At the WHS on Tour in St. Louis? Jan 13: PICTURES of the Open House.

Alex, count us in for Friday evening.

Alex...as you know already, we will be there!!!  Can't wait....

Alan

Wow the world's Greatest Hobby on tour is an awesome show, and on top of that Alex and Judy are having an open house. Now that's what I call a great great weekend. I wish I could be there. Hey guys take tons of photo's of Alex's layout and post them.

Have a great time

Alex

Alex....Wish some day you could get over this way!!  We will take plenty of pictures and post them on the MA3R website as well as on the forums....

Alan

Alex -

Thank you as well!

And do remember that we will be meeting for lunch shortly before 1:00P in a restaurant within walking distance of the America's Center, the venue for the WGH show. Contact me for details.

Alex

Alex great looking layout, question can you tell us the mfg and color of the ballast you used in the opening shot of your viedo.  Just getting to the ballast stage of my layout.

Thanks.

Jack

Alex, I would like to see your layout, maybe Sunday? Depends on my work schedule which is never know far in advance.

Could you could email me direction.

railmandan@sbcglobal.net

Dan

Creve Coure MO

Jack,

The ballast is from Russ at

http://www.ogaugeconnection.co...ocs/BallastKing.html

He is the one who sells the Ballast King. The ballast he sells is ground granite, and it was $2 per pound. He delivered it to my house on his way to York last year. His advertisement says it would cost $2.45/lb shipped - a real good deal.

I mixed the light and black ballast at a ratio of 4-light to 1-black to achieve a color similar to the Norfolk Southern tracks a mile from my house. For other areas I mixed 3:1 and 2:1.

Coincidentally, I just finished using the last 20 lb of the 125 lb I bought initially, and still need another 25 lb.

Good luck with your project!

Dan,

I'll email you the information in a few minutes.

Looking forward to meeting you!

Alex

Thanks Alex, Ballast King is 1st on my list at this time, already talked to them at York and have their samples.  I think you really did a great job on the layout.

Jack

Alex,

   If I was out your way I would definitely stop and see your layout,

as it is I can't even find the time to stop and see Patricks great layout, and he lives

quite close.  This gun dog training business is going to be scaled way back over the next few years, and I will be able to enjoy our hobby more.  I am suppose to be retired, Ya right.   Congrats on a fantastic layout, and thank your wife for the invitation into your home, having done this before I know what it is, to open your home to a lot of different people.

PCRR/Dave

Jack, Alex -

I think that it is about time that you nice folks in PA, NY, NJ, etc. get together and make a trip out to the Midwest.

Believe it or not, there are some nice layouts out here, and I am not including mine on the list. There are several beautiful layouts in Springfield, MO, as well as in Mountain Home, AR.

Come visit when you can!

Thx

Alex

The WGH on Tour show was in St. Louis this weekend, and my wife Judy and I had the good fortune of having 18 guests visit us, look at the Hidden Pass Junction RR layout, share some refreshments, and enjoy our company and friendly conversation. Among our guests were several members of the Mid-America 3-Railers club, as well as personal friends.

After the show shortly after noon on Saturday, several of us had lunch in a restaurant in downtown St. Louis, and then headed to my house. Shortly afterwards other guests started to arrive. 

Here are a few pictures of the earlier group on Saturday.

 Alan, Mike, LaKeeta, Judy, Jon, Alex, Becki, Louanna, Roger

Becki, Mike

Alan, Jon (looking at Alan's new gem)

Roger, Louanna, Becki, Jon

Becki, Alex

 Alan, Mike, LaKeeta, Judy, Jon, Denise, Becki, Louanna, Roger

We had a wonderful time!

Alex

Alex,

  Looks like everybody had a wonderful time. I am going to have to make it to St. Louis someday to see your layout! Thanks for posting the pictures.

Jeff

Alex,

Thanks again for letting us invade your home and your wonderful layout.

I've had the pleasure of meeting Alex and his wife Judy at York this past October.

They are the nicest people you could ever meet.  I've only seen Alex's layout in photo's and videos and am amazed at his expertise, craftsmanship and fine details.  I can only imagine what a sight this would be in person.

It's layouts like Alex's that inspire us to work on our own layouts and TRY to create something as wonderful as he has. 

I hope that I am lucky enough to get an opportunity to one day see it in person, as well as the other great layouts that Alex mentioned, and to also have the pleasure of spending some time with Alex and Judy again.

Thanks, Alex

Hi Alex, looks like you guys had a great time. Nothing makes a top of the line layout look even better as a bunch of good looking people enjoying it.

Alex:

It was really nice to see photos of some of your guests and it is obvious how much they enjoyed the visit to your layout. You are correct, some of us east coast guys must make a pilgrimage to your area to see these wonderful layouts. I have had the privilege to visit Alan's layout first hand, but missed the others as time was compressed with a weekend business trip.

Thanks for this review of your Open House.

Jeff, Roger, Alex, Mario, Brian –

Thank you for your comments. Yes, it was great, and we really appreciated especially those who drove several hundred miles to visit us.

Please remember that we welcome you anytime, so if you ever are in the St. Louis vicinity, please contact me. And when when you come, a good appetite is strongly recommended.  (per Judy)

Thx!

Alex

Ok Alex  Is Judy better at Cuban or German cooking?

Ben,

Probably this order: Cuban, Italian, German.

But her renowned specialty unquestionably is desserts!

And I'll let you verify my judgement.

Thx!

Alex

Let's see, her renowned specialty unquestionably is desserts. That's it, your on.

I am home just for a few minutes and saw this talk about Judy's cooking and her desserts....  OK, the truth is......none of you would like her cooking so in order to save you from any unpleasantness,  I will volunteer to eat everything myself.  I am doing this out of the goodness of my heart for my friends here on the forum......

OK...OK...here is the real truth..... Judy's cooking talents are world class and what I am afraid of is that there will be less for me!!  Each time we have visited our good friends, Alex and Judy, there has never been a minute that we didn't feel right at home.  Both of these fine folks are the best of the best!  Alex's layout is stunning and so is Judy's cooking.  When she lays out the eats...her kitchen looks like a chef's cooking show.  It got more difficult each time to go up and down the stairs to the train room because for some reason gravity kept increasing its downward force on those steps!!

By the way, I will be back this evening and post more pictures of the event...

Thanks,

Alan

I wanted to say that my wife and I had a wonderful time at the WGH event in St. Louis with the highlight being our stay with Alex and Judy.  Alex's layout is without a doubt one of the most well done and thought out model railroads I have ever seen.  His attention to detail is reflected throughout every scene.  As an example he has a scene where there is an archery range.  The arrows are hand crafted to scale down to the three feathers that guide the arrow to the scale target!  His trestle is another example where he cut every piece of this marvelous structure out of dimensional material and then put all of it together from research he did on the prototypes. 

I could go on and on but I assure you that this is a layout you should see in person if you ever get a chance.  AND...I am willing to bet it is going to get attention from the hobby press sooner than later. 

To top it all off...like putting the proverbial cherry on top of a delicious Ice Cream Sunday is Judy, Alex's sweetheart who also happens to be his wife.  When you are a guest at their home, it is like being royalty.  The red carpet starts from your home to theirs and that is just the beginning.  Judy is simply a world class chef....no other way to describe her ability to put together the best tasting food anyone has ever experienced.  Every visitor to their open house this weekend had the most pleasant experience to their palate through the dozens of dishes Judy prepared.  To sum it up....Judy is an Angel period. 

Combining these two experiences....viewing Alex's layout and Judy's cuisine made for a memorable time BUT when you blend in their hospitality....their ability to make all of those that attended feel like they are just part of their extended family....well....it just doesn't get any better!!  Thank you Judy and Alex for everything you did to make this a fantastic weekend for all of us!!

Below are pictures of Judy's "layout"......Judy is the cute gal on the far right!

          Mike Orite enjoying the feast before him!!

Alan,

Thank you for posting those very nice pictures! Busy running the trains, I forgot to take pics of the guests who arrived later on Saturday and on Sunday.

Looking forward to getting together again.

Brian,

Anytime!

Thx! 

Alex

Looks like it was a great time, I really wanted to get over there from Tulsa! Thanks for the pictures. 

What a fabulous layout as well as a superb video.  I'll probably be out in St. Louis this summer visiting my friends on the Wabash Frisco & Pacific.  Will probably stay in Chesterfield.  Any chance I could schedule a visit?  Many thanks. Lew Schneider

Lew,

Absolutely! Chesterfield is about 25 to 30 miles from us, and it is an easy drive on I64/40. Send me an email when you know your itinerary so we can plan your visit.

Looking forward to meeting you -

Alex

Alex, Rose and I wanted to visit you and Judy, but the Flue bug was visiting us and kept us home.  Have you found a meserschmitt to hang in front of the Brits yet?  We thank you for the invite and are really sorry we didn't get any of Judy's cooking and hope you can send us some via REA .

Al

My wife and I attended the show but had too much going on to accept your generous invitation.  Would love to see your fantastic layout some time.

Bob

Al,

No, not yet. The Brits are having a field day with no other planes in the sky!

Hope to see you and Rose very soon.

Bob,

Anytime! Just email me or gives us a call.

THX!

Alex