LSR 2009 Layout Tour Weekly Update May 1
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
It is almost that time.
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.
Layout Super Tours Finalized!
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
Weekly Update - Pre Tours
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.
Weekly Update - Super Tour
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.
Do You Like Layouts
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
Layout tour to showcase Dozens of layouts in the Metroplex
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.
Guess Who
July 2008
See one of the biggest new layouts in the DFW area. Can you guess who is building it?
Steve Willis
