Canadian Association of Railway Modellers holds annual convention in Thunder Bay

   The Canadian Association of Railway Modellers (CARM) will be holding Rails to the Lakehead, its 2014 national convention in Thunder Bay, Ontario from September 30 to October 2. Please note that these dates are not on the weekend (September 30 is on a Tuesday). 
    The convention wil be held at the historic Prince Arthur Waterfront Hotel, one of the classic railway hotel in Canada. Activities include clinics, prototype tours, rail fanning and a banquet with a guest speaker. Please note the the banquet is an additional cost.
    
The list of confirmed clinics is as follows:
   

Bill Skrepichuk: "An Overview of CPR Construction 1883-85 along the North Shore of Lake Superior"

Ed Freeman: "Port Arthur’s iron mining past"

Gerald Harper: "Thunder Bay area railway bridges - something for everyone"

William Waithe: "The CN Weston Subdivision : Modelling freight operations of an urban industrial area"

Mike Walton:"Prototypical British Operation on the Lostock Junction Railway."

Dave Battistel: "Rails into the Wilderness-The Port Arthur, Duluth and Western Railway"

Andy Malette:"Painting and Lettering CNR Steam Locomotives"

    Layout tours include Craig Symington's Rio Grande Southern Railroad. This HOn3 layout is based on the first district of the Rio Grande Southern Railroad. The layout itself consumes around 650 sq ft of basement and takes upwards of nine people to operate. This layout has been featured in the several issues the Narrow Gauge and Short Line Gazette.

    Three prototype tours are also offered at an additional cost: Bombardier Transportation, Thunder Bay Terminals, and the Richardson International Grain Elevator Complex. The prototype tours are proving very popular and are filling up fast! Virtually all of the early registrants have signed up for them. These tours are limited in the number of people attending, so if you're interested, please register as soon as possible.

   CARM will also have available a booklet describing a self-guied tour and road logs for trains coming from the east and the west. The road logs will be up on the CARM website shortly.

    To commemorate the event, a men's button down long sleeve shirt with a pocket is being offered at $45 ($48 for XXL). Shirts must be ordered postmarked before August 1. 

  Early bird registration (postmarked before August 1) is $60, additional registrants $15 (immediate family and same address only). After that date, the registration fee is $80, Additional registrants $20. All registrations must be postmarked not later than September 15. After that, registrations will only be accepted at the convention.

   Rooms at the convention rate of $90.00 Cdn. per night will be available until Monday, 15 September 2014. For information on the hotel see the website. To book rooms, call the hotel (Toll Free : 1-800-267-2675, Local : 807-345-5411) and cite code number 184141 and CARM to obtain the convention rate.

For a PDF of the registration form, click on this link.