Had a grand-nephew stay over Friday night and into Saturday - a great little five-year-old fella known as "AJ." After breakfast Saturday, he was chompin' at the bit to run the trains. So at 8:30 in the morning, he, my wife and I all traipsed down to the train room and fired things up. I'd cleaned off the layout and done a bit of testing about a week earlier, so I know it was ready to run.
And run we did! For about an hour and a half, AJ, my wife and I all ran trains. Mostly I acted as dispatcher, switching tracks, giving running directions, and making a couple of little mistakes in routing (no major incidents, though!). We had a great time!!

Sunday it was back to construction. I installed one of the two turnouts I built last week (except for the ground throw), completing the mainline through the Glenrock siding (I still have to finish the siding track) and added a bit more track beyond the siding. I also laid more cork roadbed so I could continue the rails onward. I've about run out of benchwork for continuing the line - soon I'll have to clear out that end of the train room and add the additional tables. I also changed out the poor-rolling trucks on about a half-dozen cars for better-rolling sprung Kadees. I hauled forty-eight cars around the staging loop behind the 2-10-2, with no slipping!

All in all, a very productive and fun weekend!