Showtime: 2016 National Train Show

The Tribute to Springfield layout at the National Train Show.

The second show is in the books for the Tribute to Springfield layout!  Last weekend, the layout was on display at the National Train Show held in Indianapolis, IN.  Obviously with the theme of the layout being the Railroad Hobby Show and based in Massachusetts, I was a bit concerned it would seem out of place in the Midwest.  However, there are plenty of folks who attend both shows or have at least heard of the legend that is "Springfield." 

Outside the Indiana Convention Center.

The show was open to the public from Friday July 8 through Sunday July 10, 2016 - but the trip for me (and the Mohegan Pequot Model Railroad Club) began on Tuesday morning July 5.  We spent most of the day enjoying the Pennsylvania and Ohio countrysides with our caravan of minivans and a trailer before arriving in Indianapolis Wednesday morning for setup day.  While the National Train Show is fairly large - about half the square footage of Springfield - it's all packed into one building instead of four.  This means there are some logistical hurtles requiring the extra time to spend setting up.  Fortunately, we were there early, so it made the pace of setup leisurely.

Friday was probably the busiest day for me.  It began early in the morning at 7 am with judging for the module contest.  During the early hours of the show (which opened at 9 am), the layout caught the attention of many different people and I participated in several interviews which will hopefully air in the not-to-distant future.  Friday morning is also only a soft opening to NMRA convention attendees.  There are a lot of folks in this group who travel around the country to shows - so many were familiar with Springfield and had even attended.

Overall the feedback for the layout was positive and the module judges seemed to agree awarding the layout 2nd Place in the Individual Module Category.  The rules had changed a bit since we last competed in the contest back in 2014 but in some ways I think for the better.  For example, it didn't seem like many people were interested in competing back in 2014 due to the amount of paperwork required to enter the contest and the rigid scoring structure.  This year, any layout could enter and there wasn't any particular scoring requirements.  This means a lot of modules and layouts entered which might not have otherwise.  So I feel good that the folks running the contest thought that highly of the layout considering there were so many more entries.

The layout ran smoothly all weekend - with just a few breaks to clean the track and locomotive wheels.  Most of the club members stopped by and tried their hand at operating the layout.  Most succeed but the average time was around a half an hour to complete one cycle through the operation scheme.

Another view of the Tribute to Springfield layout setup at the NTS.

Speaking of the club, we also brought along our HO scale modular layout setup in a 20'x44' loop.  We had 26 modules - of which 15 were new since we went to the 2014 National Train Show in Cleveland.  I spent a lot of time preparing that layout as well as the O scale layout over the last few months.  I'm happy to report the HO layout also ran well all weekend and was also well received.

These trips are a lot of fun - but also a lot of work.  We still have two more days ahead of us for the ride home - plus another evening of unloading the trailer and vehicles.  I want to the thank all the folks at the NTS for being great hosts again as well as all my fellow club members who worked their rear ends off over the last year getting ready for this event.

And with that, the clock starts for the next showing of the layout at the 49th Railroad Hobby Show in just 201 days!

The Mohegan Pequot Model Railroad Club's HO layout.

The travel team for the Mohegan Pequot layout.