Convention Chair UPDATE

GSL 2014 UPDATE

It's hard to believe it is nearly here!  The start of the Golden Spike Limited 2014 Convention, hosted by the Northern Utah Division of the Rocky Mountain Region is just around the corner.

While I wish we could take credit, Union Pacific's #4014 is on it's way to Wyoming and is scheduled to arrive unsteamed into Salt Lake City for a day on May 3rd.  We hope it will return back to SLC in running order in May 2019, the 150th anniversary of the driving of the Golden Spike.

Promontory Reenactment

Just a few short weeks after #4014 passes by, the Golden Spike Limited RMR Convention kicks off with a Promontory Tour of its own with a special reenactment of the driving of the Golden Spike.  The cost is $50 and includes bus fare, entrance to the Promontory site, lunch, ATK Launch Systems and a exclusive bus-only tour of Lee Nicholas' Utah Colorado Western.  Followed by an after dinner Kick-Off Keynote by Charlie Getz, NMRA President. This event will last ALL-DAY Thursday with expected departure at 8:30a and a return by 5:00p. 

Op Sessions:

The remaining pre-convention op sessions are nearly full.  Gary Petersen's Salt Lake Southern and Lee Nicholas' Utah Colorado Western ops sessions are full.  Others are nearly full and we added Bob Gerald's N-Scale layout to the ops schedule to help take up some of the overflow. We expect to be full by the end of this month.

Convention cars:

We have only 11 Salt-Air box cars remaining and just 15 of the SL&U gondolas.  We had one run of each...so if you want to know you have one, you can still get one.  We won't have extras of these cars if we sell out!!  (http://gsl2014.org/convention-cars-in-stock/) 

UP Training Tour:

We have about 8 spots remaining on this exclusive UP Training Facility Tour.  Get an inside peak at Union Pacific's state of the art Locomotive and Signal training facility just 20-minutes from the hotel.  I toured this site several years ago with their locomotive simulators (for training their engineers) and model track work with real signal electronics for their signal maintainers. For a snippet of cool data of Union Pacific's footprint in Utah, visit:

http://www.up.com/cs/groups/public/documents/up_pdf_nativedocs/pdf_utah_usguide.pdf

Layout Tours:

Of course, we have plenty of layout tours in place and others being finalized.  You'll be amazed at the level of detail and quality of layouts in Salt Lake City.  Maybe one of our best kept secrets. See some of the ones we have pics of at http://gsl2014.org/layout-tours/ 

Saturday Night Banquet:

We are so excited to have Dr. Bruce and Janet Chubb as our banquet speakers.  We still have plenty of room to "fill the hall" as we hear from them and their presentation on, "Both Sides of the Sunset Valley Story."

Company Store:

The Rocky Mountain Region will have the company store on site to "gear up" with all your favorite RMR brands.  Jack Sousa has his boxes ready and we have a nice room to put them in.

    Special note from Jack - "If anybody has items they would like to sell     or get rid of, let me know and we'll put them on the table for sale for a     slight fee".

Model Contest:

The room will be ready for those amazingly detailed, soon-to-be award-winning models. We even found Bill a bigger room!  Bill Tulley and team is gearing up for tough job to select the winners.  The room is of course is secure and manned. 

We'll keep you updated as we get closer with these 'Convention Updates'. Don't forget to register today at www.gsl2014.org.  The hotel has several more rooms available in our block and don't forget to mention the 'Golden Spike Limited' to receive your convention discount on your room.  It includes a complimentary hot breakfast, and WiFi.

We'll see you soon,

Alan Anderson

2014 GSL2014.org Convention Chair & team