ETMRC  RAILNEWS

February 2014 http://etmrc.org

The infamous break – Bob E dreamily contemplates the stump of pipe that caused the flood. Unfortunately, since the shutoff valve was part of the break, the water could not be turned off. The break occurred on a branch, so the line to our part of the building did not break and a fix should be relatively simple. The break left the Junction without water for the restroom for the open house. But no visitor needed relief while visiting, much to the relief of the hosting club members.

MEETINGS

The official weekly club meeting time os 9:00 to noon on Saturdays. Club members are usually resent for work sessions, or just plain lollygagging Wednesday and Friday mornings, about the same time as the Saturday schedule. For those not yet retired, a group meets starting about 7:00 pm on Tuesday evenings for a couple of hours. Many meet at 8:00 Saturday mornings at McKay’s Restaurant on 1113 Main Street, Commerce for breakfast, and extend an invitation to any who care to join them.

PEOPLE:

This month People are more important than club activities -- both good and bad. First the good: we have another new member, Tom McC. Tom is a retired electrician who lives in Quitman. He has an HO layout in his home. As an indication of his enthusiasm for the club, he paid not only his January dues, but also February. Tom’s joining brings our total membership up to 13, more than we’ve had an a couple of years. Other good news: Both our members who had health problems last month are doing much better. Bob T is back on his usual schedule after a gallstone, and LeRoy H, who suffered a broken hip, has recovered from a bout of pneumonia. He’s mobile, but still cautions in his travels, so hasn’t been to the Junction since his fall, but promises to return as soon as he feels better. Unfortunately, member Ed McC is facing some surgery in mid February.

The bad news is the passing of former member Jimmy C two days after Christmas. Jimmy’s history with the club goes way back to the early years. Recently he went through a few cycles of going inactive, then coming back. He visited even during his inactive times. Five club members attended his memorial service. He will be missed. RIP, Jimmy.

CLUB ACTIVITY

Preparation of the Junction for the open houses for the Plano show was briefly interrupted the day before the show opened. Ron M and Bob E were in the work room when they heard a sort of bang, as though something had fallen on the floor in the room next to the workroom. Then they noticed water seeping into the the room on the floor. In a stroke of furtune, Commerce city facilities maintenance people were already onsite, and they began to look for the nearest shutoff valve. In the meantime, the two began to move boxes and cardboard off the floor to minimize damage. When most of the boxes were clear, they started sweeping the incoming water to the nearest drain. After the crew arrived, it took them a time to find the break and to turn the water upstream of the break. This allowed the water sweepers to gain ground, and gave enough time for Ron to think of the shop vacuum. After wrestling with the squegee fitting to attach the rubber wiper, the remaining water was quickly vanquished. The emergency was past and the workroom floor was probably cleaner than it has been in a couple of decades. The boxes were replaced and life went on -- but with one little change: the club quarters had no water, and there was just one flush of water left in the toilet for the open house the next two days. Service was restored to other building locations, and a workable urinal was discovered in one of the grottos beyond the boiler room.

When will the line be fixed? The break is just on the other side of the wall between our area and the city storage area (which we unofficially use a part of). New member Bob A has experience and the tools necessary to work on copper plumbing, so we can fix it probably before our February meeting.

The Plano show was very well attended -- in fact, so well attended that parking was almost unavailable at the Plano centre. President Paul reported that in all, 279 tables were sold, 19 more than last year, and he guessed that the total attendance could be as much as 25% higher than last year, which was a very good year. Other club members who attended said that if there was any problem at the show, it was crowding. The crowds were so dense that in some places one couldn’t get close enough to the tables to see what was being offered. But ETMRC members still managed to return with treasures.

When will it ever end? — Alec and Shannon M marvel at the length of Rob’s coal train. They were the first of about a dozen visitors who stopped by the Junction over the Plano show weekend open house.

And we got some visitors! Things were slow on Saturday, but a young Commerce area train nut Alec M, and his mother Shannon, stopped by. Alec has sharp eyes: he is the one who noticed that track over bridges wasn’t attached and was bowed up (see the WHAT THE %*##% --? section below). Saturday, things picked up and we had more people from the show, including one from Tiffin, Ohio.

February BUSINESS MEETING

The next scheduled business meeting is 9:00 am, Saturday, February 1, 2013. Our business meeting is usually on the first Saturday of each month, unless it isn’t. Lately, it hasn’t been.

January BUSINESS MEETING SUMMARY

Submitted by Secretary Bob E

MEETING CALLED TO ORDER: 9:22 am

PRESENT: Paul F, Bob T, Bob A, Ron M, Bob E, Rob D, George W,

VISITOR: Tom McC

PROXIES: None

MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING: Approved as published.

TREASURER'S REPORT: Submitted by Treasurer Ron M
This section is redacted

COUNCIL MEETING REPORT: Submitted by Council Rep Paul F
No council Meeting for the month of December. However, we want to make sure our duties are covered at the Plano Train Show. Rob D and Bob E will handle early entry from 8-10 am Saturday. Bob A will work ticket sales at West Door from 1-2 pm Saturday; George W will do the same from 2-3 pm.

OLD BUSINESS: LeRoy H seems to be over the flu; he sounds better. Jimmy C passed away December 28, 2013. There will be a memorial service at Ridgecrest Baptist Church, Greenville January 11, 2014 at 2:00 pm.

We need to change the club identification colors on rolling stock to white, white, white. It can be seen better than the current black on black. We also need to decide upon colors for the Mid Continent Railroad. Ron M stated that he painted a Mid Continent loco red and white because he thought those were the colors. Rob D suggested that if those colors have been used we should adopt them. There were no objections.

NEW BUSINESS: Bob A asked if there badges for membership to use during train shows. We used to have the plastic clip on badge holders that you could put a club card in, but no one has used them for years. Paul said he knew two crazy ladies in Greenville that did that sort of thing and he would see to it.

Paul continued with the club's need to keep cleaning up/out our space. As we continue to do this we will create more workspace for membership.

Rob D announced that he had noticed members doing things for which there seems to be little or no recognition. Therefore, he has developed an award system to recognize those members. The MOM award went to Ron M. Technical Advisor award went to Bob T. The Spirit of Model Railroading went to LeRoy H. Scribe of the Year went to Tom B and Bob E for their work on the minutes and the newsletter. Thank you, Mr. D. Unfortunately, some of the awardees were missing from the meeting so the mandatory “grip and grin” photo could not be taken. Look for it next month.

Tom McC announced his desire to join our group of rabble-rousers and ne're do wells. After recovering from the shock Paul told him to give his information to Bob and Ron, which he did. (more importantly, he paid two months’ dues, helped at the Plano show, and has been present for subsequent meetings, so he is either truly committed or maybe should be --- ed)

MEETING ADJOURNED: 9:58 am.

WHAT THE %*##% --?

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

The mysteries of DCC continue to amaze us. The programming function of the layout has been mostly nonfunctional for a while, but this has not been a problem because the workroom programming track has provided that capability. Until a day in late January. Ron Means, one of our knowledgable DCC doyens tried to reprogram a new Atlas RSD-12. When he was done and moved it to the layout, it would run only using factory setting. In fact the layout operation somehow stripped his reprogramming from the chip, for when he rechecked the programming in the work room, his reprogramming information was gone. He quickly reprogrammed the reprogramming, and this time, the locomotive would not run anywhere. Talk about progress.

One of the youthful visitors at the last open house noticed that the tracks were not resting on the bridges. In most cases the weight of the train passing straightened them out, but the do look a bit odd without a train. Bob T suggested a few drops of super glue on wooden bridges and maybe some liquid plastic cement where there is plastic to plastic. Of course, if we do this, it will be inconvenient to pull the track to adjust the bridge alignment, so if the bridges need adjustment, that should probably be done first.

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:

February 8 — 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. Or not.

New KCS Bridge — The new bridge being built by the state highway department to carry the KCS over the widened state highway 380 in Farmersville is in place and almost ready for new track. The only thing missing now is completion of the approaches roadbed. The new bridge is about 50 feet west of the old, so the track must be shifted to match. Bob T, who supplied this information and the photo above, says that the highway reconstruction significantly simplifies getting on and off the new roadway going and coming from Farmersville.

New bridge in – Here’s the east end of the new KCS bridge over SR 382 in Farmersville. The subgrade for the new track has to be finished before track can be laid. The old bridge an be seen on the extreme left of the photo. (Bob T photo).