The Command 2000 system was specifically designed as a simplified system and is very limited in what it can or cannot accomplish. However, it is an ideal system for a small, home layout and is also ideal for our experimental use at the club.
We were invited, once again, to connect our layout to the Austin Group layout for Bryan Weidner’s Summer show on the 21st of August. This time we connected our red line directly to their red line and ran DCC equipped locomotives between both layouts. Now we were progressing, but we were also finding new problems. It seems that DCC requires absolutely clean track for faultless operation. This problem was taken care of with the use of a Bright Boy. The other big problems were erratic locomotive operation and a locomotive’s occasional complete loss of memory. After the train show, some further research in the user’s manual by Joe Cox of the Austin Group indicated these problems can be corrected by proper programming of the locomotives. The next time we hook up together should result in much smoother operations.
At this time, there are four SANTRAK members that own decoder equipped locomotives and two or three other members that are becoming very interested.
The train show in Temple, Texas has interested me ever since Marshall and I took a layout up there in 1993. This year, some of the members started talking about the show early enough for us to do some planning. As a result, SANTRAK (as a club) returned to Temple for the show on 17 & 18 September 1999. We were placed at the front entrance way and we really made an impression on everyone. Our crossbuck was copied from the Temple crossbucks that Marshall and I saw back in 1993, without blinking lights. The Temple members were quite impressed when they saw our version of the crossbuck with lights. We received many, many compliments on the overall appearance of out layout and everyone of our members that went up there had a very enjoyable time. The Temple Group even gave us a blue ribbon for the layout with the best scenery!
The AMRE train show on 2 October 1999 was the last local train show of the year. However, they did not invite us so we were able to relax for the rest of the year and work on our raffle layout for the Christmas season. This layout was originally constructed on a hollow core door by Carl Lawson and was donated to the club for the purpose of the raffle. Two or three members banded together to add track ballast, touch up the scenery, add a couple of buildings and give the edge of the layout a final coat of paint. Ticket sales were started the later part of November which was a little later than we had planned. However, due to the efforts of our two super salesmen, David Kellerman and Ron Bell, we did exceptionally well with this layout. The winner was the four year old son of a young couple here in San Antonio. The parents were present for the drawing and were nearly speechless when they realized they held the winning number.
Believe it or not, our club was able to survive all of the dire predictions of computer failures and power failures that were associated with the beginning of the year 2000. However, the Human Race, as a whole, never did quite agree on the question of whether this is the last year of the 20th century or the first year of the 21th century. Be that as it may, let us go on about our business of Model Railroading!
We started the year with a very modest layout at the SAMRA Jamboree on the first Saturday in February. Our layout was a simple “L” configuration and this was the last time we used the eight foot set-up yard originally designed by Marshall Long. Carl Lawson had previously purchased the module from Marshall, so he took it home for renovation immediately after this show. This move left us with Gary Rouse’s yard complex and the operations yard which had a long way to go before completion.