By Gale Pifer
The El Riad Sprint Cars will be featured at the W. H. Lyons Fairgrounds Sunday, November 20, during the Sioux Valley Model Engineers Society (SVMES) “Trains at Christmas.” No, the Shrine sprint cars won’t actually be there, but much smaller size models of El Riad’s cars will be. You might say it is something like the popular movie, “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.”
The cars, barely an inch long, will be featured on Sunday from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. at the SVMES miniature speedway located in the SVMES permanent HO scale model railroad layout. They’ll appear along with the club’s “Trains at Christmas” event, which will featuring operating model train layouts in various scales and numerous vendors selling model trains. While there is an admission charge for the “Trains at Christmas” event in the fairgrounds Expo Center, there is no charge to tour club’s layout located on the north end of the fairgrounds.
The El Riad Sprint Cars have been thrilling their fellow Shriners and parade crowds though out the region, plus demoralizing other temple units in competitions. They recently brought home arm loads of first place trophies from competition at the Imperial.
A member of the SVMES model railroad club built the little cars, along with El Riad’s car hauler and several fez adorned Shriners.
“We wanted to give credit to the Shriners for all they do for our community and the many children that receive treatment at their hospitals. What better way than to feature one of their parade units on our model train layout,” said SVMES President Paul Deacon.