Wetmores Visit

Don is trying out my new smartphone tripod adapter
 from MeFoto while John and Gerry look on. Don got
some nice video of the Fury crossing the bridge.

 On Sunday Gerry Fitzgerald drove up from Charlottesville for a mini work session. He had been "jonesing" for a work session for a few months, so we finally scheduled one. He worked on making telephone poles for the telegraph line.  I need about 20 more to finish the line from Stoneman's to Aquia.

Two poles ready to plant with two insulators
per pole. (photo by Gerry)

I discovered quite by accident that the Tichy delrin wheel bearings have the right size and shape for O scale top hat insulators. Prior to that I was turning each insulator on the lathe. This saves a lot of time in the construction process.

We are using natural sticks for the poles, tooth picks for the wood standoffs and lycra thread from Berkshire Valley for the line. Gerry finished 6 poles on Sunday in between lunch and dinner.

In the meantime I worked on various little projects including priming a model for a client and the adding siding to the shed at Brooke.

Later that evening, Don and John Wetmore visited the layout. Don has a large HO layout depicting the 1960s in St Joseph, MO, called the St Joseph Terminal. He lives in Omaha, NE and is an employee of Union Pacific Railroad in the strategic planning group. Sounds like a great job for a model railroader. John in not a model railroader per se, but he does enjoy looking at them and he is interested in Civil war history. They have a great great grandfather that was bummer in the 13th Wisconsin Regiment and marched with Sherman through Georgia to North Carolina.

After snacking on a chocolate cake brought by Gerry from his favorite cake shop in Charlottesville, we headed down stairs. Don and John had a chance to run a train from Falmouth to Aquia. They had to drop to cars at Potomac Creek so they got to try out the couplers and brakes. Then we discussed the expansion plans and surveyed the potential right of way (through the closet and in the TV area). All three visitors endorsed the plan, but thought that the additional blob did not add much considering the cost of losing the "crew lounge." Finally, Don got some pictures of the layout and used new  Mefoto MPH100C Smart Phone Holder to get a short video of Fury hauling a short train across the bridge.