National Model Railroad Association

Yeah, dude, no problem.

You know, like, you know, I ran into you at Chattanooga at the NMRA show.

And like, you know, I've told a lot of people at Avast, like how my experience was at the NMRA show, because it's not really a three rail deal.

Right.

And I was like, it was great because none of you guys knew me.

And and he invited me to come into my show.

And he told me, like, I just did a podcast with him.

He's like, I was worried about how you were going to how you were like the NMRA show since it's not really a deal.

And for those interested, I've previously recorded this presentation series, and they are all available conveniently linked on the website at www.bgtmrring.org. That's Bravo Golf Tango, Michael Romeo Romeo, Indigo November Golf, dot Oscar Romeo Golf.

presented these three clinics in person, specifically at NMRA conventions in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Texas.

And notably, the one in Texas was in Grapevine, Texas, which is actually a station on the Texrail DMU, so naturally, while I was there, I stopped by, rode the system, and took a few pictures.

But then after I finished making this presentation series on and off for two years, the idea still kind of stuck with me.

I was coming in hot from an Operation Lifesaver conference in Pittsburgh, and I flew straight to St. Louis.

And I was there for the Mid-Continent NMRA's regional meeting, and I was their banquet speaker talking about coming to Cheyenne next year for our conference.

And also talking about the Colorado Model Railroad Museum, which is what my banquet speech was about.

But yeah, I sort of dropped in on the St. Louis RPM because we were there.

And it was fun to share some new projects we're working on and some very cool stuff that I came across at the St. Louis Railroad Prototype Modelers event.

and then the NMRA in Chattanooga.

So there were some great meets, some good stuff, and just happy to share what I learned.

Excellent.

Thanks again to Mike for offering his knowledge and experience for our benefit.

I think it's great.

Speaking of Mike, he also recorded a bunch of short videos to share when he was at the NMRA National Convention.

We're going to watch those as part of the Catch of the Month segment of the podcast, and you might be surprised to find that you know some of the people Mike ran into.

But I've always found model railroading to be... kind of uh i don't know a microcosm of life and when i was in you know my heyday there at model railroader and i had the column and all that and i got to you know stand in the booth at the train the nmra train show in the whole nine yards i would explain it to my wife like outside the hotel i was nobody inside the hotel people would be stopping me every 10 feet then it was like it kind of was a microcosm of what the real real life was like if you were tom hanks i guess

You know what? That was a shocker to be sure.

The first NMRA – well, the first NMRA national convention I went to was at – it was Fort Lauderdale.

And nobody knew who I was, which was great because I could just walk around and enjoy the thing.

But after that, yeah, it became harder and harder, especially when we got into the world of video and I was usually running around with Cody Grivno or somebody else and we're trying to film new products with manufacturers and stuff.

...

National Train Show and the NMRA National Convention.

Talk about your trip down to Chattanooga.

That was a ton of fun.

Why Do We Model, is the topic of this podcast.

Yeah, for sure, and that's, that's great.

You had that opportunity to do it at the national r- convention with the NMRA, and now...

Uh, this is where I should have recorded that stinger, you know, that, "An Around the Layout podcast exclusive." You know, I should have that button, right, to push [laughs] and have that-

But anyway, David, to talk about what you're talking about, David was there at the table with us, and that's where we were able to meet him, and he's been a good friend ever since.

And this throttle thing that you're talking about, Pat, actually originated at a pretty big event that I was fortunate enough to just return from as we're recording this, the NMRA National Convention in Chattanooga.

And a clinic that David and I both attended was about a throttle, a DCC throttle, like you said, by Jeff Bunza is the gentleman's name who originated this.

And then another gentleman presented about what he had done with the Bunza throttle.

I think that was the same year that the N-scale convention was in Pittsburgh.

Okay.

I had just recently joined the NMRA because the NMRA convention in that year was going to be in Orlando.

So I wanted to go to that, and I thought, well, this is going to be a great thing because Orlando, of course, is a very family-oriented city.

B plus, four and a half stars.

So who owns the St. Louis RPM, if that's a proper question? Who runs that? Is that an NMRA division, region, a shop, or just a bunch of guys got together and said, hey, let's do this?

I think it's just a bunch of guys.

Lonnie Bathurst is the chief instigator.

There's six guys totally put the whole thing together and run it.

I'm pretty sure it's not part of the mid-continent region NMRA.

They had their own thing going on at the same time in the hotel.

Yeah, so they kind of double dipped.