at the Highland Baptist Church Activity Center, 7:30pm. Jan Kutch will be treating us to NMRA Convention slides.
My email is now jackseay@sbcglobal.net mailto:jackseay@usa.net, . Next newsletter will feature an installment of a glossary of railroad and modeling terms. Give your definitions or daffy-nitions to me at the meeting or email them.
Get newsletter articles and pictures to your editor, Jack Seay.
Bob Batson's home N scale layout now has a site on the Internet with articles and pictures. Texas Central . Thanks to Jon Hays for setting it up.
Playday at Highland Baptist Activity Center, August 29, 30; 5pm to 9pm Friday and 9am to 5pm Saturday. All scales will be represented. There will be a swap meet, module conformance testing, and weathering and decaling of models. Come prepared to have fun, or don't come.
Wings N Things: Kato HO SD45 is in.
Garon Cagle
The next Executive Committee Meeting will be Tue., 7:30pm, September 16, at Jan Kutch's house.
I just ran across the Atlas web page. Here's some text from it. If you want to see a picture, go to http://www.atlasrr.com/highlights/gp40.html NEW! N GP40-2
THE ATLAS N SCALE GP40-2 LOCOMOTIVE WITH DCC TECHNOLOGY!
Coming in September to your local hobby shop.
The new Atlas N scale GP40-2 gives you two choices. You can choose the DCC ready "plug n' play" GP40-2 that comes outfitted with a PC board designed to be replaced by a Digital Command Control (DCC) decoder-equipped board. These units are perfect for anyone who may or may not have plans to use DCC techonology in the future. The second option is a DCC ready to run unit equipped with a factory installed Digitrax decoder - the perfect choice for modellers who currently use DCC. The decoder delivers 128 speed step control, four digit addressing and many other exciting DCC features.
Additional features of the GP40-2 include: directional lighting, blackened wheels, a dual flywheel equipped 5-pole skewed armature motor with a low friction mechanism, and full pilots with body mount Rapido couplers which can easily be changed to MicroTrains¨ #1015/1016 couplers.
The following units will be equipped with a PC board designed to be replaced by a DCC decoder- equipped PC board: [they list 29 road name/number combinations including undecorated with or without dynamic brakes, all priced at $84.95.]
The following GP40-2 units will have decoders pre-installed: [they list 5 models, all priced at $124.95]
At the last meeting, we saw excellent examples of experimentation when Ron Bremer showed how he used dry spaghetti to make corrugated metal, and sandpaper to make shingles.
I sometimes find myself wandering through department, grocery, and building supply stores, looking for materials to use in scenery building or weathering. Some people use make-up for weathering. I have read that John Allen did a lot of experimenting to come up with techniques that we all use today.
Model railroading is very much a multi-disciplinary hobby with both breadth and depth, which is one of the things I like best about it. Nearly every aspect of the hobby has room for innovation: benchwork, ballasting, scenery, mountains, water, detailing, weathering, scratch-building, wiring, electronics, software, photography, layout design, and even making people, animals, and cars look more realistic. Each of these is a creative hobby in itself.
There is the challenge to find common materials that can be applied in new ways to make a layout more realistic, stronger, lighter, cheaper, easier to build, or safer. Neil Burrus showed up at a recent meeting with a module framework made of galvanized steel.
Rarely does anything I try turn out just as I expect it to the first time. I spend as much or more time correcting my mistakes than in making them. Occasionally, a technique turns out better than expected. This is always a nice surprise. Even when following the instructions in a book or magazine, several attempts are often needed to get it right. I stand back and ask myself, does it look real? This time spent observing is important. The first thing we did in chemistry class was spend an hour observing a candle and writing down a hundred things we saw.
As I travel, whether it be riding in a car or just walking, I am observing my surroundings, wondering how I could model what I see. It may be mundane or beautiful; it all has a place on a layout.
Today, August 23, was my first HO-scale operating session. As I operate in different scales, I am beginning to see the advantages each one offers. The coupling and uncoupling in HO scale goes much quicker than in N and Z. Our club offers an enjoyable variety of working in and learning about all the scales. I imagine flying at different altitudes. Each scale gives a different view of the miniature world. Although my home layout will be Z scale, I want to do operations and building in N, HO, Hon3, Nn3, and maybe others.
Bob's layout is an oval in a one car garage, but is operated as a point to point layout. The route begins at the town of Bluff Creek on the east side, passes through Coldwater on the west side, and ends at the SPSF yard on the east side. The layout can be operated by 1, 2, or 3 people.
As our operating session began, I started picking up a few cars in one town and moving them to the yard. During a normal operating session, a north section of the mainline loop is not used, so the layout is treated as a point-to-point that curves around. Starting at one town, travel around to the other side where the other town is, and keep going around to the yard, where everything ends or begins.
Three power supplies are used, two for the towns and mainline, and another for the yard. There are 20 blocks for the towns and mainlines, wired so that each block can be operated from cab A or B. There are drawings on the wall above each town showing where each block is, and the number of the Atlas switch to throw for that block. Up is cab A , the one on the east side; down is cab B, the one on the west side; and middle is off. A cab is a throttle on a cord. Most of the time, all the switches for one town are thrown for the cab on that side, so you don't have to flip the switches very much. It only takes a few minutes for it to become second nature.
In the yard, the toggle switches are wired onto a diagram, with up being on and down being off. Usually, all the switches are on, except when bringing your train into the yard. Then the electrical block containing the yard switcher is turned off. The yard has eight blocks. After your locomotive leaves that dropped off your train, the switch engines take control of the yard.
To start, Bob has a switch list of the trains to make up in the yard. While he was doing that, I began picking up the cars from one of the towns to take to the yard. We always operated with a caboose, so the first thing to do was drop that off in an out of the way place, usually on the mainline. We were running informal shortlines that allowed this.
Then I check the switch list, and look for the industry and car to pick up. Sometimes the car was the first one on the siding. If not, I might need to pick up several cars, pull them off the industry siding, drop the one I wanted onto another track, and push the unneeded car onto the industry siding where it came from. This extra nuisance adds to the interest. Then I look at the list again and find the next car, pick it up, and drop it off with the first car. Making up a train reminds me of playing chess, thinking ahead as many moves as possible, but one or two moves is all I can manage so far.
After all the cars are ready to take to the yard, I picked up the caboose. The yard has a special passing siding where I can drop this train off, pull ahead, switch a turnout, reverse directions, and go pick up the train the yardmaster has made up for me. As I leave the yard, stop, back up. I forgot the caboose. Take the train to the proper town, locate the industries and deliver the correct cars to each one.
For some of the industries, all that's needed is to back the train onto the siding, uncouple the car and reverse direction. For others, drop the car onto a passing siding, move ahead, switch a turnout, back up beside it and then behind it, pull forward, attach it to the front of the loco, then push it onto the siding. This nuisance adds considerably to the enjoyment.
I watched Bob operate by himself for a while. To add more interest, he sometimes runs a through freight around and around the oval. Before this train arrives each circuit, he has to get his local off the mainline track, throw a turnout or two, and reroute the power for the mainline track to the other cab, so the through train just keeps on rolling. He says it helps to know the blocks well before attempting this. This adds a realistic time element.
We were not using a fast clock. This is a special type that can be speeded up so that six hours pass in one hour, for example. When using one of these, there are scheduled times to complete your deliveries and pickups. I haven't operated with one yet, but imagine it requires a certain degree of experience.
The turnouts are all manually switched. These work well, since none requires a long reach. They are also reliable and don't require extra wiring and power supplies. I did most of my uncoupling using a handle that puts a magnet on each side of the coupler. Since the metal trip pins are angled so each is a little closer to one side than the other, each is drawn to the nearest magnet. While the coupler is separated like this, the cars are pushed together, then apart.
The three most enjoyable things I like about model railroading are: scenery planning and building, watching children watch the trains, and now, operations. Bob would like to have an operating session once a month, so if you are interested, give him a call or talk to him at the meeting.
A letter was written to Vice President Al Gore pleading that Amtrak's Texas Eagle, running from San Antonio to Los Angeles, be saved....
"Thank you for your letter regarding the protection of the Texas Eagle," wrote Gore, "I share your view that the urgent problem of species extinction and the conservation of biological diversity should be addressed... All animals and plants help make our natural surroundings more diverse and should be protected to ensure the preservation of a healthy environment"
Canonical (?) list of famous, infamous and semi-famous people who are model railroaders. (Being a legend in your *own* mind doesn't count! ;-) ) The list is assumed to be correct, but no guarantees are made. A "+" indicates a new entry since the last posting.
Actors:
+ Gene Autry ("The Singing Cowboy"), Gary Coleman ("Diff'rent Strokes"), Erik Estrada ("CHiPs"), Harrison Ford ("Star Wars", "Indiana Jones"), Michael Gross ("Family Ties"), Jill St. John ("Diamonds Are Forever"), Stubby Kaye ("Li'l Abner"), Christopher Lee ("Dracula"), Jack Lord ("Hawaii Five-O"), Mandy Patinkin ("Chicago Hope"), Joe Regalbutto ("Murphy Brown"), + Roy Rogers, Sylvester Stallone ("Rocky", "Rambo")
Musicians:
Johnny Cash, Phil Collins, George Duvivier (Jazz Bassist), Merle Haggard, Gil Melle (Jazz composer/arranger), Vaughn Monroe (40's&50's bandleader/singer), Frank Sinatra, Rod Stewart, Mel Torme, Neil Young
Politicians:
Laurence Eagleburger (U.S. Secretary of State), Hermann Goering
Professional Sports:
+ Scotty Bowman (Detroit Red Wings Coach), Ed Dougherty (PGA), Sam Posey (Race Driver), + Mike Schmidt (Philadelphia Phillies), Emmitt Smith (Dallas Cowboys), Al Unser (Race Driver), Bobby Unser (Race Driver)
Radio/Television Personalities:
Walter Cronkite, + Walt Disney, Arthur Godfrey, Don Imus, Garry Moore ("What's My Line?"), Paul Page (voice of the Indy 500), Sally Jesse Raphael, Tom Snyder
Others:
Warren Buffet (Investment Expert)
Television/Movie Characters:
Gomez Addams ("The Addams Family"), "Dad" ("For Better Or Worse"), Donald Duck (in the cartoon short "Not To Scale"), Ned Flanders ("The Simpsons"), + Captain Kangaroo, Reverend Lovejoy ("The Simpsons"), "Dad" Morgan ("Ellen"), + "Thomas The Tank Engine" (although more of a Model Railroad than a Model Railroader!), Wallace ("The Wrong Trousers"), + The movie "Track 42" starring Christopher Lloyd has a heavy emphasis on model railroading. [I personally can't recommend you waste your time on this one. It is really stupid. "Runaway Train" is much better and more exciting, 1:1 scale.]
Additions/corrections are welcome: tomlonson@wmich.edu
Mark Tomlonson, Kalamazoo MI
I received an e-mail a few months ago that I forgot to share with the club. Here it is.
I found your web site today and noticed the note about ". . . building a modular layout on the area from Lubbock to Snyder."
I am working with the permission and support of National Rail Car, Inc. in Roscoe to model their facilities in n-scale and am uncovering a wealth of information about the RS&P - two of my contacts have been employees of RS&P for 35 and 25 years, repectively.
If any of your members wish to learn more or help in this endeavor, please feel free to have them contact me.
I have been in touch with Bob Batson by e-mail about n-scale clubs or activities in the Lubbock area; Bob seems to be the only one left into n-scale. I am the only full-time n-scaler in the Abilene Society of Model Railroaders but now spend most of my time with San Antonio NTrak (of which I am also a member) when I get down there.
Thank you for your time - look for me if you go to the Abilene show. Jay Morgan Abilene jaymorgan@aol.com
Here is another email I received too late for a previous newsletter. Jeff Ford sent it to me. It was sent to the Railspot mailing list by J. T. Campbell.
All this circus train activity reminds me of a trip on the circus train from Phoenix to Barstow in the late '80's. I was Road Foreman T Barstow then, and had a very pleasant trip. As we started to move at Mobest Yard in Phoenix, circus folks started appearing from every direction, running and climbing aboard the train. Just like Halloween, I swear.
The big cats are carried in rubber-tire cages, aboard a semi-enclosed flat at the rear of the train. We still used cabooses then, and the waycar was behind the cats. Some of those cats were of the boy variety, and evidently not fixed, as they tried to scent-mark the right of way. However, at 50 MPH, they effectively kept the caboose traveling through a cloud of atomized big cat urine. Upon arrival at Barstow, the rear-end crew had all the color drained out of their skin, and they smelled so bad that we made them ride in a separate vehicle to the office.
The train will [was] run Sweetwater to Lubbock June 16 this year.
Tom Campbell
Aug
29 - 30 - 5 - 9 PM Fri., 9 AM - 5 PM Sat. Playday at Highland Baptist Activity Center
Sept
1 - 7:30 PM, Meeting at Highland Baptist Activity Center
16 - 7:30, Executive Committee meeting, Jan Kutch's house.
Nov
9 - Tech Museum - "A Century Of Progress"