The missus and I just got back from the joint Missouri Pacific/Frisco convention in Joplin, MO this weekend. Besides learning a few interesting things about the Mop (another road I 'fanned along with Frisco, Katy and KCS), I sat in on some interesting talks. One, by Joseph Duckworth, was on operations on his HO scale Bagnell Branch (featured in Model Railroader). Another was on the railroads of Joplin ( KCS, Frisco, Katy, MP and Santa Fe served this southwestern Missouri community back in the day). And for this Frisco fan, news on the ongoing work on Frisco 2-8-2 1352 to restore it to service. It's currently in an engine shed in Taylorville, IL, and is currently the main project of the American Steam Railroad, an organization in Ohio. Sold off some of my N scale rolling stock, and turned around & picked up two P2K Frisco covered hoppers at my favorite price (cheap), and got my first laser-cut wood kit as a door prize (I'll refrain from mentioning the manufacturer, since he isn't one of our advertisers, but I'd recommend his products any day). It was fun to sit & chat with other model railroaders, as well as folks who used to work for both MP and Frisco.
I have a bit of Mopac ephemera from it's line through southern colorado. They used to move a lot of sugar beets around from silos to sugar mills back in the day. You're going all HO now it sounds like. Even if the maker isn't a vendor I'd be curious to know what brand and model the station is. Have you already assembled it?
It's OK to mention a manufacturer. And better yet, to show us photos when you start assembling the kit.
It's an HO scale fertilizer mixing plant offered by Blair Line of Carthage, MO. BTW, Dale Rush of Blair Line had an open house for convention-goers, and he contributed a couple of his kits as door prizes. The town of Carthage is but a few miles from Joplin, plus it's the home of Missouri & North Arkansas RR's locomotive facilities (a real junkshop in RailAmerica days). No, I didn't get up there for that tour, sorry....... There was also a gentleman by the name of Kent Hurley who demonstrated his Alfria 3D printer, plus some of the buildings he made with said printer (a brick bank building, the Cassville, MO depot, a Frisco sectionhouse, and a slaughterhouse for a pig farm. He had the printer making HO scale 55-gallon barrels when he started his talk. A decent printer runs for 1500 dollars, and something akin to what Shapeways uses for their 3D-printed kits start at 9 grand, so startup is not necessarily cheap, but the possibilities are virtually unlimited.
This thread shows one of the reasons I like smaller Conventions. Examples Historical/Technical Society, NMRA Division, and other smaller Convention types. Now don't get me wrong, I also like the NMRA National Conventions and some of the N-Scale National Conventions (the ones NOT affiliated with a certain large N-Scale Organization). But for my money the smaller conventions are where it's at. Have worked at the NMRA National Convention 2005 at Cincinnati, the 2008 N-Scale Convention, here in Louisville (NO comment), and back when NTRAK had divisions, we had several Conventions around here for the Great Lakes Region. If you were at or even remember our GLR Conventions, you've been into N-Scale for awhile! One of the better N-Scale gatherings, I've been to is: The N-Scale Weekend put on every year (or so) up in Columbus OH. One scale and a great group of people. With smaller Convention, it seems that you meet more modelers that have the same interests as yourself. You will have better tours because you don't have to rushed through a location (RR yards, industries, layouts etc.) so the next bus load can arrive. Have seen a lot more on small tours and been able to ask a lot more detailed question. At the GLR Convention in Evansville IN about 5 of us went to Newburgh and got a FULL tour of the Yankeetown Dock railway. They even took us up the line in a set of their SD-38's, brought a couple coal hoppers down and showed how they were rotary dumped. Answered ALL our questions, they were very welcoming and accommodating. Took us EVERYWHERE on their Railroad. Like I said all this was done for 5 guys! At the same GLR N-Scale Convention a large group went out to Rick Rideout's (Rix Products) L & N layout. VERY impressed. This is where I got introduced to OPERATIONS. We spent 4-5 hours there, and I have been a fan of Operations ever since. So for me, give me a smaller Convention any day. Tours, layouts, room sales and familiar PEOPLE make the Convention.
Unfortunately, the one thing lacking was a layout tour, and even though there is/was a model railroad club in Joplin (they do have a nice sho in November at Schifferedecker Park each year), apparently nobody was contacted. Oh well, a minor inconvenience. On a positive note, slides from the collection of the late Richard Napper were shown both Friday and Saturday evenings, and it was great to see some of the handiwork of an old friend gone way too soon. Plus, I kicked in some money to the contribution jar set out by both the Frisco group and the fellas working on Frisco 1352 (my wife won a hat as a door prize from these people- it coveres up my grey, thinning hair quite nicely
I need to keep my eyes and ears open better.I would have liked to have went to that and it is in my backyard so to speak.I live 25 miles west of Joplin.Glad ya had a good time.
