It's a small world department

This was a weekend of unexpected guests and lots of work on the railroad.

Andrew running a train across the bridge.

On Saturday Andrew Evans and his mother, Elaine Evans, stopped by to visit the layout. Elaine is the landscape architect working with Alicia on the backyard landscape design and construction. Andrew is a professional BBQ chef that also is a suppressed model train enthusiast, among many other hobbies including large scale model rockets. He owns a BBQ restaurant in Easton, MD. He used to compete and judge professional BBQ contests and knows Dave Frary from IQ BBQ. He really enjoyed the layout. I offered to trade layout work for BBQ so we'll have to keep an eye on that.

On Sunday Doug and Gerry arrived for a work session. We also were graced with a surprise visit by Paul Dolkos and John King.  John lives in Boyds, MD and models the B&O in Winchester, VA in the 1950s. His layout was in MRP 2005.

Doug and Gerry hard at work putting their Harvard and MIT Post doc education to work.

Doug worked on the terrain on the south end of Brooke by Accokeek Creek. He spent a good deal of time trying to get the terrain contours "just" right. Gerry preferred to spike rail and he completed about 8 linear feet of spiking.  I worked on the tunnel portal area of the Brooke.

Testing clearances of the rock cut

Doug worked on the terrain at Brooke.
The sloped piece is to get a feel
for the original slope.

After my visitors left, I got a burst of energy and finished up the flat terrain along the Brooke scene. I cut a piece of hardboard to trim out the cut that Doug worked on. I glued it in and then spackled it off. Once that dries, I sand it and the rest of the fascia and give another coat.  That should do it for fascia.

This is an historic point in my layout history. This peninsula has been essentially unsceniced for the 9 years I have lived in this house.  It had supported three previous layouts but it never progressed past a plywood plain.

Testing out the look of the tunnel cut

Adding foam supports to help hold up the flat area.

Over view looking RR South at Brooke.

Gurin's Cut at Brooke

The hill behind Brooke helps hide the view of Falmouth from the far end
of the layout near Potomac Creek.