May is here and what a wonderful time of the year it is to get out and watch trains on your favorite line. This is also a reminder that our meeting on May 16th will be held in Hopkinsville at the depot on 9th street. Wallace Henderson will have the program and I understand it will be outstanding as usual. Remember to bring your appetite with you as usual for the May meeting.
Ricky Bivins, has been preparing for the “Railfanning Event” in Mortons Gap on this coming Saturday (May 14). We will gather in the park next to the tracks. Ricky said there are some restaurants in Mortons Gap for food and he has made arrangements for restrooms. Bring a lawn chair, your favorite 32-ounce sipper and enjoy. We will start to meet any time after 10 AM and it will end when the last man leaves. We still have a couple of months open for club members to step up and sponsor a “Railfanning Event”. If you are interested, please contact me with a date or talk to me at the May meeting.
Congratulations to Blair Terry on winning photo contest last month with his picture of a Florida East Coast Railroad, locomotive crossing an alligator infested swamp. According to Jim Pearson we had a total of nine entries in the contest. I would like to thank all of you who entered, for taking the time and making an effort in this club activity. Our plans are to take the top photos from each contest and compile them into a club calendar for 2017. Our next photo contest will be from June 4th to the 11th.
James Kemp, Rich Hane, and myself met as a committee on our Christmas Show. I think we have some good ideas but this needs to be a club effort for it to be a success. We will need all our members to step up and be willing to work a couple of shifts while this project is under way. Things we are looking at, are, the modular layout, a standard gauge layout, antique toy display, Wally’s steam engines, the conductor from the Polar Express, continuous show of the movie “The Polar Express”, and a display of antiques toys. This project should get the Western Kentucky Chapter out into the eye of the community and help us cover the liability insurance billing for 2017. Any member who would like to be on the Christmas Show committee needs to contact me as soon as possible.
We need to thank Thomas Bryan for the excellent program last month. Betty and Donny Knight also stepped forward on the refreshments and did an exceptional job of feeding the crew. If you missed the meeting last month, you missed one of better meetings. Hope to see you in Hopkinsville this month on the 16th. This month’s program with be presented by Wally Henderson and refreshments by Terry, Farrell and Hopkinsville group.
Remember, “Show and Tell” for May and we also need raffle item.
Bill Farrell, President