The trains running on the other two lines were a Bachmann Big Hauler lugging some freight and the trolley line was occupied by the LGB GE4/4 in "Q" colors.
Can we say "plenty of food"? Yes a veritable cornucopia of food was available.
We had a main course of sandwiches and Chli. Plus salads, deserta, munchies, dips, cheeses, fruit salad...yum! You can see part of the feast down below.
Did I mention the drinks? Oh my - yes there were some adult beverages to consume.
Many had been at the Eaglewing Ironcraft open house. That event seems to be getting bigger and bigger..
Just about everyone brought something to run or show off. Brandy brought his Aristocraft Mikado [Great Northern of course!]
Well, the 3rd year Anniversary of the Arizona Connection officially began on April 19, 2003. Just about 3 years ago, Duncan and Brandy came over to the LiZarD AtTiTuDe RailRoad in April of 2000. Hard to imagine...this particular run was the largest of the Arizona Connection runs. This thread on MyLargeScale set up the event: "Clubs/Groups in Phoenix AZ Area?" Since typically the spring April run tends to be at my house, I sent out the online invitation. We had 14 guests at the Arizona Connection run. A new record!.
As people started to arrive - I had all three lines running. The mountain line, sporting new track work [took out a curve and small 300mm sections and replaced with longer curves and straights] had an 0-4-0 Bachmann Porter and an LGB Forney, as seen below. That mountain line ran with no issues other than spacing problems between the run speeds of the engines. The Porter runs faster low voltage than the LGB and the LGB runs faster at high voltage. Of course, the Forney did a bit of a "rear ending" of the Porter. No damage. That was about as bad as it got....well Brandy did manage to knock over "Mr. Trolley" when we were taking group photos...
Mission Control above. The wooden slat wond up being the storage area for non running trains and rolling stock. There is a Blue Streak which powers two of the lines and a Bridgewerks 15 amp which powers the Main Line. An Aristocraft TE controls the Main line. Note that Paul Gieske is making videos from his digital 8 camera.
After a bit, the Bachmann Big Hauler was taken off to the siding and the LGB Mikado was put into service. The sound was on full blast to get everyone stirred up. After awhile, the LGB was put on a siding, the power turned off on the unit and Brandys GN Mike got to stretch it's legs as noted on the right.
