A Look Back and Ahead

We survived another pandemic year without any serious illness.  We are looking forward to a better year in 2022.  

As the New Year rolled in, I waxed philosophically about what might be my next layout. You might be happy or shocked to learn that I could not come up with any layout idea that I might like better than the Aquia Line. So the Aquia Line will be staying around. There is still a lot to do on the layout that should keep me busy for a few years. Despite that navel gazing, actual construction on the Aquia Line has been slow as I have been working on several other projects. 

The first was a set of shelves for my granddaughter. She is due to arrive some time in early March, though her mom reports she is already sassy. So far mom and daughter are fine. We hope to have a healthy baby to introduce to grandpa's trains.  The shelf and coat hook were requested by my son-in-law, who is a LEGO fanatic. My daughter suspects these items will end up in his study. So we are making another set of shelves to hold baby books etc.

 A scene on Mat's layout

I attended recently two op sessions on local railroads. The first was Mat Thompson's Oregon Coast line. Mat reconfigured his railroad to be a switching layout. Most of the railroad is now in yard limits with crews working various locations. It is a fun, low key way to operate a layout.  

I next operated on Paul Dolkos's Baltimore Harbor District railroad. He too has a industrial switch district. I ran the transfer trains from staging to the various work zones. As everyone knows, Paul's layout is gorgeous. And it's fun to run.

Paul is checking our work on his railroad

Over the past two days, I took a break from the woodshop to work on a diorama with a fantasy theme. Last November, Mike Kelly invited me to play in a game of Dungeons and & Dragons that he was hosting. I never played before, but I was willing try.  It was a lot of fun. So, inspired by that game, I decided to make a small diorama depicting some action from the game. My character was a Paladin, a holy knight, and I had to fight a few monstrous orcs that had just ravaged a farm. 
I searched the web for some appropriate figures. I found some and printed them on my Form 3.  This computer mock up shows the general idea. One orc was slain by the Paladin and the second is trying to gather courage to continue the attack.
So far I have finished two of the characters. One  more to go before I build the diorama. I hope to do an article on this diorama too.