Convention coming up!

Well I have been cramming to get a model ready for the  up and coming NMRA Lone Star Region convention being held in Houston Texas from June 6th through 10th.  As with every year, I wait until the last minute to get it ready for judging. I will say however that it is coming along well. Just have some finishing touches I am working on to take it to the next level. I have been inspired by Laurie McLean MMR from Australia regarding his work with automation (thanks Laurie your work is incredible) and will try a couple of things he has done on my scene as well as one I dont think has been done before. Anyway if you get a chance check out his youtube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/scoopmmr

Well back to the workbench and hope to see you in Houston!... here is the link for the convention....

http://sanjac.leoslair.com/LSR/

Back from the convention

Many thanks to the folks in Lubbock for a very successful convention.
The layout tours were wonderful, clinics, food and fun for all...

I gave a set of clinics on Scratch building and learned far more than I brought to the table. At one point in the evening for drinks and social hour, I was surrounded by no less than 6 Master Model Railroaders. I am not quite sure but I believe we are up to over 37 MMR's in the Lone star Region.

With that said, and learning from the very best in the hobby, I fared pretty good this year in the contest room,

1 First place On Line Structures
1 First place Off Line Structures
1 Model was voted Most Popular by the convention attendees & finally,

1 Model won Best of Show...

 

I look forward to Houston in 2012!

The LSR Alamo Rails convention was a blast!

Well I am back from the LSR convention held by the folks in San Antonio. What a blast it was! Many thanks to the crew from SAMRA for a great time and very well run convention. I spent many hours in the contest room, going to clinics and visiting some really cool sites in San Antonio. One of the days was spent at the Wimberly, Blanco, and Southern live steam railroad. My first trip to such an event and I am totally hooked on it. This railroad was off the charts in quality, here are a few pictures of the locomotives there....

The detail on these locomotives was amazing.

Disney's Lilly Belle

Prepping for the run.

Blowing down after a day of running.

A wonderful day and convention from beginning to end. I faired really well in the contest room as well, stay tuned for the next posting from my workbench for the models I built for the contest this year.

Lone Star Region Convention

Sorry I have not been posting a lot of late, I have been really hitting the workbench attempting to have some models ready for the up and coming Lone Star Region Convention. It is being held in San Antonio the first week of June. I encourage any NMRA members to head over, it promises to be quite a convention this year.
Here is the link and hope to see you there....

Latest News

Over the last few months I have been crunching to prepare for the Lone Star Region NMRA convention. I had planned on having a few models placed into the contest. So with only hours remaining I completed "Houligans Alley" to be entered into the display category and readied the HoN3 scratch built flat cars for the freight car category.

So over the last week, I have been totally emerced into railroads, railroads, and more railroads. The Convention this year (co hosted by my Division 3 and Forth Worth's Division 8) held in the Irving area this year was a great success, the banquet hall was packed and the tours, various rooms and over 90 clinics were a buzz for over 5 days. So many thanks to all involved, Jerry, Duane, Paul, Larry, Bob, so many to name made this possible.

Since this was my first contest entries, needless to say I was nervous and this was only magnified when I saw the competition. Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and some from Kansas contain some of the best modelers I have ever seen. Regardless I threw caution to the wind and entered my models.

The first were the two HoN3 flat cars which both fared well, they scored 88 points and both "merited" for my MMR. As a bonus, both placed honorable mentions. The freight car category was quite impressive and best of class were On30 scratch built models built by an MMR here locally. Outstanding craftsmanship was witnessed on all of the models submitted.

My third model, the display "Houligans Alley" faired much better, I was totally shocked when I was told that the display not only Merited, placed third against the Pro's but was awarded Novice Best of Show. It really made my year; I spent 3 months on that model and it absolutely worth every bit of time.

I look forward to placing new models in the 2010 convention being held in San Antonio. I have a few ideas of what I want to do and I have much better insight on what is required for the competition and I should (hopefully) do well, so expect scratch built, various scales and some unique approachs.

The bar has been set now, so stay tuned...