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And the Envelope, Please...
I was fortunate to be on hand that Sunday morning when the Model Railroad Industry Association had its breakfast. Executive Director Fred Hamilton had outdone himself (and will be hard-pressed to ever equal again) when he booked the affair into Salty’s in West Seattle. It was July 11 and the NMRA Convention was winding down, but having crab legs for breakfast is a good way to start any day. This was a general membership meeting and so officers were inducted and such.

Then came the time for awards. Zana Ireland, the current president of MRIA, first presented the induction into the Model Railroad Industry’s Hall of Fame of Bob and Lynne Lunde who gave us Magnuson Models and Design Preservation Models. They were not in attendance and so their awards will be sent to them. Then came the big surprise. Or maybe it shouldn’t have surprised anyone.

The second inductee for this year is H. Lee Riley, the dynamic Vice President of Product Development for Bachmann Industries. After a brief half second for the import of this award to sink in, the room erupted with enthusiastic applause. Lee, who is usually never at a loss for words, was clearly the most surprised person there.

H. Lee Riley of Bachmann accepts the plaque inducting him into the Model Railroad Industry’s Hall of Fame from MRIA President Zana Ireland of Digitrax.
It’s like Lee to be surprised, however. His head was either busy with some new design or perhaps was filled with some of his beloved bluegrass music. He wouldn’t have bothered himself with notions of awards and inductions into halls of fame.

The award came as no shock to the rest of us. Lee has always been at Notch Eight, designing new products or working over old ones. The Bachmann Shay — in several scales — is another testimonial to his vision and research. Every one of the MRIA members I talked to felt proud to have seen Lee inducted into the Industry’s Hall of Fame.

Lee is ebullient and outgoing, so it was rather delightful to see him flustered and a bit stunned. I’m sure he’s over it by now. Congratulations, Lee!
Face-To-Face

One of the fortunate aspects of the National Train Show is the chance to see the same people you talk with on the phone on a weekly basis during the rest of the year. I got to put faces with names and voices. I also got to see some of my old friends, many of whom I haven’t seen in months or years.

It’s true. I don’t get out much. See, I like my job, my family, my home, and travel generally doesn’t seem like much of a reward to me. I wanted to go by train; that’s how I attended the show in St. Louis back in 2001. Unfortunately, not only is the train expensive (I go first class) but there seems to be all of these schedule delays, and Amtrak doesn’t run within a hundred miles of my house. Darn! I really like trains!

Seattle was a seven-hour trip up Interstate 5 from my home in Medford, Oregon. Aztec John and I tore up the pavement with his blue Dodge pickup truck, taking turns at the wheel. Of course John, who hails from Carson City, Nevada, is another five hours removed. In all, it wasn’t a bad way to go.

I really don’t care for airline travel. Even before 9/11, it was a pain in the neck, but now it’s worse. I’m not afraid of the planes themselves, but I really don’t care for airports, and I don’t like being inside of planes for hours on end. The nice thing about planes is that they’re fast. Except when they’re late, or waiting to take off and land. I have never been taken off to one side and questioned by airport security or otherwise delayed, but I have grave doubts about any security system which is threatened by fingernail clippers.

The best part of the show was seeing some of our readers and hearing directly from them — maybe you were one! In fact, I liked that part of it so much that I may put in an appearance at Cincinnati next summer. Meanwhile, I’d like to stay home for a while.

No, it’s not Tiger Woods. It’s John Claudino, aka Aztec John, of Aztec Manufacturing (Mr. Track Cleaner), one of many exhibitors at the 2004 NMRA Convention in Seattle, Washington. —Photo by Christie Wells.
John Sipple, Editor
To respond to this month's Editorial, send comments to: Editorial@modelrailroadnews.com