This past weekend, the Thousand Lakes region (TLR) of the NMRA held its annual
convention in Bloomington, Minnesota and attracted folks from all over the
upper Midwest and Canada for some many interesting clinics and more than two
dozen layout open houses. Brothers Ken Zieska and Dave Hamilton made sure
S-Scale was well-represented in the planning. Ken helped organize the clinics
which included Monster Model Works, Clever Brothers and several excellent
sessions on realistic scenery, weathering, vital tools for the modeler and
others. Dave hosted an operating session on his huge CB&Q HO layout, but his
visitors also could see his really cool S-Scale switching layout. The Mighty Q
was also on display as I hosted nearly 60 visitors to my Chicago and
Illinois-region CB&Q layout. For those of you who attended the picnic and
layout tour before the start of the Duluth National Convention in 2010, there
have been lots of additions in scenery and
trackage. The transfer yard below the Chicago skyline now is full functional
with freight house, Bordens creamery, Marigold Foods Cold Storage,
freighthouse, scale house, TOFC ramp and two team tracks. The 3-set Burlington
bi-level commuter cars behind an E-8 roll out from under the massive Old
Federal Post Office for suburban stops west to Aurora, with the inbound and
outbound California Zephyrs rolling past the transfer yard which represents one
of 500 (!) such yards in Chicago in the '40s-'50s. The farmland scene on the
banks of the Spoon River spanned by the Pratt truss, covered bridge and 2-arch
concrete bridge is all finished. And the village of Wataga on the reverse side
of the viewblock is now virtually complete, just awaiting Rt 66 weathering and
telephone wires.
The comments overheard from the largely HO visitors was that they couldn't
believe so much was available in S in buildings, rolling stock and motive
power. While the skyline is pretty unique in this area, they were asking
questions about several of our better known building manufacturers which
comprise many of my structures, such as Pine Canyon, Monster Model Works, Bar
Mills, Imagine That Laser Art, Downtown Deco and DSL. They also enjoyed the
custom-made structures including the Old Federal Post Office and Lift Bridge
from Custom Model Railroad, historic Stone Avenue station by Gerry Evans and
LaGrange Post Office by Monroe Models. River Raisin's many locomotives such as
the Pioneer Zephyr and 0-6-0 worked flawlessly and drew accolades. We also had
some families with their kids who were tugging at the sleeves to get their
parents to buy some S Scale for them!
All in all, it's been a great month here for visitors with another 50+ guys who
were in town for the Sn3 Symposium in late-April. I know it's been mentioned
before, but there's nothing like layout tours to focus one's attention, build
structures and scenery like crazy and probably most important - get the layout
cleaned off and running trains! I hadn't turned track power on since early
November and I held my breath when I powered up with a week to go before the
Sn3-ers arrived, but everything went well and the winter climate hadn't
magically closed or opened any gaps or kinks. Was a hectic month and am
gratified it's over but now have to fight the letdown and keep on an easier
schedule to complete areas or projects.
Now that his heavy workload getting ready for the TLR is over, Brother Zieska
swears that all the bickering and tail-chasing on this list has caused him to
go over to the Dark Side of lobster-claw couplers and cookie-cutter wheelsets.
We hope to do a laying-on of hands or at least a séance to rid him of the
Aliens, so there's at least some hope you'll hear wry and cynical observations
from him again in the not-too-distant future.
That's all from the Northland where the layouts are all above average and the
ice was off Crystal Bay just two weeks ago! Our first chance of snow begins
again in three weeks, so we're all trying to enjoy summer while it lasts.
Steve (Doyle)
Twin Cities
