I had a couple of extensive sessions running trains. On Friday morning I was able to run from 8:30 until around 11:00 with few interruptions. On Sunday morning from 8:00 until 11:00 I was able to run with absolutely no interruptions. I went back to running mid afternoon when several participants took a break. After about 10:30 to 11:00 each day the single-track bottleneck in the mainline run tends to get quite congested.
I was pleased that there were fewer electrical glitches than last year but that doesn’t mean that there were none. I know great efforts were made to eliminate these but there are still one or two bugs that continue to haunt the system.
I very much enjoy the company of the other participants at this event. We share ideas and have a few laughs, sometimes at each others’ expense. Even though this was my third time at Big Valley I came away with several new ideas.
I appreciate the efforts of the host group, Calgary Free-mo. They put in a great deal of work.
On my way to Big Valley, I stopped for a bit of sightseeing in Drumheller, Alberta which is in the Alberta Badlands. It's quite impressive. Drumheller is about 70 km south of Big Valley.
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| suspension bridge crossing the Red Deer River (foot traffic only) |
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| Big Valley, Alberta. The Agriplex is the large white building on the left
Some pictures of the Free-mo setup in the arena:
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Some pictures of the modelling on display on the Free-mo modules.
