I learned a cool thing the other night.

I have a small switching layout comprising of two 'towns', Kayton and Tecoma. This arrangement lets me keep two operators busy for a couple of hours at a time. The other night I had a couple of friends over, Rob and Mike, both of whom are members of the North Shore Model Railroad Club here in Auckland NZ. They both noticed that my interchange is with a town called Santel which will eventually become a hidden staging yard. The reason I did this is that the main yard at the NSMRC is called Santel and thus club members would understand the reference.

However, Rob filled me in that in fact many years ago he drew up the club's layout plan and named the towns. He named several of the towns after towns on Allen McClellend's Virginian and Ohio Layout that he had visited whilst on a trip the USA., including Santel.

Now I know this I'm even more wrapped to have called my town Santel.