Time.. Keeps tick tick tickin in my head.. Joe Jackson

Time is moving by quickly as I get ready for my open house in early May.  I originally was going to be open for the joint NJ Div/GSD meet on May 4th but I failed to remember my precious twin niece and nephew were making their first Holy Communion that day and had to back out of the tour. But I will still open for the layout owners tour the night before.  It's a nice concept: each layout will be open in groups of three, over the course of a few nights and the layout owners will get to see each others layouts, which normally they wouldn't be able to see because their own layouts would be open for the meet's tour.

So I'm moving quickly to get things up and running.  The following pictures will show what progress has been made.

The track has been installed and feeders dropped on the T-section coming off B-Yard in York.

After trying a couple of different ideas on manual switch control, including Z-spring style finger flick switches, I settled on just using N-Scale Caboose Industries 206s ground throws.  They are smaller than the HO version but have enough travel to throw the turnout.

More ground throws installed in B-Yard.

With the ground throws installed I've actually been able to have a little fun doing some switching.

I'm in the progress of installing the Tam Valley Frog Juicers, and should be done with that in another day or two.

On a sad note, Mr. Bill, the Wonder Dog passed away yesterday.  He was losing weight all of a sudden and when my sister took him to the vet, it was determined that he had a brain tumor and nothing could be done for him, so he was put down to stop his suffering.  He was a good dog and we all will miss him, especially Amy, who always called Bill her buddy.  Amy has always been afraid of dogs, but for some reason fell in love with Bill.  But then again, Bill was that kind of dog.  Very friendly, and lovable.

Amy and her buddy Bill.

RIP Mr. Bill.