The National Narrow Gauge Convention officially ended Sunday, but there were tours scheduled for me and a few other layouts yesterday morning. Once the last visitor left after 2PM yesterday, I was DONE and had a great time. The only thing I was slightly disappointed at was losing in the model photo competition to someone who submitted three D&RGW themed photos and took all three prizes, but I already knew that for many of the attendees of these conventions, it’s ALL about the Rio Grande stuff and nothing else.
As for my own tours, I set up a table at the front door, manned by my friend Robert Scott, the best qualified to talk about the layout aside from myself. I had a double-sided flyer about the layout for future reference:
Inside the room, I didn’t see one look of disappointment (I thought I would as I know many people want to just see the biggest layouts they can).
My tours were for Thursday and Monday (yes, Labor Day). The last day, I was asked to have tours the morning after the official event was over so that anyone driving south could swing by on the way home. Oddly, several of the visitors weren’t doing that and were instead heading back to Tacoma afterward.
Though I wasn’t available for tours on Saturday, I was asked by some VIPs to come by and check things out. I was more than happy to oblige, so Johnny Graybeal (ET&WNC historian and author), George Riley (White River Publications) and Chris Lane (editor of the On30 Annual) came by. As for Johnny and Chris, I consider them to be THE two people outside my own family who’d best understand what I was trying to accomplish with my layout. I couldn’t have been happier to have them look things over, so naturally I had to take a photo to confirm they’d been there!
More photos are here from the venue, including several of the contest entries here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/...ms/72177720301823993
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