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For the past couple of years, I had avoided going to the ECLSTS show to represent my products. My good friend Peter Stremic had taken on this responsibility and has done a terrific job. But Peter has often beaten me up about making the trip and doing the show in person with his help. Well, this was the year for that and my wife Lyn and I decided to make the trip to York. Getting there was a terrible experience with the airlines, but it all turned out to be a great trip. First of all, we finally met Peter for the first time in five years of a phone and e-mail relationship. Peter proved to be everything that I envisioned him to be and more. Once we arrived and settled in we had some time to prepare for the show. For about a month, Peter had worked on development of all our printed materials, photos, brochures and such. We also received from one of my customers and SEPGRS member, Richard Florence, a great article he wrote regarding my product. He and his wife Paula actually found my product line at the ECLSTS about three years prior to the last show and Peter was able to sell them the product. Well, both Rich and Paula are wonderful people and Rich even did a seminar at the last show. It was a good time for new people to be introduced to the Mainline Roadbed System. We took advantage of this show to unveil our new motorized turntable. This has been a big success for us, but I must let everyone know that there was a bigger one on the horizon. At the show many people visited with us and we made some new friends. We first met Lewis Polk at the Queen Mary show about six years ago. We had become recognizable and at all the shows after that we would say high and maybe enjoy some small talk. But this show it was to be different. Lewis visited our booth and while examining the roadbed, he mentioned having to rebuild his layout at his headquarters in Irvington, New Jersey. He asked some questions and left only to come back with a couple of his staff to show them the product and ask their opinion. His staff was unanimous my product’s suitability for their layout reconstruction — by the way, they use this layout as a test track for all there new products. They also needed a layout where they could run trains continuously for hours at a time to see how they might operate on other peoples layouts. As the show was coming to a close, Lewis Polk said to me he would be in touch and that he would like to purchase some of my product to redo his layout. We all said our good-byes and off we went. Except for the excitement and anticipation to actually have my product in the Aristo-Craft layout, the trip home was again a disaster with the airlines. The main thing is we did arrive home safe and sound—although about 14 hours behind schedule. | 
| A few days went by when I received an e-mail from Lewis Polk along with a picture of the layout that was in place in NJ. After looking at what was there, I became bold and asked if I could possibly redesign the layout. His reply was “since we plan on using your product go ahead and give a shot.” So I did and sent him a drawing of my proposed layout. Everyone involved liked what I had done. Lewis proceeded to order the product needed to complete the project but informed me he was leaving on a trip and wouldn’t be returning until the first of May. He asked if it would be possible to supervise the installation when he returned. As you might imagine, this was a dream and opportunity come true for me. I flew out of Lake Havasu City on the first of May, arriving in Newark, NJ about 7:30 p.m. to be greeted by Lewis himself. He drove me to the hotel; we had diner and talked about the plans of the new layout—I think we were both excited to get it started the next morning. | 
| Day One Bright and early the next morning, Lewis picked me up at the hotel and off we went to the Aristo-Craft Headquarters. Upon arrival, I was able to tour the facility with Lewis as my guide. I was impressed, like a kid in a candy store. Lots of trains! I was introduced to his friendly staff and some of whom I have spoken with on the phone. It’s nice to be able to put a face with a voice and Lewis’ staff are the most friendly and outgoing people that I’ve ever met. I’m an early riser and like to get started early but Lewis’s crew didn’t arrive till 9:00. We talked a bit then they started to carry out the entire product I had shipped to them. About 11:00 a.m. we started laying out the roadbed. We worked until about 5:00 p.m. and cleaned up ready for the next day. Day one was a good day we were able to get the first loop down and almost complete. We did not do any leveling but had all the PVC pipe driven and we were ready to level. | 
| Day Two Again Lewis had picked me up early and we arrived before the staff. By the way, Lewis is a very busy man, so I would take a chair outside and drink my coffee on the entranceway into the building waiting for the guys to get there. Once they arrived, we started to lay out the second loop. This went much faster then the first day since the guys knew what they were doing after working and learning the tasks the first day. We had the second loop in and PVC pipe driven in about three hours. We started leveling and backfilling with the topsoil Lewis had purchased. By the end of day two we were almost ready to lay track. | 
| Day Three Once the crew arrived, we had more topsoil to move into place as well as to use two existing ponds which needed to be somehow fit into the layout. After digging and getting them set ,we installed about 20’ of trestle and completed all the topsoil. Lewis had realized that we were going to need some more soil. We proceeded to check the levelness of the layout and make any small corrections that were needed. We were ready for track, but decided that by the time we could get the track out to the layout and open the boxes it would be time for the guys to go home, so we decided to wait till the following morning. | 
| Day Four You could feel everyone was getting excited to see some trains run, myself included. Within about fours hours we installed 250’ of stainless steel track and had it fastened in place. All that was needed now was to bring out some power and some trains and drive the golden spike. As you can guess, we ran trains the rest of the day. | 
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