SCHEDULED HALS MEETS

1. Chugga Chugga Chili Fest:. February 24 (Thursday) to 27 (Sunday), 2011. Early arrivals welcome on Wednesday afternoon. Gary Brothers BrothersGT1@aol.com is the meet coordinator. Gary is the on-site RV host, arriving Wednesday afternoon to open the park. Saturday centers on a chili cooking contest at noon with members encouraged to make their best chili and non-cooks encouraged to bring side offerings like cheese, onions, dessert and drinks. Gary will be finalizing the schedule in the two weeks before the meet, so look back here for the Friday night and breakfast schedules. Often nice weather in the 60s, but was once cancelled for 40 F temperatures and blowing rain. Actually, folks were smart enough not to show up. Watch the weather, e-mail Gary or Rick White rick.white.jr@gmail.com to get the status of the meet. Rick has his e-mail with him at the track. A short section of 3.5 inch gauge track will be set up for this meet. So bring your Gauge 1, 3.5 inch gauge, 4.75 inch gauge, and 7.5 inch gauge locos and trains.
2. SWLS – HALS joint meet over Memorial Day weekend. For 2011 the dates are May 26 (Thursday) to 30 (Monday).
   1. Our biggest and most organized meet.
   2. Structured with planned operating events and scheduled off site meals on Thursday, Friday, and Sunday nights.
   3. Catered meals on Saturday, often with about 100 for dinner on Saturday.
   4. Pancake breakfasts Friday – Sunday.
   5. Hot, unless it rains.
3. Labor Day weekend.
   1. Cancelled because of heat and drought. However, the Gauge 1 livesteamers will be at the track from 9 to 2 on Saturday, Sept 3, for those who wish to come to the track. No steamer using solid fuel may run on the ground level track.
4. Anniversary meet
   1. 2010 the meet was November 11-14 and we had the following activities:
      1. Friday night dinner at Julios in Rosehill on FM 2920. Dutch treat.
      2. Saturday Pancake Breakfast from 8:00 to 9:00 AM. Donations accepted.
      3. Saturday 10 AM to noon: training for HALS members to run the two Rio Grande locos. More training for Saturday and Sunday afternoon will be available if this is not enough.
      4. Saturday 1 to 3 PM. Bidirectional running on the entire railroad. Route cards will be handed out. Bring your FRS radio to talk with the dispatcher on Channel 11 code 13.
      5. Saturday at 5 PM, dinner at the track. HALS supplies the main dish. Members to bring side dishes.
      6. Sunday Pancake Breakfast from 8:00 to 9:00 AM. Donations accepted.
      7. Sunday 1:00 PM. Training class and written test for conductor / engineer for HALS members who want to run HALS Locomotives.
      8. Sunday 2:00 PM. Hands on training using 3119 and or 5321 to qualify HALS engineers to run these HALS locos.
   2. 2011 is HALS 20th anniversary and a big meet is planned and the dates will be November 10 (Thursday) to November 13 (Sunday). Will also be the SWLS Blowdown Meet in 2011 – welcome SWLS Members! The three members organizing this meet are Doug Blodgett, Jim Cash, and Donna Greene. These three have great ideas for the biggest meet in HALS history. Please plan on coming. This meet has the best weather of any HALS meet. Click here for specific information on the 20th Anniversary Meet.

At each of these meets, camping, RV’s, and travel trailers are welcome. HALS has the following facilities for this:

• 12 paved spots with 30 amp service
• 8 of these have water
• None have sewer, Wi-Fi, or telephone. No dumping is permitted. No shower available.
• These are available on a first come first serve. These RV and travel trailers are the first to arrive at each meet and the last to leave. A real dedicated bunch.

Facilities

• Hydraulic lift on a transfer table with a 6,000 lb. capacity
  • 17 inches high when all the way down (top of ground to top of rail)
  • 54 inches high when all the way up (top of ground to top of rail)
  • Drive through for unloading and loading live steam equipment. However, a turn prevents large Toy boxes from using the hydraulic lift / transfer table.
• Steaming Bays
  • 24' turntable
  • 16 covered steaming bays
  • 4 uncovered steaming bays
  • Twelve 20 foot steaming bays (all covered)
  • Eight 10 foot steaming bays
  • Electricity, Water, and Air for each steaming bay
  • Several of the covered bays are for 4.75 inch gauge locos.
• Classification Yard for parking trains. 10 tracks to 200 feet long.
• There is one 1200 foot loop of 4.75 inch gauge track. The normal steaming bays and transfer table are used for 4.75 inch gauge steamers. There is a separate storage yard for railroad cars. The 1200 foot loop has two passing sidings and can be used for bi-directional operation.
• The 7.5 inch gauge track is set up for a ride of 1.5 miles before repeating. We call this our SWLS route.
• HALS has a raised Gauge 1 track for steam locomotives (no power to the track). Steaming bays under the shade of a tree. The locos are as small as a tee cup to as big as a big-boy. A number are radio controlled, but some have only manual controls. Some of the most detailed live steam locos you will ever see run on this track with trains to match. Well detailed live steam locos run on this track with trains to match.

For more about HALS, see www.hals.org

• On the right side of the HALS home page there are links for a map to the track and lodging. SWLS Meet photos have a link there. At this writing, the home page has videos of a past meet at the top of the page.
• Photos of past HALS events are at my personal web albums and include photos of some others. See http://picasaweb.google.com/111706287434393157719 for 2010 and later photos and see http://picasaweb.google.com/Rick.White.Jr for 2009 and earlier photos. These albums show work days, public run days, HALS locomotive building class (2009), and HALS meets. Select an album to see the activity.

If you have questions, please ask.
Rick White, HALS Secretary
rick.white.jr@gmail.com

Last update 1/28/2011.