# A Few More Thoughts And Pictures On The BTS



## GrizzlyFlatsFan (Jan 5, 2008)

Here are a few thoughts on the Big Train Show.

I ordered my tickets by mail in May. If you ordered by May 15, a single day was $9 and Saturday and Sunday was only $17. That saves you a bit from having to buy at the door. For the price of a stamp I didn't have to pay $12 per day. The tickets show up in the mail with plenty of time before the show.

I arrived Thursday and was able to help with the track set-up. This is a great social event and I recommend it to all. It's reasonably organized with a touch of mayhem.  And it's a good way to meet and get to know some of the live steamers.

My favorites of the inside layouts were the Del Oro and the Door Hollow. In the far corner of the Del Oro was a F-scale Denver & Salt Lake 2-6-6-0 standard gauge locomotive on 70.2 mm track. It was scratch build by George Konrad and was huge! Nice work. I'll post a picture of it next to some G-scale

I spent a bit of time at the Train-Li booth talking to Dan, Axel, and his lovely wife Joanne. Very nice folks. Their booth was about double the size of their booth last year. They are growing fast. It's amazing what great Customer Service can do for a business. I was especially intrigued with their uncoupling system using a laser pointer.

Accucraft had some new offerings as posted elsewhere. They are a very nice group of folks with very good products. They were on an end cap right across from the raffle area. I liked the Royal Hudson, a beautiful loco, but not cheap.

If you want buildings for your layout, I liked the ones from Rainbow Ridge which are available as a kit or completed buildings. They are made with Precision Board. You can also buy the board to make buildings or structures of your own design. You can get the board smooth or with brick, rock, siding, etc. designs already on it. 

Michael Broggie gave a talk each day about Walt Disney and his railroads. Michael and his wife, Sharon, had a booth selling Carolwood items. They had a beautiful set of pins for each of the five Disneyland Railroad steam locomotives.

I had an especially good time talking to old MLS friends and new, Dwight, Tommy, Yolanda, JJ, Bob S., etc. Meeting Rod Fearnley from the UK was great and I had some nice chats with Rod and his wife.

All in all, I enjoyed the show. Some vendors were missing from last year, Massoth, MTH, etc., probably due to the current state of the economy. I didn't mind having other gauges at the show as I viewed them as 'backfill' to the empty booths not booked by the large scale vendors. And a vendor list would have been nice as it took me a while to find the MLS booth. I'll be there again next year and see how it goes.


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## GrizzlyFlatsFan (Jan 5, 2008)

And, now, hopefully, some more pictures.

The Accucraft Booth 











AccuCat 












Bunnies and ducks, Oh my!


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## GrizzlyFlatsFan (Jan 5, 2008)

Train-Li booth











Available figures with horns!












Laser train











Rainbow Ridge Precision Board Model











Nice viaduct













George Konrad's F-scale






















Michael Broggie's presentation was standing room only











Wouldn't this be great in large scale? 











Steam is wet! Nice color on the Accucraft 











If you stayed at the Marriott, you may have heard these in use


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## East Broad Top (Dec 29, 2007)

That looks like a sprung frog (or variation thereof) on that switch. Am I seeing that correctly? 

Later, 

K


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## Jerry Barnes (Jan 2, 2008)

That Rainbow Ridge Precision Board Model foam board looked interesting, anyone know much about it?


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## Mike Reilley (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Jerry Barnes on 06/12/2009 6:14 PM
That Rainbow Ridge Precision Board Model foam board looked interesting, anyone know much about it? 


Yep...I do. I've taken their class on how to use the product. I've already made my building plans based on the use of this material. It's flat impervious to the environment as best I can see...certainly here in San Diego where the sun just bakes the death out of everything.











Above is a photo of two farmhouses built by Tom Rey. Both are five years old. Both sat in exactly the same position on his layout. Both were subject to the same sun and sprinkler spray for five years. The one on the left was made of wood. The one on the right is made of precision board. He built the precision board on after the wood one failed (obviously) and put the wooden one up in the rafters of his garage. At one time he was teaching a class in how to use precision board...and hauled the two farm houses to his class.


Beyond buildings...the PB is great for walls, steps, viaducts, etc. It is easy to carve rock shapes into the material. You can buy kits made by Rainbow Ridge...or the basic material. They have it in a variety of "finishes"...decking, clapboard, etc. 


Like I said...pretty indestructible. I personally am completely sold on this product and the associated construction method for building buildings and plan to use it extensively. I understand there are a LOT of folks in the Phoenix area that were likewise surprised by how well buildings made of PB withstand the heat and wind.



One more thing...you can use PB to make signs. This is kind of a new service that Rainbow Ridge offers...and if you look at their web site, you can many buildings with signs hanging on them. You can see some of the signs in the photos above. These are made by using a CNC router on the PB...and you can send your sign design to them and they'll make you a fantastic looking sign.


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## GrizzlyFlatsFan (Jan 5, 2008)

Ross and Sue of Rainbow Ridge were at the show last year and I liked their product, but lost their information. This year I made sure that I took pictures and got contact information. They give a class at their home/office (?) in San Diego which I believe is free. You can contact them for more information.


Their web site is: http://www.rainbowridgekits.com/

The web site has their product catalog as well as a price list and other information. I believe that the airplane hanger kit is the most popular. It certainly is very nice. We talked about the viaduct (see picture previously) as I am very interested in it. They haven't determined the pricing yet for it, but it was very nice. The other picture with the small scene had actual water in it. A very nice presentation and very friendly folks.


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## tmejia (Jan 2, 2008)

Nice pictures.
Seems I resemble that guy in the last photo. You captured me in my natural habitat -- on the couch.








Tommy








Rio Gracie


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## GrizzlyFlatsFan (Jan 5, 2008)

Tommy, aren't long lenses nice?
























BTW, that couch seemed to be a MLS magnet and attracted a number of them besides you.


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## John J (Dec 29, 2007)

It was great to be at a the BTS and hear real trains. WE all spent a lot of time on and around that couch. Talking trains. 

In the trains yard where the pictured tracks lead was a consist of Diesel Engines of about every kind,. alll coupled togehter and had to be a mile long. I wish I had gotten a picture of it.


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## GrizzlyFlatsFan (Jan 5, 2008)

Posted By East Broad Top on 06/12/2009 5:25 PM
That looks like a sprung frog (or variation thereof) on that switch. Am I seeing that correctly? 

Later, 

K



I'm not sure that I could tell a sprung frog from a splattered frog " align="absmiddle" border="0" /> 


Here is an enlargement of the frog area and a second photo.



















And,


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## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

I think that is called a "moveable point frog". I can't see the mechanism that moves it (like there are on the U.P. mainline here in town). I assume then that it might be, like you say, a "spring frog" or "slip frog" similar to a "spring switch" or "slip switch" that is held to one route via springs but a train coming off of the diverging route can enter the main route without setting the switch for that passage. The points just slip over enough to let the flange go through and then the points move back to the normal place. Obviously a train is forbidden to back-up when half way through such a switch as the part of the train already through the switch would proceed in the "normal" direction and not follow along after the part of the train not yet through the switch.


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## GrizzlyFlatsFan (Jan 5, 2008)

Here are some more pictures


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## Totalwrecker (Feb 26, 2009)

I figured it out... 

when the points are thrown, the power pistons holding the frog closed relax and the wheels open the frogs like sprung switches points. Rest of time they are as seen, no picking the frog point.


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