Model A Car Show in 1/87th Scale

Sometimes when you build a Model Railroad you end up building to a specific time period. In the case of the local model railroad club the time period was the Steam to Diesel transition period of the late 1940's to the mid 1950's (or so).

This means that all the items on the layout are intended to represent that time period or before. This is especially true of items most people are familiar with such as automobiles.

As is often the case, time marches on and the time period of a layout changes with the addition of new members, new model trains and new methods of transporting goods. At some point it just looks 'Wrong" to have modern diesel engines pulling container trains driving past roads that are populated with cars from the 1920's thru the 1950's.

It is easy enough to add newer model vehicles to the layout to correct the time period, but what do you do with the older cars that are way out of date for daily drivers for our 1/87th scale citizens? Why you put them in the hands of collectors and they sponsor car shows all over the layout...

The Model A club is an active group and meet in the parking lot of the Augusta railroad station

Not everyone is at the car shows - some are celebrating a wedding!

Star Wars Tech in 1/87th Scale

One of the nice things about model railroading is you are creating a small fantasy world in which imagination can run amok.

The Augusta Model Railroad Club models south central Kansas in the present time period.

We imagined what it would be like if Exploration Place Science Museum sponsored an exhibit in which the Technology of Star Wars Machines was explained and demonstrated.

One such example would be the 'Chicken Walker' two legged fighting machine used by the Empire. This is more formerly called the AT-ST which stands for All Terrain Scout Transport.

These exist primarily in digital form only, at least for the movies, but it seems Star Wars fans have constructed full size non working examples. Do a YouTube search if you want to see examples.

For our small scale fantasy world however they exist in real life and are able to be brought in to Wichita on railroad flat cars and assembled. Afterwards they will walk down the streets to go on Display at Exploration Place. The management of all of this is handled by the fictitious 'Kraft Movie Prop' company.

Exploration Place has done a great job of marketing the event with a large media presence including considerable billboard advertising.

Museum of World Treasures

The Museum of World Treasures is to be found in Wichita KS. It started as a collection of items gathered by Dr. Jon and Lorna Kardatzke in their travels The collection grew to the point where a Museum was required to house everything. The founders have donated their collection and untold hours of work in creating the museum not to mention the required capital investment

Greta, Mandy, Julie and Wesley enjoying our time at the museum

They had an exhibit where you could make rubbings of fossils

Nice exhibit of dinousars

I especially enjoyed the exhibit dealing with gemstones and minerals

We had a good time with Greta and the various Buddhas on display 

I felt surprisingly peaceful

Nicely done shop models

The modelling of the remains of the Arizona after the Pearl harbor attack was especially well done

Home Depot sponsors a construction area to teach children how to use tools and make things

Greta with her Easter Basket

The gift shop had lots of interesting mineral exhibits for sale

See, Hear and Speak to Evil?

Afterwards we strolled along the River Walk to the confluence of the rivers - nice day to be out

Texas Pinball Convention

We have an old pinball machine we inherited from my parents. Someone owed my Father some money and paid the debt with a used pinball machine. This would have been in the early 1950's.

The machine is a 1948 Gottlieb Roundup. We considered selling it and checked around to find a suitable venue to do so and found there is a yearly convention of pinball aficionados in Frisco, Texas. We disassembled the machine and heading to Texas to find out what the convention was all about. 

Convention was several days long and ran from mid morning to midnight. The convention hall in the Embassy Suites hotel was packed with hundred of pinball machines all set up for free play. Pinball fans from all over the country (and world) showed up to play, trade and compete for prizes.

The hotel had beautiful blown glass chandaliers

On Saturday morning they sponsor a swap meet for pinball machines

Duncan Donuts showed up with their portable rig

All kinds and conditions of machines were for sale

Folks loaded up their purchases and headed home to start restoration work

 

We opened up the mini van to show our pinball machine and get feedback from the swap meet attendees.

Many knowledgeable folks stopped by to discuss our pinball machine with us. It is one of the first machines to have 'flippers'. This change obsoleted all previous machines and became the new standard for pinball machines from that point on. We have what is known as a "wood rail" machine. The legs and trim were all made of wood thru the mid 1950's. After that they were replaced with metal.

The guru of wood rail machines stopped by to visit and spent the better part of an hour discussing the machine, restoration and maintenance methods, and why we should keep the machine. 

I expected the convention to be full of aging baby boomers and was quite surprised to see most of the attendees were in their thirties. Some brought step stools so their small children could see the machines to play.

There were hundreds of pinball machines on display, all were setup for free play. You could move from machine to machine and try your skills on equipment from all generations of pinball machines. 

It was interesting to see the machines opened up for repair and maintenance

Many of the "pre flipper" machines were there. These were lovingly restored by collectors with the wood cases and play surfaces showing great attention to detail.

Parts for rebuilding and restoring machines were available with many more able to be ordered.

Attention getting display!

Many machines combined traditional pinball and LCD display screens

Juke boxes and pinball machines seem to go together

Julie tried her hand at all kinds of pinball machines

Here she is on a wood rail machine

Some folks put a lot of effort into their display booth

Julie at a metal rail machine

The newest machines do everything with software and liquid crystal display screens

You need to have some pretty good mechanical skills for keeping up the older machines

Many people came to compete in tournaments and their scores were posted

Learned a lot about the artwork used on the back glass of the machines. Pinball artists have quite a following and the backglass art is a collectors item all by itself. The art is silk screened onto the back of the glass and lit from behind. 

So many colors and lights! With hundreds of machines all going it was pretty loud.