Too many words, suffice it to say I helped solve some problems and give some solutions to a person who might have felt he "knew it all".
I will give one funny story.
So he is down on his layout, and under pressure during the open house for the National Garden Railroad Convention there in Phoenix.
He is barking orders by walki-talkie (ok radio) to his employee in a structure at one end of the railroad. It was not going well, turnouts were not getting thrown properly and he was getting upset.
I wandered over to the elevated "nook" in the structure where the employee was. First of all English was not his native language, and it was clear his boss intimidated him. He had a huge array of toggle switches, just numbered, not on a schematic of the layout or anything helpful.
Two things were immediately obvious, he was panicked but also his boss was releasing the push to talk button WAY before he was done giving the verbal command. And each command was in the format set turnout # to diverging/straight (I don't remember the exact words). This guy was sweating bullets and was way too afraid to backtalk his boss.
So, he was releasing the PTT button before the entire command and most importantly the direction and in many cases even the turnout number was transmitted. That combined with no way to relate the turnout number to where it was on the layout was a perfect cause for disaster. I did volunteer to try to explain the situation to his boss.
I went back down to the layout, and gently informed the "master" that he was letting go of the talk button before the entire command was delivered. I actually had to demonstrate it to him the next several times, and finally it got through, but not too many minutes later he was under pressure again, and it started happening again.
It would not have been so comical except it was a person that did indeed believe he knew it all.
The last image in my mind of my visit was him losing control of an AirWire loco as it headed full speed into a tunnel back into the garage... I did not have the heart to see what happened.
There were several other funny interactions where I actually did help, but after I was sort of dismissed as some goofy train guy who had no clue what he was talking about... anyway this was a funny time, and an impressive layout that never really performed to it's potential in my opinion. There was to be a massive expansion, but he got divorced and lost his businesses as I understand, so the home with the railroad was sold.
Greg