Santa Rides a Harley
Topic: Events

In Augusta Santa rides a Harley! Just as last year Santa came to town Friday night on a Harley. The first two friday nights each December Augusta celebrates the season with Candlelight Walks. All shops, eateries, and wineries stay open until 10 PM. Special entertainment and food booths are found on the town square. This year horse drawn carriage rides were added to the activities. And of course, Augusta Station is visited by throngs of people On our porch Santa and his Harley had treats and posed for photos with the kiddies. Inside shoppers did their thing in our gift and toy shop. Admission was free to the exhibit area for everyone to get a look. Many people visit us each Canlelight Walk to get up to date on our progress during the year.

In keeping with the season, our caboose moose wore a red muffler and traded his railroader's cap for that elfen resident of the North Pole. Towering over the crowd he presided over the entire evening.

Rokenbach is a popular activity whatever the season. Here the kids have managed to take over, but the radio controlled construction vehicles test the skills of all ages.

Visitors have paused here to watch a train pass through the town of Jefferson on its' way to the mountains. Operation on this stretch of track is new since last year's Candlelight Walk. You can glimpse of the city skyscrapers visible beyond the hills in the background. Most of the city also has been built since last year's event.

"Electric trains" have a traditional connection with the Christmas holidays. If you're in the area, drop by the Candlelight Walk this Friday evening. Or bring your out-of-town guests with you during any of our regular hours.

Gateway NMRA Fall Meet
Topic: Events
This past Saturday I was able to attend the Fall Meet of the Gateway Division of the NMRA. More than 20 model railroaders from both Missouri and Illinois attend each monthly meeting of this local NMRA group. Every November they get together for a full day event which is also open to the public. Several vendors are on hand with their wares. Numerous door prizes, including locomotives, are handed out and the winning raffle ticket is drawn for a table-size layout which is constructed each year by members. This year's layout was DCC powered and included a locomotive with sound.

Among the day's activities were a popular vote model contest and clinics on various model railroading topics. A number of active and talented model railroaders live in the Saint Louis area. One of those, Gary Hoover, has several by-lines in model railroad publications. The latest is in 2006 edition of Kalmbach's annual "Great Model Railroads". His clinic was the first I attended on Saturday.

After the 2001 NMRA national convention in Saint Louis, Gary dismantled his free-lanced layout which had impressed many on the NMRA tour. The new layout, in contrast with the previous, is strictly 1951 Santa Fe prototype. Gary took us on a tour of Santa Fe locations as they appeared on the prototype and now appear on his model railroad. He is both a gifted modeler and photographer of models. Even though I don't model Santa Fe steam, I was entertained and impressed with his clinic.

The topic of the second clinic I attended presented an overview of Free-Mo("Mo as in "modular", not MO as in Missouri). I've been following the N scale branch of this growing modular community and was interested to learn more about it's activities and origins. We had a little fireworks in the clinic when the data projector bulb exploded.

For me the real attraction of these events are the home layout tours. Only three layouts were open but this allowed a leisurely examination. One layout was about to be dismantled for a move out of state. The layout had not advanced beyond bench work and track, but part of the bench work consisted of an nearly eight foot helix four levels high built of 3/4 inch plywood. The owner of the layout intends that he will remove the upright 2x4 supports of the helix allowing it fold down upon itself. He contends they will then carry it from the basement to waiting trailer outside. I didn't take any pictures of the layout, but I certainly would like to have pictures of them getting that helix out of the basement!

I did take pictures of the other two layouts. John Kalin was one of the founders of the National Narrow Gauge Convention. His Sn3 layout is an awesome rendition of the Rio Grande Southern from Telluride to Ophir and Lizard Head Pass. The other layout, built by Tom Orear, is a freelance HO road influenced by the Pacific Northwest and Colorado. Both layouts have beautiful backdrops. The artist painting Tom's sets it apart, however. The man is eighty years old. He still has a steady hand and a great eye.

Ophir is the focal point of the end of the layout room nearest the entrance. It is a shame that this scene now exists only on layouts such as John's. These classic structures fell to highway construction after abandonment of the railroad.

Trestles are a signature feature of the Rio Grande Southern and this layout has plenty of impressive ones.

The coal chutes at Vance Junction were also a distinctive structure on the RGS.


Tom Orear calls his layout "Points West". He's building a town which will have some impressive structures, but right now the focal point of his layout is the logging operation.

The nicely weathered Cornerstone lumber mill structures and carefull detailing create some really nice scenes.

A Good Time Was Had By All
Topic: Events
As a large urban area, Saint Louis has several train shows each year. GATS and other national shows make their appearance, but there are also ones sponsored by local model railroad clubs.

This past weekend I participated in the Mississippi Valley N Scalers annual train show. MVNS has been holding this show each October for serveral years. There were modular layouts representing N, HO, and American Flyer plus a gymnasium full of vendors with goods for every scale.

We took a few items for sale from our shop. Augusta Station's train clock layout also went on the road for the first time. This computer controlled layout is the creation of David Senften, owner of Augusta Station.

The layout mystifies and amazes observors by arranging N scale cars on three tracks to indicate the time of day. You calculate the time by counting the number of cars on each of the tracks to acquire the three digits which make up the time, i.e., hours and minutes. In this photo several people look on as three locomotives shuffle cars in and out of position on the tracks while Dave explains how it is accomplished. Dave is the wizard who designs and builds the other unique animated and interactive displays at Augusta Station.

I managed to find time to tour the layouts on display and take a few photos of the fine modeling on display. The first two are NTrak followed by a N scale coffee table layout, a Lego layout, and finally a scene from the HO layout.