I held my first open house in conjunction with the San Jacinto Model Railroad Club Fall Layout tour over the weekend. There were about 85 different layouts on tour in the Houston area. I wasn't sure how many people would visit me, due to my location south of Houston, plus the weather had turned miserably rainy and cold. On Saturday, I only had 2 visitors, but on Sunday, I had around a dozen.
Everyone was impressed with the Texas Division of GERN Industries, and they also liked my manual turn-out controls. I wanted everyone to run the trains and try out the uncoupling magnets, but most were too shy to try it. I did have a few who played to their hearts content, running back and forth between the interchanges and setting out cars. I was glad to see them enjoying my layout.
One of the members of the SJMRR club visited me, and mentioned that the club doesn't have their own layout, they just run operating sessions on member's home layouts. He liked my layout, and wants me to join the club.
In all, I had a good time this weekend. Oh... and I advertised for The Gauge too!
Everyone was impressed with the Texas Division of GERN Industries, and they also liked my manual turn-out controls. I wanted everyone to run the trains and try out the uncoupling magnets, but most were too shy to try it. I did have a few who played to their hearts content, running back and forth between the interchanges and setting out cars. I was glad to see them enjoying my layout.
One of the members of the SJMRR club visited me, and mentioned that the club doesn't have their own layout, they just run operating sessions on member's home layouts. He liked my layout, and wants me to join the club.
In all, I had a good time this weekend. Oh... and I advertised for The Gauge too!