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Outstanding! Congrats to Mark Hamre & crew. The tours on Friday took attendees to places on the La Crosse Div that date back to CB&N days: Pepin depot, remains of the Fountain City Brewery [made into an HO kits yrs ago], sand mines, Grand Crossing, CB&Q Club House, etc etc. Fri night's speaker told the group everything they might ever want to know about La Crosse and its RR's inc. the ties Q had to the long gone La Crosse & South Eastern and a GB&W branch. Sat's business mtg I'll leave to the Officers but I will say they did a good job of explaining the Dues increase, future BB size & content, etc. Clinics were popular and covered aspects of the Q not heretofore included at other meets. (Silver View is slowly but surely coming alive again!) The 'silent auction' brought out such unusual items as a CB&Q marked saw in its original wooden case from a waycar, signed original Hatch painting (new SD-24's pulling a rural frt), a 100 yr old CB&Q cigar box, 1940's wall calendars, etc. The swap meet was one of the largest ever as it was open to the public which meant more Sellers AND more customers! Sat night's banquet had more door prizes than attendees (if you bought 5 tix you probably got 2 good prizes) and the speaker showed numerous slides in/around La Crosse including the old downtown depot, etc. Some BRHS mbrs came as from as far as Oregon (used Amtrak's EPB) & California as well as the east coast. There were some exquisite models inc. proto flat car loads of Kewanee steam boilers, a complete Zephyr-Rocket, the Q's 1st doodlebug, a section house and of course color and b/w photos. There were also 5 layouts to tour in/around La Crosse, 2 with heavy Burlington emphasis. The highlight for me (and something we will eventually NOT have) was the Vet's panel: Engineers, Conductors, Brakemen & Agents who hired on as early as 1950 & 51!!! They spoke 1st hand re: steam, the "65 flood, Savanna Ordinance Depot, Galena Jct and a Milw train accidentgally lined thru the CGW Stockton tunnel. the Charme tower incident involving a railfan, a tower operator and a pistol (thus a nickname 'One-Shot'), rock slide detectors, working the wreckers, banana & circus trains, getting locked into a small interlocker, passing signals pre-radio days (causing 2 greybacks to derail), etc. (NOTE: I always get a kick out of the fact that some of the Q fans/modelers who ask the most questions on this site never come to an annual meet to visit with men like this, get the facts, see 4000 & Grand Crossing Tower from the inside, etc etc) Thanks again to all the volunteers! Gerald (La Crosse native) __._,_.___ Posted by: gvlc6@hotmail.com __,_._,___ |