RMR Post Convention Report

The 2015 RMR Convention “Smoke and Steam in 2015” was held at the DTC Sheraton Hotel in Greenwood Village, Colorado on June 3rd thru 7th.  The convention was attended by 119 people with 2 people taking the bus tour only for a total of 121 attendees.  The attendees were made up of 4 non-rails, 16 family members, and 101 NMRA members of which 8 made early registrations.  We had no daily passes and approximately 100 people from the public attended the train show with about 80 being children.  43 people participated in the bus tour on Thursday.  The banquet was attended by 68 people and there were 40 attendees at the Hobo Breakfast on Sunday morning.

The convention began on Wednesday with operating sessions in the afternoon and evening, and again on Thursday evening.  48 people participated in the operating sessions and everyone had a good time.   On Thursday we had a bus tour to Greeley to view the Greeley Model RR Museum and next we went to Cheyenne where we toured the Cheyenne Depot Museum,   Harry Brunk’s Layout, and the UP Steam Shops. Every comment I heard was complimentary of how smoothly it went and the venues were very good.  We arranged to have the bus stop at Longmont on the way back to drop off participants in John Parker’s operating session that evening.

On Friday we began with clinics in the morning and evening and then had layout tours in the afternoon.  On Saturday we began with clinics in the morning and layout tours in the afternoon.  10 different clinics, offered with many representing the “Smoke and Steam’ theme and all were presented twice, so individuals could see all if they wished.  The comments that I and others heard were we offered a good variety of interesting topics.  

Saturday evening began with a social hour from 6:00 PM to 7:00 PM followed by the banquet at 7:00 PM.  We were honored to have Duane and Joanna Miller fromCaboose Hobbies as our guests.  The Millers have done much in the support of our hobby and the Rocky Mountain Region.  They assisted President Gary Myers in presenting Don Bailey with his Master Model Railroader Certificate - congratulations to Don! Our speaker was Ed Dickens, Jr. who is the manager of Heritage Operations, Steam Shops for the Union Pacific RR.  Ed spoke to us about the challenges of moving #4014 across the parking lot of the Los Angeles Fairgrounds and of the rebuilding of 844, 4014, and 3985.  Ed is a very entertaining and informative speaker and I heard many compliments about his presentation.

On Sunday morning we held the annual Hobo Breakfast and award presentation.  Roy Thompson also made a presentation of next year’s convention in Colorado Springs.

Gary Myers - RMR President, Duane Miller - Caboose Hobbies, and Bill Tulley - RMR Contest

Chair, presenting MMR certificate to Don Bailey.

Don Bailey - Master Model Railroader #554

Our banquet speaker Ed Dickens - Manager, Heritage Operations and Steam Shops for Union Pacific Railroad