The 27th National Narrow Gauge Convention

Wednesday evening the convention started. I really wish that there had been two or three more days. With all of the photo's I took I missed out on taking pix of many interesting things. I have almost no photo's of the dealers' rooms, and I missed taking shots of alot of the beautiful modular layouts and models that were exhibited. Thankfully others who have displayed convention photo's on the net have filled in the gaps.

Some of my photo's have a personal slant, and I hope those of you who are members of the various On30 related Yahoo Groups will enjoy my 'Evening Vespers' section. Some of these photo's didn't come out as well as I had hoped. In some cases I improved them as much as I could using Paintshop Pro. I thought that although they aren't too good, they at least convey their subject to some extent and are better than nothing. And so, on to the photo's!

Wandering Through the Convention

These photo's were taken when we first entered the dealer's area. I wanted to take ALOT more photo's of all the wonderful folk who brought their fine products to the con, but I must have went into shell shock once exposed to all of the goodies. All I could do then was spend money!

Tom Yorke, artist extraordinaire

Tom gave a continuous clinic demonstrating his painting techniques

Darryl Huffman came from Alaska

Darryl built this beautiful model

I believe that the next three photo's are of Christopher Creighton's Gn15 microlayout

Unfortunately this is the only decent photo I got of the Sundance Central large scale modular layout

Dan Wolschon and myself roaming the Dealers' room

Clinics

I attended five clinics at the con out of the ten that I had wanted to sit in on. They were uniformly excellent.

Railcar Clinic

Allen Littlefield and company gave a great clinic on building and bashing On30 railcars

Allen Littlefield

Don Kralik

Les Davis

Dave Wingrove

Alan Carroll

Other Clinics

Bobber Gibbs and Lee Riley

Lee thanked all of us On30 modelers for our support of Bachmann products

Al Askerberg gave a great clinic on digital photography and editing

Don Culbertson made carving foam scenery look easy

And an Informal Module Meet

A group of On30 module builders met after Lee Riley spoke for an informal chat session

Contest Entries

Tom Staton's fantastic Gn15 Narragansett Railroad

Modular Layouts

There were many beautiful modulear layouts at the clinic. Here are some photo's of a few.

'Evening Vespers'

I believe that it was Allen Littlefield who coined the term 'Evening Vespers' for that time at the end of a meeting day, when the participants can sit back and relax, perhaps with an adult beverage or two. Here are some photo's of 'Evening Vespers' as held at the convention.

Keith Wiseman, Steve Fisher, Dan Wolschon and Chris Lane

Don Kralik

Dan Wolschon

Pat and Allen Littlefield

Dave Wingrove, John Weigel and my wife Nancy

Mike Yoakam and Dave Camisa

Alan Carroll, Don Kralik and Dave Wingrove (sitting)

Bobber and Karen Gibbs and me

That does it for my photo's from the convention. I was a bit dismayed when I got home and looked at the photos. I found that I had only photographed a fraction of what I had wanted to. I took virtually no photo's in the dealers' rooms and missed many contest entries and modular layouts. I also failed to take photo's of many of the friends I had either met at the con or known via the internet but met in person for the first time there. I can only plead to a state of shock at having so much fun and seeing so much.

My thanks must go out to all who made this such a great convention. To Martha and Matt Sharp, Gary Kohler, and the host of volunteers that made the convention run so smooth. To those who brought such beautiful contest entries and modular layouts for our viewing pleasure. To all who presented such excellent clinics to educate and edify us. And to all of those at the various narrow gauge railroads and attractions that we visited who were so helpful and friendly.

Well, that about does it. I hope that you enjoyed viewing my photo's and that they conveyed some of the enjoyment and fun that I had at the convention. Best of all was getting to meet so many fellow modelers that I have previously known only via digital communication via the internet. This was a great convention and I hope that I have a chance to attend another one.

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