Fall Virtual Open House is a Wrap

Another success, hopefully next year we get to do this in person as well.

If you joined us for our Fall Virtual Open House thanks for joining us and we hope you had a good time. If you would like to inquire about a remote operations or in person membership please email membership@siliconvalleylines.com.

The day started off with some JMRI troubles but after a quick pivot we got trains running and were able to get our trains back on schedule pretty quickly. As the day progressed it became apparent that even with our new Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W powered CabCams we could use more wireless access points to alleviate some issues with the small antenna on the Zero 2.

Below is our live stream from the day.

And now for some photos.

One of our remote engineers rolls past Ebbetts Pass in Western Pacific 759.

The same engineer headed across the bridge over the village of Eagle. The residents recently got a major stretch of their main road repaved.

A different remote engineer pilots Northern Pacific 6504 past the orange groves of Fremont and Farmer Jensen’s produce.

Norfolk Southern 9-1-1 highballs past one of SVL’s LCC signals in Jacksonville.

A meeting of eras. NS 9-1-1 and NP 6504 have a meet in Jericho. Meetings like these can be pretty exciting as a remote engineer. Due to a limitation of the technology you get the prototypical cab experience from our CabCams.

A view from the aisle with some of the hardware we use to make these streams exciting. While I had stepped away the SVL helicopter’s battery died (gimbal battery that is).

The sun has set over Silicon Valley Lines. We have one of, if not the only NCE Layout Lighting setups in the wild. It is a bit blue but this allows both local and remote engineers to get a bit of nighttime running but not be completely in the dark.

You can see the NCE light boards in this shot from Fryton as a train waits on the siding for one of our hotshot remote trains to pass.

An overhead shot of Tracy. Tracy is modeled after mid century Illinois and is the work of member John Donovan. He has been working on Tracy for 20+ years.

A billboard for our local model railroad shop, they are extending their market all the way to Illinois.

The round-end of an illustrious Daylight is poking out of the Bayshore passenger facility.

Peering through the windows into the Bayshore roundhouse, seeing the side of SP 4349.

Another shot through the windows, this time seeing the rear of SP 4349 and the side of Penny 6200.

A shot of the Bayshore engine facility and the greater town on the left.

A young remote engineer gets ready to take our subway train out for a run.

The Subway train scoots along while the truck awaits a clear signal to leave.

Cars for the SVL’s Pathfinder wait for their next group of passengers to eagerly board in Nowheres.

Gamers & Thrones is our newest industry on the layout and busy at work 24/7 (hence the bright lights).

Well that is all for now, keep an eye on our events page for the next virtual open house and hopefully our summer in person open house. If you subscribe to our YouTube you should get notified of all our live streams.

Thanks for joining us!