RailDriver at Owosso Show in MI

[Espresso]

I have been keeping an eye on the community forums here this past week for any word on the Owosso show here in Michigan, USA this weekend - but nothing!

So I thought I'd make the announcement and as a shameless plug let you know that the RailDriver crew will be at the show with a simulator booth running our commercial training sim as well as a bunch of RailDrivers hooked up to the retail sims including of course Trainz. We will have a special show price for the RailDriver so if you can make it to the show and have a few pennies to spare in this recession wracked world, come on down and pick up a bargain.

Just as build up to this, Tim Court and I watched the Daylight Express 4449 steam loco streamlining along our local tracks on the weekend. It was headed to the show in all its finery - including the coaches!

To find out more about the show, check out this website:

http://www.trainfestival2009.com/

See you there!

Cafe

 

[PerRock]

wish I could make it. Its only a short drive away; but I'm heading out in the other direction for a short vacation. Oh well; I did hear the NKP go thru on its way today. Hopefully I'll be around and free when it heads back.

peter

 

[bryinmich]

Heya Espresso!


Sorry you missed my forum thread on Train Festival 2009 at Owosso, MI. I posted it first back in January this year, but maybe the search engine for the forums missed it. But I'll link it here for you and others that are interested.

It was awesome and I hope you got to check out more. If not don't worry I took pics plus I have linked some YouTube videos of Festival events!



Link: http://forums.auran.com/trainz/showthread.php?t=36343

Cheers!

 

[Espresso]

Well what a great show it was! I did not have a great deal of time to get around and see everything as I was at our stand for pretty much the whole day on Sunday, but I did get a few up close and personal pics of the the Daylight and the 1225 which were both located right next to our booth.

Speaking to the organisers after the show, the attendance beat their expectations (they ran out of wrist bands at the end of the second day of the four day show). And all in a good cause too; the Pere Marquette (1225 aka Polar Express) is in need of a $500K overhaul in the next couple of years and this show was primarily put on to get the funds together...mission accomplished I do declare!

Cafe

 

[bryinmich]

Wow that's great! I'm sure there must have been close to 40,000 to 50,000 people in attendance over the four days then if they ran out of 30,000 wristbands by the end of the second day!

That's a lot of money to raise for a $500k refit for the Pere Marquette and that's great that I'm sure they met their mark. Not to mention the $$$ brought into Owosso and the surrounding communities businesses. I know a lot of times the restaurants downtown were full to capacity. There sure was a lot to choose from as far as food goes.

Well let's hope next year is even more gang-busters as word and news of this terrific event gets out around the world! It's just amazing to see how many people were at nearly every railroad crossing of the GLC (Great Lakes Central) line between Owosso and Alma!

Thanks for sharing your post Espresso and I hope your booth did well. Let's hope Auran is there next year too!

 

[SR6900]

It was quite nice to meet you, Cafe! The full sized control stand was something.

 

[Espresso]

Yes it was good to meet all the fans at the show. I slipped back into demoing Trainz quite easily, although I had forgotten about assigning drivers to trains!

Demoing the full size simulator was a lot of fun too and we challenged a few participants with a reasonably heavy train over a mountain pass or down a steepish grade - quite hard to keep to the speed limit!

This Friday the whole TrainMaster team are taking a few hours off work and heading up to see the 4449 depart Durand and then hopefully catch it at around Perry to watch it streamline past at high speed. We will be celebrating with a curry night and a few beers after that as we have also completed our latest project for another railroad.

Cafe