Bill, Dick, Richard, Rich and Carl meet at the layout at the Mall.

All-a-board!  for a busy Saturday at the Mall.  The Santa line stretched around our layout and little eyes and big eyes followed the trains with intense interest.  There was a lot to look at also.  Dick Rubin brought in some beautiful engines to run.  One was a serial numbered edition of LGB's famous Hudson Steam Locomotive and tender.  I just missed seeing it perform as I came in late in the day but heard it was "smoking" plus it was producing a beautiful sound.  But as prestigious as this engine is,  it still is Thomas that steals the hearts of the Santa Claus waiting line.  Thomas's cars arrived today but we can only hook up one at a time (the combination of tight curves and tight couplers)  Maybe next time we will change the 4 foot curves to 5 foot curves.   (That is not an official announcement but it is fair to say that both the Mall and MGRS  are very happy with the way this has gone.)
     Last night Bill Goodrich and his wife arrived from Massachusetts.  They drove from the South Shore area up to Portland last night and stayed over for what will be 2  days.  Bill is a great guy that loves trains and he met Grace and Dave last night and Carl and a bunch of the guys today.  He was having a good time today and it was great to meet him.  Plus he was dressed for the part today and looked great. Way to go Bill!  He took some great videos from track level and I hope we will be able to show then to you later on.
We had fun today with Circus trains, Novelty cars and by the way I did run 2 engines in opposite directions on the same track by using the polarity switch on the Thomas engine.  To me, that opens up a whole new type of track plan possibilities.  To others, that may be old hat.  Anyhow, that is the fun of hanging around the 'club house' at the Mall. I will not tell you why  Dick came back he said "I can't leave you guys alone for  a minute".  But, remembering these stories is why we are having so much fun together.   We are lucky to have a great group of people and this event is giving us a great chance to get together.