Well, I'm no Trainboard Staff member, nor do I play one on TV, but we were having a discussion about the attendance of National Train Day over in Railfanning discussions. National Train Day is tomorrow May 7th. I think its important that we as Trainboarders spread the word to each other. So I hope those of you in the US will be attending a NTD event and reminding your non-rail fan friends about it. You can look for events in your area on this site. National Train Day 2010 I'm going to be meeting fellow Trainboarders Fitz and SteamDonkey74 at Portland's events. Admins, I know this is technically off topic, but I hope you'll let it stay. (unless of course you're already planning something "pan-board." In which case I'm sorry I jumped the gun.)
I'll be attending NTD late in the day in Portland. The 4449 will be there. It doesn't get much better than that.
If I get a chance, I'll be railfanning, and doing so with a heavy heart (see the Union Pacific forum for the thread on the death of Lynn Nystrom).
I'll be at the Grand Junction (CO) depot. There's an open house sponsored by Friends of the Depot, who are trying to save and restore the old Rio Grande depot. I hope to run into BravoGJT, but I don't know what he looks like. I'll be there when the morning Zephyr arrives, probably taking video.
Hi Ralph, I hope to catch the morning Zephyr tomorrow. I am an ugly guy with a mustache who will be hanging out with my 10 year old son. I'll wear my D&RGW hat to help set me apart from the others. I hope to see you there! Ben
Modeling: I will be cutting in my first section of CTC on my layout and updating Trainboard (and my blog). Real Trains: Will be taking the family to the Vines Garden Railroad in Loganville, GA. Jamie
A day late, but I work so.... today, the 8th, Think I'll go pay a visit to a local-ish hobby shop I have not yet patronized.... they have a lot of N, or so I have heard. Also, think I'll take a Stogie, go down by the tracks in Emeryville, and do a little railfanning of some Amtrak flybys and (if I am lucky!) some big UP equip from the Oakland yard? Happy train day!
National Train Day? I'm at my friend's National Train Day Open House. I was hoping to have my newly aquired LGB Tender for my Stainz running but that didn't happen. So I'm running my 3 Burlington Northern Diesels, Aristocraft/Bachmann/USA Trains rolling stock with my dual BN Cabeese at the end. No I have no photo's because I forgot to grab my camera as usual. Southern Pacific Meets Burlington Northern. It's awesome. And the neighborhood Kids love it. The Esspee and the Jolly Green Giant lives once more
Is this event on any calenders??? National Train Day, I like it. Well it's going to be a day late and a dollar short, but I'm going to Strasburg Railroad next week end while I'm there I will be visiting the Pennsylvania railroad museum. I'll bring back some pictures.
Well, not on any Calenders I know of, except my outlook calender, but I believe this is the 3rd year they've done it. It's sponsored by Amtrak and there are some major events across the US. Including in Philly and New York (I see you're in South Jersey)
For National Train Day I took my wife and daughters to the Amtrak depot. We walked through a brand spanking new BNSF ES44DC, some Amtrak coaches, took pictures of a pair of fine Alcos the Minnesota Commercial brought and got pictures of 4 Twin Cities & Western GP's (1 was brought on display, the other three came by to get serviced) and a third MNNR Alco was switching in the yard next door. A few local clubs brought layouts for inside. A good time was had by all.
I made it to Portland's National Train Day event. It was packed. I was unable to find John, and I apparently missed Fitz, too. I did see Mr. SP's son there, as well as my friend who works for the Portland and Western. My kids were, of course, excited to see the 4449, but they were most taken with this little exhibit off to the side of two speeders. Why? Well, my kids are seven, and hands on is the name of the game, and the guy who was in charge of the exhibit let kids climb into and pretend to "drive" the speeders. Lucy wants to get one, now. My daughter took some digital photos. I think I left my cable at work, so I can't download them to my computer, yet. I took some instant photos (yes, like the old Polaroids) and will scan some of those on Monday.
Came home from training today to find a box from woo woo woo on the table. Huge box for a bottle of paint and a couple sheets of decals. The GP39E is coming along just fine. Decals and details to go. Will probably have this one done before I leave. Guess I'll get another for the road!
As Adam said, there were so many people at Portland, we all missed each other. I got there early and got a couple of decent photos of 4449 and the other motive power with the station tower in the background. Spent about six hours in the PNWC-NRHS booth inside the station. We didn't sell much but I think we distributed a lot of good will. Sorry I missed you, Adam, and YoHo. I have a lot of other pix but it has been a long day.
Rule one about meeting people from the internet that you've never met before. Verify a real name. Because asking everyone in a blue vest if they post on "trainboard" is way too embarrassing to do. I'm sorry I missed you guys, I got there about 2pm. My wife left around 3:30 I waited for 4449 to leave. They kept saying 15 minutes, 15 minutes, but Omaha apparently had other ideas, because we had to wait 3.5 hours while a Freight, River traffic and the 6:15 southbound cascades went through. And then as it was passing me, the camera jammed. I got some great pics, but not all the pics I wanted. I thought it was funny after all my complaining about BNSF or UP sending an engine, it turned out BNSF did send one.
I was impressed that BNSF sent such a nice, new loco. I wasn't really enthused that the sleeper and caboose were closed off before 3 PM. It would have been nice to tour the insides of each. I realize people have schedules, but the event was supposed to go to 4, so to shut key exhibits down early is, in my opinion, a violation of the basic guidelines for running a public event, but maybe there is a good explanation.
There was "another" event happening at the station, and we were told to get everything packed up and out of there asap after, or before, the four PM cutoff. I never did find out what the other happening was. Sounds like it was a busy day for Union Station. You should have seen the actual Amtrak and Cascade passengers when they arrived today. They had to be blown away with the crowds as they tried to navigate through the usually pretty quiet terminal. I have some crowd pictures that I will post once I recover. :tb-biggrin:
