Garden Railroading: Grant's Photos From the 2023 National Narrow Gauge Convention Held in Denver

Grant's Photos From the 2023 National Narrow Gauge Convention Held in Denver

I wish to thank Grant in advance for sending along these pictures, captions and videos. All the words you will read come from our Master Modeler, Grant!

At the end of August four narrow gauge enthusiasts (Grant Knowles, David Steer, Bill Scobie and Bill Meredith) headed down to Denver to take in this year’s Narrow Gauge convention.

The convention ran from noon on Wednesday to the Awards Ceremony Saturday evening with each day comprised of clinics in the morning and evening and layout tours in the afternoon.

The 2023 43^rd National Narrow Gauge took place Aug 30 – Sept 2 in Denver, Co, the mega for all narrow-gaugers...and this convention logo sure managed to capture the feel!

The Contest Room and Vendor Hall were open during the clinic hours and there was a well attended non rail program running in parallel.

Over 1,100 folks participated in the convention which also hosted 80 vendors and 8 amazing display layouts.

The were 45 home layouts open for viewing with some as far as 90 minutes drive from the convention centre, all the popular scales/gauges were represented and not all were narrow gauge operations. All were worthy of a visit though due to distance and time constraints we only managed to visit eight!

These yellow lawn signs (pictured above) were posted at each Layout Host Home aiding in locating the layout, though with all the cars parked on the side of the road, they were the reliable indicator of where the layout was along the street.

(Sounds like what motorists see when they drive up to Fred's each Saturday morning, Grant!)

The Colorado Railway Museum also had a Special Steam Day where both the RGS #20 and D&RGW 491 were steamed up and putting on a show!

They had six clinic rooms running in parallel delivering over 108 sessions on a wide range of topics from modelling tricks to prototype operations, all were well attended.

Here are some photos of the convention highlights.

The Bachmann Connie on the turntable.

The layout is loaded with details! The ground being a good example.

Detailed garage scene.

The mainline loops around the room with this duct under/fold up section providing access to the room centre.

There’s probably more automobiles on the layout than trains!

The level of detail is incredible, but then large scale cries for detailing everything!

Even the roof tops are detailed.

The track is hand laid code 250 on wooden ties.

There a mini scenes all over the layout which bring the layout to life.

Every layout requires a tri-motor airplane!

A multi-level pit head mine.

The mine tram runs on O scale railway track.

All the layout structures sport superb weathering and painted surfaces.

The peeling paint and wood texturing is amazing.

Signs and posters help to define the era and nature of the community.

Grant visited Bill White's 1/2 " Scale San Juan Southern.

Grant tells us:

Bill’s indoor railroad depicts a narrow gauge short line in southwestern Colorado right after World War II. While there is limited passenger capability, the railroad is mostly a freight operation with an emphasis on mining, general freight, and a limited amount of logging. The layout is almost 800 square feet (36’ x 25’ room) and features many highly detailed scenes. Most of the buildings are scratch built or craftsman kits while all of the locomotives and rolling stock are highly modified ready to run models.

Check out Bill's Layout on this YouTube video!

To view the video, copy and paste the link below into your computer's browser.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2lsi5ylEZQ

With this "going away" shot from Bill's layout we wish to thank Grant for sharing these amazing images and stories with us...especially this week since we ran our narrow gauge operations!