December

Covid News:

As of December 14th, 2020 Rail Tales is operating according to its normal scheduled hours of operation under the Phase 3 Recovery for Virginia as modified by Executive Order 72. This order ends January 31st, 2021.

What this means for Rail Tales:

1) The first major change from the order 63 existing rules is that we are required to strictly enforce social distancing. Customers should maintain social distancing from all persons except those you arrived with. We can be charged with a crime if we do not enforce this rule so please bear with us. Among other things, this makes it impossible to hold our gaming events, therefore…

1a) All gaming events are moved to after store closing. Friday Night Magic will begin at 7 pm and Lazy Sunday Magic is suspended. Other events will be posted.

1b) Saturday Demonstrations have to be done at a distance if done in the store and therefore to make it practical, all demonstrations have to be conducted entirely in our workshop and are considered ‘social events’.

1c) Club Meetings will take place in our workshop in January. The meetings for December have been suspended.

2) The second major change from order 63 existing rules is that social gatherings may not have more than 10 people, so all Magic events and Club events are limited to 10 people.

3) The third major change from existing order 63 is that the mask order has been clarified and expanded. Face coverings now have to be worn in any settling where two or more people are occupying the same room other than their private residence. This does not effect the public but means our staff has to wear masks even when nobody is in the store. Also, masks must cover nose and mouth, not just the mouth. We are requiring that Rail Tales customers wear face coverings while in the store to comply with this order. Remember that your face covering protects others and their face covering protects you!

We are still working very hard to keep our surfaces sterile, including door handles and signature pens. Be assured that if any staff members are knowingly exposed to a Covid carrier, we will close as necessary to make sure we do not pose a risk to our customers.

Thank you for your support.

Rail Tales will be closing early (approximately 5 pm) on December 24 and remaining closed December 25th. We will also be closed December 31st and January 1st.

General Store Events

Saturday, December 12: Rail Tales will host a demonstration of weathering techniques for structures and vehicles and/or figures (subject determined by request) from 2 pm until 4 pm. This demonstration will take place in the workshop but report to the store first. Among other materials, we will demonstrate the application of Vallejo pigment powders and washes and general drybrushing but the focus will be on using the AK pencils. We can do an airbrush demonstration instead if requested. This demonstration is prior to the new Executive order 72.

Thursday, December 24th: Rail Tales will be closing at 5 pm so that our staff may spend time with their families.

Friday, December 25th: Rail Tales will be closed for Christmas.

Saturday, December 26th: No demonstration as Bret will be on vacation.

Thursday December 31st and Friday, January 1st: Rail Tales will be closed to celebrate the new year. Goodby to 2020 and good riddance! Happy New Year 2021!

Gaming Events

We are hosting Friday Night Magic starting at 6:30 on the 11th and (due to the new Order 72 Guidelines) at 7 pm on the 18th. This is draft format and the cost is will depend on the set drafted. Please call for details. These events are not sanctioned by Wizards- we are running the events on our own initiative. The format is Zendikar Rising unless the attendees vote for a different format. Gloves are provided for the card passing portion of the event upon request and masks are required for the entire event. There will be a maximum of 16 slots for the draft on the 11th and 10 for the draft on the 18th. This is a hard cap, so if you want to make sure you have a space, please call ahead to reserve one.

We are hosting an additional Draft of Commander Legends on Sunday, December 13th at 6 pm. Contact Nathan Robb at the store for details.

We are hosting Lazy Sunday Magic (LSM) on (surprise) Sunday afternoon on the 13th starting at 1 pm and running until approximately 4 pm but players are usually able to stay later to finish matches. Our current format is EDH (Commander) and the cost is $5. Attendees must wear masks. LSM is a constructed event so you have to have your own deck or borrow one from a friend. We give out 1.5 packs per register. One pack goes to each player who stays until the end of the event. Within each pod, the pod members vote how to give away the remaining packs. There is also a door prize of two F&M promo packs. The maximum number of participants is 12. This is a hard cap based on how many tables we can get in the store and still allow for regular customers, so if you want to reserve a spot, please call ahead.

There will be no Lazy Sunday Magic events for the rest of December and January due to Order 72 restrictions.

Club Events

Saturday, December 12th: The Charlottesville Model Club meeting has been cancelled. The meeting in January will be in the workshop if we choose to hold it.

There is no Jefferson Railroad Modular Club meeting this month due to conflicts with the holidays. We will resume meetings in January.

November

Rail Tales is operating normally under the Phase 3 Recovery for Virginia.

What this means for Rail Tales:

1) We are still taking extra steps to keep contact surfaces clean such as sanitizing pens, door handles, countertops, and keypads. We are also providing hand sanitizer for customer use.

2) Customers should maintain social distancing from all persons except those you arrived with. This is not longer strictly enforced but please stay six feet or more from your fellow customers unless necessary.

3) The governor’s executive order 63 requiring that all persons in public must wear face coverings is still in effect. We are therefore requiring that Rail Tales customers wear face coverings while in the store to comply with this order. Remember that your face covering protects others and their face covering protects you!

3a) Charlottesville Virginia has enacted its own face covering requirement which essentially reinforces the Governor’s order except that this one is being enforced by the police upon the individual in addition to the business.

4) Rail Tales is conducting Saturday Demonstrations again. As always, interested parties need to call the day of the event between 11 am and 1 pm to confirm. We have a limited number of slots for the demonstrations in order to preserve social distancing.

5) All our game and club events are back on the calendar. See our schedule of events. However, there are strict maximum sizes for most events and we are typically filling up so if you want to attend, it is recommended that you make a reservation by phone.

General Store Events

Saturday, November 7th: Rail Tales will host a demonstration of basic modelling and painting or airbrushing from 2 pm until 4 pm. The subject will be determined at the time of the demonstration based on requests. This demonstration will take place in the workshop but report to the store first.

Saturday, November 14th: Rail Tales will host a demonstration of weathering techniques for structures and vehicles and/or figures (subject determined by request) from 2 pm until 4 pm. This demonstration will take place in the workshop but report to the store first. Among other materials, we will demonstrate the application of Vallejo pigment powders and washes, AK pencil work, and general drybrushing. We may if time permits do weathering with an airbrush as well.

Saturday, November 21st: Rail Tales will host a demonstration of track laying and wiring techniques from 2 pm until 4 pm. The subject of this demonstration is hand-laid track using some new products and procedures created by our staff. Why hand lay? Well it looks great but mostly, sometimes you need a piece of track nobody makes. We can show you how to make it. This demonstration will probably be done in the store, since it takes very little space.

Thursday, November 26th: Rail Tales will be closed so that our staff may spend time with their families. Happy Thanksgiving!

Saturday, November 28th: No major demonstration is planned for this Saturday as hopefully staff will be busy with customers. However, we will have wire form tree making materials on hand for people who want to try this scenery project. For December, we will be doing scenery demonstrations on the first Saturday of the month instead of the 4th Saturday (as Bret will be on vacation).

Gaming Events

We are hosting Friday Night Magic starting at 6:30. This is draft format and the cost is $14. These events are not sanctioned by Wizards- we are running the events on our own initiative. The format is Zendikar Rising unless the attendees vote for a different format. Gloves are provided for the card passing portion of the event upon request and masks are required for the entire event. There will be a maximum of 16 slots for each draft. This is a hard cap based on how many tables we can install without re-arranging the shelving, so if you want to make sure you have a space, please call ahead to reserve one.

We are hosting Lazy Sunday Magic (LSM) again on (surprise) Sunday afternoons starting at 1 pm and running until approximately 4 pm but players are usually able to stay later to finish matches. Our current format is EDH (Commander) and the cost is $5. Attendees must wear masks. LSM is a constructed event so you have to have your own deck or borrow one from a friend. We give out 1.5 packs per register. One pack goes to each player who stays until the end of the event. Within each pod, the pod members vote how to give away the remaining packs. There is also a door prize of two F&M promo packs. The maximum number of participants is 12. This is a hard cap based on how many tables we can get in the store and still allow for regular customers, so if you want to reserve a spot, please call ahead.

Sunday, November 22nd: our LSM event will be replaced by a Commander Legends Draft. This event begins at the same 1 pm start time as LSM and runs until completed. The cost will be $22. This event has a hard cap of 12 people because we are not closing the store.

Club Events

Saturday, November 14th: Rail Tales will host our monthly Model Club meeting starting at 4:30. This event will take place in our store, although if we have more than 12 people we may move it to the workshop.

There is no Jefferson Railroad Modular Club meeting this month or next month due to conflicts with the holidays. We will resume meetings in January.

October

Rail Tales is operating normally under the Phase 3 Recovery for Virginia.

What this means for Rail Tales:

1) We are still taking extra steps to keep contact surfaces clean such as sanitizing pens, door handles, countertops, and keypads. We are also providing hand sanitizer for customer use.

General Store Events

Saturday, October 3rd: Rail Tales will host a demonstration of basic modelling and painting from 2 pm until 4 pm. The subject will be determined at the time of the demonstration based on requests. This demonstration will take place in the workshop but report to the store first.

Saturday, October 10th: Rail Tales will host a demonstration of weathering techniques for structures and vehicles and/or figures (subject determined by request) from 2 pm until 4 pm. This demonstration will take place in the workshop but report to the store first. Among other materials, we will demonstrate the application of Vallejo pigment powders and washes, AK pencil work, and general drybrushing. We may if time permits do weathering with an airbrush as well.

Saturday, October 17th: Rail Tales will host a demonstration of track laying and wiring techniques from 2 pm until 4 pm. The subject of this demonstration is hand-laid track using some new products and procedures created by our staff. Why hand lay? Well it looks great but mostly, sometimes you need a piece of track nobody makes. We can show you how to make it. This demonstration will probably be done in the store, since it takes very little space.

Saturday, October 24th: Rail Tales will host a demonstration of basic scenery techniques from 2 pm until 4 pm. Specifically, we will demonstrate how to make small scenes suitable for dioramas. This demonstration will take place in the store instead of the workshop due to personnel limitations.

Saturday, October 31st: Happy Halloween! Rail Tales will demonstrate DCC installations. If a customer wants to volunteer a subject, let us know in advance.

Gaming Events

Club Events

Saturday, October 10th: Rail Tales will host our monthly Model Club meeting starting at 4:30. This event will take place in our store, although if we have more than 12 people we may move it to the workshop.

Sunday, October 25th: Rail Tales will host a meeting for the Jefferson Railroad Modular Club beginning at 1 pm. This event will take place in our workshop.

September

Rail Tales is operating normally under the Phase 3 Recovery for Virginia.

What this means for Rail Tales:

1) We are still taking extra steps to keep contact surfaces clean such as sanitizing pens, door handles, countertops, and keypads. We are also providing hand sanitizer for customer use.

General Store Events:

Whole Month: Our workshop is up and running again. We have completed the Civil War structures and will be working on two layouts for customers.

Saturday, September 5th: Rail Tales will host a demonstration of figure painting and general related modelling from 2 pm until 4 pm. This demonstration will take place in the workshop but report to the store first. The demonstration is oriented towards small subjects.

Saturday, September 12th: Rail Tales will host a remote meeting of the James River Division of the National Model Railroad Association from 9 am until the store opens at 11 am. This meeting will be conducted in the store to use the store internet and is closed to the public. This meeting includes a demonstration by Rail Tales of the zero depth water scenery technique and also the use of ground acrylic paste.

Due to the necessary organization and cleanup related to the NMRA meeting, Rail Tales will not host the afternoon weathering demonstration this month.

Saturday, September 19th: Rail Tales will host a demonstration of track laying and wiring techniques from 2 pm until 4 pm. The subject of this demonstration is hand-laid track using some new products and procedures created by our staff. Why hand lay? Well it looks great but mostly, sometimes you need a piece of track nobody makes. We can show you how to make it. This demonstration will probably be done in the store, since it takes very little space.

Sunday, September 20th: Rail Tales will be closed to regular traffic in order to host a Pre-release for Zandikar Rising from Magic the Gathering. Regular customers can pick up special orders or drop off orders and repairs but we will not be able to allow browsers. However if we have 12 or fewer participants we will open the store as normal after 2 pm.

Saturday, September 26: Rail Tales will host a demonstration of basic scenery techniques from 2 pm until 4 pm. Specifically, we will repeat a version of the zero depth water and ground acrylic paste technique. This demonstration will take place in the workshop but report to the store first.

Gaming Events:

We are hosting a Pre-Release event for Zandikar Rising on Sunday, September 20th starting at 1 pm. Registration starts at 12. Our hard cap for this event is 32, so pre-registration is recommended. IF we have at least 18 participants, the store will pay for Taco Bell for everyone (due to virus concerns, we are doing TB rather than pizza because the items are all individually wrapped). The cost is $25.99. Cancelled

We are hosting Friday Night Magic starting at 6:30. This is draft format and the cost is $14. These events are not sanctioned by Wizards- we are running the events on our own initiative. We are doing drafts of M21 on the 4th, 11th, and 18th. We will be switching to Zendikar Rising for the 25th. Gloves are provided for the card passing portion of the event upon request and masks are required for the entire event. There will be a maximum of 16 slots for each draft. This is a hard cap based on how many tables we can install without re-arranging the shelving, so if you want to make sure you have a space, please call ahead to reserve one.

Club Events

Saturday, September 12th: Rail Tales will host our monthly Model Club meeting starting at 4:30. This event will take place in our store, although if we have more than 12 people we may move it to the workshop.

Sunday, September 27th: Rail Tales will host a meeting for the Jefferson Railroad Modular Club beginning at 1 pm. This event will take place in our workshop.

August

Rail Tales has resumed normal operating hours under the Phase 3 Recovery for Virginia.

What this means for Rail Tales:

1) We are still taking extra steps to keep contact surfaces clean such as sanitizing pens, door handles, countertops, and keypads. We are also providing hand sanitizer for customer use.

5) All our game and club events are back on the calendar. See our schedule of events.

In essence, Rail Tales is more or less operating normally other than the spacing, cleaning, and mask things.

Thank you for your support.

General Store Events:

Whole Month: Our workshop is up and running again. Among other subjects, we are building structures for and ultimately building a Civil War era layout in N scale.

Saturday, August 1st: Rail Tales will host a demonstration of airbrushing using the Badger Patriot Extreme airbrush and Vallejo products from 2 pm until 4 pm. This demonstration will take place in the workshop but report to the store first. The demonstration is not only of general airbrush techniques and practices but the subject matter is is very small objects such as N scale rolling stock.

Saturday, August 8th: Rail Tales will host a demonstration of weathering techniques for structures and vehicles and/or figures (subject determined by request) from 2 pm until 4 pm. This demonstration will take place in the workshop but report to the store first. Among other materials, we will demonstrate the application of Vallejo pigment powders and washes, AK pencil work, and general drybrushing. We may if time permits do weathering with an airbrush as well.

Saturday, August 15th: Rail Tales will host a demonstration of track laying and wiring techniques from 2 pm until 4 pm. The subject of this demonstration is hand-laid track using some new products and procedures created by our staff. Why hand lay? Well it looks great but mostly, sometimes you need a piece of track nobody makes. We can show you how to make it. This demonstration will probably be done in the store, since it takes very little space.

Saturday, August 22nd: Rail Tales will host a demonstration of basic scenery techniques from 2 pm until 4 pm. Specifically, we will demonstrate how to make a small pond and continue our work on the small hill. This demonstration will take place in the workshop but report to the store first.

Gaming Events:

We are hosting Friday Night Magic. We are doing drafts of M21 all month. Gloves are provided for the card passing portion of the event and masks are required for the entire event. There will be a maximum of 16 slots for each draft.

Lazy Sunday Magic (LSM) returns. Attendees must wear masks. LSM is a constructed event so you have to have your own deck or borrow one from a friend. The fun starts at 1 pm and runs 3 rounds, so we usually finish about 4 pm. The entry fee is $5. We give out 1 pack per match win to all match winners so even if you go 1 and 2, you still get something. The current format for this event is Pioneer. The maximum number of participants is 12.

Club Events

Saturday, August 8th: Rail Tales will host our monthly Model Club meeting starting at 4:30. If we have more than 12 attendees, we will move the meeting to our workshop in order to preserve social distancing.

Sunday, August 30th: Rail Tales will host a meeting for the Jefferson Railroad Modular Club beginning at 1 pm. This event will take place in our workshop.

July

Special Note: As of July 1st, 2020 Rail Tales is operating according to its normal scheduled hours of operation under the Phase 3 Recovery for Virginia.

What this means for Rail Tales:

1) We are still taking extra steps to keep contact surfaces clean such as sanitizing pens, door handles, countertops, and keypads. We are also providing hand sanitizer for customer use.

5) All our game and club events are back on the calendar. See our schedule of events.

In essence, Rail Tales is more or less operating normally other than the spacing, cleaning, and mask thing.

Thank you for your support.

General Store Events:

Whole Month: Our workshop is up and running again. Among other subjects, we are building structures for and ultimately building a Civil War era layout in N scale.

Octoberfest is back! The prodigal layout has returned for a limited engagement. As many of our long-time customers are aware, we used to have a Marklin layout known as ‘Octoberfest’ (see the Gallery for pictures) which was sold to a local restaurant. That business failed and the layout was sold to a customer who is having us refurbish and freshen the (somewhat abused) scene for him. If you want to see how to fix up old layouts, this is your chance.

Saturday, July 4th: Rail Tales will be open. Rail Tales will also host a demonstration of either model building or figure painting using Vallejo products from 2 pm until 4 pm. This demonstration will take place in the workshop but report to the store first. The subject will be based on requests, so if you have a particular subject, let us know.

Saturday, July 11th: Rail Tales will host a demonstration of weathering techniques for structures and vehicles and/or figures (subject determined by request) from 2 pm until 4 pm. This demonstration will take place in the workshop but report to the store first. Among other materials, we will demonstrate the application of Vallejo pigment powders and washes, AK pencil work, and general drybrushing. Model club will immediately follow.

Saturday, July 18th: Rail Tales will host a demonstration of track laying and wiring techniques from 2 pm until 4 pm. The subject of this demonstration is to be determined by request. This demonstration will take place in the workshop but report to the store first.

Saturday, July 25th: Rail Tales will host a demonstration of basic scenery techniques from 2 pm until 4 pm. Specifically, we will pick up where we left off last month with the various water projects: a beach scene, swamp scene, drop in pond. We will also add grasses, bushes, etc, to the small hill built two months ago. This demonstration will take place in the workshop but report to the store first.

Gaming Events:

We are hosting Friday Night Magic. We are doing drafts of M21 all months. Gloves are provided for the card passing portion of the event and masks are required for the entire event. There will be a maximum of 16 slots for each draft.

Club Events

Saturday, July 11th: Rail Tales will host our monthly Model Club meeting starting at 4:30. If we have more than 12 attendees, we will move the meeting to our workshop in order to preserve social distancing.

Sunday, July 26th: Rail Tales will host a meeting for the Jefferson Railroad Modular Club beginning at 1 pm. This event will take place in our workshop.

June

Special Note: As of May 15th, 2020 Rail Tales is operating according to its normal scheduled hours of operation under the Phase 1 Recovery for Virginia.

What has not changed:

1) We cannot allow more than 10 patrons in the store at any given time in order to allow social distancing but we have a little leeway with this. We do not expect this to be a problem but we will enforce this if it happens to become one. If you are driving a long distance, please make an appointment.

2) We are taking extra steps to keep contact surfaces clean.

3) Customers must maintain social distancing from all persons except those you arrived with. We will also be enforcing this, including distances from staff.

What has changed:

1) Rail Tales is conducting Saturday Demonstrations again. As always, interested parties need to call the day of the event between 11 am and 1 pm to confirm. We have a limited number of slots for the demonstrations in order to preserve social distancing.

2) Rail Tales will begin off-site work and classes again.

3) As of May 29th, the governor’s executive order 63 requires that all persons in public must wear face coverings. We are therefore requiring that Rail Tales customers wear face coverings while in the store to comply with this order.

As of June 5th, Virginia will enter Phase 2 Recovery, which means all our planned club and game events will be allowed. All other conditions remain in effect for us.

Thank you for your understanding.

General Store Events:

Saturday, June 6th: Rail Tales will host a demonstration of figure painting using Vallejo products from 2 pm until 4 pm. This demonstration will take place in the workshop but report to the store first. Time permitting, we will also demonstrate some basic figure modelling techniques.

Saturday, June 13th: Rail Tales will host a demonstration of weathering techniques for structures and vehicles and/or figures (subject determined by request) from 2 pm until 4 pm. This demonstration will take place in the workshop but report to the store first. Among other materials, we will demonstrate the application of Vallejo pigment powders and washes, AK pencil work, and general drybrushing.

Saturday, June 20th: Rail Tales will host a demonstration of track laying and wiring techniques from 2 pm until 4 pm. The subject of this demonstration is to be determined by request. This demonstration will take place in the workshop but report to the store first.

Saturday, June 27th: Rail Tales will host a demonstration of basic scenery techniques from 2 pm until 4 pm. Specifically, we will pick up where we left off last month and add grasses, bushes, rock debris, etc, to the small hill built last time. We will also cover advanced rock painting. This demonstration will take place in the workshop but report to the store first.

Sunday, June 28th: Rail Tales will be closed to normal traffic IF we are able to host our planned Magic the Gathering event. This event is subject to Virginia being under Phase 2 at the time. If we are not able to host the event as an actual tournament, we will host it as a virtual event as previously done.

Gaming Events:

We will begin hosting Friday Night Magic again once Virginia enters Phase 2 Recovery. This is supposed to begin on June 5th. In order to keep things as healthy as possible, our intention is to run these events as Sealed type events (which means no card passing). We will require masks for this event. At this time, we intend to run the events as Ikoria, Lair of the Behemoths. Our proposed charge for each sealed tournament will be $25 including all prize support (that is 7 packs total per player for only $25!). There will be a maximum of 16 slots for each draft.

Lazy Sunday Magic (LSM) will return when we are in Phase 2, which should begin June 7th. Attendees must wear masks. LSM is a constructed event so you have to have your own deck or borrow one from a friend. The fun starts at 1 pm and runs 3 rounds, so we usually finish about 4 pm. The entry fee is $5. We give out 1 pack per match win to all match winners so even if you go 1 and 2, you still get something. The current format for this event is Pioneer. The maximum number of participants is 12.

Sunday, June 28th, Rail Tales will host the Pre-Release event for Core Set 2021 as an in-person gaming event, assuming we are in Phase 2 recovery. This event will start at 1 pm with registration starting at 12. Attendees MUST wear masks. As always, we will be giving away free stuff to the first 18 people to pre-register and if we have at least 18 attendees, we will provide free pizza (if the rules for Phase 2 allow- if not, at least we can give you free drinks). However, unlike previous events, for this one, we must have at least 12 pre-registers to actually host the event! If we do not have at least 12 pre-registers by the 27th, we will run it as a virtual event (so we don’t have to close the store). If we are not in Phase 2, we will have to run it as a virtual event.

Club Events

Saturday, June 13th: Assuming we are in Phase 2 Recovery, Rail Tales will host our monthly Model Club meeting starting at 4:30. If we have more than 10 attendees, we will move the meeting to our workshop.

There will be no official Jefferson Railroad meeting this month due to the MtG gaming event. We hope to have a meeting in July.

May

Special Note: As of May 15th, 2020 Rail Tales is operating according to its normal scheduled hours of operation under the Phase 1 Recovery for Virginia.

What has not changed:

1) We cannot allow more than 10 patrons in the store at any given time in order to allow social distancing but we have a little leeway with this. We do not expect this to be a problem but we will enforce this if it happens to become one. If you are driving a long distance, please make an appointment.

2) We are taking extra steps to keep contact surfaces clean.

3) Customers must maintain social distancing from all persons except those you arrived with. We will also be enforcing this, including distances from staff.

4) We cannot run Magic the Gathering events nor can we host club meetings until Phase 2.

What has changed:

1) Rail Tales is conducting Saturday Demonstrations again. As always, interested parties need to call the day of the event between 11 am and 1 pm to confirm. We have a limited number of slots for the demonstrations in order to preserve social distancing.

2) Rail Tales will begin off-site work and classes again.

3) As of May 29th, the governor’s executive order 63 requires that all persons in public must wear face coverings. We are therefore requiring that Rail Tales customers wear face coverings while in the store to comply with this order.

Thank you for your understanding.

Proposed Schedule for Demonstrations:

Saturday, May 16th: Rail Tales will host a demonstration of structure and rolling stock weathering techniques from approximately 2 pm until approximately 4 pm. This is the demonstration normally held on the 2nd Saturday.

Saturday, May 23rd: Rail Tales will host a demonstration of basic scenery making using foam, plastic, Shaper Sheet, and Sculptamold.

Saturday, May 30th: Rail Tales will host a demonstration of digital decoder installations for HO scale locomotives.

The Magic the Gathering Ikoria pre-release scheduled for May 17th will be a virtual event- customers will be allowed to come in between May 15th and May 17th and ‘register’ in order to purchase pre-release kits and boxes of the Ikoria set but will not actually play an on-site event at this time.

Once the state transitions to Phase 2 (possibly as early as June), Rail Tales will be able to host the Model Club meeting and Magic the Gathering events. Participants will be required to wear masks. Magic events will be sealed format when they resume.

Thank you for your support.

April

Special Note: As of Thursday, April 16th, the employee test was negative! We are reopening as of noon on April 16th under the previous restrictions for small brick-and-mortar business.

Please observe the restrictions we have posted on the door.

Thank you and thanks to all the customers who called to show their concern.

All events for April are still cancelled.

March

Special Note: As of March 30th, 2020 according to the new governor’s order of this date, Rail Tales will continue its normal scheduled hours of operation with the following restrictions:

1) We cannot allow more than 10 patrons in the store at any given time. We will enforce this.

2) We are taking extra steps to keep contact surfaces clean.

3) Customers must maintain social distancing from all persons except those you arrived with. We will also be enforcing this, including distances from staff

All of our events are being cancelled for the foreseeable future.

Thank you for your understanding.

General News:

All Month: Rail Tales delivered the Brooklyn Project (see our Gallery). We are working on the N scale logging operation which we began at the end of last month. That should be delivered this month as well. After that, we will begin preliminary structure and design work on two more layouts. This work will all take place in our workshop.

Note on all Demonstrations: Due to personnel shortages, we will only hold demonstrations if we have persons who have confirmed they are coming on the day of the event by 1 pm. You must confirm on the day of the event! The 2 pm to 4 pm time frame is the period in which the demonstration will occur. The actual duration may be less depending on subject matter and store traffic.

Saturday, March 7th: No Demonstration. Bret will not be in the store.

Saturday, March 14th: Rail Tales will host a session of its regular weathering and painting demonstration from 2pm until 4 pm. By special request, we will be doing this as an airbrush demonstration in the workshop (unless the person who made the request does not show) but report to the store first. Persons interested should confirm they are coming on the day of the demonstration no later than 1 pm.

Saturday, March 21st: Cancelled. Rail Tales will host a demonstration of track laying and wiring. Our intention is to lay track and/or do wiring installation on a new Narrow Gauge module but the principles are the same for all sizes of flex track. We may instead do a simple installation on a section of module provided to us. Persons interested should confirm they are coming on the day of the demonstration no later than 1 pm. This demonstration may take place in the workshop.

Saturday, March 28th: Cancelled. Rail Tales will host a scenery building demonstration from 2 pm to 4 pm. This will continue our work on the store demonstrator. The subject is to be determined: we have the option of doing diorama detail work. This work may take place in the new workshop but report to the retail space first. Persons interested should confirm they are coming on the day of the demonstration no later than 1 pm.

Gaming News:

New Regular Event! Cancelled Every Sunday, Rail Tales will host Lazy Sunday Magic (LSM)! This is a constructed event so you have to have your own deck or borrow one from a friend. The fun starts at 1 pm and runs 3 rounds, so we usually finish about 4 pm. The entry fee is $5. We give out 1 pack per match win to all match winners so even if you go 1 and 2, you still get something. We are also giving out 2 promo packs per event (NOT per person!). The current format for this event is Pioneer.

Every Friday: Cancelled Friday Night Magic (FNM) will be Theros: Beyond Death (TBD) format except for the 13th (see below). This is a booster draft event which starts at 6:30 pm and costs $14.00.

Friday, March 13th and Sunday, March 15th: Rail Tales will host a special booster draft for the Mystery Booster format. The start time is 6:30 for both events and the cost will be $17.00. Note that due to a shortage of product, the prize pool will be customer choice of regular boosters (no Modern Horizons or Mystery Boosters!).

Note: Due to Changes in the board game industry, we find that it is no longer economically viable for us to continue stocking board games. All Board Games remaining are 35% off for card and 40% off for cash.

New for 2020: Asmodee (the maker of most of the board and miniature games you love) has decided to distribute directly to game stores and we have set up an account. We will probably be ordering every week so we can get all Asmodee games for our customers! Will will also be stocking both Star Wars Legion and the new Marvel Crisis Protocol miniature games if customers ask for it so let us know if you are interested in these products.

Club News:

Saturday, March 14th: This event has been cancelled. The Charlottesville Model Club will meet beginning at 4:30. As our new tradition, Kitty Hawk Models/Panda Models is providing a free kit as a door prize. You MUST be present at the end of the meeting to qualify. As our club has grown in size (yay!), we may have to move the meeting to our workshop. Report to the store as normal and we will make the decision to move based on attendance.

Sunday, March 29th: This event has been cancelled. The Jefferson Railroad Club will conduct its regular monthly workshop and meeting at 1 pm. This meeting will be in the workshop.

February

General News:

All Month: For this month Rail Tales will be working primarily on our ongoing Brooklyn Project (a quarter scale model of a part of Brooklyn). We will also be finishing up a variety of other projects left over from 2019. Our next big layout is an N scale logging operation which we hope to begin this month. This work will all take place in our workshop.

Saturday, February 1st: Rail Tales will host an airbrush demonstration from 2 pm until 4 pm. Persons interested should confirm they are coming on the day of the demonstration no later than 1 pm. This demonstration will take place in our workshop space but please report to the store first.

Saturday, February 8th: Rail Tales will host a session of its regular weathering and painting demonstration from 2pm until 4 pm. Persons interested should confirm they are coming on the day of the demonstration no later than 1 pm. The model club meeting will immediately follow.

Saturday, February 15th: Rail Tales will host a demonstration of track laying and wiring. Our intention is to lay track and/or do wiring installation on a new Narrow Gauge module but the principles are the same for all sizes of flex track. Persons interested should confirm they are coming on the day of the demonstration no later than 1 pm.

Saturday, February 22nd: Rail Tales will host a scenery building demonstration from 2 pm to 4 pm. This will continue our work on the store demonstrator. The subject is to be determined but will involve rough scenery structure and scultamold work. This will take place in the new workshop but report to the retail space first. Persons interested should confirm they are coming on the day of the demonstration no later than 1 pm.

Saturday, February 29th: Rail Tales will not be holding a workshop on this Saturday because of the Old Dominion Open model show in Richmond.

Gaming News:

New Regular Event! Every Sunday, Rail Tales will host Lazy Sunday Magic (LSM)! This is a constructed event so you have to have your own deck or borrow one from a friend. The fun starts at 1 pm and runs 3 rounds, so we usually finish about 4 pm. The entry fee is $5. We give out 1 pack per match win to all match winners so even if you go 1 and 2, you still get something. We are also giving out 2 promo packs per event (NOT per person!). The current format for this event is Pioneer.

Every Friday: Friday Night Magic (FNM) will be Theros: Beyond Death (TBD) format. This is a booster draft event which starts at 6:30 pm and costs $14.00.

Club News:

Saturday, February 8th: The Charlottesville Model Club will meet beginning at 4:30. As our new tradition, Kitty Hawk Models/Panda Models is providing a free kit as a door prize. You MUST be present at the end of the meeting to qualify. As our club has grown in size (yay!), we may have to move the meeting to our workshop. Report to the store as normal and we will make the decision to move based on attendance.

Sunday, February 23rd: The Jefferson Railroad Club will conduct its regular monthly workshop and meeting at 1 pm. This meeting will be in the workshop.

January

General News:

All Month: For this month Rail Tales will be working primarily on our ongoing Brooklyn Project (a quarter scale model of a part of Brooklyn). We will also be finishing up a variety of other projects left over from 2019. Our next big layout is an N scale logging operation which we hope to begin next month. This work will all take place in our workshop.

Wednesday, January 1st. Rail Tales will be close for New Years. Happy New Year!

Saturday, January 4th: Rail Tales will host a figure painting demonstration from 2 pm until 4 pm. Persons interested should confirm they are coming on the day of the demonstration no later than 1 pm.

Saturday, January 11th: Rail Tales will host a session of its regular weathering and airbrushing demonstration from 2pm until 4 pm. Persons interested should confirm they are coming on the day of the demonstration no later than 1 pm.

Saturday, January 18th: Rail Tales will host a demonstration of track laying and wiring. Our intention is to lay track on a new Narrow Gauge module but the principles are the same for all sizes of flex track. Persons interested should confirm they are coming on the day of the demonstration no later than 1 pm.

Saturday, January 25th: Rail Tales will host a scenery building demonstration from 2 pm to 4 pm. This will continue our work on the store demonstrator. The subject is to be determined but will involve rough scenery structure and scultamold work. This will take place in the new workshop but report to the retail space first. Persons interested should confirm they are coming on the day of the demonstration no later than 1 pm.

Gaming News:

New Regular Event! Every Sunday (except for the 19th this month), Rail Tales will host Lazy Sunday Magic (LSM)! This is a constructed event so you have to have your own deck or borrow one from a friend. The fun starts at 1 pm and runs 3 rounds, so we usually finish about 4 pm. The entry fee is $5. We give out 1 pack per match win to all match winners so even if you go 1 and 2, you still get something. We are also giving out 2 promo packs per event (NOT per person!). The current format for this event is Pioneer.

Every Friday: Friday Night Magic (FNM) will be the Throne of Eldraine on the 3rd, 10th, and 17th. FNM will change over to the new Theros: Beyond Death (TBD) format for the 24th and 31st. The draft starts at 6:30 pm and costs $14.00.

Sunday, January 19th: Rail Tales will be closed to regular traffic in order to host the Pre-Release for the MtG “Theros: Beyond Death” card set. You may still pick up orders and completed work or drop off items to be worked on but due to a necessary re-arrangement of the store, we cannot accommodate browsers. Thank you for your understanding. As always, the first 18 people to pre-register will receive some sort of promotional product (not sure yet but probably deck boxes) and if at least 18 people attend, we will as is our custom, provide free pizza. Registration starts at noon, the event itself starts at 1 pm and runs until completed.

We want to thank all our game customers for their loyal support over the last five years and apologize for not being able to continue to stock board games.

Club News:

Saturday, January 11th: The Charlottesville Model Club will meet beginning at 4:30. As our new tradition, Kitty Hawk Models/Panda Models is providing a free kit as a door prize. You MUST be present at the end of the meeting to qualify. As our club has grown in size (yay!), we may have to move the meeting to our workshop. Report to the store as normal and we will make the decision to move based on attendance.

Sunday, January 26th: The Jefferson Railroad Club will conduct its regular monthly workshop and meeting at 1 pm. This meeting will be in the workshop.

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