ETMRC  RAILNEWS

October 2014 http://etmrc.org

Remember the time? – A shot from days gone by, before the ETMRC became the East Texas Model Railroad and Carpenter Club. But the carpenter part is almost over, and no one would really want to go back to the way things were before all the facilities improvements. This photo dates from the May 2014 Railnews, only 6 months ago.

The Road Ahead

Can you imagine where we were at the first of the year, or maybe just after the Plano show open house in January? The layout worked relatively well, but the facility was a disaster. Since then, we’ve spent almost $1000 and hours of labor to fix things up. Have you forgotten already? There are new floors, new air conditioner, roof repairs, wall improvements, new lights and electrical outlets, fresh paint and much, much more. Best of all, almost everyone was actively involved — in fact listing who did what would take most of the rest of this edition of Railnews. True, there is still much to do, but we can recalibrate our efforts to what the club is all about. Maybe George Warren said if for all of us: “I may have to find a new club. One that does model railroading instead of carpentry.” Well, hang with us, George. It’s time to start looking past carpentry.

Let’s consider operation. We’ve talked endlessly about that, but so far it has just been that — talk. How about thinking of considering maybe just two trains: one to be assembled with whatever we have at Dexter and another at the Chyrokes yard? After assembly, each train could orbit around the layout a couple of times. maybe stopping at just one siding per orbit to drop off a couple of cars, or maybe even to pick a few up. We’d not need hours of set up — this is a simpler scenario — Just the crews at each end would need to decide what they’re gonna do and how. Dispatching? We don’t need that yet. In fact, we don’t have enough information on how long it would take a train to do anything, even just orbit. Without that, even without a scale clock, a dispatcher would have nothing to do, because every dispatcher duty is based on time. Routes are not a problem with the two completely independent loops of track we have. Each has a few sidings that can only be effectively serviced from one loop or another. Some can be serviced with sidings going in one direction and others are more difficult. You might even have to reverse the direction of the train for a short distance. How do do that is one of the things the crews could have to figure out before they start. Consider it. It is something we could as soon aswe put the hammers and saws away.

MEETINGS

The official weekly club work sessions are 9:00 to noon on Saturdays. The business meeting is the first Saturday of the month at the same time (but not this October). Some club members are usually present for work sessions, or just plain lollygagging on 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. We sometimes also have members present on Wednesday mornings, but lately that has sort of become a hit-or-miss time, so it is best to call someone if you want to come on a Wednesday and don’t have a key. 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.

A full crew to help — While the facilities upgrade has been led by President Paul and Rob D, they’ve had a lot of help along the way. On this Saturday meeting in mid September, eight members came out to keep things moving. Foreground, left to right: George W, LeRoy H, Bob A, Jared P. In the background, Ron M fixes a broken window, and Rob D was inside getting something.

October BUSINESS MEETING

The next scheduled business meeting is 9:00 am, Saturday, October 11, 2014. President Paul moved the meeting date to eliminate the conflict with the Cotton Belt seminar, which we are supporting with an open house.

September BUSINESS MEETING SUMMARY

Submitted by Secretary Bob Erwin

MEETING CALLED TO ORDER: 9:43, 13 September 2014

PRESENT: Paul F, Bob E, Ron M, LeRoy H, Bob A, George W, Tom B (late arrival)

PROXIES: Two

MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING: Approved as published.

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

The dramatic reduction in our checking account reflects the cost of some of our facility improvements. Outstanding dues are highlighted in red because they seem to be growing again, instead of shrinking. Please try to stay current. ‘Nuff said.

COUNCIL MEETING REPORT: Submitted by Council Rep Paul F
The council treasurer reported $deleted in the bank, $deleted check awaiting deposit. Table sales to date are: 209, Plano; 145, Ft Worth. Ads are placed for the Ft Worth and Plano shows. All clubs have submitted their information forms. No report from those searching for new show locations. Parking at the Ft Worth Show is going up from again from $8.00 to $10.00. Saturday attendees might want to consider using DART to Dallas Union Terminal, the Trinity Railroad Express to Ft. Worth, and Ft Worth bus to the show site. Individually, it would cost less and be more fun. Of course, we might even consider carpooling. Most likely, members will grin and bear it.

OLD BUSINESS: George really needs to know soon if the club wants his 3'x8' metal siding panels. The discussion which followed failed come to any conclusion, so Bob A said if the club didn't want them, he would take them off George’s hands. Bob A also said they could be used to cover the windows the same way we have used plywood. A similar frame would need to built, and if we were to use insulation a plastic barrier would be needed. Austin asked George if they were type R panels, George said they were type A.

Paul said he has receipts for the money he spent on materials for the recent window refurbishing. Ron said he would reimburse him. Discussion followed concerning the electric bill for our space and how it is figured. Paul said our space is metered through the Police Department because they have communications equipment in the building.

NEW BUSINESS: Paul shared Future Plans re: the building. The top of the south side windows will be covered in plexiglass to allow natural light in to the room. After the outside fixes are done, the next project will be to reopen the outside double doors in the work room. If anyone knows of any trash that needs to be hauled away please put it in Paul's truck. Paul also said he found Ray's Kreg tool . He placed it and the new one on the second shelf against the south wall of the work space. This information is here recorded so that these tools will not be lost in the future. The next question is who will remember the date of these minutes if they can't remember where the tool is? Or maybe worse, where the tool was put after the last use?

Ron asked where the shelves which block the double doors in the work space will be placed. Paul answered that the they will placed where the ladders are currently stored. Once work is complete the ladders will be removed. George, fearing that the replacement of the doors in the work space might create more carpentry work, asked why they needed to be made functional. Paul, trying to put George's fears to rest, said the doors would facilitate entry into the work area as well as to allow large objects/projects such as a sheet of plywood or the N-gauge portable layout to be more easily moved in or out. George's expression did not suggest that his fears had been put to rest.

After chasing four more rabbits which were never seen, much less caught, the MEETING was ADJOURNED:

WHAT THE %*##% --?

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

Most of the problems encountered lately seem to be related to dirty track and the seemingly magical growth of throw wires of the Tortise switch machines. Most of these problems have been fixed as discovered, mostly during the orbiting of trains Tuesday evenings.

INFORMATION:

The following web sites are excellent sources of supplies (1) and technical data (2). (3) Is Rob D’s blog on the Model Railroad Hobbyist website. It is updated almost daily. Two of our members also have personal web sites (4) and (5). Site (6) has some interesting photos of Commerce area railroading over the years.

1. Cyberspace World Railroad
2. http://www.geocities.com/budb3/index.html
3. http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/node/18644?
4. http://www.coslar.us
5. http://geusnet.com/~rteeter/ for Bob T's
6. www.tamu-commerce.edu/library/collections/digital

COMING ATTRACTIONS:

September 18 — LSR 3 – Northeast Texas Division – Nicholson Library, 4845 Broadway Blvd, Garland.
September 27-28 — Commerce Bois d’arc Bash open house
October 5-6 — Cotton Belt Seminar and open house
November 8-9 — Ft. Worth show support and open house
January 17-18, 2015 — Plano show support and open house

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.

Railroad Museums — Railroad museums can be a good place to get up close and personal to railroad equipment without tempting arrest by railroad security people. Ever since 9/11, security has become a sensitive issue, and even photography is being questioned. Better, museums are about the only place where you can find the older equipment most of us model. Some even feature live steam locomotives, but if that is an objective, best to contact the museum in question to see what is running, if anything. And best of all, fall weather makes roaming around looking at things and taking photographs bearable and maybe even comfortable. Of course, railroad equipment at museums is usually a bit crowded, so good photography is often difficult. We’ll treat each of the five museums reasonably close to our area individually each month. This month we’ll consider the Museum of the American Railroad (MAR), now near Fresco, TX.

The MAR is very much work in progress, and even though it is still under construction, they have begun to offer guided walking tours on Saturdays only. The tours begin at 11 am and 1 pm, and last about 45 minutes. The cost is $7 for adults, and $3 for children aged 3 to 12 years. The collection includes five cosmetically restored steam locomotives, diesels and self powered cars (mostly former gas-electrics) some of which are operational, and a wide array of light and heavyweight passenger cars, many of which were not on display at their former location at Fair Park. The collection also includes many transition-era and more modern freight cars and numerous bits of railroadiana.

Finally – Ex-Frisco Russian Decapod 1625 and Dallas Terminal 0-6-0 number 6 await unloading at their new home in Frisco in March, 2014. Both had both been freshly painted during the cosmetic overhaul given by the MAR to their steam locomotives before being relocated. In case you wondered, the town was named after the railroad and was a division point. (Dallas Morning News photo)