Another new blog

I can't cover the construction of my next model railway on this blog so I've started a new one specifically about small model railway layouts for model railway exhibitions.

Its called Small Model Railways I hope you check it out.

A Challenge worth taking?

At the Granite City Train show over the weekend I was challenged to re-create Wingetts recycling in 2-Rail O scale by a 2 Rail modeller there.
I have to admit to being sorely tempted by the idea. I like O scale. I like the size and the feel of the stock. They have a mass that HO scale models just don't have.
Whether I would re-create Wingetts or not is another thing. I wouldn't want to do something exactly the same. But a the idea of a small layout in O scale holds a great deal of fascination for me.
We'll see. I have to build something new for the Easter edition of the Granite City train show anyway.

What a day!

Well we did it!

We managed to go to the Granite City Train show, exhibit and return home all in the grip of a major winter storm.

We left home just before 7am, hoping that would give us plenty of time to get to the show and set up. We needn't have worried. It was still early in the storm and the wind was keeping the road clear of snow in the exposed areas. Though there were deep patches of snow where the road was sheltered by trees and buildings. We managed to make it to the exhibition hall in about 45 minutes only about 10 minutes longer than usual. Though when we got there I discovered that I had forgotten to bring the tripod that supports the fiddle yard. So I ended up building what can only be described as a Jenga tower of freight car boxes under the fiddle yard to give it some support. Apart from that, set up was a breeze and the layout operated very well indeed, which is the norm as regular readers of this blog will know.

Attendance at the show was lower than other years, not surprisingly, and a few other traders and exhibitors did not make the trip. But a lot of the regular usual faces were there and we got to meet and joke with several old friends again.

Another regular occurrence when attending this show is my appearance on AM 1240 W-JON, local radio, being interviewed by local personality Bob Hughes, talking about the layout I have bought along. I do my best to present a positive image of the hobby. I'm getting quite the veteran on local radio now!

With attendance being low due to the weather many exhibitors started to pack up early. An hour early though is way to early in my books and I kept on running trains until about 15 minutes before the close. Normally I would run right up to the end but as there was nary a soul about, it seemed an OK thing to do and we were out of the Hall heading for home 5 minutes after the doors had closed.

I'm glad I went, the show is always enjoyable and I send out a huge vote of thanks to Ed Olsen and all involved with the running of the show. Thanks for a great time and I'll see you all on April 30th 2011, and if you readers know what's good for you, you'll be there too.

With our farewells said we headed home. Once again the roads weren't too much trouble, (unlike those in we are hearing about in Southern Minnesota) and we got home in good time. Then began the hard work of digging our driveway clear of 6-8" of snow so that we could get the car into the garage.

this could be fun...

It's the wonderful Granite City Train Show tomorrow. I wouldn't miss it for the world.

It's just that lining up to the west of the state is a very large snowstorm that could dump up to a foot of snow on the Saint Cloud/Princeton corridor by the end of Saturday. I hope that there won't be too much snow about in the morning when we drive there and that the snow ploughs have the job under control when the show is done. It will be quite the adventure I'm sure.

Once more unto the breach, dear friends

Once more, we head out to an exhibition.

This Saturday I was planning to take Gonou, my T scale layout to the Granite City Train show in St. Cloud, MN but when I got the layout out for a test run this week the controller had developed a mysterious fault. I don't have time to order a replacement controller. So Wingetts Recycling will be heading over there instead.

The Granite City Train Show is at the National Guard Armory in St. Cloud, MN on Saturday December 11th from 9am to 3pm