I have just got back from vacation on the west coast. Went to meet up with friends and family. Visited with long time friend, fellow geologist and model railroad enthusiast Marc Simpson. Marc was able to get me down to meet Mark Dance and see his world class layout, The Columbia and Western Railway.

i took my HBMS #2 to Marc’s layout for a few photo ops. Marc models HBMS and the CN line. 

As I mentioned back in my blog post about switch locks ( https://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/35731 ), I've long planned to add working derails to my layout in order to further immerse my crews in the experience of their prototype counterparts.  I finished that task about a week ago and thought I'd share what I found in case others were interested.

Description and photos follow in the first reply.

What started out to be a simple new layout with a loop of track, inspired by the one-town layout design concept, has morphed into a railroad that I have become very excited about building. It is still a basic loop that will start and end in a four track staging loop and pass through the town of Waipahu (pronounced “why pa who”) where cars will be left for the branch line. 

A friend visited with me several weeks ago.  He is building a magnificent N scale model of the Montgomery, Alabama Union Station and train shed for his 1950's based layout.  His work is museum quality, and his attention to prototypical detail amazing.  As I looked at the photos of his work thus far, I had to ask him: would he be modeling both the whites-only bathrooms and the colored bathrooms?