Both preconference bus tours returned today - one was of two day duration and visited Nevada State RR Museum and Western Pacific RR Museum, the other a one day excursion to Railtown 1897 (Sierra Railway).

I took the Sierra Railway trip, and not only enjoyed visiting a time capsule of a shortline roundhouse and shop circa 1929, but a steam train ride and a very good barbecue lunch. In a glitch, the list for the Jamestown trip was used as the reservations list for the hotel for the overnight trip, so everybody opting for the one day trip had a room in Reno for the trip they didn't take; fortunately, that was more people than actually did take the two day trip, so ample accomodations were provided for everybody.

Despite traffic delays due to a wreck south of Lodi, we arrived back at the convention hotel shortly before the opening reception and hospitality.

This years joint convention has attracted very large crowds - the room allotment was expanded twice, and has carried over into other hotels. The Holiday Inn is a well-kept professionally managed place in a great location within easy walking distance to many beaneries, etc. While not inexpensive, the breakfast spread includes custom-built omelettes and a nice hot buffet, or a cheaper continental breakfast buffet. The hotel bar is small but has a nice selection and good service, and if it is crowded there is a good microbrewery a couple minutes away.

It is great to see some new faces in the exhibitors gallery too. Some new partnerships and products including a biodegradable journal oil (under development) are generating a lot of interest.

I don't have a headcount, but I'd put the number of attendees at about 2.5 times the attendence of last years TRAIN convention.

Joint TRAIN / ARM meetings are very useful, bringing together a broader diversity of viewpoints with very complementary interests than found in either organization alone, and CSRM is the kind of institution with the resources and skills and location to bring it together.

Tomorrow's schedule includes two sessions in the morning, followed by an excursion to Western Railway Museum and dinner in Rio Vista. A special presentation by Matt Austin on the UP 844 restoration will be held in the evening.

I hope you are sorry if you are not here.

dave

Thanks for the update. Please be so kind as to see what you might be able to do to get a discussion started regarding the expansion of the Railcamp program as one way to address the issue of attracting young people into the industry. This was discussed at some length on a recent thread.
Mark Bassett from the NN is there and hosted his first Railcamp this past season and is willing to share his experiences and help others start a program. I don't know if the NRHS is in attendence but that's not critical.
Thanks in advance and here's hopeing you have a great time!
Ross Rowland

Ross, I am one drop of water in a sea of people here, but I will see if there is anything informal being done / discussed about it, or any other future-looking recruitment stuff. They have us pretty well scheduled, with some nice long lunch breaks, so a lunch meeting could be possible. Mark may not want to take charge, not sure who else might be a good source.

dave

Hi Dave,

Sounds like a great event. Please pass along any info on those new Shays if you hear anything.

Thanks!

Thursday was an intensively scheduled exercise in gulping information, schmoozing and visiting a very fine railway museum, and, of course, consuming food.

A continental breakfast was provided for conventioneers in the middle of the vendors display area, which created a bit of a traffic jam. About a 10 foot wider room would have allowed more intersticial aisle space, so we could have one group grazing while others shopped. A second trough was set up later in a hallway, which somewhat relieved the situation.

Two sessions were offered in the morning, with 4 choices for each. I attended a presentation by 3 experts on Grantsmanship 101, which combined a list of resources with some real life advice. The handouts were very helpful, and the success stories encouraging. The second of my choices was a provacative presentation about how we view and define ourselves, how we might consider and define our different audiences, and how we might better serve them and reap the rewards of doing so.

A two hour schmooze and eat break followed. the venue is very near a lot of culinary choices, so probably most people did more schmoozing than eating, based on the number of informal gatherings in the halls, and the activity in the vendors area. It was a good time to put people together, and talk about doing a bit of business.

Afternoon activity was a not too long bus ride to Rio Vista, following the route of the Sacramento Northern. Western Railway Museum put on a fine show for us, with rides available on a Birney, PCC, and interurban carset, and tours of their carbarns (including the new one with track only partially installed - almost as impressive as the blimp hangar at Gold Coast RR in scope).

CSRM demonstrated their bravery in booking a second institutional dinner (the first being the obligatory banquet scheduled for Saturday night) at a restaurant adjacent to a marina and RV park reachable through a maze of narrow residential streets which the busses could barely navigate. Our bus got lost, and we had a nice impromptu tour, which must have puzzled the residents. We each got two drink tickets, good for well drinks, house wines, or domestic drafts. Turns out Sam Adams isn't considered a domestic beer, despite its being brewed in the US, and by a corporate brewery. I must consult a dictionary when I get home. The food was about what you might expect, unimpressive but not objectionable, and the staff did a better than average job of getting it in and out.

Our driver didn't spare the horses on our way back to the hotel, still we arrived 15 minutes late for a scheduled presentation by Matt Austin on the work he did on UP 844. I had about resigned myself to apologising to Matt for missing his presentation, since I wasn't going to distract anybody who was there on time by entering during his talk - an unfortunately common ill-mannered interruption based on the number of times it happened during the morning sessions. I was pleasantly surprised to find Matt in the lobby. Turns out, the key to the venue was with a CSRM staff member on the last bus. By the time we got over there, the hall was packed, and we got started a half hour late, but it was worth it - a very informative technical presentation done in plain English by one of the smartest boiler guys in the world.

So, after 16 hours of activity, and 5 hours of sleep, another fully scheduled day begins. This morning we have another 2 sessions with 4 choices each, a shorter lunch break, and then a choice of one of 4 tours (which we had to make at registration). Dinner is on our own tonight, with a presentation in the evening by Henry Posner and Dennis, God of Steam, on the QJ importation and program.

With luck, we will be done by 6:30, except for the poor guys on the TRAIN board who have to work for 3 more hours.

Ross - I met Mark for the first time face to face. He is a fine gentleman with a gray beard and bifocals, so he is easily recognized....wait, not in this crowd. I mentioned your interest in Rail Camp, but given the heavy commitment in scheduled activities, probably not likely to spontaneously occur at this convention, and no champion is here to push it hard.

There will probably be some consideration of crew training and qualification issues discussed when the committees meet Sunday through Tuesday.

Hugh, on the new Shays - I had a nice talk with Himself face to face, and Ron isn't building Shays a this time - just interested in how feasable it would be, and how costly. I haven't had a chance to put him and Ranger (who literally wrote the book on Shays) together, but I still have two days to pull it off. If anybody wants toplace an order for dozen or so, it might tip the balance sooner. Zap me a PM and I will pass it along.

dave

Thanks for the comprehensive update. Sounds like a worthwhile gathering. Guess we'll need to get to work early to insure that 2 subjects get important billing for next years meeting-namely how to attract new blood and how to prevent us from blowing ourselves out of existence.
Seems to me that if these 2 subjects are not successfully mastered then all the rest of the agenda is totally academic!
Ross Rowland

I gave myself an afternoon break.

Next years hosts are Middletown and Hummelstown near Harrisburg, PA. That isn't too far from you, Ross. I'd venture to suggest Frankie would appreciate your volunteering to do a session on RailCamp, with whoever else you think might be willing to take part.

Hosts generally like to get things ironed out pretty early, so anybody with a particular interest should make it known soon. If you are willing to volunteer to do an interesting program, chances are it will be gratefully accepted.

Wilmington and Western is actively involved, and I am told EBT will figure prominently as well.

dave

Fridays activities - more schmoozing and bagels to start off, followed by two sessions of 4 choices each.

I chose a session on wooden car issues, with lots of information from 4 presenters, and commentary from many in the audience, all of whom had a lot of wooden car experience to share. Thankfully, the host of this session maintained control and kept it moving on, so the experts on the panel could finish their remarks, before opening the floor to general comments and questions. I have seen the floor opened during the program, which led to a series of old war stories, meandering off topic, etc at great length in sessions before, which left unchecked prevented us from having the benefit of the experts entire presentation while the peanut gallery speaks instead - I'd recommend avoiding this fatal flaw to all presenters. Democracy isn't the most effective means of dissemenating information.

I went to the parts networking session next, a more formally acknowledged effort at what everybody had actually been doing informally for two days so far. Andy Nold is taking orders for new cast steel journal boxes if anybody is interested, get your order in now.

Lots of bus tours departed after lunch to different interesting places.

The highlight of the day was an evening session by Henry Posner and Dennis Daugherty on the QJ.

According to Henry, Dennis is the Guru of Steam, not a God, BTW. I am so disappointed.......

Anyhow, the room was extremely crowded, and we suffered from a greater than usual influx of disruptive latecomers due to one of the bus tours getting in late. After barging in, they found there was no room to sit, so they insisted on standing in front of others who had the courtesy to show up on time. Can we please learn to do better?

Henry had a lot to say about why he chose to buy two QJs, and options for 3 more, and how extremely well attended the event was for Iowa Interstate with the QJs and 261. Over $250K of ticketed passengers, and 10,000 just eyeballing from trackside during a 3 day weekend. Pretty impressive numbers.

Dennis was suffering from bronchitis, but did his best to narrate a slide show showing the 701 Locomotive Factory, in secret tunnels under the Great Wall, where the QJs are overhauled. I couldn't make this stuff up folks, Clive Cussler would have had a great premise for a novel. I wish I could have heard the details Dennis had to talk about, in particular the Chinese welded staybolt standard of using fillet welds rather than full penetration, and how it worked with FRA compliance.

Henry's option to buy 3 more FRA compliant QJs expires on December 14th, so please send him expressions of serious interest ASAP if you think you may want one. He says they are priced favorably compared to overhauling an old worn out American steamer, or buying a good used GP38 of comparable power, and we know they are a lot more interesting than a GP38. A stock of spare parts is also available for them.

I was interested in hearing Henry comment in a way that refuted some comments of John Hankey's during his presentation about the railroad industry turning its back on public opinion. Both these gents are brilliant and involved, so I suppose it is POV - Henry, being a railroader, knows that AAR is starting an ad campaign to educate the public about railroads, and sees the QJs as a way of helping get that message out, while John as an academic has a dimmer view of the industry's intents and purposes. Fascinating.

On tap for today: a session on foundries and working with them (or pick one of another 3) a second set of 4 sessions to choose from, and an afternoon of CSRM related programming ending with a champaign recpetion on the Sacramento Southern RR bleeding off into the obligatory banquet in the roundhouse itself.

dave

Dave, your observations about letting the presenters have the floor to complete their comments before opening it up to questions are right on! I wish more organizations would handle presentation situations that way.

A speaker should not have to be a contestant in a competitive event. There is nothing at all rude about asking the audience to hold their questions until the speaker has completed his comments.

MX (not my real name)

Here is a photo of the transfer table being used from this afternoon's tour of the Southern Pacific shops:

Thanks Evan for contributing to this thread. Probably everybody is getting tired of my comments. Tough. I threatened to quote Gustafson here, but i won't.

Todays foundry session was very informative, even though one of the three presenters was absent. The remaining two were both very experienced, and had very different points of view, and agreed on about everything. Having worked for a foundry and machine shop for a while, I found their commentary right-on.

The FRA session was notable mostly for the unusual distinction of having an FRA inspector apologise for passing on incorrect information. Cool.

Afternoon activities concerned the expansion of CSRM into at least two of the historic shop buildings which were part of the old SP yard, now undergoing remediation before being redeveloped into some form of mixed use commercial and residential community. Having worked at early startup level at two railroad sites, I can testify that these are better than average, having not been abandoned for many years. Also, CSRM is far more abundant in resources than anybody i worked for - I know this will turn out well for them, however many of the structures they eventually end up using.

After a short warming and drying off break, back to Old Sac for a trip down the Sacramento Northern RR behind the Granite Rock 0-6-0T, which was a pile of rusty parts on the floor when I last saw it. Nice job, Dennis.

After a wait for an indeterminate reason before being allowed to board, we departed late. The trip was billed as a champaign reception, and would have been a pleasant social event had the car host not interrupted our socializing by shouting officious stuff "Don't even think about crossing between cars!" and local info "The river is over there." at us.

When we pulled into the roundhouse area afterwards, there weren't any flashlights available to illuminate the tripping hazards needing to be crossed between the train and the RH. A few were finally located, and one step was opened for passengers to slowly exit in single file. This made us even later getting into the RH for the obligatory banquet.

The obligatory banquet turned out to be a buffet offering a few selections of somewhat pretentious and reasonably bland institutional food. A salad was composed of weeds. The pasta was cold and had slices of slimy mortadella in it. The carrots weren't even cleaned and peeled, or had the stems removed. Chicken or salmon was the only choice - i took Salmon since the portions were larger, and found it had almost no salmony flavor.

Out of the three provided meals I ate, the only one that surpassed mediocrety was the excellent BBQ lunch at Jamestown. That featured some of the meatiest chicken I ever ate, some tasty ribs, and everything was full of flavor. I bet it cost less than the banquet food too. Hint.

The program started a half hour late. I was pleased that there was much less dead air than in previous programs - other than endless rounds of forced applause following each individual thank-you, commentary was pretty well brief and to the point. Governor Leland Stanford made a short speech. Then the gifts and awards started - LONG trips through the jungle of tables and chairs, waiting for photos, lots of dead air. I waited for my buddy John to get his plaque, then left early to post this final report.

I am left to wonder why the obligatory banquet needs to be obligatory. If there is a reason it does, why does it have to have ho-hum food and awkward logistics? After a pretty dynamic convention, full of activities, it ends as something of a downer, dude.

"...not with a bang, but a whimper."

OK, general impressions: I have never attended a convention with so much to offer in terms of excursions, trips, and scheduled activities. I like it, but need a vacation to recover. CSRM is nothing if not ambitious, and carried it off very well most of the time, dealing with things like traffic accidents and room reservation glitches handily. The venue was well located, had good accomodations, and was close to lots of good restaurants, etc. Lots of profitable information offered freely in formal sessions, from vendors, and in the ample time available for schmoozing - thanks for the lengthy lunch breaks. Like Gustafson said, "There isn't any reason why anybody shouldn't be here."

I reckon that any convention located in an area with fewer convenient places to visit could do well by using more sessions instead, but please leave us the long breaks. I tried hard, but still didn't get to catch up with everybody i wanted to see that i know were here. Last count I heard was about 400 - very impressive. Just think what it would be like if we all worked together.........

dave

Who won the Trains Preservation Award?

Tom Cornillie
(I have a reason for my impatience - if you know, but don't want to state it publicly - please send me an e-mail or PM)

PS - impatience is a word that a man should be careful not to misspell

Although Dave had a great writeup on many of the sessions, my wife and I , who were attending our first convention, completely disagree on the banquet and the food served. Both were excellent! (the pasta was supposed to be cold Dave.)

It was awarded to the Nevada State Railroad Museum for the McKeen Car restoration.

I was pleased with the banquet in the roundhouse. The only food I found truly bland was that of the Point Restaurant in Rio Vista. That aside, I do think these joint ARM-TRAIN conferences are good for sharing between the organizations. I just wish I could clone myself once or twice because there are often more than one morning seminar in the same time slot I really want to see.

Oh, and the winner of the preservation award was the McKeen car at Nevada State RR museum.

Here is a picure of the McKeen car I took on the Reno pre-convention trip, followed by the Sacramento Southern loco from the pre-banquet trip.