November 29, 2000

On Saturday, November 11th, and Sunday, November 12th, Cincinnati Division 7 of the National Model Railroad Association held their annual Model Railroad Show in the Northern Kentucky Convention Center in Covington. Approximately 6,000 people attended the show. At the suggestion of Sky Loop Committee member Roger Broering, we had a display table at the show, organized principally by Yvonne Straub, with assistance from Roger and Mary Ann Broering, and Bob Brodbeck. We had a great time talking about the Sky Loop and Taxi 2000 PRT to hundreds of curious people. Many, many thanks to all the SLC members who helped out.

PRT Station Model

A major highlight of the display was the newly constructed model of a Taxi 2000 3-berth PRT station constructed by Roger Broering, a Board member of Division 7, and an experienced model builder. Between Thursday morning and Saturday morning Roger got about 2 hours sleep, finishing the model about 8:00am Saturday, just two hours before the show opened. Roger used a common modeler's plaster molding process for the vehicles. Roger hand carved a master pattern for the vehicle from which a mold was made to produce several plaster final models.

Mary Ann and Roger Broering in their Sky Loop sweatchirts.

Model Railroaders Convention Display

Our Sky Loop 8 ft by 3 ft display table was well stocked with detailed reference information, our tri-fold brochure, buttons, and video tapes. We had the CPRT "What is PRT?" video tape on continuous repeat play on the TV monitor, and a large format PRT image on the left and large format Sky Loop map on the right. Roger's PRT station model was in the middle of the display table.

We believe we handed out about 500 brochures and probably talked to about as many people. The kids loved the Sky Loop buttons. Both the model and the CPRT video "What Is PRT?" were eye catchers. One father left his young son to watch the video when the son refused to rush off without watching it completely. He returned for his son a little while later.

Many thanks to our SLC volunteers who helped out: Rob Adams, Barbara Bonar, Bob Brodbeck, Roger and Mary Ann Broering, Ian Budd, Bud Haupt, Bob Richards, Scott Roberts, Yvonne Straub, and Chip Tappan. Additional thanks to Chuck 'Doc' Roth for the large format PRT image, newspaper article reprints, buttons, video tapes, and probably a number of other things.

A complete view of our display. Ian Budd is just visible (left) over the display picture on the left, with Scott Roberts, an unidentified person, and Roger Broering on the right.	Bud Haupt (left) extolling the many virtues of Taxi 2000 PRT.
Roger Broering (right) talking to the curious about the Sky Loop.	Bob Richards (left) probably explaining why these folks will come downtown more often once the Sky Loop is operating.
Yvonne Straub (right), organizer of our exhibit, with some passers-by she lassoed.	Rob Adams ready and waiting for the next customer.

Bob Brodbeck
2000/11/29

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