(Click to enlarge)

Mike Corgan and his wife Sally hosted the chapter's monthly meeting recently at their home. After the customary business portion of the meeting, atendees huddled in Mike's basement for some training.  Chapter member Mike De Punté led several sessions on basic soldering techniques and plaster casting that proved to be helpful for members who hadn't had a lot of experience in these areas yet.

(Click to enlarge)

Mike and Sally are in the midst of building their home layout, with the help of the chapter's module manager, Zeke Sampson.  Zeke used a computer and design software to plan the layout around existing obstacles in Mike's basement, such as columns and support beams. Although far from complete, they have thus far allowed construction to proceed while being able to run trains (a very important concept in this author's eyes!).  Areas of structure, elevation and grade are carefully planned for as evidenced by the photos above.
 

(Click to enlarge)

A view down the length of the left-hand leg of the layout appears above.
 

(Click to enlarge)

Chapter members Mike De  Punté (left) and Karl Hilse study a few points of finer detail that Sally has already put in place on the far end of the first leg.

(Click to enlarge)

Mike is proud to run some of this classic steam locomotives around the new layout.  Several of his lorries come from a set he has owned since childhood, having spent many of his formative years in Germany.  The second image above is of Mike's very unusual model of a German compressed air experimental locomotive.  During World War II, German engineers attempted to utilize submarine technology in the railroad industry.  Mike remembers seeing firsthand the prototype of this rare loco.