Any Forum Members going to Galesburg RR Days? (video added)

I'll be at Railroad Days! I'll be displaying and operating a 2-Rail switching layout.

I will be there on Saturday, June 27. I will visit Carl Sandburg College late morning for their amazing model train layouts & dealers for some O-Scale models. Later in the afternoon I will be at the downtown Amtrak station when parking is easier to find. The 2 long-distance Amtrak trains, with Superliner cars, that pass through Galesburg, California Zephyr & Southwest Chief also pass through Galesburg & the westbound trains stop there in the evening (if they are running on time).

These are just my opinion,

Thanks,

Naveen Rajan

I think that there is a lot to do at Galesburg, both real trains and models.  And they have a die-cast car show along with the train show.  There's a lot going on down at the Amtrak station with a street fair, carnival, and etc.  They even have some kind of a car show I think.

Art

Back in the mid to late 1990s, when BN, AT&SF, EMD, and GE all participated, it was really a VERY busy weekend. I attended many of them, and can still remember the year a tornado went through the area, and blew some tents down at the station area. Frisco #1522 and CMStP&P #261 even attended some years ago.

Yes I'll be their!!!  Probably will be driving down on Wednesday and driving back on Monday.  I will be staying at a friends house by Peck Park (where the Santa Fe goes under the Q)  Saturday night I'll be doing a slide Show in the park. 

The Car show is on Sunday Morning.

I will be going with my Brother and his son.  We plan on taking Amtrak Carl Sandburg.  The cost round trip $30.60 with AAA 10% discount per Adult.

Ken

The event is this weekend. I hope to meet some of the O-Gauge Forum members tomorrow.

Thanks,

Naveen Rajan

Unfortunately, because I did not purchase our tickets on Amtrak early enough, I was not able to get the discounted rate as I stated above.  The tickets are now 3 times as much.  With the increased cost of tickets and for some other reasons, I have decided not to go.   If I can go next year, I will have to book our tickets in early June. 

I waited too long to get my tickets too and have decided not to go.   Amtrak tickets are triple what I could have bought them for originally.  And I don't feel like driving over alone.  I'm bummed as it is a great event and the weather is supposed to be near perfect.

Art

I wasn't able to make it today, but my wife and I did get up and go out for breakfast and then stop over at Plano, IL.  At 8:33 this morning the Amtrak's Carl Sandberg pulled in with the Zephyr Route's Milwaukee Road Super Dome on the rear.  As the train pulls out you can just catch my son, Jim, waving at me from the rear of the car.  Perfect day today, I wish I had gone.

Art

Loved the video, Art. Did I catch a quick glimpse of your son Jim waving to you out the door of the MW Super Dome? Really cool if this was him.

Yes, that was Jim.  I didn't have the camera aimed right to get him until the very end.

Art

Just got back from another visit to the annual Galesburg Railroad days & here are some photos I took at the Toy & Train show at the Carl Sandburg College, outside Galesburg.

My daughter, not too happy to be left standing by herself next to a rubber-tired steam locomotive replica that went around the parking lot.

Brian Huang was there with his switching layout that was on 7 folding tables (6’ X 2.5' ) , run using DCS in 2-rail. With the recent thread on the 2-rail forum about portable layout design, I was impressed with such compact layouts I saw at the show today. This was the first time I had seen Brian’s impressive weathering on his freight cars & got advice from him on sources for adding graffiti.

I thought N-Scale was tiny but there were scales displayed at this show including Z-Scale (1:220) & the smallest T-Scale (1:450). I walked by thinking that they were just a stationary diorama until I saw the trains running & had to stop & look closer, I mean really closer.

I have been going to this show every year for the last 6 years & this was the first time I had seen a 3-rail layout at the show. Here are some photos.

There was this young artist who built this impressive layout using LEGO. I was impressed with his creations, a lot being scratch-built from generic parts & not from dedicated kits. I asked him to explain his modeling approach & he does not use any computer program to create his models. He thinks of a model & then looks through the bin of LEGO parts & makes them. He called it the old-school way, not entirely sure what that meant since he was definitely younger than I was.

There were a few HO-Scale layouts. Here is one.

I have never seen a layout this big in any scale & being N-Scale, it made this layout look even bigger.

Still the same layout.

I saw another N-Scale layout & what caught my attention was their club’s cheeky name “NSBN” with the BNSF Swoosh logo for N-Scalers of Bloomington-Normal. There were members wearing T-shirts with NSBN & when I saw the first person wearing it (before I saw the layout), I thought it was a misprint & he got it cheap.

NMRA & some other train-related societies were there recruiting new members. The person at the NMRA booth didn’t seem pleased when he asked me if I had heard of them & I replied that I did but the feedback I got was they care more about HO-Scale & O-Scale Narrow-Gauge, not mainstream O-Scale.

These are just my opinion,

Thanks,

Naveen Rajan

Here are some photos from the downtown Galesburg train station.

There was this passenger car that was supposedly a Lincoln Funeral train. I wanted to learn more but there was a long queue to get aboard & didn’t end up entering.

CONCRETE TIES ARE COMING. They have now made it to Galesburg (from the west) & soon will take over the eastern part of the country. Being from India, I saw them a lot in my home-country & I miss not having them in O-Scale.

Didn’t get on the BNSF locomotive because of the long queue. But then again, they have been displaying ES44C4 for the last 4-5 years. I wish they had an SD70ACe or even an ES44AC to break the monotony.

Amtrak was there with an exhibition train & a tent. I took photos inside the train but the subdued lighting didn’t allow for good photos with my smartphone. I got to speak to the artist, Andy Fletcher, who created the commemorative military & possibly first-responder schemes for Amtrak & possibly Norfolk Southern. He has been making these sketches, by hand since he was around 16 & has been sending it to the CEOs of American railroads & Amtrak had engaged him to design their Heritage schemes. I asked him how he did it without the use of fancy design software & in a few minutes drew me the old Amtrak logo using a ruler, pencil & some Sharpies. It was really impressive to watch him draw.

Some photos of my wife, daughter & mother-in-law.

A BNSF switching move.

I couldn’t watch California Zephyr for the second year in a row since the westbound train was almost an hour late.

These are just my opinion,

Thanks,

Naveen Rajan

sad to say i've never been there.  grew up between galesburg and macomb.  about 20 miles either way.  went to carl sandburg college from 1984-86 before i transferred to western illinois university in macomb.  i live a few miles south of springfield.  harry grossman is pretty involved with railroad days.  i had a business class with him back in college.  i'd like to go just to go thru the college there.  i had a blast at lsu (lake story university...aka carl sandburg college).  now that i'm older and more interested, time just slips by me.  my daughter leaves on a mission trip tomorrow so i won't be going...ahh, maybe next year.

Very nice family photo, Naveen.

Naveen - Thanks for all the great pictures.  It really makes me mad at myself for not going this year.  This event seems to just keep getting better every year.

Art