Southern Utah

SOUTHERN UTAH - DIVISION 20

Division 20 has been pretty active this reporting period.

It was decided that the division and Color Country Model Railroad Club would combine the monthly meetings and this has seemed to work out well. One other change we made was the time of day.  Since most of the members are retired, we moved the meeting to mid-day on Tuesdays and our attendance has gone from an average of 5-6 to 14-15.  Who knew it could be so simple?

In February and April, we visited two of our members’ layouts – one HO indoors and one G outdoors.

In March we had a fun time with a locomotive pulling contest.  We had N, HO, and O (3 rail) scale.  The three scales did not compete against each other.  We had them tethered to a can of weights off the edge of a table. Weight was increased until the owner/operator determined his locomotive could make no more forward progress.  The one question that came to mind during the contest was “How many people does it take to get a Lionel engine moving?”  This photo should give you a clue. 

All the locomotives used this month were stock with only DCC conversion allowed.  Everyone had a great time so we are planning to have a “modified” contest at some date down the road. 

Our local T-Trak club is a 100% NMRA member club and has been very active.  Following is a history and some photos of the club prepared by Scott Jesienouski, Club President.

Color Country T-Trak Club

The Color Country T-Trak Club was formed in 2009 with the purpose of having an easy to build layout that we could use at meetings and train shows. We had a bend track layout, but the drawback of these modules is they were too big for our vehicles and it took a long time to get the layout setup. We started searching for an easy to transport and setup layout that we could take down and put up in a hurry because we wanted to see running trains at club meetings. In searching the Internet, we found the T-Trak.org website.  It was the answer we were looking for, small modules that could be setup on a standard table and just snap the modules together with the track.

To be on the safe side, we ordered the first group of modules from the T-Trak.org website. Our initial setup was a small 5’ x 2.5 foot layout.  It was just the wood and the track glued on. But it was so quick to setup! We could carry the entire setup in the back seat of a small car and we were up and running in five minutes! The modules are great because they are small and easy to come up with ideas to build them.

 We quickly started adding scenes to the modules and soon we grew to two tables!  One of the main things we wanted to do with the layout was show it to the public so we started looking for events that would welcome us..  The first event we were invited to was the “What Women Want Expo.”  It turned out we were a great thing for kids and dads who were there. 

Our next show was at the St. George Library.  We learned a lot doing these early shows. For example, we found out that tables sometimes don’t come in the same height, so now we bring our own tables. We then started going to trains shows throughout Utah and the T-trak modules were nice because the entire layout would fit in my car. Even when the layout expanded, it was compact and easy to transport in the bed of my truck.  We have been going to shows in Salt Lake, Lehi and Ogden for the past five years now.

As we gained experience, we decided that we wanted to host our own local show and invite other clubs to visit southern Utah, so this past year we held our first ever train show in Hurricane.  Several groups came from Northern Utah and Nevada. It was well attended and encouraged us to continue to grow the show and make it an annual event. Our second annual Red Rock Rail Model Train Show will be held on May 9th and 10th at the Hurricane Community Center. We have been enjoying offering the adults and kids of Southern Utah a train show to call their own. We gained new club members from this exposure and welcome anyone interested in joining us to please give us a call. 

That's all for this edition.  Hope to see many of you at the convention in SLC.

As always, keep your hand on the throttle and your eye on the rail.

Doug Whetstone

Division 20 Superintendent