History Corner

Do You Remember When?

What were you doing twenty-five years ago?

Dick Hunter

Twenty-five years ago, the Rocky Mountain Region was up to it’s neck preparing for the Mountains of Fun In ’91 convention. This was the National Model Railroad Association’s annual convention and train show.

It all started in 1986. The NMRA Board of Trustees did not have a bid for the 1991 convention. They asked us to put it together. At the fall RMR board meeting, after much discussion, a vote was taken. It was 10 to 8 in favor of doing the convention. There were mixed feelings about doing this.

The initial planning committee was: George Sevier, Chairman; Dick Hunter, Vice Chairman (my wife wanted to know exactly which vices I was chairman of); Bill Johnson, Inside Activities Chairman; Bruce Burbank, Outside Activities Chairman; Norval Rose, Promotions Chairman; and Ken Gustafson, Administration Chairman. Shortly after getting started, Norval Rose and Ken Gustafson had to drop out due to work commitments. George and I took over those committee responsibilities.

In addition to the above, there were at least twenty others in key roles and we had over 100 people actually working at the convention.

Between the fall of 1986 and the spring of 1991, a lot of work went into planning and preparing for the convention. In the last year, many meetings were held and many hours were spent by the various committees to get ready.

Along with our preparation for the convention, the N-Scale folks were working on their own convention as we were doing simultaneous NMRA and N-Scale conventions. These were located one block apart in downtown Denver.

The convention had 1,623 primary registrants and 1,158 family members for a total of 2,781 attendees. We had 139 tour departures with 7,724 people on board, going to layouts, industries, etc. Bus tours went as far as Cheyenne, Leadville and Pueblo plus a trip to Winter Park on the Ski Train.

We had a large company store and the Denver HO Club hosted the silent auction for us.

I put together a Post Convention Tour which included riding the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, a freight special on the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad, and tours of the route of the Rio Grande Southern Railroad, Mesa Verde and Great Sand Dunes. We had three busses and drivers, 106 guests, and six guides for five days.

The convention and train show brought the RMR $58,000. The auction and company store another $3,000 and the post convention tour netted $9,000. Jim Haggard of Builders in Scale produced Rocky’s Mine, a special run kit, which brought us an additional $800. From all of this, the RMR donated $12,000 to pay off the NMRA Headquarters building loan. Most of the remaining profit is still in Region accounts and providing some interest to keep the Region operating.