module (seen in the central area of the overhead shots). His buildings are fantastic

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[RBrodzinsky]

We also had an unusual visitor on the US-based layout. Figured someone must have come up with a blue-tooth catenary; otherwise how could it run?

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[RBrodzinsky]

Day 3 -- Being a Monday, participation by our team drops significantly, as most everyone needs to be at work. The computer issues seem to be over, but typical track/layout problems always occur (amazing how the modules continue to change, day by day, with weather changes). But nothing we couldn't handle, and trains ran smoothly.

I tried (and failed) to take some video with the new camera (well, I got video, just not worth posting). Read up some more on this feature last night, so will try again today (want to get some good auto-tracking shots, with continuous focus).

In the meantime... took out my PFE Reefer unit train. Have last year's 16-car weathered 40' reefer set, an older 3-car 40' reefer runner pack, and 2 50' reefers, running behind a Black Widow F3ABA consist

Here is the old and the "less old" in Silicon Valley Station

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Had not meant to underexpose this photo so drastically, but created a cool "night shot"

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[RBrodzinsky]

The train came to a halt along the Pacific Coast at Montara Lighthouse. Here, the lead unit (6103) has come to a halt, sticking its nose out through the windbreak of eucalyptus tress. Note the red emergency beacon

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Climbing up above the cars, one sees some modern cars, highly decorated, at the warehouse

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[RBrodzinsky]

Looking up to the front of the train, and the eucalyptus grove (hand made, by Scott Forrest)

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Got the signal to move on

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[RBrodzinsky]

Off shore drone shots, while it was stopped (ok, I pulled the camera back a bit from the modules)

Looking east

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Looking north (and somehow Lockhart, TX is north of Montara, CA)

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Looking south

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[RBrodzinsky]

Day 4 - didn't get any great shots, today (Tuesday), but did spend some time shooting video.  Pretty meh, but I will edit something together from them after the show is complete. Only a very small team there today, so spent most of the time running trains!

[RBrodzinsky]

Here's video from the show