Fall Conventions

September and October brought two conventions to nearby Ventura County.  The Pacific Southwest Region of the NMRA held theirs in Oxnard complete with clinics, layout tours and model contests.  I went to a couple days of clinics and one afternoon got around to three layouts.  My layout was also on their tours on Friday and Sunday.  On Saturday I assisted Gary Siegel as he had both his outdoor G-gauge layout and his indoor HO scale layout open.  We were busy most of the day with lots of visitors.

At my layout, I had about 8 people on Friday and about 40 people on Sunday.  I had tried to get a few things done on the layout in anticipation of the tour but was unable to complete my list.  I did start the installation of the Carpinteria Creek bridge, installed some red rosin paper to the holes next to the roadbed on the first level, made some track changes in Lompoc, worked a bit more on my track and built a few more structures for the Santa Barbara industrial area.  I will cover all that in some upcoming blog posts.

In October, the Southern Pacific Historical and Technical Society had their convention in Ventura.  I was one of the co-chairs so was quite busy.  We had close to 250 attendees - some from as far away as Belgium and New Zealand.  We had a full program of clinics/presentations, tours of lemon packing sheds, official cars, the Port of Hueneme, and a train ride on the Fillmore and Western over some trackage not normally used for passengers.  There was a full vendor room that overflowed onto the adjacent mezzanine and a wonderful collection of models that members had brought to display.  The banquet was well attended and all enjoyed listening to

I roomed with Mike O'Brien, the official convention photographer.  We did some downloading of photos onto my computer so I will share some of the fun with you here through Mike's photos and also some of my own [SP official car 192, Santa Barbara and the Fillmore & Western Trip].  Enjoy.

SP 142 Santa Barbara



SP 142 Santa Barbara





SP 142 Santa Barbara passageway





SP142 Santa Barbara Parlor paneling



Santa Paula Depot stop



Photographers at Santa Paula - The photographers chased the train all the way to Piru





Running through the citrus groves



John Signor, Pat Bray and F&W Conductor Larry



Scott Inman presentation on Daylight Train.  Mike O'Brien photo.



Vendor Room   Mike O'Brien photo.



Society Sales Table   Mike O'Brien photo.



Wall of Trains [Mine is the reefer block fourth from bottom.] Mike O'Brien photo.