Monday, July 15, 2013

NTS&B 2013 NMRA National Convention Open House

Made it through the National Model Railroad Association (NMRA) 2013 National convention.  Every one was very pleasant. and seemed to enjoy themselves as much as I did, and went much better than I anticipated.  Not sure I would do it again.  Was a lot of work for the small turnout on Sunday, and the short tour on Monday.

Sunday  was a walk-in open house.  Only had 19 people, which included Kathy & Me, 5 workers, 2 club members,  and 10 additional visitors (which was about what I expected).  Furthest traveled was a couple from Geneva, Switzerland.  Mostly we had a good play session. As usual, whenever we messed up, the visitors would show up.   After the tour, John L added some excitement with his (almost) high flying Rocket GG1.

Monday was an organized bus tour.   It arrived about 15 minutes early, which was even before the trains were running.   We had 32 people total, which included Kathy & me, 5 workers, and 25 visitors (the complete bus load).  Needless to say, it was 'slightly' crowded.  The tour stayed about an hours, which was 10 minutes longer than scheduled, but still left ahead of schedule.  Furthest traveled was from Australia, although I didn't get a chance to talk to them.  Here is a picture of the bus that pulled up outside the house on Monday.






Saturday, July 6, 2013

NTS&B Phase 4 Bigville under construction and staged for NMRA Convention

Construction of the city of Bigville has officially started.  Shown is the start of a Girder and Panel building from my set from the 1960's.  Construction is delayed until after lights have been installed which will be after the open house for the NMRA 2013 Atlanta convention.   Instead of progressing on the building, a construction scene was staged for the convention.

Girder and Pane set building started 

Staged construction area.  The cylinder will eventually be painted as a sky scraper

Construction crew is hard at work.  The crane is a Lionel and came with a 6828 flat car early 1960's 


More staging

Overall layout picture