Newsletter December 2016

Prez Pic The Prez sez —

The year is almost over but it feels like just started last week. So many jobs have been completed, but there still many to go. The new rest room area is almost finished. The third room is operational, thanks to everyone. This next year should see the finish of many more projects, so we will be ready to run some trains after the track gets cleaned. And maybe we can build some more models. What a concept! Remember, there are still two more hours at the next show we need to fill. If you can, please help make sure we are covered for everything. Thanks. — Paul

A BIG Difference – New Room 3 sure looks different after a year’s work! The floor is even clean. In fact, it looks so good (bottom, in case you can’t tell) the December meeting will be in it. (Rob D photo)

THE ROAD AHEAD

Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and/or any holidays not listed. The holiday season is a reminder that we are half past the show season, and the best is yet to come. And maybe better, we are in the best shape ever for our open house that weekend. Most of the bugs in the layout electronics have been controlled and the interchange to Price yard seems to work as planned. Even most of the show work assignments have been filled. The junction is cleaner than it has ever been and the seemingly eternal facility upgrades are nearly done. What could be better?

Maybe now is a good time to start thinking about the layout again. And we certainly need to think about what we might do before we start doing it. Example: scenery. Bob A spent a good part of the summer reworking the rock cliffs on the middle peninsula. He went to some trouble to ensure clearance for full-length passenger cars. Tom McC built some nice view blocks at the hole in the wall leading to Price Yard. But now, there are concerns that some megalocomotives may not clear some of the scenery. And Tom McC's donation of a massive turntable brought that issue to the fore again. The question becomes what should the club do? Redo anything that fouls a tiny group of megalocomotives, or just redo clearances on a single loop? Prototype railroads usually just enlarged clearances where they planned to run their megalocomotives, not their whole system. Arguments can support any option. Similarly, the issue of the roundhouse and turntable keeps popping up. This is really a matter of scenery, as neither the roundhouse nor tune turntable is important for operation. It is not even an issue of storage–a ready track works for that.

The existing roundhouse and 13" turntable is a tight fit at the south end of the layout. The new 17” turntable won't fit without major reconstruction. Both are functional. The new one has automatic indexing. The old one doesn't. The old roundhouse fits the 13" turntable. We don't have a roundhouse that will fit the new one, and if we did, that would make the fit problem worse. But either could be made to work. All we really need to do is decide which, and who would do what.

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 sort of the same time. Some members are often present for work sessions, or just plain lollygagging on Wednesday and Friday mornings, about the same time as the Saturday schedule. but lately this has become a bit uncertain. If you want to come on a weekday morning and don’t have a key, it is best to call someone. 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.

NOVEMBER BUSINESS MEETING SUMMARY

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

As ever, the delinquent dues are high, as they have been most of the year. We are in pretty solid financial shape, but if you are behind, please check with Ron and make every effort to get current. The end of the calendar year is a bad time to be behind.

COUNCIL MEETING REPORT: Submitted by Council Rep Paul F
The good news was that the fall show attendance was better than most attendees expected, in fact, it was 200 people better than last year. Total attendance was 2,105, while the 2015 show was a mere 1,899. Total gate receipts for the show were $deleted. In all, 188 tables were sold. Planning for the January Plano show are well along. Table sales for the January show are 208; tour guides are in progress, and most of the clinic presentations are filled. The financial condition of the council is good: $deleted is in the bank, but owes Plano Centre $deleted for the January show. For the first time ever, the results of pre-show advertising show some interesting trends: of the 265 surveys of show attendees, the top three were: hobby shop flyers with 61 references; the council web site with 58, and word of mouth, 51.

The bad news is that the Plano Centre has a new General Manager whose new policies may make things difficult to stay in Plano. The costs are going up again for the 2917-18 season; the available dates conflict with other regional model railroading events, and the new GM wants to tie center-managed motel reservations to the package. This development reopened discussions on alternative venues, which center on the old reliables Big Town shopping center, and the Allen Convention Center. The council board of Directors is scheduling a meeting with the new GM to see if there is any wiggle room for the next few years.

ETMRC BUSINESS: Submitted by Rob D
Leroy was mentioned as old business by Rob. Electrical issues problems with the controls seem to be a problem aggravated by the installation of the interchange to the west end of Price Yard. The track seems sound, but the old bugaboo of uncontrolled stoppage of trains near the interchange have appeared. Bob T came up with several possibilities. The most likely is a polarity mismatch between the independent loops. Bob explained what could be going on but that did not seem to help most of us understand what he said. Some other possibilities are gaps in the wrong place; gaps closing because of climate changes or other track work, and loose rail joiners acting as gaps. A couple of items identified to be fixed include a disconnected wire at leg B58; the reverser needs to be moved and the panel shield needs to be replaced. All these and any other changes that may be uncovered will mean that new photos and pages will be required to be document any changes in the electrical book.

Other tasks ahead include the ever present need to eliminate dirt from ceiling and track, completing the caulking on the outside of the building, walling over the windows on the north side of the building, to follow up our agreement with the police and fire departments to protect the police radio gear. An additional problem: perhaps we have possible clearance problems around the layout, especially around the hole in the wall to Price yard.

Tom McC made a video of operations on his old railroad in Bellingham, Washington, before he dismantled it to move to Texas. Rob has posted this video to his Blog for anyone to watch via the computer, either at the clubhouse or at home. Of course one can what the video at home only is they have a computer, and the computer has internet access. Rob has a big computer monitor he’s offered to donate to the club to make viewing videos of any kind easier for more than one viewer. Everyone present thought this was a good idea.

Paul reported that work on the new room is almost done. Rob, who has been a coworker for the new room improvements echoed Paul's anticipation of working on something smaller than the 1:1 scale efforts that have dominated club activities for the past year or more. Everyone present agreed. The work is sufficiently far along that the December meeting will be held in the new work room. Receipts from Paul were approved without being heard. No one has any doubts that he needs to be reimbursed for supplies purchased. After all this, jobs to be at least started after the meeting were Bob T, Bob A and others, electrical, Rob and Paul completing the outside caulking, Leroy and Jared cleaning track, and Ron working on scenery for the trolley layout.

Meeting adjourned at 10:00.

WHAT THE %*##% --?

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

The completion of the interchange to the east end of Price yard in the southeast corner of the main layout created a few gremlins that resisted elimination. When everything was in place and wired, trains would stop just before the new junction. Sometimes they'd start again. Master electronics expert Bob T scratched his head a while, then thought there might be an accidental polarity mismatch. So Tom McC volunteered to crawl around on his belly to see what he could find. Sure enough, there was a mismatch in power leads between the two boosters. After the offending wires were corrected, there was more testing. Things were better, but not yet right—trains still stopped sometimes, but not always. More diagnostics. Maybe some gaps closed, or loose rail joiners created new gaps where they weren't supposed to be. Careful inspection and repairs resulted in many fixes. Subsequent trials suggested that the gremlins were indeed vanquished. So far, they've stayed away. But nobody still is sure exactly what and were the problem was. Progress!

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 (5) is Bob T’s summary of northeast Texas railroads. Site (6) has some interesting photos of Commerce area railroading over the years.

COMING ATTRACTIONS:

December 17, 2016 — North Texas Council of Railroad Clubs, Irving.

December 20, 2016 — LSR Div. 3 Meeting, Christ the Servant Lutheran Church, Allen

January 21 – 22, 2017 — North Texas Council of Railroad Clubs Plano show, Plano Centre

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.

DART — We’ve not considered developments on DART for a while, and they’ve opened two new extensions in the past few months, one, a 3-mile extension to the south end of the blue line, and a 1.45 mile extension to the Dallas Streetcar (NOT the M line)

The 3-mile Blue Line extension ends at the University of Texas– Dallas campus southwest of the Lancaster Station, the former end of the line. The UTD station is shown above. Most of the Blue line south of the Trinity River bridge is on the old Texas Electric Railway right-of-way, past the old Monroe TE Shop building, now the DART police headquarters. The new extension opened October 24, 2016. (DART photo)

The Dallas Streetcar line runs from the south side of Union Station downtown 2.45 miles to the north corner of the Bishop Arts Center. The cars use battery power crossing the Houston Street bridge, and usual overhead wire for the rest of the trip. The latest extension opened August 29. 2016. (DART photo)

ETMRC