Off the Rails

    At last, the long awaited registration forms for the 2014 Golden Spike Limited is out!  I hope you can join me this 18-22nd of June 2014 in Salt Lake City (SLC).  I am really looking forward to seeing the Central Pacific Jupiter and Union Pacific 119 replicas up close and personal again.  We need members to attend early for this tour, so I hope we make the quota.  If you’ve never seen these locomotives in person, you will be astounded by the beauty and elegance, the explosive colors and intricate airbrushed artwork on the tender and domes!  Yes, who would’ve thought they used airbrushes on the 1:1 scale!  The registration form will be popping up a lot, but you can always find the link from the Region’s website - http://www.rmr-nmra.org/.

    Well, if you plan to go to the convention, don’t let all this time 'til then go to waste - our organization has still got “model” in the title, and not everything need be “Ready-to-Run” out of the box.  Last year we had fewer Merit Awards handed out than in previous years, despite a lot of attention to modeling and special modeling nights.  I’m hoping there are still a few members left in the region that enjoy showing their models in the Region’s Annual Model Contest, something which our Region used to be famous for.  I like to participate in the contest to push my skills into the next level, striving to get better so I can claim those elusive Merit Awards (something like that Quattro commercial, I’m afraid).  So spend a little time with a model project this year for the contest, whether you are already an expert and master modeler or a struggling beginner - it is a great way to share your work with your peers, test yourself, and probably end up with a nicer model than one you hurry to complete just to get that empty space filled.

    Here is a hot tip:  when you wrap your Jimmy Dean breakfast sausage & egg biscuit, place the cheese side of the sausage down during the 01:30 min defrost, then flip over with the cheese on top of the patty during the 00:55 sec high power phase so the cheese melts onto the sausage. Your day will be a sunny one!

    So I hope you can make tracks to SLC - there will be a lot of new members to meet, new clinics, some spectacular layouts to see I’ve only heard of, participate in new operating sessions, and, they have some dynamite speakers lined up.  I’m thinking this might be my chance to ride the California Zephyr from Denver to SLC to see the Rockies from an especially new view!  It costs a little for a Roomette, but then the Dining Car is free!  Besides, I don’t go to SLC a lot.  If you want to travel with me, I’ll leave early to get there in time for the opening festivities. It’s possible I could see some sectional track laying, some remote throttle control of locomotives … in Provo … wait, that’s REAL (not model) railroading, fer Gawd’s Sake!