2018 started out with a bang. My wife Janet and I flew to Boston and then drove to Springfield, MA for the Amherst Train Show, probably the largest train show in North America. It was a lot of fun, but not much for sale if you don't model eastern railroads.

I ran into several people I know, including these Yahoos from the Modelers Life podcast.

I also got a sneak peak at the new Rapido NP Boxcars that are coming out this year. Rapido worked with the NPRHA on the lettering and the Company Store will cary the cars. Very nice models.

My goal for early 2018 was to get the layout operating again. I started by working on carcards and waybills.

Which required boxes to be built. These were cut on Speed's laser out of 1/8" MDF.

Speed brought another South African over, who turned out to be a pretty good hand. We cut out some homasote and laid it along the edge of the new section of benchwork.

I also put together this Burlington depot mockup that we cut on Speed's laser. I originally cut this on the Cricut, but 1/8" MDF is a lot stronger.

In February I went to Kanas City to participate in Prairie Rail 2018. I operated on Rick McClellan's huge Frisco layout...

Larry Tiffany’s Union Pacific South Platte Division...

Mike Tomei's ATSF Albuquerque Subdivision...

and Kevin Leyerle’s Oklahoma Kansas & Texas Railroad.

Meanwhile, I broke out the Cricut to make some Vinyl letters for the car card boxes.