The joint venture between St. Louis Chapter National Railway Historical Society and the Gateway Division National Model Railroad Association on Saturday, March 28, 2009, was organized by Ron Gawedzinski. The event took us to Quincy, Illinois, to see and operate trains on the Quincy Society of Model Engineers “Chesapeake & Lake Erie RR” HO layout.
We met at Cassano’s Restaurant for a delicious lunch, and then proceeded to the Good Samaritan Home where the QSME has operations set up in a basement room. The layout is very large, about 16 ft. wide by 70 ft. long, beautifully landscaped, with many fine crafted structures, good running track work and challenging freight yards. All trains were operated by Digitrax DCC system and operations were directed by the dispatcher, through radios, who monitored track occupancy via a computer and lined turnouts from his control panel.
The QSME members were great hosts and as happy to see us there as we were to be there. They normally operate on three Fridays a month from switch lists generated by computer software. Many thanks to the Quincy Society of Model Engineers for their great hospitality and the fun we had – Ed Dietrich, Jack Doran, Mike Fletcher, Jeff Heinie, Eric Kinneer, Brian Klein, Ben Kuhn, Hank Murray, Gary Roe and Larry Stoll!
The weather was great for this adventure; it rained most of the trip to Quincy, while we were there, and all the way home. Couldn’t do anything outside but get wet, good day to run trains. I took the Illinois route to Quincy, crossing the swollen Illinois River on the Brussels Ferry, then over the hill to the Mississippi at Harden to drive the Mississippi River Road until I got to Highway 96. On the way back, I used Highway 106 to Detroit, Ill., then south on Route 100, crossing the swollen Illinois River on the Kampsville Ferry, providing a variety of scenery in each direction.
The members and guests from NRHS and NMRA included: Jim Anderson, Don and Ramona Ayres, Dave Berner, Bob Blaesing, Ron Gawedzinski, Hank Kraichely, Dale Loyet, Dave Lyon, Rich Melka, Gregor Moe, Joe Obernuefemann, Brian Post, George Schaub, Tim Stout and Jack Stroker.
