Bob fixes Stan's, er, Emily's Christmas train set

Shakopee Yard Master

We've covered up the basement poker table with a sheet of plywood now and unboxed the model train set we bought over at a garage sale across the street this summer for $20. They said it had only been used once, so Stan watched as the price went down, then pounced on Saturday afternoon.

(If anyone asks you, the train set is for Stan's granddaughter. She's never actually asked for one, but she'll love it. It's got five or six cars, trees and buildings, little people and cows, and a working crossing.)

Goo. Begone.

We were stumped early on, however, long before we got any of the scenery placed.  After we got the track sections spread out and clicked together and the bridge built, we put the locomotive on the tracks, turned the transformer to full-speed-ahead and . . . nothing. Tried everything in the troubleshooting section of the instructions. Nothing. Looked like our 20 bucks was going to be wasted.
We called in a consultant. Bob Suel has been running a model rail yard in his Shakopee home for at least 35 years. Stan worked with Bob before Stan retired. After work today, Bob arrived on the troubled scene carrying a spare locomotive and a man-sized bottle of Goo-Be-Gone. He took a Samuel Adams out of the fridge and went right to work.
Sure enough, before the beer was gone, he had Stan's balky locomotive humming around the figure-eight track, over the bridge and back under again. You really do need an expert for these kinds of things.
When we get Emily's train all set up for Christmas, we'll be sure to post a notice here.