OK, I'm back.  It's been a long 19 months since my most recent post, but I found that the less time I spend on forums/blog entries, the more work I can accomplish on my layout.  However, there were also a few serious events - such as being told that my job function was going to be eliminated - that made me wonder if I'd even be able to continue in mrr!  [Luckily I was able to learn other technologies, enabling me to stay with my current employer for another few years.]

Hello all, decided I'd start a new "chapter" instead of appending to the original blog which was getting a bit tiresome.  I'm in the middle of rebuilding my own rendition of the B&O's CL&W [Cleveland, Lorain and Wheeling] subdivision in the Cleveland area. 

[NOTE: This blog was formerly titled At a Crossroads: The Quest For a Duck-Free Layout]

These past few months have been a real whirlwind of activity for me, preparing for my first op session, having it, then doing all the follow-up work to correct minor deficiencies that were not so obvious without a group of operators present.  It was fun, no question about that – but now that the dust has settled momentarily, I’ve gone back to doing one of my favorite mrr activities: scratchbuilding structures.

This past Sunday marked the conclusion of an 8-year odyssey to get DCC on my layout.  That's right, 8 years - a lot of obstacles sprang up from the time I initially purchased my Digitrax Chief starter set in July 2000, conspiring to prevent me from ever running any decoder-equipped locos in their intended environment.