rail baron  

Updated 11/24/2010

2010 WBC Report  

 2011 Status: pending 2011 GM commitment

John Henry, on

2010 Champion

Links

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Event History
1991    Chuck Foster        28
1992    Kevin Quirk        29
1993    Kevin Quirk        38
1994    Bill Fellin        37
1995    Heikki Thoen        63
1996    Heikki Thoen        46
1997    Kim Lemmons        94
1998    Eyal Mozes      100
1999    Heikki Thoen       58
2000    Steve Okonski       69
2001    Steve Okonski       56
2002    Ed Wrobel       75
2003    Mike Zorrer       59
2004    Doug Galullo       66
2005    William Duke       53
2006    Inger Henning       46
2007    Tom Dunning       40
2008    Eve Secunda       49
2009    Mark McCandless       35
2010    John Henry       34
 Laurels

Rank  Name               From  Last  Total
  1.  Mark McCandless     LA    09    122
  2.  Steve Okonski       MD    01    120
  3.  Ron Secunda         MD    08    101
  4.  Doug Galullo        FL    05     80
  5.  Brian Conlon        OK    04     74
  6.  Inger Henning       CT    10     66
  7.  Mark Kennel         DE    09     60
  8.  William Duke        MD    09     60
  9.  Chuck Foster        TX    08     60
 10.  Ed Wrobel           VA    02     60
 11.  Stan Buck           MD    02     60
 12.  Heikki Thoen        qc    99     60
 13.  Donna Balkan        on    10     54
 14.  Charles Davis       WV    02     54
 15.  John Henry          on    10     50
 16.  Eve Secunda         MD    08     50
 17.  Tom Dunning         NY    07     50
 18.  Mike Zorrer         DE    03     50
 19.  Harald Henning      CT    10     45
 20.  Chester Lanham      MD    09     35
 21.  Angus McDonald      on    09     30
 22.  Bill Crenshaw       VA    03     30
 23.  Larry Kratz         ID    04     24
 24.  David Weinstein     NY    02     24
 25.  Ed Rothenheber      MD    00     24
 26.  Norm Newton         on    07     20
 27.  TJ Halberstadt      IN    06     20
 28.  Phil White          MD    04     18
 29.  James Wicht         NC    00     18
 30.  Paul van Bloem      MD    10     17
 31.  Sun Lanham          MD    10     15
 32.  Tony Newton         on    09     15
 33.  Gary Chamblee       GA    08     15
 34.  Mike Mullins        MD    05     15
 35.  Mike Brophy         NC    04     12
 36.  Mark Oldfield       CA    02     12
 37.  Eyal Mozes          NY    01     12
 38.  Dee Gehring         IN    99     12
 39.  Dave Steiner        DE    06     10
 40.  Stephane Dorais     qc    05     10
 41.  Carl Walling Jr     PA    03     10
 42.  Malcolm Robinson    NY    00      6
 43.  Roderick Lee        CA    05      5
 44.  Charles Ellsworth   NY    03      5

2010 Laurelists                                                  Repeating Laurelists: 0

Harald Henning, CT
2nd

Donna Balkan, on
3rd

Sue Lanham, MD
4th

Inger Henning, CT
5th

Paul Van Bloem, MD
6th

Past Winners

Chuck Foster, TX
1991

Kevin Quirk, PA
1992-1993

Bill Fellin, CT
1994

Heiki Thoen, qc
1995-1996, 1999

Kimberly Lemmons, TX
1997

Eyal Mozes, NY
1998

Steve Okonski, MD
2000-2001

Ed Wrobel, VA
2002

Mike Zorrer, DE
2003

Doug Galullo, FL
2004

William Duke, MD
2005

Inger Henning, CT
2006

Tom Dunning, NY
2007

Eve Secunda, MD
2008

Mark McCandless, LA
2009

Dave Steiner, Paul Van Bloem, Chuck Foster and Ron Secunda ride the rails.

Frank Sinigaglio escapes the Grognard room long enough to buy railroads with Eve Secunda.

Chickens Beware ...

Attendance continued to decline for this long out-of-print classic with the smallest field since 1992. This year we had two players who won two first-round heats. The first was John Henry, our eventual champion. The second was Sue Lanham, who also showed her stuff. She not only won two first-round heats, but her semi-final game as well, and was pleased as anything to just be included in a Final.

It's always interesting to look at the statistics of all game winners' RR holdings at the end of the tournament. Last year, in the NE, the B&O did just as well as the PA, followed closely by the NYC and C&O. This year, out of 20 games, the PA was the big winner, held by eight players, followed by the C&O with six, the NYC three, and the B&O two. Another major difference this year was that in the SW, the SP was the clear winner, with 11 wins, followed by six for the AT&SF and only two for the UP. Last year, most winners held the AT&SF, followed closely by the UP, and relatively fewer winners held the SP. Go figure! In the SE, the four major RRs did practically equally well. In the NW, the NP was the leader. The only other RRs worth mentioning is the high number of winners holding the SLSF, the low number holding the WP, and, at the bottom of the list, the T&P and IC.

Two players had first-round or semi-final heats in which they had only one (yes, one) hostile destination, John Henry and myself. For the most hostile destinations, sympathy must go to John Ford, who suffered 11 (55%) hostile destinations. And then there is the case of Harald Henning. That tale of woe deserves its own paragraph.

Now, I only heard this second-hand, but supposedly, Harald Henning's first game which was in heat 2, began as a disaster that had him totally disgusted, and he swore he would never play RBN again. He had traveled to nine hostile destinations out of a total of 15 (56.25% hostile)! He returned from the game mid-point break and announced that he "had a beer and sacrificed a chicken, and swore he wasn't going to ride anyone else's RRs, and that everyone was going to ride him!"

Well, the sacrifice seems to have worked. Eve Secunda paid Harald $30K to go in and out of Charleston. Norm Newton paid Harald $30K to go in and out of Phoenix. Then Norm paid him $30K to go in and out of Miami. Then Chuck Foster paid him $10K in and out of San Diego. Then, Harald won the game with only the AT&SF, C&O, SAL, ACL, and the IC.

There was also some speculation that the chicken sacrificed was two-headed, because Harald's wife also won her Round 2 first-round heat. Later, to do penance for his swearing to "never play again," he showed up for his semi-final game wearing a homemade, red paper fez . When Dave Steiner entered the Marietta game room to see how things were going, he saw Harald and exclaimed, "I don't know who you are, but the fez is familiar." Yes, it was that kind of a tournament! And, yes, Harald won his semi-final game, and if you look at the photos of him at the Final, you will see the red fez.

Statistics from the Final: John Henry's RR holdings were: PA, SP, SLSF, L&N, NYNH&H, RF&P, and CMSTP&P. As is normal in a 5-player game, there were several auctions: Donna auctioned off her RF&P to John and the D&RGW to Harald, and Inger auctioned off her WP and GN to Harald. For more details on the tournament, see railgamefans.com/rbp/

My congratulations go out to John Henry on his big win and all the other finalists. Thanks to my assistant GMs Paul Van Bloem and Chester Lanham and to my wife Eve for her assistance. See you all next year!

Mike Zorrer, Kyle Greenwood and Ron Secunda
admire Harald's homemade fez.

The finalists gather for the last ride of the 2010 WBC season
with three ladies at the table.
 GM      Ron Secunda  [8th Year]   NA
    ron@secundaland.com   NA

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