July 2010 Poway Station Train Show
This was the sixth annual fundraising Train Show in support of the Poway Station Train Club. It is held each year at the San Rafael Catholic Church in Rancho Bernardo, a suburb of San Diego, California. This is the first time the San Diego S-Gaugers have participated in the show.
We arrived Friday morning with the first load of modules and began setting up.
Alex inserts bridge rails between modules on one side while Al, Mike, and Raulf work the many lines of the rail yard.
Bob set up the accessories on the Gilbert Siding and a Santa Fe freight for testing the eastbound mainline.
We mount the protective Plexiglas and skirting to complete the setup.
Saturday morning we were up and running, doing final shakeout before the doors opened to the public.
Al brought his Big Boy and we follow it around the layout. In addition to a tour of the layout, this video gives a bit of a view of the hall and other layouts at the show.
The video shows Z-Stuff infrared sensors controlling an American Flyer crossing signal on the twin mainlines. One sensor detects trains on the eastbound mainline and another detects trains on the westbound. The flasher continues as long as a train is in front of the sensor, plus a couple of seconds afterward, giving the train time to clear the crossing before the flasher stops.
During the show, Bob installed a Z-Stuff Semaphore on the layout. Installation took only a couple of minutes. It worked correctly on the first try and continued to operate reliably all day.
In addition to watching the trains and operating accessories, kids love to play with our module tiles, making up their own modular layouts.
All good things come to an end. Packing up and going home after a fun show where we met a bunch of new friends.