Walking my daughter down the aisle

I don’t know about you but my summer turned out to be far more hectic then I thought it would be. If you’ve been a visitor to Model Train Tips for any length of time, you’ve probably noticed that my blogging here has fallen off over the summer.

Summer is always a time to get outdoors and enjoy the weather, especially here in Minnesota where we get four to five months of winter. And, as I get older, I find that I appreciate good weather more than I used to. Although I didn’t get to play golf nearly as much as I would have liked to, I did get out a few times.

Being busy this past summer ate into my blogging and model railroading time far more than I thought it would. My oldest daughter and her fiancé of six years finally tied the knot at the end of July. Of course, this was a planned event and I proudly walked her down the aisle.

I was also happy that my younger daughter, her husband and my three grandsons were able to make it here from Arizona for the wedding. I don’t get to see my grandkids very often because of the distance involved and I was very excited to have them here; and all three love trains!

Reading a "Thomas The Tank Engine" book to my three grandkids

Of course, after a week I was glad they had to go home . . . is that bad? I guess I understand now why grandparents are glad to send the kids back home after spoiling them for a while. They’re planning to move from Arizona to Minnesota next summer and I’m looking forward to that.

On a more somber note, something else that wasn’t planned, but expected, did happen. My grandfather took a turn for the worse in August and I made a trip to Kentucky to see him before it was too late. I got there in time to tell him Happy 98^th Birthday and spend a few days visiting him in the hospital.

Grampa passed away about a week after I came back home. A few days after he passed, I wrote an article on my main blog website about why my grandfather is my hero; it talks about some of the things he lived through during his long life, things that put today’s gripes into a whole new perspective.

On a more upbeat note, my work with the Twin City Model Railroad Museum has paid off in another way; the board of directors has commissioned me to develop and manage a new website for the museum. I’ve been maintaining the current (archaic) website for several months, but I’m happy to start from scratch with a new design using current web design technology.

Although I wasn’t able to get going on it right away, I expect to have the newly designed website live later this month. I’ll keep you posted.

Now that fall is here and winter is coming, I expect I’ll be able to spend more time at the museum and should be able to write some more articles about things I learn from the experts there.

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Built in 1914 at a cost of two million dollars, it was approximately 300’ x 155’ and the concourse spanned 12 tracks below. It was demolished in 1978 and all passenger business was transferred to the Amtrak station in St. Paul, but during its many years of service, nearly 3 million passenger trains passed beneath its concourse.

The depot was reconstructed in miniature for the Twin City Model Railroad Museum by Bob Niederkorn in 1996, after years of meticulous model building.

Niederkorn’s masterpiece was built on a base of ¾” fir plywood, and nearly 1-1/2 sheets of ¼” luaun mahogany plywood were used for the walls and partitions. To simulate the 2’ x 4’ granite blocks from which the outside walls were constructed, over 5,000 individually cut pieces of 1/32” basswood were applied to the structure.

There are 221 window openings in the model, requiring over 556 pieces of framing. Nearly 100 feet of additional trim material was used on the surfaces of the station.

Because Phil asked, here are some more photos of the station:

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The book is now available in the Museum’s gift shop at Bandana Square, Suite 222, 1021 Bandana Blvd. East, St. Paul MN, 55108; cost is $20 including tax. 

On Saturday nights in February, the book’s authors will sign copies of the book as a part the TCMRM’s special Night Trains exhibition from 6 to 9 pm. 

Night Trains is a special attraction at the Museum each holiday season beginning on the Saturday after Thanksgiving and runs every Saturday evening through the last Saturday in February (February 27, 2010). 

For information upcoming events, please visit the Museum web site at www.tcmrm.org, or contact Chad Kono at konox001@umn.edu or 612-220-3384.

Twin City Model Railroad Museum
1021 Bandana Blvd. E., Suite 222
St. Paul, MN 55108
651-647-9628
tcmrm.org

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Every year beginning on the first Saturday after Thanksgiving and running through the last Saturday in February, the Museum hosts it’s annual Night Trains event.

The event starts at 6 pm and lasts until 9 pm. For more information about Night Trains, visit the Twin City Model Railroad Museum’s Night Trains page on their website.

This was my first year at Night Trains and I made sure I was there to take pictures and videos. Unfortunately, I didn’t check before leaving home and found out after getting to the museum that my camera’s battery was dead. Doh!

Well I did get some videos, including videos of the special Christmas Train, so here they are:

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Here are the pictures I took at the event! Also, check out the videos I posted earlier for this event .

The event was held at the Twin City Model Railroad Museum’s home turf at Bandana Square in Saint Paul and was attended by other groups, including C & R Circus, a group that specializes in HO and O scale circus modeling.

I hope you enjoy these pictures:

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Well, I’m posting videos I took at the event! I’ll post pictures in another post.

The event was held at the Twin City Model Railroad Museum’s home turf at Bandana Square in Saint Paul and was attended by other groups, including C & R Circus, a group that specializes in HO and O scale circus modeling.

I hope you enjoy these videos.

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Enjoy!

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From the Circus Trains page of the Twin City Model Railroad Museum:

The Twin Cities Model Railroad Museum will be host to the Circus Moves by Rail show on October 10 and 11, 2009. Zellmar Bros Ring 80 of Circus Model Builders, Inc. and circus modelers from a 10 state area will display their circus modeling skills in several scales and circus trains will be running on the layout.

Come see hundreds of elephant, horses, lions, tigers and bears all in miniature displayed for your pleasure. See many of the famous circus acts from the past all in scales from 1/8″ = 1′ to 1″ = 1′. See a colorful cavalcade of clowns cavorting, performers decked out in costumes and of course the colossal parade wagons rolling down the streets of Small Town USA! All this and more in miniature!!!!! This event promises to be a kaleidoscope of color and wonder for ages from 1 to 101!

According to Lenny Leier, show manager and member of TCMRM, it will be largest display of miniature circus models in the Twin Cities metro area in 20 years. Admission to this special show will be included in the Museum’s normal admission price of $6 per person, children under 5 are admitted FREE of charge.

I’ll post some pictures in a follow up article.

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