A Visit to The Bryan/College Station Model Railroad Society

Well I don't know about y'all but I had a fine Thanksgiving vacation and a great visit with the family.  I hope everyone out there had the same or better!

This is a club owned SD40-2 painted in the freelance Gulf, Texas & Western scheme of the layout.  Here number 1000 idles (loudly I might add) waiting for a new train during the open house.

 

The weekend before the turkey day I found myself up at the train club in Bryan, Texas.  I was a member of this club for nearly two years while in school, and I always wish I had more time as a member there.  These are the guys who really got me hooked back into the modeling world, and I can never thank them enough for that.  And because they are that cool, they invited me to come run during their annual open house!

The club is called the Bryan/College Station Model Railroad Society, or BCSMRRS for short.  They have a website here (EDIT: this link is to their Facebook, more updates and pictures there!) with plenty of pictures and general information.  The layout is a freelanced idea focused on operations with the ability to handle and run long trains across many different scenes and towns.  The local line is called the Gulf, Texas, and Western Railroad.  There are operating sessions and regular run nights, with open-to-the-public general meetings every Monday evening.  If you want to visit, do not hesitate!  The members are very friendly and very experienced in different facets of model railroading.

I arrived a bit after the opening time of ten AM.  The weather was not looking good, thunder and rain on a direct course to berate the area all day, but that could not stop the open house!  The guys had setup a large outdoor covering to allow visitors to arrive and dry off before entering the layout building.  All day long people came to visit and oooh and ahhhh at the many different trains running around, and take in the details of the world that has been created on the layout.  All day long, these guys kept the signals green, the trains a rollin', and kept the attention of visitors young and old.

Personally, I had the best time imaginable.  I hope to attend the whole weekend next year, including helping setup on Friday and cleanup on Sunday night.  It is always a blast to see all of the improvements they have made to the layout and building, as well as catch up with friends.

So if you get the chance, go check out the GT&W and be sure to say hi for me!

And now for the random picture of the day:

 This is a perfect example of old power helping out in the modern world.  BNSF 1607 is an old Santa Fe SD40-2 in the classic "yellow bonnet" paint scheme that has been updated to modern requirements (ditch lights, enviornmental readers, etc).  She has been hanging around the Pearland Yard for a few weeks now helping in switching duties.  Apparently, the Gensets are not very reliable and it takes two of them to do what this one loco can do.  So this old girl has been pushing and pulling the long autorack and intermodals into the loading facility.  It is always great to see this one rumbling by!