CONTEST PAGE

It seems like just a few days ago I was enjoying a cup of Don Glass' caboose coffee at our division meeting but here it is, closing in on the April meeting. Where does the time go? Speaking of time, you still have time to get your entry ready for the April model contest. The contest subject matter is a rail car that serves the steel industry. Talk about a wide open selection of cars to choose from. There are the cars that never leave the steel plant or in house cars. The rail cars that come and go from the railroads that service the steel works can be inbound coke cars, iron pellets in open hoppers, scrap steel in gondolas, or even box cars with fire brick. Loads that leave the plant are coil steel cars, gondolas loaded with pipe, or even gondolas with hot ingots going to a rolling mill. I am sure that this contest will see a wide variety of rail cars entered that have a tie to the steel industry.

The entries for last month's contest which was the second generation diesels that were sold by their original owners to smaller railroads and painted and lettered for their road. The entry presented by Larry Kowicki caught everyone's eye so it was voted into first place. Second place went to another fine entry by Dave Maqvinney and third place in the models was awarded to Jeff Lauren. The diorama entries found John Puch's entry with the "close call" stairway winning first while Joe Filipiak's entry of the Plum Creek Valley engine house with engines, came in second place. Dave Lawler"s interesting entry was awarded third place. Thank you to everyone who entered and to all of you who voted.

The last order of business this month is to tell you about the last contest of the season. The contest is a rail car loading or unloading facility. This can be as simple as a pipe with a valve and a hose attached to unload a tank car to a huge lakeside coal dumper or something in between. There can be a fine line between model and diorama entry. If it is just the facility itself it's in the model area but if you add a track and a railcar with it, it becomes a diorama. I have had my say for this month and my dog is looking at me with that questioning expression asking if I am done yet, let's go play. Who can say no to a fuzzy little guy like that.