Steve Willis's blog

October 2008

How many times has this happened to you? You’ve come to a model railroad convention and you want to go see some layouts. But they all seem to be too far away, you aren’t familiar with the city, traffic is terrible, and gas prices are outrageous.  You just feel like you ought to stay in your room What a mess! Ever wish there was a better way? Well, thanks to the use of space age technology, there is a better way. It’s the Trinity River Interchange Layout Tour!. Let us tell you how!

This year, we are planning to bring you over 30 home and club layouts in the Metroplex. Better yet, we are working to find innovative ways for you to see as many as you want. The Dallas Ft. Worth area has been well known in the region for the large number of fine railroads and generous owners who open for the convention, many only for the LSR. One of the biggest limitations of so many layouts in such a large metropolitan area is that the distances limit the attendees’ ability to see more than a few during the open house hours. We are working to amend that in a number of ways. These include:

• Scheduling layout tours throughout the convention
• Trying to have layouts grouped in the same area to minimize driving time
• Scheduling around common rush hour bottlenecks or timing the tour to avoid them completely
• Scheduling popular layouts more than once.
• Early and late tours on Wednesday and Sunday so you can see layouts on your way in and on the way home
• Finding the fastest routes to get you from one layout to the next.
• The Super Tour (s) where you can relax and leave the driving to , well, someone else.

We hope to have something for everybody. from N scale to G scale. There are popular favorites from past tours planned. Some of these layouts have made lots of progress or undergone changes since the last time the LSR was in town. There have even been some expansions… There will also be new layouts on the tour, including at least one large layout that was begun after the last LSR and is already progressed to the scenery stage… There are rumors of another large layout that has recently been begun. Layouts… We got ‘em for 2009!

And, there will be another big bonus that comes with your 2009 registration. It’s a Guide to Local Dining.  We’ll have great food at the hotel in quantity at reasonable prices. You won’t have to leave if you don’t wish. But what if you get an appetite for something different? Or more importantly, what if your spouse wants something different? We have put together a compendium of dining establishments in close proximity to the hotel. These embrace all manner of cuisine from casual to elegant dining, from local to eclectic. We’ve included favorites of some of the local modelers, too. And we even have a blue ribbon panel sampling the fare at these restaurants to ensure quality. Lotsa’ good food… We got it for 2009!

Steve Willis.

July 2008  
 
See one of the biggest new layouts in the DFW area. Can you guess who is building it?  
 
Steve Willis