Newsletter November 2017

Prez Pic The Prez sez —

Here it is, the end of October already. The show season is almost over. Only one more open house to go for the club house. So far, there has been a decent turnout for our local open house events: We had 33 visitors for the Bois d’Arc Bash and the Cotton Belt symposium had eight. There has also been an upturn in model railroading activities at the club. The turntable is working, the track arrangement to support the locomotive maintenance facility is being revised, and the new coaling tower is almost finished and is being repositioned. Bob T is moving right along with the electrical book. Hopefully, everyone is having a good time.

Happy Halloween! — Paul

New Turnout and machine location – Ron and Tom McC look a little baffled, but are relocating the approach to the turntable/roundhouse to eliminate a reverse curve. AS might be expected, the best location for the relocate turnout interfered with the table support structure. But our stalwart relocaters got it all straightened out and got the whole thing working. Rob Dove photo

THE ROAD AHEAD

Well, we did it: Three successive open houses, two with show duties in Plano, each with competition from multiple events. And we’re still friends. That’s quite an achievement. And we have about two and a half months before the last show of the season. This interim period might be a good time to respond to a challenge: make some progress or maybe even finish some project on the main layout to make it different and better, so if we get return visitors, things may be changed for the better. Two such ventures are already underway, but there is room for more. To help ensure that the changes really are better, consider some suggestions that have been made many times over the past years:

A really good way to start such projects is to take a hard look at the real world, and why it looks that way. There are few naturally flat areas in the real world, and flat areas are almost nonexistent in mountainous regions. Abrupt vertical surfaces are rare, even in the most rugged mountains. Moving rocks and dirt is expensive and dangerous business, and real world projects make great efforts to minimize earth moving. Rail lines to exploit limited natural resources are almost always built as cheaply as possible, and cuts, fills, bridges and other such features are expensive. In our world, little of this is really important. It can be whatever the membership wants. But if we are really trying to make our layout look as though it could have been, the more important these issues become.

New Member? — Nicholas F, age 10, has been learning to build boxcar kits for member Dave G, who is himself learning kit assembly. (R. Dove)

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, November 4, 2017.

October BUSINESS MEETING SUMMARY

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

text

COUNCIL MEETING REPORT: Paul F, Council Representative
Treasurer's Report: $deleted after invoices paid. We still have a concessions fee of $deleted. For January show the menu will stay the same except for the removal of beer. The discount coupon will be good for only $1.00 off regular admission. There was mention of grumpy ticket takers; we do not need grumpy tickets takers. Table Sales: September 249; January 230. Everything seems to be on track for January. Looking for people to do clinics. It is a good venue for advertising your club. Advertising has better coverage than last Spring. 50,000 homes will be hit with coupons. Only original coupons will be recognized; copies and/or facsimiles will not be recognized. Cowcatcher has the wrong date for the January show. Next year show dates may be on the same week-ends as this year's shows.

Next meeting: October 17,2017.

CLUB BUSINESS: Bob E thanked those who were able to sub for him at the show. Rob D also expressed the Club's appreciation to Dave G for his dependability and good work since becoming a member. Rob also suggested that we replace the TV in the work room with a 50 inch model so that more people can view at one time. He said that he found two larger TVs at Walmart that would satisfy our needs in the range of $320.00 - $350.00. In the discussion that followed Paul suggested that we put a cap on any motion of $500.00 since Rob did not know the exact price. Insightfully George asked if we need a bigger TV, Rob answered yes. That ended discussion. Rob made a motion that the club look into the purchase of a larger TV, Bob E seconded. Motion carried.

Bob T suggested we get a ringer, chime for the back work room so that we would know when someone entered. Paul said he has purchased one.

Tom McC brought to the attention of those present that we have decided as a group to re-visit the possibility of withdrawing our participation in the show due to difficulties incurred by members and the difficulty presented by having to man the Open House and work the hours at the show. He sees little future for the show. The vendors can not match the prices offered on the internet, consequently he believes that fewer serious model railroad people will attend.

Rob D wondered if presenting clinics would count toward satisfying the required hours we work at the show. No one seemed to know. LeRoy announced his retirement as Vice President. He said since it is a do nothing job he thought that Rob D would be good at it. For the first time membership was in agreement with LeRoy. His suggestion was accepted by all present without an official motion. Rob D seemed to be very happy in his new position. Well, actually his old position because his feet are still up on the table and he is still smiling.

Tom B brought up the subject of Operation for which there seems to be a great desire to do, but just as much trepidation over the preparation that must be done. Bob T said to plan operation without the dispatcher's panel. After some extended use, a voltage drop occurs and the lights do not work consistently The panel needs a new wall wart and fuse holder.

Jim S, our guest, requested the floor, which was graciously extended to him by Paul. He stated that he had been a member some twelve years ago, and it did his heart good to see that the club still functioned and had accomplished as much as it has in terms of layout and facility. He now lives in Savanah, Ga and there is not a very large railroad community there. He wanted to offer us, “A well done, guys!”

WHAT THE %*##% --?

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

Not too much to report this month. There are probably some gremlins yet, but they haven’t been discovered.

INFORMATION:

The following web sites are excellent sources of supplies (1 and 2). (2) 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 (3) and (3). Site (4) is Bob T’s summary of northeast Texas railroads. You may notice that some of the entries have changed since themlast issue, as Bob T. Noted that the old listings were no longer usable. Thanks, Bob.

COMING ATTRACTIONS:

November 11, 2017 — LSR Div. 3 Meeting, Christ the Servant Lutheran Church, Allen.

November 21, 2017 — North Texas Council of Railroad Clubs, Irving.

January 20-21, 2017 — Plano Dallas Area 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.

Trains—I Love ‘em
By Bill L

My first interest in trains began when I was around five or six years old. There was a rail line — the MKT, or popularly, the Katy, Greenville to Mineola branch going south out of Greenville ran past my family’s house, and I would go watch the trains once a day. Mondays the train ran south, and returned on Tuesday and so on through the week. There were no trains on Sunday. At first, the Katy trains featured the little J—5 Mogul 2—6—0 locomotives, About 1951 or so, the Katy bought two General Electric 70—ton diesel locomotives, and then the Moguls were mostly confined to Greenville yard duties. But the 70 tanners were unreliable, so the Moguls occasionally made the Mineola run after being bumped by the diesels. When not watching Katy trains, I hung around the joint Cotton Belt/SP Greenville depot and got to know some of the employees. And if train watching wasn’t enough, I had two uncles who worked for the railroads, one on the Katy and one for the Cotton Belt, which helped stir my interest in trains.

About a year later, my parents bought my first Lionel O—27 train set as a Christmas present. This was a big step. At first, it was a purely “around the Christmas tree” kind of operation, but then I got enough room and a table to leave it up year around, and began adding cars and accessories. But later, in going to the State Fair in Dallas, with occasional side trips to Hall’s Hobby House over the years, I became interested in HO scale trains. They were more like the real railroads because of the two rail track, and the rolling stock was more accurately proportioned. This gave rise to more realism which brings out great modeling skills in modelers. By the time I was in high school, Lionel trains were gone and HO was in. I started building HO kits. As my skills became better over the years, I started scratch—building and super—detailing steam and diesel locomotives. I still do that.

My grandmother lived in Lafayette, Louisiana, which was a division point and major shop for the Texas and New Orleans railroad, the eastern end of the vast Southern Pacific system. Whenever we visited, I spent most of my time at the nearby roundhouse. The density of operations and the varieties of steam locomotives that were still in service became my major modeling interest. I’ve built several SP Pacifics, Mikados, and have started on a 2—10—2. I use commercial mechanisms, but make boilers and cabs out of sheet brass. Details are a mix of commercial lost-wax castings and stacks and domes cut from commercial die cast models from multiple manufacturers.

This interest led me to become an early member of the ETMRC. Working with other model railroaders has kept me in touch with other people interested in model railroading. Besides my locomotive projects, I have a small stash of unbuilt kits and a good number of both freight and passenger cars. If I ever retire my goal is to at least finish my almost but not quite done scratchbuilt locomotives, and some more rolling stock — an ambitious plan.

ETMRC