West Coast Asshats

[Philip H]

I used to travel up and down the left coast all of the time for work but these days I spend most of my time in Sacramento but would love to see the West Coasters get better organized so we can take on that 'other' coast.

Hey look, a thread that hasn't had anyone even mention a Pennsy steam locomotive...oh darn!

In 3 . . . 2 . . . 1 . . . . 

[BCR751]

Hold it after the end of April when the 3-feet of snow in front of our storage unit has melted so I can get to our travel trailer and I'll be there

Doug (in northern BC)

[sdodge]

Joe,
I like the idea and would be game. I'm located near Sacramento, CA and make trips up to Dunsmuir periodically. I hear we have a mutual friend who lives there too.
-Ryan

I , too, live near Sacramento (Nevada City) and Dunsmuir is sort of a Mecca especially if you are also a fly fisherman.

I am planning to attend the NMRA in Portland. John Signor lives in Dunsmuir (at least he did)

Steve Dodge

[Kisatchie]

...I was thinking, since we belong to a East Coast centric forum and our superior West Coast are roads generally treated as an oddity in most discussions, we should organize....

You should try being a Central USA modeler - Kansas City Southern, Illinois Central, and (pre-Borg) Missouri Pacific. Seems like nobody talks about those railroads.


Hmm... I'm writing a book
on the KCS/IC/MP...

[JoeD]

I'll be there for sure!

Hello Joe:

Great idea.  I am sure that many of the modelling community here in beautiful British Columbia will be travelling down for Portland 2015.

The Meet N March show this year is on Saturday, March 29, 2014 at Valley Catholic High School in Beaverton, Oregon:

http://meetnmarch.org/

Also a good opportunity for Railwire members to converge.  I am hoping to get down there this year.


Tim

[wazzou]

I'll be there for sure!

Well, we should arrange a time to gather all of the WC guys that can attend.

[rsn48]

While everyone is getting warm and fuzzy about this west coast thing and Portland, don't forget there is train show in Vancouver BC this late fall, no reason some can't meet up there.

[ryan_wilkerson]

I, too, live near Sacramento (Nevada City) and Dunsmuir is sort of a Mecca especially if you are also a fly fisherman.

I am planning to attend the NMRA in Portland. John Signor lives in Dunsmuir (at least he did)

Steve Dodge

Yes, Dunsmuir is great, I spend most of my free time up there.
John Signor does live there, my sons and I ran on his EXCELLENT fully-signaled CTC-operated HO layout last week. Night operating session and I played dispatcher on the big machine clicking away. My oldest son took over dispatching for 15 minutes, what a blast! My 7 and 9 year old sons don't know how GOOD they have it!

There are quite a few other railroad guys that live in the area too (photographers, railfans, modellers, previous manufacturers, and railroad retirees). All a friendly bunch.
 
On the non-modelling front, in January I setup an ATCS Monitor server covering this area so railfanning is much easier up there. The upper Sacramento River Canyon is beautiful...I see many fishermen out in the Spring and Summer.

Let me know if you're up in Dunsmuir in the Summer.

[wazzou]

While everyone is getting warm and fuzzy about this west coast thing and Portland, don't forget there is train show in Vancouver BC this late fall, no reason some can't meet up there.

Those that want to, can do that as well...am I right?

[mmagliaro]

Well, you'll certainly get no complaint from me.  Any new good show in the Portland, OR area is great for me
since I live there.
I am REALLY looking forward to the NMRA National coming here next year.

But what exactly did you have in mind for this?  What kind of event would this be?  A big swap meet?  With clinics, vendors?

[OldEastRR]

YES!!!! This is a good start for creating a distinct West Coast presence on RailWire. Maybe our own forum, highlighting Western shows, discussing western RRs and designs, etc. I agree that sometimes any western RR material gets lost in the threads and posts, and wonder if there are drop-ins who have looked the forum over quickly and decided it was geared for eastern RRs. At times page after page of thread comments by the "regular gang" of eastern modelers who all live near and visit each other regularly seems like a private party, inside jokes and all.
I assume there is a huge model RR community in Southern California with many N scalers. And the only two N-scale exclusive magazines are out of the Pacific Northwest (including Canada), so there's a good community at that end of the coast, too.
The ancient standard model for our hobby is to divide it into general groups by scale. But the wealth of RTR cars and locos in a variety far overwhelming the limited selections of 20 or 60 years ago, plus the vast resources for research in print and on the internet, has made many subgroups out of all railroad scales  -- the "if only they made ___" modelers are able to join the ranks of active ones. A separate forum for dealing with models and info about railroads and terrain as widely differing as the eastern seaboard is from the western is not a bad idea.
And this doesn't mean exclusivity -- people can still jump around to other forums to see what's going on there.

[CBQ Fan]

You should try being a Central USA modeler - Kansas City Southern, Illinois Central, and (pre-Borg) Missouri Pacific. Seems like nobody talks about those railroads.


Hmm... I'm writing a book
on the KCS/IC/MP...

Or CB&Q, the Midwest rocks.  Without the Midwest both coasts would fall into the ocean.

[JoeD]

Wisdom Bryan, wisdom.   

Or CB&Q, the Midwest rocks.  Without the Midwest both coasts would fall into the ocean.

[JoeD]

I drive down all the time...only an hour or so by Jeep.  I usually hang out with Bruce Petty and run my HO Pacific Electric on his Burbank Branch...love that layout.  If I could retire, and had enough money to pay Cali taxes I would move there.  Heck, they have a hardware store that has more SP model trains than most any hobby shop short of Eugene or Roseville.  Love sitting in the Brown Trout across from the yard during the winter and drinking coffee and watching long strings of trains go by.  Amazing place for Foaming.  Next time you are up, let us know

Yes, Dunsmuir is great, I spend most of my free time up there.
John Signor does live there, my sons and I ran on his EXCELLENT fully-signaled CTC-operated HO layout last week. Night operating session and I played dispatcher on the big machine clicking away. My oldest son took over dispatching for 15 minutes, what a blast! My 7 and 9 year old sons don't know how GOOD they have it!

There are quite a few other railroad guys that live in the area too (photographers, railfans, modellers, previous manufacturers, and railroad retirees). All a friendly bunch.
 
On the non-modelling front, in January I setup an ATCS Monitor server covering this area so railfanning is much easier up there. The upper Sacramento River Canyon is beautiful...I see many fishermen out in the Spring and Summer.

Let me know if you're up in Dunsmuir in the Summer.

[JoeD]

Looks like some interest peculating here...very cool.  The Underlord of Marketing said he will help out how ever he can which is cool.   Yes, we need to meet up next month and start some ground work and get organized a bit.  I think it would be great to put names to faces and learn first hand about how they model.  Funny, there are only a few N scalers in Medford but the few that are, have exceptional talents and are very giving of their time and resources.  BC and LA/ SD are do able as well as all points in between.  We also have opportunities at some of the NMRA regional meets, San Francisco hosts a number of SIG meetings that would solve some of the leg work.

Cool

Joe