Operations will resume on Lou Schultz’s C&O Railroad next month after a long embargo.  As you may recall, back in (about) February Lou had some health issues to deal with and that led to a temporary suspension of operating and work sessions on his layout.  Lou’s doing better now and for several weeks work crews have been feverishly working on the layout in an attempt to correct some bugs and other problems.  The next operating session is scheduled for June 22nd, and I’m looking forward to seeing the crew again.

This session will be in 1951 which means we’ll have a mix of steam and diesels running.  I really love seeing those Alleghenies running down the mainline, but have to confess that I’d much rather operate a lash-up of diesels because they simply operate better on Lou’s layout.

When the time moves up to 1955 in sessions later this summer, I’ll be bringing my trusty (Atlas/Kato) ALCO RSD-5 to the sessions.  She is equipped with a Tsunami decoder and she runs and sounds great!

I’ve been busy each weekend working on the Louisiana Central.  The sub-roadbed (tabletop) is complete along the entire north wall of the room (that’s the wall on the right side of the track plan).  The Illinois Central sub-roadbed leading into the staging area on the east wall (bottom wall in the plan) is almost complete…just one more “section” to go on to the end to finish that.  While doing that, I’ll probably go ahead and extend that sub-roadbed to the far side of Monterey as this will become the Texas and Pacific hidden staging track at that point (again, check the plan so what I’m saying becomes clear).

The sub-roadbed (and tabletop where applicable) is starting to get “easier” as I learn and find better ways to get the construction done.  I’m lagging on the trackwork itself because of my focus on the supporting structure, but that’s okay because trains won’t roll until ALL of it is done.

As usual, comments are welcome.

-Jack