Bulletin Board

February 2008

Mad City Show

We were invited this year to the Mad City Railroad Show in Madison. We took our new HO modules to this show and set up a 10' x 20' display. Some of the scenes include the Sturtevant station, a warehouse area in which switching duties are needed, a cement company, soccer game, logging operation, a small town passenger station, and grain elevator.

A large crowd was there on Saturday in anticipation of the snow we were to have on Sunday. Some train enthusiast brave the weather for Sundays show and kept us busy.

Things ran smooth with the DCC operated layout and locomotives and received great comments on the layout.

We hope to be invited back next year and are already planning a larger layout for the show which will include our new yard area.

November 2006

Trainfest

Trainfest had a record year as far as attendance and so did the KMBS club. On Sunday the 12th we wanted to see how many trains we could get out running on the layout at one time. Our yardmaster Brandon started releasing trains slowly. With a team of 5 members operating the controls, the excitement grew as did our team watching and controlling trains to 9. Our layout being 22' x 36' with the inside corner and 4 blocks had 12 trains running on the mains for most of an hour. With a three track mainline, there were five on the outside line, four on the center, and three on the inside track. Some of us at our corners could see four of the five trains on the outside line at times. Exciting, Yes. Nerve racking, Yes. Would we do it again? You bet we would. We hope to do this again real soon.

August 2006

Club Picnic

This year our club picnic was held at the Larkee Depot. We want to thank Dan and Marisue for being this years host. Dan had a surpise for our group by going over to the home of Dave and Joanne Gehrke for train rides on Dave's seven and one half inch scale train which runs around their house. Everyone there was certainly impressed by the layout of the track which run over a trestle, through a couple of tunnels, and passing by a waterfall. All had fun by either operating the two locomotives on the track or just riding the rails as a passenger. Dave and Joanne were invited back to the picnic as a thank you for letting us run notch 8 with enthusiasm.

John Scharf provided the brats and burgers for our meal. Corn on the cob on the grill was wonderful as were all the dishes to pass that everyone brought. Volleyball, jarts, and horseshoes were the games of the day. Thanks again to Dan and Marisue.

April 2006

Titletown Show

We attended the 5th annual TTS show in Green Bay with our NTrak modular layout. We had some new modules this year including Don Leutner's inside corner and transition module. Featured here is a train museum with a steam excursion that passes near a lake and through hilly terrain.

Don also had built a gezzer gate so we have no need to crawl under the layout. This module features a state park entrance with horse riding trails and Gezzers BBQ famous for their ribs which was added by John Scharf and Christine Peacy.

Kevin Merkt had also brought a new module which has a warehouse with industrial spurs. A train simulates the switching duties of this warehouse with a auto reverse curcuit. Many people were again amazed with our long trains which were set up by Brandon, Christine, Joe, Kevin, and John.

December 2005

KMBS annual Christmas Party

The KMBS annual Christmas Party was held at Jansen Family Park as it has been now for several years thanks to Mr. Tom Holz.

This years party started out with a fantastic meal which included barbequed pork and a wonderful ham served on buns. Other dishes, cookies and desserts made for a filling meal.

After the meal, Vice President Jim had his year in slides presentation which covers most of the events we do in the year. President Lloyd then gave a Christmas Quiz testing the knowledge of the membership on club stuff ,movies, songs, and cartoons of the season. There were three winners with 18 of 20 questions right. Names were thrown into a hat and the winners were Lee, Deb, and Adam receiving a gift certificate from Applebees.

Entertainment continued with what Dan, Don, Jim, and Lloyd called Loser Jeopardy game show skit. The real loser was Jim, but being the winner as he received a plaque and gift certificate for being president of our club for the last 23 years.

White elephant gifts were then exchanged with some getting nice and not so nice gag gifts.

Everyone had a wonderful time and are looking forward to next year as Dan, Don, Jim, and Lloyd plan their next bit of entertainment for our group.

Thanks to Lee & Dennis for being our Christmas Party committee this year.

October 2005

KMBS Train Show & Swap Meet

The Kettle Moraine Ballast Scorchers 3rd Annual Train Show and Swap that was held at the Kettle Moraine Bowl in Slinger was a huge success with over 200 people attending this years event. We want to thank HOBBY DEPOT AMERICA for donating an HO scale locomotive as a grand prize in our door prize giveaways held every half hour through out the show.

Contributing to the success of our show was the Metro Model Railroad Club of Port Washington with their award winning and very animated HO scale layout. Many Dealers were on hand with various scales of locomotives, rolling stock, track, and accessories. We also want to thank the Kettle Moraine Bowl for the hall rental and all members of the club who helped set up our show, haul and set up the NTrak layout, sell tickets, and even make coffee . See you all at next years show !