NTS&B Forth Piedmont Pilgrimage Open House And Bigville Shaping Up

My forth Piedmont Pilgrimage turned out to be just as enjoyable as my other ones.  I had 4 full time helpers (Roger & Sherry, Bob P, and Les) , and a couple club members came over.  All told, I had 50 people including ourselves, which is smaller than last year, but still a good steady crowd.  We had a couple repeats from last year.  The interesting thing this year was that there were 2 new O Gauge layouts on the tour and both owners said that they were inspired by my layout go build ones of their own.

Of course the week before, I worked my tail off trying to get last minute finishing touches in, mainly on Bigville City Hall and lighting.   Completed adding traffic lights, street lights, ground lights, and building lights, as well as running main control and local control buttons.  Here are a couple pictures of Bigville and City Hall.  City hall has had an air conditioning unit fail, so Traffic is backed up while they use a crane to install a new unit.  The flag lighted on the front of City Hall is courtesy of Jenn.

NTS&B City Hall Complete

When planning Bigville, I wanted a fairly large City Hall building.  I decided to use the Kenner's Morotized Girder & Panel and Bridge & Turnpike set form the mid 1960's, that I had recieved as a boy. The panels are quite brittle, so it would not withstand grandchildren playing with the set,  so putting it on the layout was the perfect solution to display it.  I was short a few parts to make the building I wanted, but a friend in the train club had a few extra pieces from a set he had recently disposed of.    The building is lit internally using 2 individual circuits of LEDS, on always on, the other switched on.  The grounds lights are old computer bulbs, that were scrapped in the 1980's.  The flag at the top front of the building was a $ Tree gift from my daughter, that is wired in and alternates colors.

Original Box

Back View

Side View

Front View