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Hutchinson, a progressive, hi-tech city of 14,000 just an hour west of the
Twin Cities, welcomes National Model Railroad Association members to the
2009 Thousand Lakes Region convention, May 29-31, 2009.
The 18 members of Luce Line Railroad Club Inc., a 15-year-old 100-percent
NMRA club, are organizing a day of clinics, a day of prototype tours and a
day of home layout tours. Our headquarters will be the Best Western
Victorian Inn (the Vic), 1000 State Highway 7 W.
Because recent TLR conventions were more expensive four-day events, the Luce
Line group, with the TLR Board's encouragement, is planning a less expensive
three-day gathering. Final cost details will appear with the registration
form in the March 2009 issue of The Fusee.
Hutchinson can't match the scenic splendor Winona displayed for the TLR in
2007. Nor does it have the rail and water adventures that the TLR's 2008
convention in Duluth had, But there will be plenty to see and do in the
153-year-old city at the edge of Minnesota's Big Woods.
Registration and contest entries begin at 10 a.m. on Friday. Lunch will be
on your own, but get set for a full afternoon of clinics, beginning at 12:30
p.m.
Though Hutchinson no longer has rail service, we'll explore its rich
114-year rail history with clinics on each of its three former railroads -
the Milwaukee Road, the Great Northern and the Luce Line (later the MN
Western, M&StL and C&NW).
But don't fret, model railroaders. Friday's timetable is filled by a roster
of five clinics by stellar modelers, including three NMRA Master Model
Railroaders.
Highlighting the slate of modeling clinics is a two-hour, hands-on session
in which each attendee will construct, paint and get to take home a
Walther's 3-in-1 building. Leading the session will be Miles and Fran Hale.
They will provide the kits, paint, glues and tools.
Miles is the NMRA Board of Directors Western District representative,
covering the North and South Dakota portions of the TLR. An MMR (No. 80,)
since 1981, he's been a professional R&D model maker for Kadee/Micro Trains,
Woodland Scenics/DPM, Intermountain and New London Industries. His wife Fran
is an expert professional modeler in her own right, author of Woodland
Scenics' "Scenery Manual," and known for presenting scenery clinics at
regional and national NMRA conventions.
While modelers are in the clinics, non-rails will be enjoying an afternoon
of shopping in downtown Hutchinson, home to many unique shops including
gift, antique, craft, scrapbooking, quilting and home stores. Included will
be tea at a new tea house in one of Hutchinson's finest Victorian homes.
After supper on your own, the day continues with a dessert reception at the
nearby McLeod County Museum where Winsted resident Gary Lenz, perhaps the
definitive expert on the Luce Line, will present a PowerPoint presentation
on the history of the railroad that reached Hutchinson in 1915.
TLR members may browse the museum's fascinating collection, which includes
an entire room of wildlife art by Hutchinson native Les Kouba, an
Allis-Chalmers experimental fuel cell tractor on loan from the Smithsonian
Institution and displays about each McLeod county city, including several
railroad photos.
The night concludes at 9 p.m. back at the "Vic" with open projectors for TLR
members to display their best railfan slides or digital images. This is
something new, so start gathering your best work now. To give everyone an
opportunity, we'll keep presentations to 40 images per photographer.
After breakfast on your own on Saturday, we'll bus to Glencoe, home of the
Twin Cities & Western Railroad, to the see original Milwaukee Road depot
downtown and then visit the TC&W's headquarters and modern two-stall shop.
We hope to visit Seneca Foods, a vegetable packer and TC&W customer.
The bus will then head north to Dassel, where Howard Page has filled the
restored and relocated former Cokato Great Northern depot with an amazing
assortment of memorabilia from railroads across the country. Non-rails will
be given maps to explore other antique shops and points of interest not seen
on Friday.
A sandwich buffet lunch back at the "Vic" will be followed by visits (via
your own vehicles) to Hutchinson's lone surviving depot, the 1887-built
Great Northern. There you can ride Tom Wiprud's "speeder," equipped with a
five-chime air-horn.
Luce Line Railroad Club's room at Hutchinson Mall will be open, too. There
you can see the club's 8-by-31 HO sectional layout and its 6-by-12
three-rail O-scale layout.
The day concludes at the "Vic" with social time followed by the banquet and
presentation of various Region awards and contest winners. The Hales will
give a short talk about their work and the NMRA, and we hope to have a
special program about the TLR's 60th anniversary. The night will conclude
with an exciting Chinese auction, similar to what was presented at Winona.
After breakfast on your own on Sunday, the convention's final day will begin
at 9:30 a.m. with the annual membership meeting.
Before heading home, there will be nine layouts at six homes to tour,
including two homes in Hutchinson and Fusee editor Gerry Leone (MMR) in
Excelsior. Three double-deck HO layouts by Minnesota River Valley Division
members within an hour or so west of Hutchinson will be open for those
heading southwest, west or northwest.
The registration sign-up form will appear in the Spring Fusee, due in your
mailbox on or around March 1, or on this website February 1.
Friday's tentative clinic schedule
At the Vic
12:30pm . Terry Davis, "Milwaukee's Hutch Branch"
. Gerry Leone, MMR, "Easy, Realistic Model Railroad
Photography : A Real-Time Demonstration"
1:30pm . Dave Zachmeyer & Terry Davis, "GN's Hutch Branch/DAKR"
. Mike Engler & Jack Bergan, "Chalk Weathering"
2:30pm . John Givan, "Detailing and Painting First Generation Diesels"
. Lester Breuer, MMR, "Detailing an Athearn Boxcar"
3:15pm . Fran and Miles Hale, MMR, "Hands-On Building A Walther's 3-in-1
Building"
At the McLeod County Museum
7pm . Gary Lenz, the Luce Line/Minnesota Western
At the Vic
9pm . Open projectors for railfan slides/images
2005 Convention: River City 2005 - May 19-22 in Mason City - Joint Meet with the Chicago & North Western Historical Society
2006 Convention: NorthStar '06 - May 5-7 in the Twin Cities
2007 Convention: Steamin' to Winona - Winona, MN - June 8th - June 10th, 2007 Convention Activities Contest Photo
2008 Twin Ports Express Duluth, MN May 2nd, 3rd & 4th, 2008 Convention Activities Contest Photo's
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