2011 EventsBANTRAK will be taking part in many events in 2011.
February 5-6 2011 -
The
Great Scale Model Train Show, Maryland State Fairgrounds,
Timonium, Md.
Show Review
Great Scale Model Train Show - Timonium, Md.
February, 2011
Event Date: 02/05/2011
-
02/06/2011
Some good planning by our February show
coordinators allowed us to make last minute changes and still
get the layout set up in record time. There’s a lot to be said
for a simple oval. We were up and running by 5:00pm on Friday.
Friday and Saturday crowds were good with more children than I’m
used to seeing at the Scale Shows. Hope this is a good sign for
the future of model railroading.
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April 9-10, 2011 -
The
Great Scale Model Train Show, Maryland State Fairgrounds,
Timonium, Md.
Show Review
Great Scale Model Train Show - Timonium, Md.
April, 2011
Event Date: 04/09/2011
-
04/10/2011
Aprils’ Scale show is behind us. It was a
rousing success. Our combined layout with Northern Virginia
NTRAK gave us almost double the run on red line. I couldn’t be
happier with the new Digitrax Duplex radio system. We had a
total of three different radio frequencies on the combined
layout. Red line had its own, our blue and yellow had a second,
NVNtrak had a third controlling their yellow and blue lines. In
addition we had two frequencies available on our old simplex
system. There was no interference reported. As always, our
yellow and blue lines offered the choice between analog DC and
DCC. NVNtrak had the same choice going on their private lines.
Set up was just a little more complicated running multiple
systems. We look forward to doing it again.
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June 21-26, 2011 BANTRAK co-hosts
N-Scale Convention in Harrisburg/Hershey, Pa.
Click
HERE to view the BANTRAK layout track plan.
Show Review
N-Scale Convention - Hershey, Pa. June, 2011
Event Date: 06/21/2011
- 06/26/2011
We have officially entered the
summer train hiatus. The N Scale Enthusiast
Convention was a success. Layout set up on Tuesday
went smoothly. Test trains were running by 8:00pm.
Tom brought a new module depicting the ATSF Barstow
Diesel shop. Not Pennsy, we let him in anyway. Our
newly sceniced “Horseshoe Curve” also made its
debut. Members as well as conventioneers enjoyed
running the layout. There was at least one hotel
guest who became an N scale railroader. She
and her family purchased her first train. Paul
invited her to try it out on the layout. I believe
it ran for about an hour and a half. She is hooked.
John and Alan handled the contest
room. The tables were full with entries. Both spent
a lot of time coordinating the contest room and it
showed. Alan set up two days of clinics. He
certainly was able to please everyones interests.
Just about every clinic was filled to capacity with
standing room only. Tim coordinated the public show
door and swap-a-rama. Attendance was good but
not as high as expected for the public show so
volunteers from both clubs were not severely
overworked at the door.
Click here for pictures.
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August 27-28, 2011 - Bedford N Scale Weekend, Bedford, Pa.
Click
HERE to view the BANTRAK layout track plan.
Show Review
Bedford N Scale Weekend - Bedford, PA.
Aug 2011
Event Date: 08/27/2011
-
08/28/2011
This is a year of firsts, to say the least; we
had an earthquake that rattled us followed by a hurricane that
showed us the power of nature. And, I was the show coordinator
for the first time! Coincidence…I think so.
Before I give a summation of the show I want to
thank Mark for taking the weight off of me trying to create a
layout. I had all the pictures of the modules and felt a little
overwhelmed! Mark came through and I felt good knowing that the
modules that were going were going to be in the right spot.
I also want to thank Jack. As the trailer was
being unloaded I was having trouble figuring out exactly where
our layout lines were. Mike Philips didn’t tell me anything so
Jack found the diagram of the entire show and off we went. Jack
you were great and I learned a lot following your lead. I
apologize to the guys that brought the lift bridge in, back out
and back in again. It was a good decision to use the lift bridge
and not the BANTRAK bridge.
We had all the usual guys there minus a few.
Skip, Jacob, Bob Mohr and Denise, Jack, Mark, Martin, the Hyland
Clan of 3, Al D, Tom Hoover, Al Palewicz and Stephanie, Tim,
Ken, Bob Winterbottom, Dave and myself. If I left you out please
forgive me. I am having trouble with the memory, that’s my
excuse and I’m sticking to it.
Of course the layout was set up without issue,
oops, we had to turn the legs on the yard section around so the
pole was on the outside. Of course everyone got into their
groove and did what they do best. We were set up by 4:30, headed
out to check in at the Best Western after which we met up at
Hoss’s at 6 for another great dinner.
With full bellies and needing some beer, we
ended our evening poolside and shared our time there with Union
Civil War enactors who were in Bedford to celebrate the end of
the civil war. Dave headed to the pool; they all stopped talking
and looked at him. He assured them that he was born in Ohio and
was on their side! We wanted him to do a cannonball but that
didn’t happen. A few beers (translation-a lot of beer) and a box
of pretzels later we all called it a night.
Saturday morning there was a mad dash to the
breakfast bar. We were told that they tried to spare Dave by
eating as much of the bacon as they could and I was told that
Martin made a teepee of sausage with bacon on the side. It was
as expected, excellent.
Bob M., Denise M and Al D. decided to go to see
Horseshoe Curve and some other sights before returning to run.
The first runners of the day were ….your guess is as good as
mine because I snuck out to the Goodwill Store to get some kids
clothes at a great price! I do know that Arthur showed up to run
for a bit. Steve showed up to buy things and to say hello. I
don’t think there were many trouble spots except on the red
line. I was running great on the red until I came into the yard
and my train would stop. I would reach over for a little 0-5-0
help and the train would start before I could get to it. This
happened 4 times on the yard red line for me, in 4 different
spots, all in the yard. Everyone else was running great. After 4
times into the yard and the same issue happening, my train
pulled a reverse on me! That was the defining moment…I turned
around and looked at Dave. He was taking control of my train
with his tablet while sitting with the Hyland’s at their T-Trak
table and they were all having a good laugh! It was a good trick
to pull so a word of warning, if your train suddenly takes on a
life of its own, look at Dave first.
The Hylands set up their T-Track layout close to
our N-Track layout. They had it set up within an hour, up and
running. Thank you to the Hylands for their help with the
N-Track as well. It’s good to have you as new members!
As we were getting some snippets of the weather
back home we had some choices to make. Tim and Ken left early on
Saturday before the wind was to become an issue. The rest of us
were in touch with our families back home and knew that the
storm was worse than anticipated and that the electric was out
for most of the East coast area. It didn’t take much convincing
to tear down first thing Sunday morning and head home. Skip was
going to stop in Hagerstown for the night if the wind was still
whipping but I believe he was able to go straight home. Al and
Stephanie, I apologize for you not knowing about the early tear
down but no one has your cell phone numbers! That made me
chuckle a little because of our conversation about cell phones
and how you don’t want to have texting…it was just one of those
moments!
We tore down and were on the road in 2 hours
time. Thank you to everyone for really pitching in and making it
a smooth tear down. A special thank you to the Hyland Clan as
the boys really got a work out taking the heaviest things out to
the trailer. They stayed to run on Sunday so BANTRAK was
represented on Sunday.
If Bedford has a show next year I would like to
be the coordinator again if that suites the club.
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September 23-25, 2011 -
Oakland
B&O Railroad Station Museum, Oakland, Md
Show Review
As planned, BANTrak gathered at the Oakland Train Station
beginning shortly before noon on Friday, September 23. By 1
PM all modules were in the room and being placed in slightly
modified positions to better use the room, it's lighting
(dim) and present a unified railroading theme. There was
little standing around as everyone had something to do and
soon enough, the layout was operational in DC and DCC. Our
Ikea lighting scheme came into good use this weekend. Few
areas were not covered by them, but open doors to the
outside helped except for the evening show Friday night.
Doors opened to invited guests, mainly business, civil, and
political invitees including both our US Senators, at 6:30
PM, pausing for welcoming remarks and a presentation by
"John Garrett" depicting the early history of the B&O
Railroad in Western Maryland and his rise to the presidency
of that railroad. He also had much to say about the town of
Oakland and his efforts to improve life there. This was
moved outside due to large audience and lack of rain. Rain
returned during the event but didn't dampen the presentation
outside nor later, ours, inside. BANTrak operations resumed
after the presentation closing around 9 PM or so.
While I didn't take extensive notes on who did what and when
at this event, most of those who participated will be listed
here, not in any particular order: Bruce Tharp was our
"host" member, Paul Diley brought his 3 module NW yard, Dave
Clyde with module (s), Mark Bandy with his industrial
pollution module, Alan Del Gaudio with his rural module
making two trips bringing two of his loves with him on the
return trip (wife and '05 C6 Corvette), Martin Myers with
module (s?), myself with my mini mountain, Skip Hayes, Al
Palewicz (and wife), and Bob Mohr.
Outside the historic, and soon to be part of the B&O Museum
system, Oakland Train Station was the double track CSX line
carrying mainly coal cars, bigguns, East loaded and West
empties. While the traffic wasn't anywhere near constant,
each warning horn brought out a "Train Break" shout sending
most of us outside for an up close and personal encounter
with some of CSX's monsters, EMD 80's and 90's in the
minority and CW44's and similar locos dominating the front
ends of these long trains. I think there was a mixed freight
in there too. Though the tracks lay within close proximity
to the station, little excitement occurred on the layout
during the passes.
The layout was fairly simple physically, electrically, and
trackage wise, there was plenty for our operators and
observers alike, a good mix of rural, urban, and yard action
railroading. Everyone wanting run times was accommodated.
Trains, both passenger and freight wandered the rails in
lengths of several cars to 35 or more, about one third the
length of those outside the building. Interaction with the
guests was plentiful. And the hosts were very impressed with
our presentation.
This was the first of what the organizers hope to be an
annual "Train Fest" in Oakland. They went out of their way
to make us welcome and it was felt. Our "singles" overnight
housing was provide by local efforts. Mark and Paul appear
to have won the room lottery getting the Bed & Breakfast.
They report that it was special enough to miss breakfast
Saturday at Dotties with the rest of us. We didn't see them
Sunday morning either at Wendy's (not to be confused with
the FF Chain) where we bought our first breakfast. We were
also invited to partake of the goodies at the reception
Friday night and they were substantial including crackers
and various cheeses, fruits, special chicken salad finger
sandwiches, and desserts that even on my diet, had to be
tried, over and over again... Beer, wine and soft drinks
were also provided (even after hours for the club) which
rounded out the hospitality.
All this is to let those of you who couldn't make it to
Oakland what you missed. Perhaps, next time (and Oakland is
planning a next time already) we'll take a much larger
layout to Oakland. It's doubtful we'll see free housing but
hopefully discounted (hint, hint) next year but it was
really appreciated this time. Word is that next year, as the
station will be undergoing some crucial renovations for
museum standards, that we'll be invited to occupy much
larger space either downtown or elsewhere near downtown for
a much larger layout.... IF BANTrak votes to continue this
adventure in Western Maryland. Did I mention that the
scenery is spectacular out there?
Alan Potter
Co-coordinator
Oakland BANTrak Show
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October 28-29, 2011 -
The
Great Scale Model Train Show, Maryland State
Fairgrounds, Timonium, Md.
Click
HERE to view the BANTRAK layout track plan.
Show Review
Where has the year gone? It
seems like just yesterday we were celebrating the New Year and
looking forward to the convention in Hershey; instead we’re into
November and have already put another October Scale into the
list of successful BANTRAK endeavors for the year. This show had
something for just about everyone in the club, featuring not
only the Ntrak layout, but a oNeTrak branch and a separate TTrak
display; highlighting the diversity of the club and showing the
full range of our display capabilities.
As usual, the show started
with set-up on Friday, but it seemed to start even earlier than
usual this time; I arrived at about 5 minutes after noon
to find the trailer already unloaded and pushed to it’s usual
storage spot and a bright-eyed crew ready and waiting to help me
unload my modules. Most of the modules were in the building by
about 1 PM, and set-up of the layout started with set-up and
leveling of the yard. The Ntrak layout was L-shaped, with the
yard on the outside of the long leg (west side of the layout).
Skip Hayes’ Fire-in-the-Sky module, Tom Hoover’s Barstow Shops
module, and Bob Mohr’s 1’ mountain module made up the rest of
that side. The outside of the shorter leg (south side of the
layout) featured Bob Mohr’s 15’ city, the lift bridge, and Paul
Diley’s 12’ yard. This show was the BANTRAK debut of John
Cook’s Possum Point Power Plant; the two modules of this
long time NVNtrak staple were on the end of the short leg of the
layout. The inside of the short leg (north side of the layout)
featured a refurbished and revitalized 14’ set of modules from
the Palewicz brothers and Al Potter’s Wilder’s Ridge. The
inside of the long leg (east side of the layout) featured my 4’
Dairy Farm, a 2’ module from the Clyde’s, Martin’s 8’ set of
banjo/cross-over modules, Alan Del Gaudio’s 4’ module, and Mark
Bandy’s Mount Royal Station. Finishing out the layout on
the end of the long leg were two of the Clyde’s modules; the
Trolley Museum and the Equestrian Center. In general the
initial set-up proceeded smoothly; although there were some
slight pauses in the action due to the delayed arrival of some
modules final clampdown was completed slightly after 4 PM, at
which point work began in earnest on wiring and track joiners.
Upon final clampdown of the
Ntrak layout, work started on setting up the oNeTrak branch.
The oNeTrak branch for this show featured all but one of the
club’s oNeTrak modules; Ed Kapuscinski’s Interchange
module got left out since I couldn’t figure out how to add it
and still close the loop. Modules in the loop included Martin’s
Wye module, 2 45-dgree corner modules, 4’ offset module and 18”
adapter module, my 2 corner and 2 straight modules, Eric Payne’s
2‐4’ module, Alan Del Gaudio’s 2-3’ modules, Ed K’s 4’
Industrial Module, a refurbished Coal Mine now owned by John
Hale, and new for this show, a 2’ module from John Hale and Paul
Diley’s contest winning bridge from Hershey converted to a 6’
oNeTrak module. The oNeTrak branch was clamped down and
ready for track and electrical work by 5 PM.
The TTrak crowd had their own
area next to the main BANTRAK area for their set-up. They used
5 tables, one for sales and the others for two small 2-table
TTrak layouts. Needless to say, it didn’t take them as
long to set-up as it did the Ntrak/oNeTrak crowd.
Most of the major set-up
items were completed by around 7 PM and it was time to test the
layout; unfortunately this time the gremlins came out to
bite and we wound up with some challenging electrical problems
to solve on both the Ntrak and oNeTrak layouts. The Ntrak
problem proved easier to solve, the result of a bad connector,
but the oNeTrak short proved to be elusive to track down. I
think we managed to disconnect and reconnected the wiring and
joiner tracks on every module at least twice before we tracked
everything down and got everything fixed. The two morals of the
story; “Follow the specs” and “Check the new items first”.
Final testing was complete and we left the building just
before 9 PM; I want to thank Bob Mohr (Ntrak) and Martin
Myers (oNeTrak) for their diligent efforts in troubleshooting
the problems.
Saturday dawned to a cold wet
morning with a rain/snow mix falling on the area, which I’m sure
suppressed turnout for the show but not among BANTRAK members.
After a quick track cleaning, the show opened with Alan Del
Gaudio on Red, Al Potter on Yellow, Frank Hogarth on Blue and
John Hale (& son) on oNeTrak for the first shift. Second
shift had John Hasson on Red, Al Palewicz on Yellow, Paul Diley
on Blue and myself on oNeTrak. Third shift was Jack Walsh
on Red, Leo Palewicz on Yellow, Mark Bandy on Blue and I
continued on oNeTrak. Last shift was Dave Clyde on Red,
Tom Hoover on Yellow, Mark continued on Blue and I continued on
oNeTrak.
The weather was much better
on Sunday; the sky’s had cleared but it was still cold.
Unfortunately the Raven’s were in town, so attendance suffered
accordingly. Sunday’s first shift found me on Red, Denise Clyde
on Yellow (Dave was supposed to join her but he ran off to run
TTrak), Frank on Blue and Paul Diley on oNeTrak. Second
shift had Tom Hoover on Red, Bob Mohr on Yellow (supplemented by
Alan Del Gaudio), Paul Diley on Blue and I shared oNeTrak with
Ed K. Last shift on Sunday had Tom Hoover continuing on
Red, Al Potter on Yellow, Eric Payne on Blue and Ed and I
continued on oNeTrak.
The TTrak group ran both days
too. Among the runners were Ed, Patrick and Chris Hyland,
Dave Clyde, Matt Whiting, Jeff & Christian Peck and Tom Long.
Teardown on Sunday started
shortly after 3:30, with the shutdown of the DCC system and the
pulling of cables. The last train was stopped and power shut
down around 3:50, at which point teardown commenced. In
our usual, efficient fashion, everything was packed and the
trailer rolling before 5:30 PM.
All in all, I consider this a very successful
show. We had a large group of willing and effective
workers and runners. Looking at the latest club roster, I saw 33
of the current 49 members at the show, most of them
participating on multiple days. I want to thank everyone
who came out and helping!
And as a bonus, a few images from T-Trak...
See you at the B&O Museum!
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December 17, 2011 - January 2, 2012 - Baltimore and Ohio Museum
Festival of
Trains, Baltimore, Md.
Click
HERE to view the BANTRAK layout track plan.
The 2011 Festival of Trains is now finished and is in the BANTRAK
history book.
This year’s show had many obstacles however,
the BANTRAK members rose to the occasion and, yet again, provided a
spectacular show for the B&O Museum.
Despite a constantly changing amount of real
estate, no module pre-drop off, a last minute request for a night
run, no access for a media opportunity and the typical bug issues,
the club members pulled together to overcame all to provide a high
quality presentation. A true testimate of the spirit and quality
that only BANTRAK has.
There were many successes with this year’s show:
- Members showed in droves for setup and tear down.
- Setup was completed a day and a half earlier than anticipated.
- There was a last minute layout design change to provide maximum use of available
real estate.
- The introduction of a T-Trak layout.
- The club members successfully provided runners for a last
minute night run.
- Everyone did their individual best to debug and troubleshoot
the layout.
- We managed to recruit several new members.
- The T-Trak members were introduced to the N-Trak layout.
- Against the odds, the raffle layout sales were much better
than anticipated. Both Christmas and New Years fell on a
weekend…Our best sales days.
- A
high level of cooperation to ensure that anyone wanting to run,
could.
- This year saw several new modules in the layout.
- Layout/show introduction to several new members.
- Tear down in record time.
- The raffle layout drawing winner. Congratulations to Luke
Darrah of Centreville, MD. The ticket was purchased by his
grand parents in his name.
- This was the first year with me as the coordinator and Jack
Walsh as the co-coordinator.
There are many members that I would like to
thank for making this show a success. I hesitate to mention
individuals as the show’s success was a club wide effort. However,
if I were to extend my thanks, I would thank Jack Walsh for his
initiative as the show co-coordinator, Mark Bandy for his efforts
with the layout diagram, Martin Myers for his help during a
difficult time in his life, Tim Nixon for the hours spent at the
show, Al Palowicz for his status updates in my name, Al Potter, Al
DelGuadio and all those who just showed up to help, Bob Mohr for his
Loconet/Throttlenet troubleshooting help, Denise Mohr ( a
non-member) for helping with tear down, Eric Payne for his
unwavering support, all the day captains who were willing to take a
leadership role on a daily basis, all those who provided modules and
Denise Clyde for her uncanny sales skills.
I apologize if I left anyone out as I recognize
that it takes the entire club to make a successful show. All
BANTRAK members should be extremely proud of the club’s performance
and presentation at this year’s show….I know that I am.
Dave Clyde
B&O FOT 2011 Show Coordinator
Jack Walsh
B&O FOT 2011 Show Co-coordinator
Click Here for Pictures.
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2011 BANTRAK Events
