Antique Gas and Steam Engine Museum Show " June 2007"
Poway Station was invited to setup their modular HO train layout at this years Spring Harvest Fair at the Vista Antique Gas and Steam Engine Museum. We (club members) started our setup on Friday early in the morning and by mid afternoon we had trains running.
The actual fair event ran from June 16th and 17th (Sat. Sun) and then again the following weekend on the 23rd and 24th. Club members where delighted to have a show back to back so we didn't have to go through the long process of setup and tear down twice.
While we ran trains for the public on both Saturdays and Sundays, the museum was open and every kind of tractor, gas, steam, diesel, large and small where on exhibit and running. Some gave rides, some showed their power by sawing wood or crushing rocks. Others even generated electricity or washed clothes.
Below are some pictures of the event from setup to actual running plus pictures of many of the museum items working away.
Click on any image below to get a larger picture.
Setup on Friday:
Thanks to many of the members showing up to help with the heavy task of setting up, things went well and we had trains running in a few hours.
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Saturday, up and running:
Saturday morning we started at 8 am to get things running. The public was invited in at 9am. Many people of every age came through and enjoyed the beautiful work of the quilts hanging on the walls and the operations of the HO layout we had setup.
On Saturday a camera crew came by from Channel 8 local news and run a piece on the club and model railroading. Once you have gone through this procedure, you'll never look at news or filming again the same way. After some time setting up, George and DJ, club members representing our older members and younger members, where ready to go. Cue cards where written up, boom mikes in place, 1,2 3, action ...
George and DJ did their piece, then you hear, CUT ... ok says the director, you move here, you tilt your head that way, look into the camera, ready, action! George looks like "What?" I just did this ... Directory yells, "Camera's rolling" ... Did I just hear George mumble something under his breathe?
Cut .... after the 2nd take. More instructions and 1,2 ,3 camera ACTION! This went on over and over again. Take 287 did I hear, well no, that is an exaggeration but it sure seemed like it to us. We all got to do a part, Ron Walker had the headphones on working with the sound, Brian Beck and Ron Tindall held cue cards for George and DJ. I didn't get the names of the boom mic gentleman or the director, sorry guys.
So, here are some pictures of our 15 minutes of fame on the Silver Screen, well more like an hour on some video tape... but it was fun!
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 " Take 1" |
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 Dooble Bug passing through
the mountain regions |
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Switching Layout
Part of the fun of model railroading is the sharing of the hobby, especially to youngsters. Ron Tindall built a 2' x 8' fold up module that is reminiscent of John Allen's Time Saver layout. Though a different design, the idea is the same, switch cars in either the least amount of moves or time. Ron has constructed many nicely detailed buildings to help bring this industrial area to life including backdrops.
This layout is very fast to setup, connects power to just two plug in wires, and will run either DC or DCC without any modifications to the layout. Ron is currently developing a Way Freight billing system using Rail OPs to make up switching manifests for engineers and conductors to use.
This layout is also a big hit at shows when we set it up because we allow the public to run trains on it and switch cars around. Nothing brightens the eyes of the little ones than to grab a throttle and under the direction and help from a Poway Station Engineer, they move cars around from in bound tracks to industries and take cars from industries and spot them on the out bound tracks. They learn what real railroading is all about and how much fun model railroading can be even in such a small space as 2 x 8.
These where taken before the crowds gathered, in a few minutes you couldn't see the layout anymore with all the kids there.
Here are some shots of the layout.
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Pictures of the Museum in Action
The Antique Gas & Steam Engine Museum has a Spring and Fall Harvest Festival in which the public can come in and see hundreds and hundreds of antique gas and steam engines working away. Some are stationary, some are washing clothes, others are crushing ore or running a saw mill but they are still chugging away happily thanks to all the hard work these folks do to keep them running.
Check their website for dates and times of these and other events. http://www.agsem.com/
Here are some pictures of the activities going on there.
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