CONTEST PAGE

This newsletter finds us closing out 2025 and welcoming in 2026, but January will find a pause in the contests due to the annual division dinner. There is no January contest . February on the other hand will have a contest. The subject matter for February is "Project 20". A small rural passenger station that, in HO scale, can not have a footprint more than 20 square inches. These stations can be straight kits, kit bashed, or scratch built. They can be two stories with the tower on the second floor and the station below it. Let's see what you can come up with. The March contest is a second generation diesel. These four or six axle diesels that were purchased from the original owners but now carry the colors and name of its current owner. The name can be your free lanced railroad name or it can carry the name of a real short line railroad that did exist or still currently exists.

Now let's talk about the results of the December contest which was a rail car advertising a product. This was the best contest in the past six years as far as member participation! There were a total of twenty-four entries with six of those entries from first time participants this season. The voting gave Jim Grell a first place win followed by Joe Kurilec's entry for a second place and third place went to Craig Butler's entry. John Puch entered an industrial scene with a rail car advertising a product to be given first place in voting for the diorama entries. Joe Filipiak took second place with his clay tanker scene and Dave Lawler's entry was voted third place. Thank you to all who brought in models and to everyone who cast a ballot. We all had a lot to look at.

The time has come for me to gather up my railroad goodies that I found under the Christmas tree and head to my workbench in the train room. The weather is just perfect for model railroading unless, of course, you have a garden railroad. See you at the Award Dinner.