Model Railroading > Pacific Model Loggers' Congress final run ...

End of the road
 
The 2025 Pacific Model Loggers’ Congress will be the last one that Pam and I host. pacificmodelloggerscongress.org
 
Pam and I have had serious discussions about this for some time. We’ve considered all the angles, asking ourselves why we feel this way about shutting down an event with a roughly 20 year history and, unfortunately, an ever-smaller but much-appreciated cadre of enthusiastic supporters. My first records of the event are dated 2005, it’s been a good run, and we’ve had fun.
 
Some reasons are “mechanical” in nature, such as the dwindling attendance and smaller model contest participation, the difficulty of rounding up clinic presenters and so on. The financial angle is the least of our worries and not a significant factor. Other reasons are more personal, for example, the recent death of Lyle Spears hit both if us pretty hard, as did the loss of our leader Lon Wall a few years back, to say nothing of losing Glen Comstock, John Cummings, Bill Roy and the other terrific old timers in the group. These older guys were literally the ones who shaped the model railroad logging hobby we now know. The details all add up to us feeling this is a good time to call it quits.
 
It’s time for someone from the newer generation of modelers to take charge.
 
If someone out there has any interest in taking this over and continuing the event, either here or elsewhere, please let us know. We have paperwork, email and postal mailing lists, some “office supplies” and so on that helped us maintain the event year after year. We’ll happily turn over the material and help explain its use. If you’re seriously interested in this, we’d recommend you attend this last event starting with the room setup Friday April 4 late afternoon and staying on hand until we break down and clean up Saturday evening April 5. Nothing like first-hand experience to get up to speed on hosting an event, even a relatively easy one-day affair. Chances are a new event host will want to modify and shape the new event along somewhat different lines and that’s fine, but it wouldn’t hurt to get a feel for how it works from an inside perspective before launching out towards new horizons.
 
We logging modelers will have just one special interest event remaining each year, the annual Westside Reunion in Sonora, California, and hopefully we can continue supporting that one-day convention. Pam and I will be there and it’s always a good time. Westsidereunion.com.
 
Jeff Johnston
thesugarpineshop.bigcartel.com