Pictures from the 2001 NMRA convention in St. Louis

    In July of 2001, we drove for 10 hours to play with trains. We started driving Tuesday, July 10, and drove to Rochelle, watched some trains, ate at some point in time (I think we ate and stopped for fuel in Rockford) then continued to just outside of St. Louis, in Illinois.

    Setup started Wednesday. Todd and I drove around the building a few times, finally got in, unloaded, then attempted to find parking for the weekend. The place where we setup was at the TWA Dome, which is right downtown by the river. I know I saw a parking lot near by, but I couldn't figure out how to get to it for sure. Somehow, while trying to get to the parking lot, I ended up on the bridge that leads right into downtown, which also leads out of downtown. A week before we left, I talked a friend of mine, that had lived in St. Louis for some time. He said that I should avoid East St. Louis. And (of course) the first exit that I could turn off of, didn't have an on ramp. I had to drive to the next one... through East St. Louis. After turning around, getting our bearings, and getting to the bridge, we found the lot.

    I still to this day am not sure if the man collecting money for parking was really a parking lot attendant, but he did have change, it was a pay lot, and we never got towed or a ticket. Thursday was really supposed to be a short day, with time to sight-see. We instead waited almost all day for the "house electrician" to open a floor box (one screw) and plug in an extension cord (OOOOoooo!!! Hard work!!). So we lost a good part of the day.

    We went site seeing later that day. Not to bad, but it could have been better if we knew the area. Friday through Sunday was the public show, and we ran hard! The highlights of running were Todd's 186 car grain train, and its crash; and the opportunity to run almost anything, because we had plenty of time to do so. All in all, it was a fun show, even if some idiot ordered a drink with a large plastic blue whale sticking out of the glass, which could be seen from 100 feet away!! (No names, please!!)