N Scale Collector Convention 2009

The first day of an N Scale Collector convention doesn't amount to much but it is critical in one respect, all items for the auctions have to be registered today. Since one of the main activities is the auction it's important to get this done. I only had one item but it turned out well. In the evening, Micro-Trains hosted a dessert reception and lots of folks got to stand up front and talk. There were also several tables of silent auction stuff available but I didn't see but one item I was interested in and I didn't win the bid.

On Thursday morning we had some serious touring to do. Our first stop was at the Oregon Pacific Railroad. This is pretty much a family operation. Dad, the owner, does anything from sales to track repair. Several sons run trains and fix stuff. They had lined up several of their engines and pieces of rolling stock on a track that parallels a street and we got the rundown on each piece from the owner. Several engines have been repainted into their original colors simply as a way to do some historic preservation with working equipment. Then they pretty much gave us the run of the place as we climbed on engines, cabooses and passenger cars.

Next we visited the old SP Brooklyn Roundhouse where the City of Portland keeps its steam engines. The SP 4449 is probably the most famous but it was being readied for an excursion trip and all we could do was look. The SP&S 700 crew was more than happy to take us up into the cab and provide a simple lesson in running a steam loco. They were also more than happy to sell us SP&S 700 souvenirs and I'm afraid I got a little carried away. It's for a good cause though.

Thursday evening was the live auction and I had some good luck. I put one item in the auction, a brass caboose that I won in the NSC raffle several years ago. I've been trying to sell it ever since. As it turned out, it was the very last item auctioned and it turned out to be a sleeper. After a few questions got answered it went for $100 dollars even though I started it with no minimum bid. I was pleased.

Friday morning was a slow time for me. The swap meet was open and I found several items to buy and I sold two covered hoppers. Friday afternoon and evening I was a little anxious about. We had a trip up the Columbia River Gorge planned and because of my fascination with the gorge and especially with the great floods at the end of the last ice age, I had volunteered to be a Bus Host who's job was to provide some commentary on the area we were in and assist the bus captain. Well, at least that's what the web site said. In fact, I ended up being the bus captain AND the bus host. I had still prepared notes to give a little talk about the floods but it was not to be. The bus driver shared his life story with us all the way up the gorge and I didn't get a chance to say much at all. And besides the PA system had a very annoying buss. Oh well. The ride on the Mount Hood Railroad, especially getting to ride in a Great Dome, was great. Thanks to bus #4 we were pretty late getting home however.

Saturday was another slow morning. I spent some more money and took a nap. Saturday evening was the banquet. Having good luck at a previous banquet raffle I bought sixty bucks worth of raffle tickets but only managed to get one engine for my $60. The food selection at the banquet was easily the best I have ever seen at one of these affairs.

Sunday manufacturer's breakfast at the NSC is a new fairly thing. The breakfast was originally part of the National N-Trak Conventions. During a period when when NSC and the N-trak conventions shared a venue, the NSC adopted the breakfast idea. Now it remains even though the N-Trak convention part is no more. I remember when you could expect some genuine product announcements at the breakfast and the Q&A period sometimes produces some surprises. Neither of those has happened in a long time and the breakfast has sort of lost it's appeal for me. Good food though.

Getting behind

Well, I got to Portland and was having so much fun I let my blog go unwritten. I'll try to catch up.

Monday we went to the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum. It's well worth the trip if you are in the area. The most notable exhibit is the Spruce Goose but there's plenty more to see. Also go by the Tillamook Dairy and sample their cheese and ice cream.

Tuesday we went to a nearby area on the Oregon coast to ride the Oregon Coast Railroad. The name is a bit of a misnomer. Although it runs parallel to the coast there are very few opportunities to see the Pacific Ocean. This was a bit of a disappointment for me. It was a pretty ride however and we had a standard gauge Heisler engine which is pretty rare. There are a number of boxcars stranded and stored on the railroad. A wash out several years ago cut off this section of track from the rest of the world and there is no money to repair it. It gives the tourist operation a nice place to run with no freight interference so the line serves some purpose.

Wednesday morning was a layout tour. We saw three very nice layouts but they had very convoluted track plans and were not the kind I would like to build.

Wednesday evening we got into the official start of the convention which will be the subject of another post.

Portland at last

As I suspected, air card service was spotty across the top of the western US. Although I often had 5 bars it was usually AT&T EDGE service rather than 3G and was not very fast. And that would come and go. Net result was I didn't try to do much blogging.

Amtrak 27 arrived in Vancouver on time. I chose to get off in Vancouver at the request of my hotel. Although the hotel is in Portland, it's just a few minutes away from the Vancouver Amtrak station and they preferred to pick me up there.

The Red Lion Hotel Jantzen Beach is great, at least what I've seen of it which is my room. Very large room and a humongous bathroom. There's a flat screen, Hi def tv and free wireless internet, a fridge and a microwave. I have a view of the tennis courts and the Columbia river. Also very near the landing flight path of Portland airport but you can't have everything.

Tomorrow we go see the Spruce Goose.

St. Paul on time

We arrived in St. Paul right on time though we had been running about 15 minutes late. The Portland sleeper is now the last car on the train as Minnesota Commercial Railroad came in right behind us and pulled off the coach that is Chicago to St. Paul only. That will give me a chance to shoot pictures out the back window tomorrow.

As we rolled through the western part of Wisconsin we were treated to a fine sunset. The clouds had been hanging low all day but as we approached the western edge of the clouds the sun dropped below them and shown on the bottom of the cloud layer. At that point we were headed almost due north so I got a great view of the sunset out the left side of the train. Then I looked out the east side and was treated to a full double rainbow. In the summer time this is really beautiful country.

Leaving St. Paul on time.

Moving again

The Empire Builder of 12 June 2009 was not late into Milwaukee and we left the station on-time. Got my GPS hooked to my computer map and my air card hooked to the internet and my railroad scanner tuned to the current channel and I'm ready to go. From listening to the scanner, it sounds like we may have both a female engineer and a female conductor. The car attendant, O. C., figured if he wanted to know what was happening to the train he'd come check with me.

I had a nice visit in Milwaukee. Everything was on foot so my range was liited. Down on the lake front I saw a tour being conducted on Segways. Now that would be fun. They have some well preserved old buildings here, very unusual architecture in some of them and some very modern stuff, the Art Museum on the lake front is quite distinctive. I think I would like to come back here sometime and explore a bit more, just not in the winter time.

Wouldn't you know

Amtrak will not make a reservation with a connection of less than one hour. I presume that if you figured away around that and made separate reservations, you would just be out of luck if the first train was late and you missed the connection. In my past experience they have been very good about making it good if you missed one they guaranteed. So, Texas Eagle scheduled to arrive in Chicago at 1:52 pm. Empire Builder scheduled to leave at 2:15. No way will Amtrak guarantee that close so a layover in Chicago is required.

But hotels in downtown Chicago are expensive and I got the suggestion that I should go on to Milwaukee on the next available Hiawatha Service train and find a cheaper hotel there. Then I could catch the Empire Builder in Milwaukee the next day. Sure enough, four blocks from the Milwaukee station I found a Best Western for about half the price of what I could find near the Amtrak station in Chicago. Hiawatha Service has a train that leaves Chicago at 3:15 and another at 5:08 and again at 8:05. So I set it all up and planned to take some additional advice I got about Milwaukee and eat at Maders which was very convenient to the Best Western. Everything went fine. I got to Chicago on time and because I was arriving in a sleeper I had access to the First Class Lounge. The lady there told me to go to gate B at 2:45. I checked my email on their free wifi, got me a free glass of orange juice and read a little. Then I headed for gate B. When I got there the lady asked me if I was getting on the Milwaukee train or the Empire Builder. "What! The Empire Builder left an hour and a half ago." "No, they were running late, please wait over here for the Hiawatha." When I finally boarded the Hiawatha the Empire Builder was sitting on the other side of the same platform and was still there when we left. Wouldn't you know!

Breakfast in St. Louis

I was up at 6am. We were a little early into St. Louis and it was raining. Thinking I couldn't explore in the rain, I went to breakfast. I was surprised to find Tamales on the menu. The tamale was meaty and tasty and along with scrambled eggs, hash browns and some salsa was pretty darn good. By the time I finished breakfast the rain had stopped and I had plenty of time to explore. The new depot is a bit north of the old Amshack and set way back from the tracks. It's reached by going up either an escalator or and elevator and crossing above the tracks to the main building. There was a nice waiting area, small food service area, a very small retail area closed at 7:30 in the morning and a Greyhound bus station. A short walk away was the Metro station. Overall, a GREAT improvement from the previous version.