Another school year draws to a close

We're getting ready to wind down for the school year as it's finals week here at RIT. We had a very productive month, hosting our first open house with the new layout under construction during the Imagine RIT fair. We had a few hundred visitors tour our progress and ask us great questions about the new version of the Rochester & Irondequoit Terminal on Saturday, May 4. It was a great day and we got a lot of encouragement and well wishes from the folks who came down to visit us. We were able to get Irondequoit Yard up and running for demonstration purposes, which gave some of our visitors the chance to run a train using DCC. All in all, it was a very successful event for us! Here are some photos from that day...

Some of our first visitors to the R&IT!

Club president J.C. Mayer talks with visitors about our future plans.

Club vice president Matt Glazer explains how we will be modeling portions of Rochester's downtown in HO scale.

Club member Connor shows off a slide show of our construction process from the past year.

Club member David Stavans demonstrates train operation in Irondequoit Yard.

Club secretary and construction manager Ryan Bailly looks on as visitors run trains in Irondequoit Yard.

A visitor inspects our mock-up of the proposed Albion scene.

On Sunday, May 5, we held our annual Year-End Dinner, which is a great way to look back on the year and make plans for next. Club president J.C. Mayer opened the dinner with a few congratulatory remarks and heartfelt thanks to everyone who supported RITMRC over the past school year. Club advisor David Scheiderich thanked everyone for helping to put together a successful Tiger Tracks Train Show, and also was happy we had made so much forward progress on the new layout this year. RITMRC's Chief Engineer E.J. Ryder ('00) thanked everyone for their hard work as well, and was very pleased with the progress made this year. Alumni member Otto Vondrak ('99) also made a brief presentation about our railroad's fictional history, and where it fits into the map of the real world. Otto also made a presentation about our next club car project (which will be revealed soon). The club enjoyed  dinner catered by local favorite Dinosaur BBQ, which was then followed by railfan slide shows by members Elliot Courtney and David Stavans. We also enjoyed Mike Smith's 4x4 switching layout, populated with buildings salvaged from the old R&IT layout. It was a great way to close out the year, and we're already looking forward to September!

 Club members enjoy Mike Smith's (gray shirt) 4x4 switching layout.

Club advisor Dave Scheiderich impresses the club members with his words of wisdom.

 Alumni member and club co-founder Otto Vondrak ('00) briefly explains the fictional R&IT history as a lead in to his proposal for our next club car project.

Club president J.C. Mayer enthusiastically thanked all the club members for their support and hard work over the last year.

David Stavans gave an interesting slide show that contained subjects domestic and foreign.

Quite the feast was provided by Dinosaur BBQ... Always a favorite!

While our school year is drawing to a close, you can continue to follow our progress on our Facebook fan page! We'll see you in September!