After being home nearly a week, I am somewhat surprised that no one has yet commented on the successful NRHS convention that was held in Ft. Worth Texas. Here are some of my thoughts / observations.

I noticed that very few complaints were made by the attendees. The North Texas chapter, and the convention chair, Skip Waters, did an excellent job in keeping our spirits high. They provided plenty of cold water on the hottest days of the convention. The busses to events all ran on time. The railroad operations were top-notch, and the people of Quanah, TX treated us like celebrities when our train arrived. BNSF even provided battery powered mini-fans to keep us cool. From where I stood, I couldn't see a single detail overlooked.

In case you hadn't heard, our "Quanah Zephyr" was interrupted by an axe wielding fool who may have been sniffing paint, and decided to attack a nearby freight train on the siding. We were held up for an hour and a half waiting for this to be resolved. Luckily, BNSF police were chasing our train to take care of any trouble, and did so in short order. The railroad worked for us on this busy corridor to keep our train a high priority.

Also, a new track of thinking debuted on the Friday seminar day. Two parallel offerings, one the customary train chasing and historic slide program, was joined by a more practical preservation and documentation of collections track. It is just a shame that the conventions pack so much in that so little can be done by any individual who wants to experience it all. To preserve the convention memories, the chapter asked for donations of digital photos for their web site; another new idea.

All in all, I say "well done." This is my abbreviated version. I hope others who attended can chime in, too.

I heard about that incident at lunch today with a member of the Wilmington DE chapter who was there. It seems the fool may have been sniffing green paint....

Also, it appears that Amtrak did a decent job of busing people around the current flooding in the midwest, as he was able to get out and back on Amtrak.

Al, Do you meant the paint sniffer was travelling on Amtrak?

Green paint sniffing idiots don't avail themselves of any form of transportation that consumes oil, so Amtrak is out.

The person I spoke to at lunch went from Delaware to the convention via Amtrak. And back.

I could expound more regarding the incident, but it would likely end up getting the thread closed.