We’ve wrapped up a fabulous Railcon 2024!  We had 101 attendees –

a new record!  We set several other records and crowned a first time

National Champion!  

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Would Phil Cottrell repeat as National Champion?  Would Roger Jarrett

make it a 2024 trifecta after winning Origins and Gen Con this summer? 

Nope, and Nope. As so often happens, the Puffing Billy tournament came

down to the top table of the Eurorails final, with Trella Bromley,

Jeff Jackson, Charlie Rucker and Jon Lundy competing (on too little sleep,

of course).  Jeff won the game, and Trella’s fourth place wasn’t good

enough for her to repeat as National Champion.  When the Euro-dust

settled, our new first-time National Champion is… Charlie Rucker!  

Congratulations, Charlie!

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Charlie ended with a solid victory margin at 16.3.  Positions 2-4 were a very

tight race, with first-time attendee Adam Bromson in 2nd at 16.09, Trella 3rd

at 15.99 and Jeff in 4th with 15.98.  The rest of the top ten were Mark

Liberman, Jon Lundy, Tricia Hermon, Jen McConnell, new TGA member

Chris Wildes, and Andi Wynn.  Overall, an impressive 20 players managed to

get their five category wins.

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The Challenger class (which goes to the highest ranked player who has

never won a major championship) was decided early in the weekend. 

Adam Bromson came out of the gate at his first Railcon with an impressive

series of qualifier wins, and two finals, wins on the first couple of days.  He

actually spent most of the weekend all the way at the top of the Puffing

Billy standings, only slipping to 2nd late Saturday night.  Chris Wildes also

had an impressive performance that would have won some years.  Others

in the Challenger top five (all with five category wins) were Peter Orlowicz,

Steven Bill, and Mike Britton.

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As for the Iron Man, a record ten people played at least one game in all nine

categories.  That isn’t required, but it’s worth noting.  It was an impressively

close competition with not one but two players posting wins in all nine

categories.  The winner was Adam Bromson at 27.11, followed closely by

Mike Britton at 27.08.  The rest of the top ten were Jon Lundy, Andi Wynn,

Bob Rich, Peter Orlowicz, Anthony Medici (last year’s winner), Charie Rucker, Mark Liberman, and David Belew.