NewsLetter

Our First Newsletter of 2011

The first official function of the Vancouver Island Garden Railway Club was our annual display that was setup on the stage at the Nanaimo Model train Show at Beban Park on March 27th.
Half a dozen members showed up around 8 am to 10 am for the setup. This involved the laying out of three loops one within each other. We used some of the clubs’ track and also a large amount of Ken Ortweins’ track. We were able to have three trains running. With many helping hands we had it setup and running in about one hour and half.
This allowed us to have a quick look around the main floor before the doors opened to the public. ( Looking for some great buys etc.) Some of our members entered projects in the modeling contest. A well done sight seeing tourist passenger car by one of our members won favorite in the rolling stock category.

The layouts on the main floor are all at waist high, and this makes it hard for children to see unless they are held up. Our layout is on the floor so the children can get up close. So there was no second guessing on which layout was the most popular with the younger ones. Some children did not want to leave.
The outside loop has a tunnel, so there is always three or four children laying beside the track waiting for the train to come through. ( With a magnet in the right spot the whistle blows as the train enters the tunnel which adds to the attraction. ) On the middle loop there is railway crossing gate complete with flashing lights, ringing bell and arms that come down when the train passes. A bubble blowing car ( it went through 3 sets of batteries, will have to come up with a way to run it off track power ) at the end of one of the trains created lots of interest as little hands tried to catch or break the bubbles.

The centre loop had Mendy Roberts’ Easter Rabbit train running on it. Over the course of the day a few cars did get knocked over by children, but the similes and excited following of the trains more then made up for this small problem. ( even 1 to 1 scale railways have derailments!!!!)

A large scale model of the Kinsol trestle built by Ken Ortwein also drew a lot of interest. We also had a buy and sell table, where many things found new homes . There was many vender tables on the main floor. Some of our members picked up so good buys. One being stainless steel track at $2.00 a foot. Some new purchase’s were run on the track to make sure that they were a good buy!
Half dozen membership application forms were picked up, so we may get a new member or two.

Our next get together is on May 15th at Keith & Elisabeth’s in Victoria. 1pm to 4pm. Hope to see you there!!! Don’t forget your Dues! They are $10.00 and can be paid by cheque payable to Glenda Ortwien in person at one of our open houses.

Members can log in here for detailed information about the locations of the next meeting.