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Royal Palm and

Loxahatchee Central

at the NMRA Convention and National Train Show 2002

Here is the logo for the portable layout that Milo Rodriguez and I took to the National Train Show held in conjunction with the 2002 NMRA National Convention in Fort Lauderdale. We also take it to some local shows here in South Florida. One key feature of the events is that we encourage the visitors to run the trains. There is normally a line of guest engineers waiting for their chance to take a train on a trip. At the National Show, there were many families. The kids were the primary operators. They applied power and brakes in rapid and unusual sequences. When the parents and grandparents saw the way the trains looked, stayed on the tracks and ran smoothly, they were persuaded to consider S-Scale for the future.

Milo's son Jack designed and produced the logo artwork.

To the left side you can get a glimpse of the trolley display that Paul Yorke made. He demonstrates the extreme flexibility of American Models flex track and the cornering ability of the Putt Trains trolley. He powered it with a wall-mount, 9-volt AC adapter. It runs and runs and runs to the delight of all witnesses.

Here is a view of one of the guest operator’s stations. You can see the two loops of track and an MTH throttle. The two tracks are powered independently. That allows us to use AC (with or without command control), DC or DCC as needed. The sections are attached with loose-pin hinges on the edge, C-Clamps underneath, removable track sections across the joints and 6-connector Cinch plugs for electricity. There is also another view of Paul’s trolley board.

This view shows the overall setup. This incarnation of the RP&LC was 6 feet wide by 13 ½ feet long.

Since then, we have added some scenery and buildings. The whole thing is durable and flexible.

This photo shows Milo (pronounced MEE-low) as we were setting up before the folks came to visit. The inside of the layout provided room for storage of resting equipment and space for repairs and maintenance.

You can see a portion of the Showcase Line (S-Helper Service) booth behind me. When the adults saw how the trains ran on our layout, they often went to SHS to buy a starter set. It is such a hoot to watch the faces of the kids as they run the trains. I encourage anyone to make their own portable layout and to then allow the visitors at train shows to run the trains.