did any of y’all make it to the NMRA convention? if you did, i was wondering what your favorite module was. i thought the N scale one with the working tornado was very interesting and innovative. i also really liked the Ark-La-Tex (i think thats the club name) modul of the swamp scene. the one with the night time sounds. i think there was an gator in every one of those modules 
overall i think i did pretty well at the convention…i came out of there spending less than 200 bucks for once…
Hi Alex,
The show was great, wasn’t it? I’ve gotten word that over 17,193 people (not counting exhibitors) attended the show.
What do you think of the Independent Hi-Railers, Midwest Division, taking “Best of Show” for their layout? I’d think an HO or N scale layout would have taken the prize. I’m not begrudging them the honor, though, it was an impressive layout. I found myself walking past it several times.
Jim Schulz
associate editor, Trains.com
I can understand Hi-Railers taking the award if the judges happened by when the articulated autoracks were out on the layout!
How about the 12 year old who took the “chairman’s” award?
Did anyone see the Nn3 goose running??
i am now kinda sorry i didnt pay much attention to the Hi-Railers layout. didnt even notice it won. i did see the goos though, it was pretty cool. seemed like everyone had the same things on their layouts. everyone had an oil refinery, and an intermodal yard. sad for me to say, but some of those 10-12 year olds do better work than i can do
it was nice to finally see that walthers is going to release a 53’ 3 unit articulated intermodal well car (now i just need my 53’ athearn containers i ordered long ago) the model of the Tulsa Oklahoma station was really nice too, also the steel mill with the working smoke was good (although it would look much better with more detail)