Newsletter August 2017

Prez Pic The Prez sez —

Each and every time someone meets at the clubhouse there is more accomplished. The electrical situation is better. Recently Bob T discovered a common wire between the two DCC boosters. This can cause some of the problem situations and lead to the cross connection. Nevertheless we can all run trains, and have done so over the past few weeks, and have fun again. Bob A was trying out locomotives on July 15 with success. There has been few if any recurrence of the “stop-reverse-proceed” episodes lately, but if you encounter one, please let us know. Even on Tuesday evenings, attendance is going up — new member George F and occasionally Jared P there on Tuesdays. Running trains and having fun again is in sight. The light at the end of the tunnel may be a locomotive, just for fun. Thanks, — Paul

Progress – The Skull Mountain coal mine (Webmaster correction — Actually Mathis Mine #5) complex has been extensively reworked. Rob D bought and assembled the Walthers mine head kit. (Webmaster correction — Bob T bought, Rob D assembled) Tom McC and Ron M reworked the scenery for the mine head buildings, both to make the new assembly fit, and to improve the transition from the surroundings to the installation site. All this teamwork produced the improvement shown in the photo. The club reaction: Excellent!

THE ROAD AHEAD

Alas, the control/signal problems are clearly much better, but are still with us. Over the last few weeks, lots of trains have been run (yay), but continuing problems between Chyrokes yard and West yard uncovered (boo). Bob T and Paul F, the ever patient detectives, are in full pursuit of the glitches, but obviously haven’t got ‘em all yet. Guesses on when the glitches will be gone range from “soon” to “who knows?” But despite the aggravating ongoing glitch problem, the railroad is completely operable and has been heavily used by members anxious to see things move again after what seems to be endless problems. They’ve not been disappointed. New and rebuilt locomotives have been reprogrammed and tested with excellent results.

Perhaps best of all, members have been working together to improve the skills of everyone who is trying. Ron M has become the resident DCC expert, to include decoder installation, troubleshooting, and testing. Bob A is becoming a decoder installation expert. George W has developed into an outstanding structure scratch builder as he continues with his model of the Greenville MKT depot. And there’s much more.

More than trains — Did you notice that at least some of the jungle along the club entrance was gone? It wasn’t courtesy of the city, but of President Paul, and yes, that’s his lawn mower and gas. (Rob Dove photo, mangled to fit)

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, August 5, 2017.

July BUSINESS MEETING SUMMARY

PRESENT: Paul F, Jared P, Tom McC, Tom B, Rob D, George F, George W, Bob T, Dave G.

MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING: Last meeting minutes approved by acclimation as usual.

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

text

COUNCIL MEETING REPORT: Paul F, representative
There was no treasurer’s report because Terry B, the treasurer, did not attend the meeting. Final table sales for the rent show series showed the January show (old Dallas/Plano show), 166, 10 greater than the Fall (old Ft Worth) show at 156. Advertising planning for the 2017-2018 show season is well along. Any ads that showed on the attendees comments will be placed. The others will be dropped. A bonus is that the ad Mesquite Magazine that appeared last year after the fall show will be run for free for the upcoming season. The stickers on the Dallas Morning News show weekend papers were well received and next year, more will be ordered.

After months of discussion, a motion was presented to authorize the Council to go ahead and get a tax identification number. The process can all be done on-line, but requires two steps: first we need a federal tax ID to establish the council status as a non-profit agency under the 501-C3 or 501-C7 regulations. Then, with the classification, we can apply to the state Comptroller for the state tax number. The application to the state requires two years of financial records to prove not-for-profit status. This should finally put the issue to rest and will make life easier for everyone if a question about financial status arises.

Layout sizes for the upcoming show season showed no changes. An article in the June 18 weekend issue of the Dallas Morning News featured the late Jim Norwood’s layout moving to the Dallas Technology Center. This was a nice pitch for model railroading, but might have helped show attendance had it appeared closer to the November show. The date of the move is to be determined, and volunteers to help the move will be welcomed. There will be no July council meeting ― the next meeting is August 15, 2017.

BUSINESS: Paul noted that this was the first meeting with both of our new members, Dave W and George F president. Both were welcomed again by everyone president. Rob noted that they bring club membership to 16, a much healthier number than the lowest number 10 of a year ago. Bob T believes that the finding and repairing two cross connections fixed most of the control problems. Now we need to run lots of trains to uncover dead spots or other problems. Bob thinks the remaining problems will be mostly due to bad rail joiners. Rob D reported that there are six malfunctioning turnouts in Chyrokes yard and maybe some more elsewhere on the layout. Bob T thinks that most will turn out to be an accidentally loosened wire. In any case, the layout runs better than it has for months. Tom McC recognized Paul and Rob for making the roof tight again, even though there may be some residual drizzles in the extreme southwest corner to the main layout room.

Rob reminded the members that we still need to plywood up the windows in the Fire Department radio room. Paul commented that this is not club altruism ― plywooding up the windows will eliminate the cold drafts come next winter ― during the dog days of summer we could sure use some cold drafts. Jared continues to represent the club at university orientations. At his last outing on June 30, he estimated that 10 to 15 students visited his table long enough to look at all the items displayed and to take a business card with club contact information. The use of the cards makes review faster, but unfortunately provide us with any contact information, so how many might be interested in visiting is hard to assess. George F finished the meeting business with a question about the NMRA Master Modeler program. Bob T referred him to the NMRA web site, and Tom B mentioned that the North Texas division MM representative lives in Dallas, and that his contact info can be had from the quarterly online Callboard e―magazine.

WHAT THE %*##% --?

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

The occasionally ongoing glitches in the layout controls remind one of a comment in a recent cartoon, where a character reported that he never misbehaved ― sometimes.

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:

August 12, 2017 — LSR Div. 3 Meeting Christ the Servant Lutheran Church, Allen

August 15, 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.

My first recollection of railroads was as a child. My maternal grandfather worked in the Baltimore and Ohio car shops in Keyser, West Virginia. I remember when he took me down to the locomotive shop and I watched a 6 foot diameter tire being replaced on a a steam engine axle. Impressive to a small child.

Of course, my brother and I had a Lionel O-27 train set in the early 1950s, and for Christmas would receive more accessories. We had a log loader, coal loader for sure, but I forget the rest. I think we only had one locomotive and one or two turnouts.

In college from 1957 to 1961 at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), I was a member of the model railroad club — The New England Berkshire and Western. At that time we were in the sub-basement of the administration building, next to the steam tunnel, which would occasionally flood leaving mud all over the floor. The club was a small group at that time, with the senior as President, junior as VP, etc. The club was HO, and used the fiber tie code 100 brass track. One of the loops went through a crawl space.

While in the Army, I was sent on TDY to Germany as part of the US Army radio conversion from AN/GRC-3 thru 8 to the VRC-12 and PRC-25 series. The Swiss Government was looking at purchasing these radios and I was sent to Switzerland to consult. (Sort of, long story.) While there I was exposed to rack railroads and extremely convenient passenger trains. The passenger part did not rub off, but the rack railroads did. I am still looking for away to do rack railroad in HO, but I am not a mechanical engineer, and it is almost watchmaking.

While living in the Rochester New York area I started a 1-1/2 inch scale layout with 400 feet of 1 inch aluminum rail. When I moved to the Cincinnati area, the railroad did too, but this time it went downhill behind the house with a switchback that sort of went nowhere. There was 4-wheel flatcar, and the Grass River caboose with 8 wheels turned from shagbark hickory. I still have the caboose. In addition to the rail there was a 5 or 6 foot diameter turntable and one, count'em, one turnout made from the 400 ft of rail for the switchback.

I have always liked trains, especially short, logging, rack and so forth. I also am partial to handlaid track because I am cheap. My first layout was handlaid except for purchased points and frog subassemblies. For those who remember 3200 Washington Street, my second handlaid layout was the corner module that was incorporated into Tony Casper's narrow-gauge corner. Designed to be the module between two levels 18 inches apart, it had 10 or 12 inch radius curves and a 10% grade. See ETMRC.org/Pictures/AT 3200 Washington St Location Number 2/Mountain and Narrow Gauge (about halfway down). Since then I build at the ETMRC club house. These include two scratch built bridges and the 2 ft gauge loop well as the scratch-built turnouts in Chyrokes yard, and a couple of double slip switches. (Webmaster correction - One double-slip switch.)

My favorite caboose is the one from a New York State logging railroad, Grasse River.

With a degree in Electrical Engineering, I somehow have become the expert in wiring of the ETMRC layout. I defer to Ron M for DCC and JMRI. I appreciate the effort of fellow members in helping with the wiring updates. That especially goes for under table wiring, which I’m getting too old and stiff to do, much less enjoy. Tom said to make this a page or so long, so here it is.

ETMRC