There’s so much more to this hobby than just “building trains in your basement!” I was watching a show where the dad said, “Here, you take a selfie of me.” and the mom replied, “I don’t think you know what a selfie is.” This is one of those situations. Keith took a selfie of me with Geoff and the Stadler CEO Martin Ritter running an HO model of one of their trains on the OT&W modular layout.
We had a great Rocky Mountain Region Convention at the Stadler US facility in Salt Lake City. Alan, along with Bob, Kevin, Geoff and a few others, organized lots to do and see. One train ride, 9 clinics, 13 layout tours, an ops session, model contest, barbecue with the Stadler employees, mini train show with the Stadler Open House and Keynote by the Stadler CEO Martin Ritter. I entered a number of items in the contest (it was easy to bring
them) but it was Cameron who took the highest award in the NMRA judging points with his scratchbuilt boxcab locomotive! Great job! It was also the highest number of entries at one of our regional conventions since Covid. We had 36 local members attending/volunteering plus 11 NMRA members from out of town.
Last year at the Open House/Train Show we helped double what their Open House number was to get 800 people there. When they first started doing it they only had about 40! They wanted to double it again this year and I was a bit skeptical that we could get that many people but the total number was 1,660 this year! With Dale’s help and his Toyman TV YouTube channel, plus some additional marketing, we were able to achieve the goal. Next year they hope to double their building space and they want the train show to be even larger! I’m looking forward to that!
It was a crazy few days but a good crazy. Don’t forget, no regular meeting this month – we did enough to last several months…. But we will see you again in July, if not before. I want to thank everyone who came and helped at the convention/show as well as just showed up and that way we can enjoy the journey together!
Jim Wanlass, MMR #585
Superintendent
Northern Utah Division of the NMRA