| More Trains Than You Could Absorb!
November 7, 2009 A good turnout and a good time was had by all at the annual ILSR Meeting at Watts Train Shop. Andy Chester gave the year end the state of the Club address and introduced 2010/2011 Candidates; President Mike Smith and Vice President, Programs, Don Davis. He also announced a photo session for each member and couple so that we can identify members from the Member List on the Club web site.
Dave Watts provided lots of information about the large scale train industry, particularly LGB and some products that may (or may not) directly replace various hard-to-find LGB components. He also discussed the pending move of the Watts Train Shop to the area of Indiana Road 32 and US 421.
Dave then turned the Watts presentation portion of the program over to Ross Buttrum for a very informative explanation of the new Aristo Evolution train control system, including an operational demonstration.
The formal program ended with a presentation by Bud Hunter covering his production of an outstanding DVD of his Rio Grande Railroad .
We then got to the "eating, chatting, shopping and gawking at the huge collection (1500 pieces total) on display" portion of the meeting with excellent opportunities for lots of all four. We also had a steady stream of folks getting their pictures taken for the Member List on the web. A meeting of the Modular Group was then held for Group members and those interested in the club modules. Future plans were discussed. That was assumed to be the final portion of the meeting, however, there was one big surprise to come. Bud Hunter organized an impromptu quartet and we were suddenly entertained with an excellent and enthusiastic rendition of "I've Been Workin' on the Railroad". The Taylor University crew that has been video taping our activities for several weeks was nearly in shock! They had recorded some of the singing but begged for a "do-over" to be sure they had the complete song. Bud obligated and recruited 2 more members for the encore. They sounded great!
What an outstanding meeting, a big thanks to Dave and Dottie Watts and the Watts crew for being excellent hosts.
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