San Rafael Parish Hall Run 2007
We have been very blessed, this was our 5th year running at San Rafael Parish. In conjunction with the Knights of Columbus who held their annual ice cream social the same weekend, church members and the public where treated to the sights and sounds of model railroading while eating ice cream and donuts. What a deal that is!!
Setup took place this year early Friday morning and the doors opened for the show on Saturday and Sunday. It was a great time. All the hard work paid off. We setup a huge HO layout and a large O scale layout again but in a different configuration this time.
We ran with our Digitrax DCC system. Many trains where running on both mainlines and this year we had more than ever a nice variety of passenger trains. Yes, we had a few derailments and one crash. You can see pictures of that below.
Treat yourself to the adventure and look at the photo's taken at the event below. They are arranged by alphabetical order of members. If you have some and want them added, please let him know.
Clicking on picture will bring up a larger version of it. Enjoy ...
This index will take you to any group of pictures, or you can just scroll down ...
For the last 5 years, San Rafael Parish and Msgr. Dennis Mikulanis, the Pastor there, and along with the Knights of Columbus, have let us come and setup trains in August. This is a wonderful event for both us and the congregation and the general public too. The Knights have an ice cream social on Saturday and coffee and donuts on Sunday. Does it get any better than that?
We wanted to do something to show our appreciation for letting us setup and run there so we got a Berkshire, 2-8-4 brass locomotive and painted it. We then mounted the engine to a show stand with a clear plexiglass cover. A brass plaque was mounted on the case thanking Msgr. Mikulanis and naming him Chief Engineer. Below are some pictures of the night we presented Msgr. Mikulanis with the loco.
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 Oh look, it even works! |
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| Ok, I promised you a crash, here it is and what a beauty it was. As you can see, this crash not only derailed the train but took out control tower and everything around it. No loss of life ... the crew in the tower knew it was the Wine Train Special and had heard rumors they the engineer runs a long straw from his cab back to one of the wine cars. The tower crew fled the scene way before the train got there. Smart thinking! I would have taken more but the conductor chased me away from the scene. | ||
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