November is National Model Railroad Month. It makes sense doesn’t it? The days are darker and colder, the holidays are coming, and you start to think about that train around the tree or maybe about what you might do to keep busy during the longer nights.
If your thoughts are turning to model trains, then there are two events this coming weekend that you may be interested in.
Coastal Valley Lines train show at Varenna at Fountaingrove.
1401 Fountain Grove Parkway, Santa Rosa, Saturday Nov. 13 and Sunday Nov. 14. Link to Map
Two trains pass each other at the round barn module.
As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, the members of the Coastal Valley Lines modular model railroad club are very active in bringing their train layout to public places nearly every month. Members build four-foot long modules with track and scenery that can be connected to any other module in a variety of layouts. You could visit every one of their train shows for a year and probably not see all of their modules. Their most recent additions are modules built by youngsters as part of a group project. The creativity and skill of these younger modelers challenged the modules built by some of the “old hands” of the club.
Stop by Varenna at Fountaingrove to see an impressive running layout and wish the members a happy national Model Railroad Month. Here is a link to the club’s website.
Train Day at HobbyTown USA, Sunday Nov. 14.
After visiting the Coastal Valley Lines layout you can swing by HobbyTown USA on Sunday to see more trains and talk to train experts about setting up a layout of your own and getting your old equipment running again. We will have a Thomas the Train play table and coloring pages for the kids, a large G scale layout set up by Terry Strom, O scale Lionel and MTH layouts by Mike Raymond, and a switching layout by the Sonoma County Model Railroad Society.
Terry is an active member of many of the local railroad clubs and he has been instrumental in the development of the Santa Rosa Train Show every year. Terry’s G scale layouts are always a delight and are populated with fantasy figures.
Mike Raymond is a certified repair technician for Lionel and MTH as well as an O scale train club member. When most people think of a Christmas train running around a tree they are thinking of Lionel. Mike will have a running O scale layout and will be able to answer your questions about Lionel and MTH trains.
Members of the Sonoma County Model Railroad Society meet at HobbyTown USA the first and fourth Thursday of every month and they have been diligently working on the double-deck train layou in the store’s front window. This layout fascinates kids of all ages every day. The club members will bring their popular switching layout where kids can run trains for themselves and learn how to move cars around a switch yard.
Stop by and have some fun. Here is a link to more details about Train Day.
Have fun,
Steven
