New Braunfels Model Railroad Jamboree

["Ira Schneider" <ira_schneider@iname.com>]

This past weekend was the New Braunfels Model Railroad Jamboree.

We had an interesting time setting up.  The show coordinator allocated us a 34' x 30' space
right up against the back of another vendor's tables.  (That would have worked for our layout.)
However, the building coordinator insisted that we leave a 4' aisle for fire safety.  They
finally worked it out, and we set up a 34' x 27' layout (i.e. we removed one module from the
shorter side).  I also redesigned the layout on the fly to put our scenery (including Ed's
bridge) in a more visible location on the layout.  We ended up with a 6 x 4 module rectangular
layout.

We got most of the layout set up on Friday night.  The only thing we didn't finish was the
scenery and sky boards.  We even ran engines in both directions on all four tracks,
including the yard, on Friday.

There was very little unused floor space in the New Braunfels Civic Center.  The show
occupied the entire floor of the main room and the stage.  There were many vendor
tables (mostly HO and N gauge) and several layouts.

After I was worried about low participation for this event, we had more people than we needed
at set up (not that I am complaining - every one had work to do) and a lot of people running
trains on Saturday and Sunday.  Anyone who came was able to get ample track time,
usually with a minimum wait.

Most of the time our trains ran smoothly.  We were using Bill's Lionel Legacy system,
and I don't believe we had to reset it at all during the weekend.  Bill brought a range extender
antenna and no one reported loss of signal across the layout.  Occasionally, an operator 
pressed the wrong button and sent some one else's train careening into the Plexiglass.

We had several new trains running on the layout, including a Lionel John Bull passenger set
and a K-Line Preamble passenger set.  Hopefully, I captured them in the pictures.

On Sunday, the power monitor panel failed.  First, two of the voltmeters stopped registering
the correct voltage, then the power supply which powers the meters apparently burned out.
(I took the power monitor home to see what I can do to repair it.)

The attendance at the show appeared sparse.  However, Lorraine sold $198 worth of raffle
tickets, so there must have been more people attending the show than I perceived.  (The
winner of the raffle claimed his set after the show.)

Please be patient waiting for pictures from the show.  I filled up my 4 GB memory card with
pictures and videos, and it will take me some time to wade through all of them and put them
into a reasonable shape for public viewing.  I also received some pictures from Mike, which
will be in the photo album when I complete it.  If anyone else has some pictures they want
to share, please send them to me (preferably in a .zip file).  If you took any videos and want
them included in the photo album, please edit them, upload them to youtube.com, and
send me the links.

In my opinion, this was another successful show for us.


Ira