Steve Willis's blog

We are excited to announce a change in the Super Tour. James Peterson of Discount Model Trains has graciously offered to provide lunch for the Super Tour participants on Saturday June 6th. This has necessitated a change in the tour schedule. The tour will begin in McKinney at Master Model Railroader Jerry Hoverson’s Rocky Mountain Central, head south to Chip Romig’s beautiful S/Sn3 Colorado and Silver River, visit the two layouts of Allan Gartner, the HO High & Xiety and the G scale Finchfield and Wrensylvania, before heading to Coppell for lunch. After lunch, Master Model Railroader Lloyd Keyser’s Chicago and Northwestern will be the next stop. The tour will finish at the two layouts of the South Side modelers, the well detailed HO South Side and Rio Mesa and the under construction O scale division

This year, we are presenting the best layout tour yet in the Metroplex. What’s different this year, you may ask? You expect the Metroplex to be loaded with quality layouts. What’s exciting about this year is we have an exciting balance of regulars with a lot of new faces. We even have layouts from familiar names that have been rebuilt after a move. And we have a tremendous balance in scales as well.

Want to see what a Master Model Railroaders layout is like? We have four of them. Want to see what large, well organized clubs do with their space? We have four of those, too. We have three garden railroads this year. O scalers have four layouts to visit. There are three new or rebuilt N scale layouts this year. Two new Sn3 layouts are on tour. There is also a large S/Sn3 railroad that has moved and been rebuilt since the 2005 LSR and HO. There are eight never before seen HO layouts on the tour.

We are pleased to announce that the schedules for the Layout Super Tours has been settled.

The Ft Worth Tour will be Friday with the first section leaving at 8 AM
We will be visiting the following layouts and doing "Drive By Railfanning".  Only "Camera Shooting" allowed.
1) Stan Pirzchalski
2) Jim Packer
3) Texas Western
Railfanning of Centennial Yard, Tower 55, Downtown Ft Worth
4) Locheed Martan Railroad Club
5) Jack Kilbee

The Dallas Tour will be Saturday with the first section leaving at 7:30 AM
We will be visiting the following layouts
1) Jerry Hoverson
2) Kurt Umlauf
3) Chip Romig
4) Allan Gartner - 2 layouts
5) Lloyd Keyser

Each week draws us closer to June. Last week we finalized the Super Tour. This week, we shift our focus to early tours. These will be the layouts open on Wednesday, June 3rd that our guests can visit on their way to the convention. We are featuring layouts inn outlying areas of the Metroplex. One of the biggest railroads is Brady McGuire’s O scale Pennsylvania Railroad Laurel Valley Subdivision.

We are very excited to have the bus tour layouts finalized. They should be posted soon on the website. We have a large number of layouts committed and more coming. We are especially pleased to have James Peterson’s new layout on tour. Many of you know James as the proprietor of Discount Model Trains.

January 2009
 
If Layout Tours is what you like at your convention, we have over 70 layouts within easy driving distance from this year’s convention.  Almost 1/3 of these have already confirmed for the 2009 Trinity River Interchange with more to come!
 
As a result, we are excited to be bringing you our best layout tour yet. We have something for  just about everyone, representing nearly every scale. There will be awesome large layouts, examples of  what can be done with limited space, and everything in between. Each one is loaded with ideas to get you excited about building or adding on to your own layout or modeling project.
 
You’ll get to see layouts that are just underway all the way up those that are nearly complete. Below are some of the layouts that are going to be on tour. Even better, there will be more (lots more) to come, including a few surprises. If this hasn’t gotten you  

• Jim Aust HOGreat Northern
• Don Murphey HO St. Louis, Atlantic, and Pacific
• Stan Pirzchalski HO MDAK
• Jim Packer HO Nevadun Railroad
• Tim Blackwell N  Whitehurst and Pine Ridge
• Olaf Melhouse N  Dakota Northern
• Jim Norwood HO Kansas City Southern
• David Davis MMR HO  DTS
• Steve Willis HO Colorado Southwestern.
• Mike Haas HO Westbrooke Parkway
• Chip Romig S and Sn3  Colorado and Silver River
• Jerry Hoverson MMR HO Rocky Mountain Central/ Hon3 Colorado Pacific
• Richard Cook N Sand Springs Railway
• Brady McGuire O Southwestern Pennsylvania
• Jack Orr HO Raton and Overland
• Marc Lachey Sn3 Cripple Creek and Tin Cup
• Elbert Smith HO Graham Branch of the Rock Island
• Bennie Shields G 12 Oaks Railroad
• Darrel Smith HO Texas and Pacific
• Texas Western Model Railroad Club HO /HOn3Texas Western 
• South Side Railroad Modelers HO South Side and Rio Mesa
• Rolf Brugger HO Bear Creek Branch of the Southern Pacific

For more information on these layouts including the newest additions, click on list tab above.
 
Also, for 2009 we will be featuring a "SUPER, Super Tour".   More on that to come!
 
Steve Willis