Perspective from the other side of the table
The big show…
Read on, you might find it interesting….
Image copyright 2005 Tim Warris
From July 8th to the 10th, 2005, in Cincinnati, was the NMRA Train show and convention, our first time attending one of these as an exhibitor. Since there are plenty of sites out there with pictures and information about the show, I thought I would be a little different and touch on what it is like on “the other side of the table.”
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NMRA Train Show, July 8-10 2005
Its been a while since the last post, mainly because we were all working hard preparing for the NMRA Train Show, which is being held this year in Cincinnati.
I’m writing this post from the lobby of the Four Points Sheraton, which is next the the convention center where the convention and train show will be held this year.
This is the first convention I have attended, and the first NMRA train show as well, so it is all exciting.
Preparing for this has been quite an undertaking. We started building up stock about 6 weeks ago, while keeping up with orders, which was a bit of a challenge. The week prior to leaving was a blur of 14 hour days, but we managed to get it all together in time and found our way down here without any major problems. I decided to arrive a couple of days early to get a feel for the place. So far I am impressed, and we are looking forward to the train show that starts Friday morning. The hotel is crawling with model railroaders, which are all easily identifiable from their NMRA badges. I’m surprised how many “big name” people are here, seems to attract quite a notable crowd.
While we were in the thick of preparing for the show, with impeccable timing, my hard drive crashed on my main computer. Fortunately I back everything important up online every night, so nothing critical was lost, but I did lose the stuff I needed to post new pictures to the blog, so I will not be able to post any shots of the fun until I return.
Work is progressing on the addition of the dock for the car ferry
Since is it hot, stinking hot, here this week, I decided to hide in the basement for the afternoon and work some more on the dock addition. Don’t let anyone try to tell you that Canada is the Great White North, in the summer, with the humidity it gets unbearably hot where I live, which is usually when I get the most work done on the layout.
The dock that will accompany the car ferry slip is fairly big, about 6 feet long and four tracks wide. It will be used as a bit of a yard to store cars destined for the ferry and points beyond. There will also be the inbound and escape track for the line into the area, with two turnouts built right onto the dock.
I absolutely love dock scenes on layouts, and have always looked forward to adding another one to mine. This is a fairly ambitious scene, but there is a larger one planed for another part of the layout in the future.
Having a laser cutter I wanted to make the most of it for the grunt work of building a dock. The plan was to engrave the dock boards, spike holes and track outline for the entire dock surface. This worked ok, but I was unhappy with the results…
Image copyright 2005 Tim Warris
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