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The Eleventh International Small Scale
Steamup and Arts Festival Dear Live Steamer, IT IS OFFICIALLY OVER ! Two hundred and thirty of you traveled to Mississippi to partake in what certainly must have been the nuttiest gathering of hobbyists that I’ve ever seen. The first arrivals were here on the Saturday before we started , and they actually started playing with steam on rollers at the atrium bar before the tracks were set up. Pressure is on to set the tracks up even earlier than on Monday and we might just see this happen if our track crew is up to it. I plan on Sunday just so you can see how out of hand this business is getting. The Arts were well represented and our brass quintet played four mini concerts over the weekend. The Clack Valves and Cornets Steam Band concert on Saturday was a smash hit from the comments that I heard, and Dan Rowe’s juggling workshop was well attended. Our traditional Friday no-speeches dinner had to be scrubbed due to lack of interest ,and our double feature movie didn’t happen due to some logistical problems. The art exhibited at the side of the flea market area was a success from the way that the prints sold out ( I bought two myself) and we all benefitted from the effort expended by our local Aloha Gallery in setting this up. The Flea Market was a smash hit. Carol Homuth did a superb job in sorting out the transactions and keeping a rough tally as it progressed over much of the week. Over 200 items changed hands and it was a welcome addition to our general program. If you plan on being here for 2004 , please try and bring something to put on the tables-the more stuff, the more fun. Our Aerodynamic Trophy was won by young Charlie Mynhier with an extraordinary flight across the swimming pool. Will Davis passes the referee baton to this lad for next year’s competition . The locomotive weightlifting contest was ably refereed by Bruce Gathman and the awards were presented to the six winners at the closing meeting Here are the numbers: We boiled away 78 gallons of distilled water and burned up 13 cases of butane and 9 gallons of alcohol. To clean up the mess at the trackside prep tables we used 3 cases of paper rags and 5 cases of cloth ones. Truly amazing! |
Where did we all come from?
Your registration must be in my hands by 1 November if you want your
name listed in the program , otherwise you’ll be in the addendum. The
reason is that the entire program must be in the printer’s hands earlier
than in the past.
As suggested at the wrap up meeting, if you are a walk-in late
registrant, you will be subject to a $20 surcharge on top of the
regular late fee.
I will try and get the track up and all of our consumables on hand by
Sunday - so come on down early if you wish. The large track will be made
wider by adding an overlay of plywood making it suitable for two of the
larger locomotives ( they are really getting huge) to pass without
scraping, and some significant turnout tweaking will be done . The
addition of the overlay will also serve to make the track sturdier.
It was fun , and I hope that you had a great time. Our volunteer staff
did a wonderful job of sorting things out for me and they deserve all of
the credit for the things that went right.
I hope to see you next year at trackside,
Jerry
Countries : 7
Attendees : 230
United States
195
Canada
17
United Kingdom
9
Japan
1
Australia
2
Jamaica
1
Mexico
1
States Represented : 33
Attendees : 195
Texas
18
California
15
Florida
21
Michigan
10
Louisiana
10
Colorado
7
Virginia
6
Illinois
9
Washington
5
Ohio
6
New York
6
North Carolina
5
Missouri
3
Alabama
2
Georga
7
New Jersey
5
Pennsylvania
5
South Carolina
3
Utah
3
Wisconsin
3
Maine
2
Indiana
1
Kansas
1
Mississippi
3
Connecticut
1
Hawaii
1
Massachusetts
1
Nevada
1
Oregon
1
What about 2004?
We’ll be doing the same
things as before , but here are some significant changes