11-12-2011, 01:40 PM
I had my open house last weekend. Since I live about 30 miles south of Houston, I didn't expect much of a turnout. Surprisingly, I was swamped on both days. 16 visitors Saturday, 17 on Sunday. I opened at 10am and went to 6pm each day. It was packed the entire time on both days. All the visitors had the opportunity to run the local freights with my "simple" version of a switchlist. Some of the folks stayed for 4 hours or more. I was quite pleased by the compliments and interest. I now have about a dozen folks who gave me their email addresses and asked that I include them in future operating sessions.
Oh... Sunday evening, a grandmother and her two grandsons stopped by, one was about 10 and the other probably 12. With the 58" layout height, they could not actually see the layout, but I fixed them up with my stepstools. Then I showed them how to use the uncoupling magnets. I turned them loose with the trains, figuring that they would just run the main. To my surprise, they began switching out some industries, doing run-arounds and such. They told me they often played with a Train Simulator program on their computer, so they already knew how to do everything. It was pretty cool seeing these two youngsters operating the trains like old hands. I invited them to come back for a real operation session whenever they wanted.
Oh... Sunday evening, a grandmother and her two grandsons stopped by, one was about 10 and the other probably 12. With the 58" layout height, they could not actually see the layout, but I fixed them up with my stepstools. Then I showed them how to use the uncoupling magnets. I turned them loose with the trains, figuring that they would just run the main. To my surprise, they began switching out some industries, doing run-arounds and such. They told me they often played with a Train Simulator program on their computer, so they already knew how to do everything. It was pretty cool seeing these two youngsters operating the trains like old hands. I invited them to come back for a real operation session whenever they wanted.