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Houston Area Live Steamers
Live Steam Meets
2013
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Three meets per year, as follows:
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Chugga Chugga Chili Fest February 21 (Thursday) to 24 (Sunday), 2013.
Early arrivals welcome on Wednesday afternoon. SWLS members and other live steamers are welcome. Gary Brothers, BrothersGT1@aol.com
is meet coordinator and 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, desert and drinks. Most often we have nice weather in the
60s, but was once we cancelled because of 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. Bring your Gauge 1, 4.75 inch gauge, and 7.5 inch gauge locos and trains.
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SWLS - HALS joint meet over Memorial Day weekend. May 23 (Thursday) to 27
(Monday).
Except for the HALS 20th Anniversary Meet in November 2011, this is the biggest and most organized HALS
meet.
- Our biggest and most organized meet.
- Structured with planned events and scheduled off site meals on Thursday and Sunday nights.
- Catered lunches on Friday and Saturday.
- Potluck or catered meal at the track on Friday night.
- Catered meal at the track on Saturday night,often with about 100 for dinner.
- Pancake breakfasts Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
- Hot, unless it rains.
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Hals Anniversary / SWLS Blowdown Meet. November 7 (Thursday) - 10 (Sunday)
In 2013 this is a SWLS Sanctioned meet. A typical anniversary meet / blow down meet has the following activities:
- Thursday night dinner at a local resturant. Dutch treat.
- Friday Pancake Breakfast from 8 to 9 AM. Donations accepted.
- Friday night dinner is Potluck at the track.
- Satuday Pancake Breakfast from 8 to 9 AM. Donations accepted.
- Saturday catered lunch.
- Saturday: training for HALS members to run the two Rio Grande locos.
- Saturday about 5 PM, catered meal.
- Sunday Pancake Breakfast from 8 to 9 AM. Donations accepted.
At each of these meets, camping, RV’s, and travel trailers are welcome. HALS has the following facilities for this:
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11 paved spots with 30 amp service and more with 20 amp service.
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8 of these have water
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None have sewer, Wi-Fi, or telephone. No dumping is permitted. No shower available.
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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.
HALS meets are open to all HALS and SWLS members. These meets are on the Discover Live Steam calendar for live steamers who are outside the SWLS area. Gauge 1 live steamers are welcome to come. The 4.75 inch gauge track is the only club facility within 1000 miles and welcomes the 1 inch scale community.
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
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