ETMRC  RAILNEWS

June 2011 www.coslar.us/etmrc

The Sky fell in – Soggy ceiling tiles littered the floor and layout after the heavy rains of mid May.

TUESDAY EVENING MEETINGS

On April 12, Tuesday evening meetings began. There have been usually two members at most of the Tuesdays since then. If Tuesday evenings are a better fit into your schedule than the morning meetings, consider 7:00 pm each Tuesday evening until at least 9:00 pm. To be sure someone will be there if you make the trip, call Paul F or Tom B.

CLUB ACTIVITY

Bob T has finished most of the components for the occupancy indication system, and has started to install everything. There sure some humongous cables with the dispatcher’s panel. Sure glad Bob knows what goes where. Next are some crossing signals. Leroy H has been spearheading completion of the city, including adding brick pavement to one street, sidewalks and curbing to some of the unfinished streets and adding grass where needed. It is really looking better.

Current issues are covered in the Old/New Business section of the monthly meeting report below.

Leaky Roof

The rains of late May showed that the roof isn’t fixed. The usual leaks over the refrigerator in the storage area and in the work area at the opposite end of our layout were joined by significant leaks over the Dexter yard peninsula of the layout. Sam’s farm got the worst beating, but Paul, Ron, Bob and Leroy got things cleaned up Saturday morning, May 21, and trains were running fairly reliably by Friday, May 27. Earlier, Paul had rigged up a ceiling trough to run the worst of the water on the east end into the city side of the partition, and covered the computer with plastic dropsheets. The cleanup crew rigged an awning over the King traction layout to avoid a repeat of the flooding suffered by that layout. It could have been worse.

Lightning Strike

During the storms of the second week of May, lightning struck the antenna just outside the clubhouse area, incinerating the City of Commerce Police, Fire Department, and Parks and Recreation computer equipment. Nothing in the ETMRC was damaged. Makes our leaky roof look like small potatoes.

June BUSINESS MEETING

The next scheduled business meeting is 9:00 am, Saturday, June 4, 2011. Our business meeting is usually on the first Saturday of each month, unless a show or other activity conflicts. For those who care to have Saturday breakfast, the club is eating at 8:00 am at the Commerce Braum’s.

May 14 BUSINESS MEETING SUMMARY

MEETING CALLED TO ORDER: 9:40 am

PRESENT: Ron M, Paul F, Pay Y, Bob T, Tom B, LeRoy H, Bob E. Guest: Tom E.

PROXIES: None

MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING: Approved by acclamation.

TREASURER'S REPORT: Paul stated that there is no report because the information needed is most likely going to Sam's address in Kansas. There was a deposit of $140.00 to the savings account toward a memorial to Sam Westwood. Thank you cards should be signed by members and sent to those who contributed. Ron M will pick up note cards for this purpose. Paul has seen the Postmaster re: the address problem and has been assured that it will be straightened out.

COUNCIL MEETING REPORT: Submitted by Council Rep Paul F
Paul attended the April 19 meeting. Money has been paid to reserve the Will Rogers Center. The show share we released was picked up. We want to keep our security responsibility because that satisfies a large portion of our time responsibility, and thereby reduces our responsibility at the Plano Show. Show fliers are out, contracts and magazine ads go out soon. The Food Catering situation is still the same and unlikely to change. The Show in 2013 will probably be moved to the Irving Convention Center. Plano is getting too expensive. Paul’s report on the May meeting is below in this edition of Railnews.

OLD/NEW BUSINESS: Bob T reminded that the table for Dispatcher board will be needed very soon. Paul said the top has been cut and he will bring plywood from work to finish the job.

Operations — Tom brought up the need to settle upon an operational system. That decision will be made at the June meeting. Tom said the through trains will not do switching – locals will switch half way out of their respective yards in both directions. Steam locos need not be turned; they can be run backwards. Bob Teeter stated that cabooses need to be placed at the proper end of the train, and at Dixon this is difficult to accomplish. Tom stated that it was often difficult for the prototype, so if we have problems, they are prototypical. Paul added that we have a month to prepare for operation. Bob T reminded the members that we established a club policy to operate after each monthly business meeting earlier in the year. We just haven‘t done it yet.

Car Cards — If we are to use a card system the cards and available cars must match. Operations can be very time consuming so we need not fear that we will run out of things to do. LeRoy brought up the need to fill out the cards. He requested an info session on how to fill out the car cards. Paul agreed and suggested that we fill out cards next Saturday.

In this same vein Bob T stated that someone needs to sit down test all the cars on the layout to insure they are all at the proper weight, height, roll well, and otherwise inspect them for potential problems. Those cars which fail inspection should be set aside so that the owner can make repairs. Bob added that we need engine cards in addition to the cards for rolling stock.

Finance — LeRoy asked about account changes at the bank. Paul stated that the changes have been taken care of; we are waiting for the next statement and that he filed an extension with the IRS, and has made several phone calls to his tax person on the State Franchise tax. We’re better but not out of the woods yet.

Sam W Memorial — Paul said that the memorial cards for donations to the club for Sam’s memorial would be available for our perusal. Tom asked what the club's intention was for these memorial funds. In the discussion that followed it was determined that Sam was very interested in the trolley, and his memorial funds should be used in that capacity. In any event, any steps taken in behalf of the trolley system should be done in Sam's memory and with the memorial funds. Tom stated that this needs to be documented so that the club does not appear uncaring or disorganized. Bob T made a motion incorporating the above. Bob E seconded. Motion carried.

Sam's family wanted his "stuff," so Paul had boxed up what he thought was Sam's. Inadvertently he packed up some of LeRoy's rolling stock. LeRoy said it was not important, but Paul promised to try to get it back. (This underlines the importance of making sure your proper ID colors are clearly marked on your cars at the club.) Whatever remains of Sam's that has been mistakenly left behind, now belongs to the club.

Roof Repairs — LeRoy stated that he thought before we spend money on roof repair that someone ought to contact the city "tactfully" to see if they might do it. This led to considerable discussion, which wound up with Paul agreeing to contact the city to see if they could and would do anything, but given that the city, like pretty much everyone else has little money, and we should be prepared to consider making repairs at least minimal repairs ourselves.

MEETING ADJOURNED: 10:20 am.

Roof Repairs continued — The heavy driving rains that hit our area after the meeting mean that we need to attend to this as soon as we can (see Leaky Roof above), but we may have two problems: clogged downspouts along with the leaks. Our leaks are immediately adjacent to three downspouts that are probably clogged – at least one has stuff growing out of the catch basin. Most roofs are sloped to direct water to the downspouts so it doesn’t collect on the roof, but if they are clogged, the water forms a giant pool, deep enough to find any little leaks that may exist. If this is indeed our case, we may need a sewer snake or two at least 25 feet long, to ream them out. And if this is the case, the fix is fairly easy – much easier than finding and patching leaks.In any case we need to get up to the roof and check – the sooner the better.

Operation Issues

Ron has begun to update the line histories and to evaluate potential loads and car types to service lineside customers, and to head up organization of operation sessions. He solicits your review of his edits. In the meantime, if you own any of the cars on the layout, please make sure they have been tested and have a car card in the card file box. Otherwise, take them home.

Remember, we need your inputs on how to structure sessions – end-to-end or out-and-back with dual names for each waypoint. We can go either way, and if we don’t like one approach after we’ve tried it, we can try the other – or other approaches not even yet considered. The organizational needs are sufficiently different that we need to decide on at least the preliminary setup.

PEOPLE:

Know anyone interested in model railroads? Invite them over. We really need new members and who knows? Maybe one will be interested enough to join. Remember Tuesday evenings is a new club session – that may make things easier for potential new members than the morning only sessions we have had in the past.

WHAT THE %*##% --?

A section to list strange happenings that really should be tracked down and fixed:
Anyone? Anything?

The problem mentioned here last month, Ron’s testing a brand new Athearn Platinum locomotive not running on the outside loop, but running fine on the inside loop was fixed. Ron rechecked the locomotive wiring, and recleaned the wheels and tried it again the following week. Everything worked the way it was supposed to. But nobody knows why – why in didn’t work at first, and why it did later. It’s a mystery.

By the way, Bob has gone to enormous effort to provide a turnout position indication system, with dwarf signal lights that show red if your route is not clear. Our DCC system allows you to run through a improperly thrown switch, which will put your locomotive on the ground. Bob’s system tells you that you are clear, but you have to look at the lights – they don’t throw the switches – you do.

And you think installing a decoder for DCC is hard? See below.

Wires, wires everywhere — Bob T’s track occupancy indication system, added to the dispatcher’s panel makes for a truly awesome mass of wires, circuit boards and components. He designed the whole system, assembled the circuit cards, and it is almost done. And he seldom uses strong language putting it all together–mostly only when he singes his fingers with the soldering iron. We are profoundly grateful that he knows what he’s doing.At least someone does.

May 17 NTCRC Meeting Summary

Paul represented ETMRC at the North Texas Council of Railroad clubs meeting of 17 May 2011. This section was deleted by the webmaster due to age.

INFORMATION:

The following web sites are excellent sources of supplies (1) and technical data (2). Two of our members also have personal web sites (3) and (4). Ed McCamey’s site (3) hosts the club website. Site (5) has some interesting photos of Commerce area railroading over the years.

1. Cyberspace World Railroad for supplies
2. http://www.geocities.com/budb3/index.html for technical data
3. http://www.coslar.us for Ed M's personal web site
4. http://geusnet.com/~rteeter/ for Bob T's personal web site
5. www.tamu-commerce.edu/library/collections/digital for Commerce Texas photos

COMING ATTRACTIONS:

June 18 — LSR 3 – Northeast Texas Division – Nicholson Library, 4845 Broadway Blvd, Garland.

REGIONAL RAILROAD PROTOTYPE NEWS

This is just a sampling of that’s going on in our area, which is defined to be whatever I think interesting, so the area can be fairly large.

DART Rail extension to Rowlette – underway. Lots of construction just east of the Downtown Garland station, where a bridge is being built over the next road. Looks just like the bridge construction scenes all along IH-30 in Greenville, and is not worth a photo. Right-of-way along the Dallas, Garland and Northeastern (former MKT mainline) is underway. It is a terrible place to view, with endless highway construction in the area and dislocations from the Ray Hubbard reservoir making north-south excursions almost impossible. It might help to know where you want to be and what roads can get you there. I sure didn’t. Best bet: ride DART after the extension opens in December and look at the line from the train.