Compromise or Collaboration

Since the holiday break, I did not get much done on the layout, just a few little odds and ends like creating a couple of coal loads for the hopper cars and touching up a couple sections of scenery. There was some serious activity over the Jan 9-10 weekend though. First, I made a trip to Pittsburgh to see my Dad which meant I needed to stop at TK Hobby Shop in Bridgeport OH. I love this store and while I don't find everything I was looking for, I always find a few things I can use at great prices. Since this trip was an out-and-back (round trip 520 miles in one day), I was only going to stop in for 15-20 minutes. I had a list of what I wanted that I checked against their website inventory. I walked into the store at 10:10 AM...and called my Dad at 11 when I realized what time it was! And yes, I walked out with some new stuff for the train including a test background scene and Parkview Terrace building for East McKeesport.

The new background temporarily placed

I was only about 15 minutes later than planned (I padded my estimate, I was not speeding!), so I still managed to spend a few hours with him before heading back home.
The other thing that weekend was Bruce coming over Sunday afternoon. Last time we got together was before Christmas and we ran an operating session to see how it worked. Lots of fun and seemed appropriate for the session - play with trains rather than building. This time we had a working session. We always start by catching up on family and work activities, then talk about any changes I've done and bounce around some ideas. This time, I was able to show Bruce the new stuff from TK - background, apartment building kit, and a couple of '54 pickups. On the layout, I had rough in some initial scenery in the corner between the Irwin Yard and Untiontown as well as the section between Herminie and East McKeesport.

Future farm in the corner, brick streets in Uniontown

 I spent the session trimming some brick paper for the streets in Uniontown that go around the city park next to Isley's and then disappears into the background (above). Bruce added ground foam to the area next to Herminie (below).

Set Bruce up with a variety of "grasses" for the Herminie/E McKeesport scene break.

 We had a good time and while the changes we made were small, it's an incremental step to a complete layout. Afterwards, I was thinking about how different this time is from my day job. During the week, I spend much of my time finding an acceptable compromise between two people or two groups. Yes, there is some collaboration but seems like there is more compromise. Out in the train room, when Bruce comes over to brainstorm ideas and offer suggestions - now THAT is collaboration!