July 4 meeting: Ice cream social
July 9 (Saturday): Home layout tour. begins at 9am. Details at meeting.
Mailing list: groups.yahoo.com/group/LMRA
Web page: railserve.com/lmra
Clovis train show - We 're also planning a train show July 16-17 with setup on the 15th. Please inform the general LMRA membership that they are welcome to come setup their HO/N modules. I'll need to know as soon after the business meeting that you can/cannot come up. We've got one HO club from Amarillo that is coming. We're also trying to get vendors to come to sell. - James Aldrich. It will be at the National Guard Armory across from the fairgrounds.
Making twine pine trees. At last month's meeting I demonstrated how to make model pine trees from sisal twine. It is a many-step process, so here they are:
You will need the following items - dowels of various thicknesses (you can also use chopsticks and toothpicks), spray glue (such as Elmer's Craft Bond Multi-Purpose Spray Adhesive), brown matte-finish spray paint or primer, hacksaw, belt or disc sander, sisal bundling twine, several colors fine ground foam (AMSI gray green and olive, Woodland Scenics turf earth and burnt grass), course furnace filter, straight sewing pins and a small drill bit, electric drill, pliers, white or super glue, pieces of styrofoam, mega-hold hairspray, and sharp scissors.
Making the trunks: Cut various lengths of dowels (or round chopsticks). Put one end in a drill. Turn it on and hold the wood against a moving disc or belt sander. Sand it into a pine tree trunk. You can add some texture to the bottoms with a serrated knife or saw blade if you want to. Drill a small hole in each trunk, break off about 1/2 inch of the point of a straight sewing pin and glue it into the hole. Stick it into a piece of styrofoam. If you are using round toothpicks for small trees, you can skip the sewing pins.
Adding branches: This is the time consuming part. For trees taller than a couple of inches, use some course furnace filter to add width. Cut the filter into squares, then tear into layers. Skewer some of these layers onto a tree trunk, and cut into a roughly conical shape. Cut the sisal twine into at least two batches: 1/2 to 5/8 inch lengths and 1/4 lengths. Spray the trunk (or trunk with furnace filter added) with spray glue and sprinkle on the longer pieces of twine. I do the spraying outside on trunk at a time. Twirl the trunk between your fingers until the pieces of twine stick mostly straight out. Let it dry 5 to 8 hours, and spray, sprinkle, twirl. Keep doing this until the tree is about the size you want it. I can take several days. Let the glue dry again. Cut off any twine sticking out too far and trim to a roughly conical shape. Spray with glue, sprinkle on the 1/4 fibers, twirl, and let dry.
Finish: Spray the whole tree brown with spray paint. Let dry a few minutes. Spray with hairspray, sprinkle on ground foam and you are done.
Congress of the United States
House of Representatives
June 8, 2005
Thank you for contacting me to express your support for Amtrak funding. I appreciate knowing your views.
As you know, the President's budget for FY2006 eliminated funding for Amtrak. The House of Representatives and the Senate approved a final budget resolution for the 2006 fiscal year, H. Con. Res. 95, on April 28. I supported the budget resolution in the House, which passed by a vote of 214-211. The congressional budget resolution sets parameters for total spending for the next fiscal year but does not determine funding for specific programs. Now that we have agreed to a budget, the House and Senate will now begin work on the annual appropriations legislation that sets department and program funding levels.
I understand you support for Amtrak. Unfortunately, Amtrak's costs far outweigh passenger revenues. Since its creation in 1970, Amtrak has received approximately $29 billion in federal subsidies to cover the cost over-runs, even though it was supposed to be a private, for-profit-company. The Amtrak Reform and Accountability Act of 1997 required that Amtrak be operational, without federal assistance, by 2002. This goal was not met and in 2002, Congress approved a $100 million grant and the Department of Transportation provided $100 million loan to keep Amtrak open for business.
Due to current tight budgetary constraints and many competing interests, there is less money available for the many competing federal projects. As a result, it is more difficult to find funding for Amtrak. Therefore, I believe Congress should focus on funding transportation programs and priorities that are effective and that benefit the greatest number of Americans. Unfortunately, I don't believe that Amtrak meets that test.
While we do not see eye-to-eye on this issue, I want you to know that I appreciate the benefit of knowing your view. Please do not hesitate to contact me if I may be of service to you in the future. If you would like to receive updates of my actions in Congress, please visit the 19th District's website at www.randy.house.gov and sign up for regular e-newsletters.
Sincerely,
Randy Neugebauer