Blog
Layout Tours are going up.
I've began to post some photos of the home layouts I visited while at the 2012 NNGC. You can find that section by following this link:
2012 NNGC Layout Tours
I was very fortunate to visit Mr. Sam Furukawa's layout. This layout was only open for a lmited time during the convention. I missed the 1st session and was lucky to get invited to the second extra session.
Photography Contest Winners
On the last evening of the convention the follownin entries were annouced as the winners for each category in the photography contest:
Color Prototype Photo
- 1st place Janice Dupler
- 2nd place Mark La Chey
- 3rd place Robert Treat
Color Model Photo
- 1st place Ken Ehlers
- 2nd place Mike Schwab
- 3rd place Robert Treat
Black and White Prototype Photo
- 1st place Robert Treat
- 2nd place Robert Treat
- 3rd place Mark La Chey
Black and White Model Photo
- 1st place Ken Ehlers
- 2nd place Peter Jackson
- 3rd place Robert Treat
I did not photograph the photo contest entries. Perhaps the winners may stumble upon this blog entry and respond below in the comments section with a post of his/her winnig entry.
Congratulations to each one !!
Model Contest Winners
On the last evening of the convention the follownin entries were annouced as the winners for each category in the model contest:
Best Of Show
- Hangman Creek Lumber Company
Youth Award
- David Stringfellow
Rod Locomotive
- 1st Don Rose
- 2nd Tyler Piper
- 3rd Paul Washburn
Geared Locomotive
- 1st Bob Poli
- 2nd Larry Winter
- 3rd Burton Maxwell
Operating Modules
- 1st Hangman Creek Lumber Company
- 2nd Pender Street Mills
- 3rd North Coast Narrow Gaugers
Diorama
- 1st Everett Walker
- 2nd Chris Thompson
- 3rd David Willbanks
Structure
- 1st George Chambers
- 2nd Laurie McClean
- 3rd Joseph Hendrickson
Internal Combustion
- 1st Bob Poli
- 2nd Hanns Hirblinger
- 3rd Don Railton
Logging Equipment
- 1st Larry Winter
- 2nd Bob Poli
- 3rd David Faussett
Special Equipment
- 1st Larry Winter
- 2nd Haruhiko Suga
- 3rd David Fritsche
Favorite Train
- 1st Larry Winter
- 2nd Bill Scobie
- 3rd Ross Ames
Passenger Car
- 1st Mike Gray
- 2nd Hugh Blaney
- 3rd John Morrison
Caboose
- 1st Jim Reardon
- 2nd Dale Kraus
- 3rd Bill Scobie
Maintenance Of Way
- 1st Don Rose
- 2nd Hanns Herblinger
- 3rd Mike Gray
Freight Car
- 1st Robert Stears
- 2nd Steve Amitrano
- 3rd Charley Lix
Logging Rail Equipment
- 1st Larry Winter
- 2nd David Faussett
- 3rd Phil Holden
Congratualtions to each one !!
Best Of Show - Hangman Creek Lumber Company
The Hangman Creek Lumber Company modular layout took Best Of Show honors at the 2012 NNGC as well as 1st Place in Operating Modules category.
Congratulations!
The contest room
Each year modelerrs labor dilignetly to ready their contest entries. Competition is tight and the efforts yield fabullous results. A winner is chosen by popular vote amongst convetion goers. Any and all contest entries have the same chance to win in each category and the Best of Show category. The goal is to wow the crowds.
The contest categories for the 2012 NNGC are:
- Rod Locomotive
- Geared Locomotive
- Motive Power - Internal Combustion
- Freight Car
- Logging Rail Equipment
- Maintenance-Of-Way
- Caboose
- Passenger Car
- Freight Car
- Favorite Train
- Structure
- Diorama
- Operating Module
- Special Equipment
- Logging Equipment
- Youth Award - Age 18 or younger
- Black and White Model Photo
- Black and White Prototype Photo
- Color Model Photo
- Black and White Model Photo
The contest room alone is worth attending the convention. Here are some examples of the contest entries at the 2012 NNGC.
Foiled!!
Alas, I was only 5 riders away from making the last shuttle bus to Sam Furukawa's layout. I did not make it. I did make it to 3 other layouts today.
The vendor room, contest room and cliincs begin shortly. I've got to get a move on. There is no sense in crying over spilled milk. It's all water on the bridge. The ship has sailed. The curtain has fallen. Que sera, sera. What's done is done. C'est la vie. All the king's horses and all the king's cannot put Humpty Dumpty together again.
I'll have photos of the layouts later over here.
It starts!
This evening the vendor room and the clinics begin. Already some layout tours were opened. Today I hope to visit Sam Furukawa's layout.
It's almost here!
The convention will begin today with pre-convention layou tours. And tomorrow there is a fan rail trip on the Mt. Rainier Scenic Railroad. The clinincs begin on Wednesday evening adn the vendor room opens that evening as well.
Be sure to visit here often fro updates as I'll be sharing photos of my experience here.
Mt. Rainier Scenic Railroad
In 2012 the NNGC will start off with a ride on the Mt. Rainier Scenic Railroad.
This excursion is scheduled to be an all day trip including several runbys staged for the convention attendees.
Currenlty Mt. Rainier Scenic Railroad operates a Heisler (one of my favorite steam locomotives), a Climax and a 2-8-2T. I'm not sure what the train at the excursion will use. Hopefully it'll be a smoke bellowing, steam chuffing beast.
Narrow Perspective Banner
This is the photo that shows up on the banner of Narrow Perspective. I took this photo on my very first run-by at the 2011 NNGC in Hickory, NC. This was done during the excursion at Tweetsie that was included with the admission to the convention.
Our excursion did 2 run-bys at 2 different locations at Tweetsie that afternoon. It was great fun.
My wife, Lisa, remained on the train and waved as it passed by the run-by spot. She tought it was peculiar that the train did this run-by business.
What is the NNGC?
The National Narrow Gauge Convention is perhaps the best gathering of model railroad talent in the world. In 2012 the NNGC will be held for the 32nd time. That is an amazing accomplishment considering the NNGC is not sanctioned nor sponsored by any formal organization. Each year the NNGC is put on by volunteers at a different city each year. From year to year the only thing in common about the convention is the format the convention holds.
The NNGC starts out on a Wedesday evening and carries on until Saturday evening. Modelers bring some of their finest work to compete in the model and photography contest. Vendors assemble in large halls offering the latest in model railroad items and supplies. Clinicians share how they build their models. Local modelers open up their home layouts to convention goers. Often there are even prototype railroad tours and train excursions.
The conventions are geared so that a modeler can bring his/her family and make a vacation out of the convention week. Over the years I've met husband and wife teams that make the convention week a yearly vacation. I estimate that each convention experiences an average of 1,200 convention registrants.
Conventions are scheduled 5 years in advance so there is plenty of time for folks to plan their vacations around the convention week. The upcoming years will host conventions in the following cities:
- 2013 - Pasadena, CA
- 2014 - Kansas City, MO
- 2015 - Houston, TX
- 2016 - Augusta, ME
- 2017 - to be determined on the last evening of the 2012 NNGC
Perhpas you'll have the opportuity to attend one of the future convetions. Stay tuned to Narrow Perspective to learn more.
Support Narrow Perspective
The bananas don't come for free.
Jimmy Deignan on www.railroadkits.com has been very kind for the past year to host the initial Narrow Perspective. However, the domain registration belongs to me. And, I would like to eventually offload the content from Jimmy's servers to make room for him to make money :-) Thus, I've added a link on the sidebar to Amazon.com.
When you type in your search tems and hit the "Go!" button over on the right, you'll get results from Amazon.com related to your keyword. If you end up purchasing any items from your search, Narrow Perspective gets a modest (modest is the key word) referral fee and you get your goodies from Amazon.com. Everyone is happy.
Anyway, think of it as a means to support this effort to bring model railroading goodness to all mankind.. and womankind as well since toy trains are not just for boys.
That's all I have to say about that.
Disqus
I've added comments to the blog entries using the Disqus service. It's free and easy to use (as far as I can tell).
So, be sure to leave some comments and feedback. Let's get some disqussions going :-)
We're live!
Narrow Perspecttive has a new look!
Going forward we hope to keep it fresh. However, you can still go back to the old page by following this link: the old way
Sta tuned as I update the site with fresh content from the NNGC in Seattle/Bellevue, WA.
Photos are up!
I've began posting some photos from the 2011 NNGC in Hickory, NC. Most of these photos were published already out in the internet somewhere. More than likely I originally published these photos to www.kitforums.com.
I'll be posting more as time permits.
A new beginning...
Today I began recoding this website. Up until now Jimmy Deignan at www.craftsmankits.com had been kind enough to host and code the site. I've been wanting to make the site a bit more traditional in how it is seen by viewers. In the past the site was mainly a photo album. I wanted to add other features.
I felt that the 2012 National Narrow Gauge Convention (NNGC) in Seattle/Bellevue, WA was a great time to update things. It may be a while before the site goes public. However, I do want to get started on the updates.
Here is what the landing page for the old site looked like.
And here is a sample of what one of the photo pages looked like.
Stay tuned for more...