Return, Rebuild and Beyond

Has it really been over two years and eight months since I posted here?  So much has happened.

The railroad is still alive,  In fact it is getting closer to operation than ever.  After the disasters of the operation session during SoCal Ops in June of 2016 - see the Plan, Build Diversion post - I did manage to plan for the replacement of the Masonite splines.

Over a year later I finally tore out about 175 feet of spline and replaced it with plywood.  That was followed slowly by laying Homasote roadbed on the plywood, and later relaying track on top.   I took the opportunity to add additional tracks at Goleta and La Patera.  I also added detection for a future signal system.  All this will be posted here in more detail as I catch up in the coming weeks in reporting the progress of the Santa Barbara Subdivision.

I continued my usual diversions including operations events, national NMRA conventions in Kansas City and Salt Lake City, trips to Spain, Portugal and Morocco,

 a trip to Canada to find some of my roots,

participation of an excursion of the restored Big Boy 4014,

along with all my responsibilities locally, both railroad related and otherwise.  I will share some of these experiences as well as we move forward.

I have enjoyed railroads and model railroading for the past 67 years and hope to continue to do so for the foreseeable future.  Stay with me on the journey.