CHICAGO IS FOR O SCALE. The March Meet has just concluded, with a few bargains to be had at the show, and lots of renewing acquaintances at the show and on the layout tours. Some of the train running is just for fun.

First up, Friday afternoon at the Fox Valley O Scalers prototype operating session. The eastbound meat must get through!


Saturday evening featured a members' day (with out-of-town visitors trickling through all evening.) I borrowed a Milwaukee Road 2-8-0 and tested some of the new baggage cars.


Model railroading is supposed to be fun. Thus a West Virginia-style mining town with C&O-pattern station clinging to the Mississippi River bluffs somewhere south of Marquette, Iowa. So why not test out the New Haven and Pennsylvania baggage cars too?


Another member got into the spirit of things. Here, just after the merger, a Chicago and North Western grain extra enters Marquette from the west. (Something must have gone wrong somewhere between Oelwein and Dubuque.)


Yes, there is more stuff for the workbench.