It’s been a week since the Convention.  I’m pretty much caught up on all the work I put on hold in the week or two previous to it.  I guess it’s time for a wrap-up post.

After struggling with the floor plan we finally got everything to fit, on paper.  We went to the Silver Fox on Thursday before the show to mark the floor for the layouts and position a few tables.  The first thing I wanted to check was the number of tables the staff of the Silver Fox placed around the perimeter of the rink for vendors.  I was really surprised that they were able to fit two extra tables along the length of the room.  We soon discovered that my drawing was 20 feet too short.  We probably would not have had so much trouble getting things to fit on the paper plan if we had known.  Thankfully it wasn’t the other way and we discovered the room was 20 feet short!  Whew!

Narragansett Bay Railway and Navigation Co. - Rhode Island (Photo: Allan Bishop)

Thursday night was a relatively sleepless one wondering what problems Friday would bring.  I arrived at the Silver Fox before noon and there were already a few people waiting to set up.  The room slowly started to take shape and by 7:00 almost everyone was set up.  At 9:00 we closed the place down.  The room looked quite impressive, to say the lest.

We moved on to the Quality Inn where they had a spread of food and “drinks”  in their large courtyard area.  From the comments I’ve heard I’m pretty sure everyone had a great time, especially the folks that won gift certificates to local restaurants.

Friday night was another relatively sleepless one wondering if the public show would be successful.  Would there be enough interest?  After all the publicity (full front page article in the Journal Pioneer, PSA announcements, radio interview, and an on-location spot with the local CBC television weather guy) folks should certainly know about it.

During the show (photo: Jean Cormier)

It was hard to tell what the public attendance was like through the day on Saturday.  We’re used to the Truro and Moncton venues and what the crowds look like there, but this venue was bigger.  It didn’t look like there were many people around, especially in the morning.  The afternoon crowd was a little better.  Vendors gave mixed reports of how well the day was going.

Ron Day - Fast Tracks Clinic (photo: Derwin Cole)

The clinic rooms were a worry for me because they were only curtained off areas.  I hoped the noise from one room would not interfere with what was happening in the other room.  The rooms were a little noisy, but I think they worked okay.  I didn’t hear many complaints about them, anyway

We were a little rushed during the banquet.  The Silver Fox had a dance scheduled for 9:30 and I was hoping we’d be done by then.  We were done a little after 9:00, but like I said we felt rushed to finish things up.  Part of the problem was that we did such a good job of soliciting prizes that after the contest prizes were doled out we still had tons of stuff to give away.  I was drawing names for at least 30 minutes!  In the end almost everyone got something.

The Quality Inn was nice enough to provide us with a suite that we could use as a hospitality room so things moved there after the banquet.  Another late evening, but I slept a whole lot better than the previous two nights!  I knew there was nothing to worry about for Sunday.

Brian Chappell, Derwin Cole, and I opened our layout rooms for the tours on Sunday.  We all had lots of visitors.  About half the registered delegates participated in the tours.  The tours ended about 2:00 and I, for one, enjoyed a well deserved rest for the remainder of the day.

The final tally was 81 delegates, 105 for the banquet, and over 500 for the public show!  Those pretty much double my budgeted numbers!  The dollar figures aren’t final, but I know we’ll be making some sizable donations to our charities and perhaps even add something to the MFMR coffers to boot!

I want to thank everyone who participated for making Island Rails 2009 a grand success!  Without you it wouldn’t have been nearly as much fun!

See you at Tracks and Tides 2010 in Saint John (the next MFMR Convention) on May 20 – 23, 2010!

Scott

CNR Vans – Prototype Details

Hosted by James Whatley

This clinic covers several variants of the generic CNR wood caboose (van) and includes numerous in-service prototype photos from the 1970s and 1980s, several of which were taken in Moncton.  The detailed exterior and interior construction of the CNR van, including those built from former boxcars, is discussed with photos and drawings.  A few steel vans are also included.  This clinic will be of interest to anyone with a general interest in the subject and especially those wishing to learn more about the prototype for the True Line Trains model.

Scott

The frequency has slowed down but we are still receiving donations for contest prizes.  Since the last update we have recieved the following items:

• Micro Engineering – HO scale bridge, N scale section house, and an On30 turnout
• Broadway Limited Imports – $50 gift certificate
• Frenchman River Model Works – 2 34′ steam launch and 1 45′ harbor tug kit
• Don’s HO – Walthers trains set (public show door prize, NCE PowerCab (registration draw) and calendars for the delegate bags
• Walthers – 1 2009 Reference and 1 HO 50′ auto box car
• Jon Huneault – $50 gift certificate from Don’s HO

As usual we would like to thank everyone for their generosity!

Scott

Model railroading is not a very public activity in Summerside.  Not many people are aware that there is an active model railroading community in the area.  So, in an effort to increase awareness of the hobby and get some free advertising for Island Rails, we approached one of the local malls about setting up a layout for the day.

We thought we would be able to find a space in the mall common area where we could set up a small layout early in the morning and operate it for most of the day.  However, the mall manager offered us a vacant store where we could set it up and leave it set up for a few days!  What could be better than that!

So, this past Thurday evening we loaded up two trucks with our UMG modules and gear and set up our “small” layout.  It wasn’t so small and we pretty much filled the 14′ x 44′ store, but it was small by UMG setup standards (where we sometimes have to squeeze a layout into 30′ x 40′ spaces )

We were open to the public on Friday evening from 6 – 9 and pretty much all day Saturday from 10am to 6pm.  I couldn’t believe that there were people waiting at the door on Friday evening when we arrived!  There seemed to be a steady stream of visitors all evening.  The three hours went by so fast!

Saturday morning wasn’t much different with people waiting for us to open up.  There always seemed to be a few people looking at the layout and chatting until about 4:30.  The whole mall seemed like a ghost town.  A trip outside showed us why.  It was almost a double digit (temperature) day with nice warm sunshine.  Who’d want to shop on the first REAL day of spring!

With all the chatting I only managed to get a few pictures…

We used the new UMG Operator Cards for the first time.  These are the size of business cards and have the group’s name (UMG) and web address on one side and we “certify” new operators on the other side.  There is a post about these cards on the UMG web site.  Derwin is signing up a new operator, but the deal isn’t done until hands shake!

Some kids were very nervous about running a train while some couldn’t wait to get their hands on the throttle.  However, as nervous or excited as they were it seemed the younger they were the slower they went.  The older kids wanted to make the trains go FAST!  So fast in fact that we weren’t sure the rail stops at the ends of the earth would stop them!  But the little guys, and girls!, just wanted to see the train move and were hesitant to make them go too fast.  We didn’t sign up many adults as UMG engineers.  They seemed happy to just talk and watch.

Although we were not swamped with people, we did have a steady stream of  folks stopping by.  There always seemed to be 2 or 3 groups wandering through.  Here Brian is explaining something about model railroading.  Or is he explaining why we call orselves the Half Nuts Model Railroaders?

On the subject of “Lost & Found”… What, we weren’t talking about lost and found?  Oh well then… Ahem. On the subject of “Lost and Found” we had this interesting item dropped off to us by a passerby.  As soon as Derwin saw it he thought he had a new throttle!  We tried telling him it wouldn’t work and wasn’t a real telephone throttle, but he still tried to run trains with it.

I mentioned it got quiet later in the day on Saturday.  Well, it was really quiet from about 4:30 until we packed up at 6:00.  Then it got really noisy as the deconstruction began.  I took the opportunity  to take a picture of the whole set up before it was gone.  Here Brian and Curtis wander around hoping someone drops by.

We had lots of advertising for Island Rails posted and gave out lots of flyers for people to take home.  If the promotion was any indication the public portion of the Convention will be a success!

That’s it for now!

Scott

we have one of each already, but we will need two for the clinic rooms.  If anyone has either and is willing to lend it to us for the day I’d really appreciate it.

Thanks!

Scott

A little box arrived the other day from Micro Trains.  I couldn’t believe they could fit 15 freight cars in such a small box!

Some other arrivals since my last update:

• Printed signs and building interiors from Signs Galore (no web site)
• Woodland Scenics – scenery starter pack (also the site for DPM Kits)
• A-Line – container decals
• Blair Line – $10 coupons
• Lenz – 2 for 1 decoder coupon
• Kalmbach Publishing – stacks of model railroading promotional material
• Canadian Railway modeler – subscription
• Evan’s Designs – flashing LED’s and brick printing software
• Aztec – 20% off coupons

I haven’t been overwhelmed yet and I’m not running out of storage space.  I really hope I do!

Scott

David Gunn has offered to do a presentation on scratch building with wood on the show floor, so everyone can see, during the public show on Saturday.

For anyone not familiar with David’s work, he is a master!  He handcrafts everything from structures to freight cars.  His creations are not just beautiful to see from the outside, he even details the heck out of the interiors!

Here are a few photos of some of his work, taken during David’s open house as part of the 2007 Convention in Truro…

Pam’s Cafe (named for David’s wife)  is one of the most amazing scale structures I have ever seen.  From the outside it looks amazing, but when David removed the roof (which has plugs built in to connect interior lighting) I was completely in awe!

There are plates, coffee cups, menus, utensils, and everything else you’d expect to find in a cafe.  The cook is busy preparing orders with bacon and eggs on the grill!  The washroom even has toilet paper (thankfully)!

This engine house is another thing of beauty.  Unfortunately the photos I took of the interior of the machine shop didn’t turn out very well.  Every machine you would expect to find in a very well equipped shop is there, complete with all the belts overhead to drive each one.

I mentioned details.  The office of the engine house is no exception.  There are plans and drawings on the desk, photos on the walls, books and calendars.  Very impressive indeed!

David’s freight cars are no less detailed, even if you can’t see them all.  This reefer is a very good example.  It feature fully functional doors both inside and out (the roof is removable so you can see the interior doors).  However, the thing that got me was when David told me it was an internal braced car.  I thought yeah, right, no one can see them, and said as much.  He pulled out the photos taken during construction to prove it!  HA!

Well, not like there are huge truckloads of stuff coming in, but 3 out of 5 mornings this week have started off with a courier knocking on the door. I’ll have to start inviting him for coffee soon if it keeps up.  HA!

This week we’ve received prize donations from:

Nickle Belt Rails (no web site available)
Weaver Models
Tomar Industries

Hopefully the donations will pick up in the coming weeks.

Scott

We have had a few questions about the distance from the Quality Inn to the Silver Fox.  I was downtown the other day and decided to see just how far it was.  The drive in moderate traffic took about 2 minutes.  The overall distance was about 1.3 km.  So it is not inconceivable that someone might decide to walk from the hotel to the Convention if the weather is nice.  Oh how I hope the weather is nice!

Scott