Chantilly Preview

Hey John,
I'll be relying on you. In my state,I won't be there Mike

 

Hi, all,

I'm bushed, it's 2am and I'm finally getting to sleep.

I posted pictures from my first day at Chantilly in:

http://community.webshots.com/user/atsf_arizona_at_chantilly

Basically, today was checkin and orientation. Checked out proper operation of the Super Trainmaster, my other Santa Fe engines that I brought, and associated reefer train on the Hotel Lobby 24x7 layout. That's right, they've set up a decent sized NTrak layout in the hotel lobby for 24x7 operation:



And right now, there are people downstairs running.

As you'll see in the album above, there is a beautiful 2-module 'PipeStone Pass' by Marc Sisk:



And I'm told that the 500+ module big NTrak layout that all of us are going to run on tomorrow has modules everywhere of this quality.
When I run tomorrow, it's estimated that my 200 module loop will take about 1 hour run.

I also in the album included some N Scale Collector's Convention photos - it's a great place to see very special, beautiful N scale trains for sale, not just MTs, but brass, special one-time runs, and also go to the Swap-a-rama N scale train shopping bonanza.

Got to chat briefly today with Jim Hinds, Kirk Reddie, Chuck 'Feather River Trains' Cicaccio, and many others.

Check out the train shots of Dewey Jones III's trains - the photos, while good, cannot show how really good his trains looked in person.



The vendors have not been open yet, that will happen on Friday and the weekend.

Hope the photos help, and tomorrow will be a big day. I'll be posting photos of the BIG LAYOUT. That should be something to see and photograph and run on. (smile)

[ 06. August 2004, 13:20: Message edited by: atsf_arizona ]

 

if i didnt have to wait until the bank opens to leave.... !!!! .... wow.... this is gonna be GREAT!!!

 

Corrected my Community Webshots URL in the post above, changed the "_in_" to the correct "_at_". It's 9am EDT Friday and I'm headed off to breakfast and then the BIG Layout. (smile)

 

John:

Thanks for the excellent report of your "adventures at Chantilly".

 

Some other things I should mention:

Today, Fri Aug 6, is Media Day. I'm told that one of the major network stations is due to come in about noon and film a spot on 'The Biggest Model Train Layout Ever'.

And also, today, children from the local Fairfax, VA hospital, some with serious life-threatening diseases, will be here and will be given the chance to run a train on the Big Layout.

The Northern Virginia NTrak folks are doing a super job on what you can imagine to be a humongous project - from a organizational, community, and publicity standpoint, so far it's going very well. All of our hats are off to them.

 

Thanks Guys,

Cool to hear about it
and see what it's like.

Loco1999

[ 06. August 2004, 13:49: Message edited by: loco1999 ]

 

Wow... I'm really beginning to regret I didn't go to this event. I'm off all this week and my original plans are not going as planned (go figure). I stayed home when everything would have been perfect to go there. I have family in Maryland that could have put me up for a few nights and I'd only have to travel to the show about 1 hr each way from their home in Burtonsville. GRRRRR..

Where's next years show going to be held at and has a date been set?

 

Hi, all,

Fri Aug 6 Vol 1 and 2 are up now at:

http://community.webshots.com/user/atsf_arizona_at_chantilly

Here's some teasers. Due to time lack and wanting to get this up quickly for you all, I have not resized the photos (they average 150K each) nor have I not taken down the names of each of the talented individuals who did the modules, I trust they will forgive me..... the work here is extremely creative:









The modules from Wig-Wag Trains:



And a final shot from a T-Trak module. See the Community Webshot albums to see how *cool* these little layout are! Small size gives up nothing in terms of realism. The module this shot was taken on traveled all the way from Japan to be here:



More to come.

I'm going back to convention center now. The overall Red Line Route may be running and I'll get in line to complete a circuit on the analog portion of the layout, about 200 modules worth, estimated time to complete one loop = 1 hour.

[ 06. August 2004, 16:32: Message edited by: atsf_arizona ]

 

Hi, all, it's another late night, it's 115am and quite a day.

I spent the 2nd part of the afternoon running on the layout. Quite a lot
of concentration required on a layout this big, I'm basically running the train and
don't have time to watch the scenery or modules go by.

3d part of the evening, I took a lot of module pictures. Here's a sampler below,
and you can see more at:

http://community.webshots.com/user/atsf_arizona_at_chantilly

Look in the Volumes 3 and 4 for 'Fri Aug 6 PM':

A contest entry:



A beautiful little structure on the module:



A beautiful model of B&O's Mt. Royal Station:



And this is a shot looking down-river on Northern Virginia NTrak-er Matt Schaefer's New River modules:




OK, I have some wheels to clean and some sleep to catch before tomorrow.

On Saturday, the layout opens to the public in addition to all the SHOPPING
with the vendors.

Most importantly: The manufacturers Atlas, Digitrax, Deluxe Innovations will be at their
booth, so we'll find out what they may have to say. (smile)

Till then, good night.

 

Thanks so much for the photos! Please keep 'em coming!!!

 

Mid-day Saturday report, words only, pictures tonight (I've got to get on the road to the Layout Tours).

- - - - - -

1) Atlas:

The Shay is due in the Fall 2004, they had a running pre-production plastic (non-brass) version running, slow smooth creep, the outboard mechanism is beautiful to watch.

To quell the Code 55 rumors, there were two pre-production test pieces of two crossings, 22.5 degree and 45 degree, if I remember right. Photos tonight. No delivery date or pricing yet, and there won't be till Atlas gets closer to production.

The Atlas Forum is supposed to be back up in a couple of weeks.

- - - - - -

2) Intermountain:

Future N F3 models and road names will be announced only after the current run (the one with the SP Black Widow, etc) reaches the shops.

The N UP style caboose that was announced at Seattle NMRA is really good looking.

- - - - - -

3) Kato:

Had pre-production samples of the Calif Zephyr train and the CB&Q F3s. Looks good!

Some small announcements to come in the early Fall regarding useful modern structures.

- - - - - -

4) Deluxe Innovations:

The Articulated Maxi-stack intermodal is coming in the Fall.

- - - -

Of course there many other announcements from these manufacturers, but these are the tidbits of N scale news that I picked up.

OK, folks, the photos won't be up till evening at the earliest, so just hang on until then.

By tonight, I'll have some shots of the Layout Tours too.

Take care.

 

Hey John,
I was looking foward to being there this weekend .Meeting you & all the others .FlyingMike & I were going to fly in.But I'm lucky to have you doing these reports,it's like being there.Thanks sooo much.Mike

 

Hi, I'll put up my teaser photos now, then later tonight I'll upload the whole bunch that I shot to the Community Webshots. Enjoy!

It will probably be after midnight EDT before I fully update the Community Webshots, but you guys deserve what I can quickly post right now:

Shot of Kato Calif Zephyr Dome Observation:



Shot of N Atlas Shay that was running:



Shot of N Intermountain UP Caboose that was announced couple of weeks ago in Seattle:



Layout tour - Pliny Holt's N scale Oakland Mole:



and the final one until later tonight - Dick Patton's On3 D&RGW:



More to come tonight. Glad to share with you. I've felt the same way in the past when others have done the same.

 

John, we're all very grateful for your excellent reporting, It must be quite a show. If it had been a week later, I'd have made it as I'm heading North starting next Wednesday.

But, the N Scale Collector's manufacturers' breakfast is normally an occasion for big announcements. It would appear that this year everyone shot off all their fireworks in the first few months of the year, leaving nothing left for making noise in the second half.

Wasn't there anything that hadn't been already announced???

 

That California Zephyr dome-obs looks FANTASTIC!!