Newsletter Jun 2017

Prez Pic The Prez sez —

In last month’s newsletter, a great compliment was given to me. I can’t take the credit for it. All of the jobs at the clubhouse have been team efforts, and without folks like Rob D and others, a lot of the jobs would still be untouched. Every one of our club members have some valuable talents, some in the past and some in the present. All of the work we’ve done at the club has been a team effort. All the building improvement projects are mostly complete: new rooms, new storage places, new restrooms, new lights, and a lot more. Now, when the control problems with the layout have been corrected, the club will be able to work with scenery and rolling stock, and run trains. What a concept! Thanks, — Paul

It still doesn’t work – Bob E (left) and Ron M (right) struggle with operations on the inside loop after it was returned to operation after the lightning strike. It seems there is a short circuit between the loops which was present before the strike, which caused intermittent control if a crossover between the two loops is thrown. That problem remains unsolved.

THE ROAD AHEAD

The lighting and associated wiring problem recounted last month’s NL seemed big then, but was dwarfed by the lightning strike that wiped everything out. Now things are significantly better: The main HO layout mostly runs, but there is a short somewhere between the two loops that was there before the lightning. Both the N—gauge and King trolley layouts work. Best of all, the expenses in recovering from the lightning strike appear to be much less than first feared: so far, we have spent $51.35 for repairs. Since no one in the club knew what happened, much less why at our last meeting. And because total replacement of all our DCC equipment would exceed $500, and this was in addition to the $361 we’d already spent on upgrading the lights over the our main layout, our future looked to be at risk.

To help put member’s worries at ease, Bob T, electronics guru summarized what happened and what the effects were, as follows: On or about 03 or 04 May of 2017 lightning struck the telephone wires near the police department. The surge traveled underground between the fire department and the gymnasium room which damaged the telephone Christmas tree block on which were lightning protectors (looking a lot like square disk capacitors). The surge then fried all the electronics in the radio room including the city wifi system. Their damage is in the vicinity of $40,000, which is covered by insurance. Damage was also done to radios in the fire department. Our router has been replaced by our Fire Department friends and is now up and running.

Damage to ETMRC electronics has been determined to be one chip (8 pin DIP) in each of the boosters. It appears now that the damage to the DCC computer board was caused by removing it from the console. The board was returned from CVP with a new power jack and a new battery. (The battery had been replaced in January of this year.). There does not appear to be any additional damage to ETMRC N scale electronics. The King trolley layout also had a problem with the booster, but Ron M has already repaired it. Summary: since the lightning struck the telephone line rather than a power line, all the damage we experienced was due to the electromagnetic pulse (EMP) that is a part of all arcs, big and small (and our strike was indeed big) we survived with minimal problems. Protection against future EMP events is beyond our club and the city’s resources. A review of our overload protections shows that it should have been enough to protect our equipment against a strike as it was before the storm, but it was good that it didn’t need to be tested.

The upgrades to our layout lighting were completed a week before the lightning episode. In all, we purchased eight new lighting fixtures, one new ballast, and a case of 8-foot tubes, totaling $361. The new equipment was installed with new code-compliant wiring but NOT moved (that was determined to be more work than it was worth), so we are now awash in light, and should be for the next 10 years.

Lotsa light — The shiny new lights certainly brighten up the whole room. Not only are the tubes and fixtures new, but the wiring was replaced to replace the poorly done network that used speaker wire — definitely not up to code. Note: Not an inspiring photo, but the lights were the only things working at the time. and they are much brighter.

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.

NOTICE — The next scheduled business meeting is 9:00 am, Saturday, June 3, 2017.

May BUSINESS MEETING SUMMARY

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

Note that the arrears are the lowest in months. This is NOT because those behind in dues have paid up, but as we decided months ago, their names have been dropped from the active membership list until they get caught up..

COUNCIL MEETING REPORT: Council Representative Paul F
Treasurer's Report: as of 18 April 2017 $deleted on hand. Checks for tables $deleted. Results in $deleted. Table Sales were 77 for the Fall Show; and 69 for the January Show. Work Assignments added an assistant show manager for Friday. Texas Western volunteered. Eighteen hours per share are now required. A vendor wanted a W-9 form from Council. It was explained that it is the responsibility of the venue to provide that form. Rent is now up to $deleted per show, and the food court guarantee was discussed. Advertising: DMN Front page sticker worked well. PSAs have been sent, but are not always aired. Next meeting 16 May 2017.

OLD BUSINESS: At a previous meeting it was decided that because of our collective senility we could not be depended upon to differentiate between Old Business and New Business consequently this portion of the meeting will be conducted under the heading of Business. However, this proves to be too taxing an assignment for our President who opens the discussion with “Old Business?” It is not until we have had approximately 12 to 15 minutes of mixed business discussion that Bob T brings it to everyone's attention that we don't have Old Business, we only have Business. It is at this moment that LeRoy usually gets up to attend to his. Once the consternation has settled and everyone has focused on something we continue. Therefore, to those of you who enjoy bringing to my attention those things that I should have done, could have done or might have done, I inform you that this is the last time you will see Old Business in the ETMRC Minutes.

BUSINESS: After the lightening strike things are not working. No signals out of booster. The transformers are not working properly; Bob T does not know why. We may need a new booster. Documentation does not indicate what should be. Next week the board for the trolley should be pulled and tried on the main layout. If the radio tower for CPD was hit we need a surge protector the CPD radio. Bob T concluded with the comment that he thinks it may have been an EMP that took everything out. If so there was nothing that could have been done to protect our equipment. We have a hard ground on the board which will protect it from a surge. Tom McC brought up the point that if we purchased a new system we would have a duplicate of everything. Let's see what we learn next week.

Tom McC wants everyone to think about this, no discussion, just give this some thought. Do we pull out of the train shows? It is becoming more and more difficult for us to fulfill our responsibilities. We could replace the money we get from the shows by increasing the dues $5.00 a month. If the membership paid their own NMRA dues we would come out ahead. Rob D stated that the time we devote to the train shows is not beneficial to the club or the membership. We could still have our open house listed with the Council. This discussion was continued until next month. BobTeeter asked if we wanted to buy a new booster? Do we need a new booster? This discussion was tabled until next meeting when we will know much more.

WHAT THE %*##% --?

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

The lightning strike really complicated some of the layout problems. We didn’t know where it hit, nor did we know what exactly happened. All we knew is that nothing worked. Things are less worse now, but we discovered that it’s really hard to fix something when you don’t know.

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:

June 10, 2017 — LSR Div. 3 Meeting Christ the Servant Lutheran Church, Allen

June 7 to 11, 2017 — NMRA LSR Convention,, Hpuston

June 20, 2017 — North Texas Council of Railroad Clubs, Irving

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.

If the photo below looks familiar, well, it certainly should. Paul is our victim this month.

As a child, I was interested in toy trains. My first train was a tinplate Marx set with extra track. The locomotive was a Santa Fe diesel in the Warbonnet scheme, which was a real eyecatcher. This set the stage for my continuing interest in things Santa Fe. This train set was my babysitter at my Grandmother’s house. As a teenager, about 17 or 18, I discovered HO scale and got interested. I saw it for the first time visiting area discount stores and arts and crafts stores and started buying some of the inexpensive stuff they offered because it was more detailed and better proportioned than the Marx trains, which were also getting hard to find at the time.

You can blame Ray Y for what happened next We were both working at US Brass in Commerce. Ray learned of my interest and the die was set. He introduced me to real hobby shops with a visit to Bobbye Hall’s in east Dallas. For those of you who don’t know about Hall’s Hobby House, it carried a full line of domestic as well as imported cars, locomotives, track, scenery — you name it, they had it. Sort of an early version of today’s Discount Trains. The owner, Bobbye Hall, even had her own line of brass models imported from Korea.

Ray also introduced me to the ETMRC. He was in this from the very beginning, and attended the regular meetings at Sam Westwood’s house. One evening he couldn’t make the meeting and asked me to attend in his place. I fit right in. When the club rented an old, falling down house to build a modular layout. I built my first module, and then added to it and two others, which I still have in storage at my house. That was only about 30 years ago. I really don’t have room for them in my Commerce house, but my new, yet unbuilt digs in Arkansas will.

Somewhere along the way I started buying kits and enjoyed assembling them. My favorites were the Athearn “Blue Box” kits, which went together easily and looked good. I really miss them now. As I have become older, I find that I have problems with the really highly detailed kits with lots of add-on detail parts — I tend to break the tiny handrails and other delicate parts just cutting them off the sprue. And of course, with the hobby’s trend for ready to run, kits are getting hard to find. But all is not lost: I have 14 Accurail car kits stashed away for when I get time. I plan to get some help from fellow club members to learn how get them together faster and more easily.

People who like trains are sort of a brotherhood. When I worked in Murphy, whenever I was in my pickup and a KCS train came along, I’d toot the horn, and sometimes they would sound their horns back. Little things like that stick in your member banks easily. And I didn’t even know a crew member on the trains. Our club is sort of that way. We are a fun bunch. If I could go back, I’d do it all over again.

ETMRC