Re: New Braunfels Model Railroad Jamboree

[Steve Wise <swise@aoot.com>]

Good job all!

Sorry I missed it.


Steve.


Ira Schneider wrote:
> 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
>
>
> ------
> TTAT members reflector.
>