Opsig

Matt,

I suggest joining the Operations/Industrial special interest group : http://www.opsig.org/   Membership comes with a regional directory of layouts looking for operators, or at least it used to.

You might also want to join the operations/industrial Yahoo group.

Lance

Modeling Miami's Downtown Spur http://www.lancemindheim.com

Hey Matt! I really don't any

Hey Matt! I really don't any info I can give you. Sorry. On a different note, I didn't know you were from Illinois? That's sure a stretch from Metaline Falls. I live in Southern California so I guess we are both in the same boat! Good luck finding some fun!

Our club is being built for

Our club is being built for ops and located in the west suburbs of Chicago, if you're ever in the neighborhood stop on in.

What Lance said

+1 for Ops Sig.  With the $7.00 e membership you can't go wrong

Steve

Look to Central Indiana

A bit of a drive, but...

I know the Omaha area is a haul from central IL, but if you're ever up for a drive, I'll be happy to save a spot for you, or to set up an op session specifically for whatever day you can visit.

Charles, I may take you up on that.

Hi Charles,

My childhood best friend lives in Carmel.  So I can kill two birds with one stone with a trip to Indy.  I'll probably take you up on that one!

Joe, that is a bit of a trek, but your railroad is fantastic and would be well worth the drive someday. Thanks for the offer.

Where in Illinois

Carpooling

Matt, an email acquaintance from Bloomington, IL has mentioned coming over for a railfanning trip and op session sometime.  If that's in your area, and you'd be interested in carpooling, let me know and I can run it by him.

Weird...

Joe, This is weird.  I just found out today that my office is probably going to send me to Lincoln Nebraska to shoot some video the first week of April.  I doubt I'd be able to get away for an evening of running trains though.  I might be interested in carpooling out to you sometime.  Bloomington is very close to me.

John,  I live in the Peoria IL area.  Perhaps 3 and a half hours north of you. I've heard there are some good layouts in your area.  Isn't the Utah Belt model railroad near you?

David, Yeah, I can't tell you where my love of Washington railroading started.  I probably saw an article in MR when I was a teen in the early nineties featuring those lovely green BN locos snaking though some nicely modeled scenery. 

Trip to Lincoln

Are you flying or driving Matt?  If the latter, I'm about 5 minutes off of I-80, if you'd care to stop by on your way out or back.  No pressure, but the offer's there.

Utah Belt

Trip Canceled

Joe, My trip to Nebraska was canceled yesterday, which is just as well because I wasn't comfortable leaving my co-worker carless for an evening.  Oh well, maybe another time.

Omaha Ops

If you go on a road trip, check out the layouts in the area.  As Joe mentioned, there are numerous operating railroads in the Omaha area (I had an op session last night).  So if you are in the area, there may be opportunities for visits or op sessions on layouts ranging from a spare bedroom to double decked basement filling layouts.  But in most cases you have to do some inquiring to find them.

Next time

Thanks for letting me know Matt.  Hopefully next time!  As Dave said, there are lots of nice layouts to choose from out here.

Peoria is a small drive, but

Our group is in the northern part of Southern Illinois, right along the area of US 50. I know Peoria is about a 3 hour drive to here, but we have 3 layouts that are alternated for hosting that months operating session. The drawback is though, most of the time they are on weekday nights, such as Tuesday or Wednesday's from 6-9pm. We are always looking for guests, so if you are interested let me know, and I can add you to the announcement emails.

John Winter, The layouts in our operating group are in Mt. Vernon and Flora. Not too far from Breese, so that extends to you as well.

Joe A., My wife and I are taking a family vacation though Nebraska this June. Any chance I could stop by to tour your layout?

Steven

Layout visit

Sure thing Steven.  I'm one of the hosts for an Omaha-area op session weekend May 31-June 2, so that weekend's probably out, but most other times should work as long as I have some notice.

I am in Peoria

Hi Matt

I am in Peoria, there is a gentleman that does an operating session about once a month, he has been published in MR and is a great guy. Have you been to Mike's Scale Rails? I would start there to start networking with other modelers in the area. I have met many other model railroaders and there are a lot of high quality layouts in the area.

Feel free to email me to take it offline. I would be glad to introduce you to Roger and some others that have sessions.

david.e.thurman@gmail.com

Rockford Area

Matt,

There are lot of great model railroads in the Rockford area.  I know this is about 2 1/2 hours for you but it would be worth it.  You can go to http://rockrail.org to check out the railroads and also the schedule of events for the different railroads.

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions

Chris Morton

Quincy Society of Model Engineers

Hi Matt,

If Quincy isnt too far for you,The Quincy Society of Model Engineers may have operation nights. They have a nice layout. http://">http://www.qsme.org">http://http:www.qsme.org

stevelton...