Wow! Our dreams came through of a Lines West meet AND a joint one with one of
our natural partners; NP or GN. The NP folks were tremendous, very friendly &
constantly appreciative of the CB&Q fans who attended.
It was a 'win-win' as we exchanged info, shared clinics, railfanned, etc, A
big thank you to Gene Tacey for making this possible AND Kyle Brehm (NPHS Meet
Host), NPHS officers & mbrs and the Crowne Plaza hotel. The Billings newspaper
gave great P.R. to the meet and NPHS was smart to encourage the public to
attend the Swap meet (free!) which meant more buyers AND more NP/Q items being
offered by folks whose family had worked for either road.
A special thanks to Dick Chappel, BRHS mbr in nearbvy Hardin who gave us a
special tour of TWO Q depots and his TWO layouts (local historical society
moved the 2 story Lodge Grass depot to their historic village, also a 50' wood
truss road coach - the latter not yet restored but the depot was pristine
including original furnishings from the Agent and his family who had loved
upstairs) The brick Hardin depot was also restored & a great place to visit
trackside. Then Dick gave us a tour of his basement G scale layout (had no
idea so many G models are available in Q paint) AND his 7" outdoors layout
(battery powered by 2 GN boxcabs but a nice Q flat car in the consist)
Why we had not worked to have a meet with NP or GN yrs ago is ancient history
but this week sure showed how great it can be. Again hats off to NPHS mbrs,
the panel of Veteran employees (inc. 2 who had worked for Q), etc. The
mountains, all the remaining Q equipment in tne area (steam locos, waycars,
freight cars, depots, truss bridges, etc) made this a once in a lifetime event.
I say lifetime as I was a grad student @ U. of Iowa when we started this in
1976 and a look around the clinic rooms showed nary a Q or NP head that was not
grey or silver (or bald). Fallen flag RR groups are threatened by Father Time
so take the time now to get out to meets (also those veteran employees
obviously were old given BN took over CB&Q 43 yrs ago. One had been a 16 yr
old call boy but he was the exception to the rest who were retired in some
cases for 20 years.
And for you collectors/modelers there were really good deals as the NP folks
sold off their Q RRiana and models and vice-a-versa. A lot of "win-win" deals!
We also found a lot of Q info in some the NPHS publications as did the NP fans
at our Company Store. Good to see old friends who have done so much for Q fans
and who were able to make it to a BRHS meet since it was Lines West: Bill
Glick, Ken Martin et al. Thanks one and all! Gerald
(Now look in a mirror and explain to yourself again why you a) are NOT a BRHS
mbr or b) why you missed Billings!) :-)
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