The Newsletter of the Lubbock Model Railroad Association
March 2000
STAYING ON TRACK
THOUGHTS ON THE AUCTIONI hope the club found the auction entertaining and profitable. My voice was pretty much back to normal by midweek. The club made slightly more than $170.00 profit. That is nearly enough to cover our rent for the entire year! I think there are some things we could do better, assuming the member ship wants to have another one next year. It was a loooong auction! I know people were getting tired. It may be more humane to start earlier or hold the auction in conjunction with some weekend activity. I hate to put a cap on the number of items to be auctioned off, but that is also a possibility. If it is any consolation, the auction at the National Narrow Gauge Meeting raps up around 1:00 A.M.The process of exchanging money was cumbersome. This was my fault, as I had not planned well for Pat Pritchett's job as money handler. Next year I will prepare some forms to use to facilitate tracking the income from the buyers and the pay outs to the sellers. Pat did a great job, in spite of the flurry of activity.
Many thanks to all the members who helped with the auction.
If the membership has any suggestions to make the auction next year better, please talk to me about it or send me some E-mail. If you think it was a bomb, let me know that too.
Almost $1000.00 changed hands during the evening. There was a total of 86 items auctioned. Most of them sold (there were 22 "no bids.") The most expensive item sold was for $216.00. The most items purchased by one person were eight.
Kalmbach Publishing Company has established a new Internet presence at http://www.hobbyretailer.com,. It is a locator service for hobby shops all over the United States. They reportedly have over 4,000 stores listed. Visitors can use a quick search to find hobby shops in geographic areas or an advance search to locate retailers selling products from among two dozen categories, including model railroading by scale. I searched it for Lubbock and it found The Little Shoppe, Minters Train Shop and Wings and Things.I recently purchased a digital camera. Shortly thereafter I discovered a web page for showing your pictures. It is http://www.gatherround.com, . When you go there they will ask you if you want to download a photo album software program. From there it is a simple matter to go into the program and load your digital images from your flashdisk into a virtual photo album. The really neat part is that you can then upload them to their web site for all to see - free! What a great way to photograph your layout and let the whole world see it. I used this program for my son-in-law's birthday party and it was a huge hit. Try it.
If you are researching some project and you need a periodical index, I have found the mother of all indexes. It is (was) located at www.accurail.com/tm.exe. (Now moved to http://www.index.mrmag.com/, ) The program has a huge database of back issues of model rail road magazines and searches them very quickly. You can search by keywords, key word lists, title text, road names, track plans, etc. An amazing program. It does not provide the actual article, but a printout of all the "hits" it can find. You will still need to travel to the library!
Even though the paint in your bottle looks fine, if it has been around a while, it probably has some small particles, flecks, or dried paint chips in it. No problem, unless you are using it to airbrush. It takes only a tiny piece of grudge to clog up the tip of an airbrush. You can buy very tight woven net cloth at the fabric store (I think it is nylon) and cut it up into several squares about 2 inches square. Set this square over the receptacle on the airbrush and pour the paint though it. I have been doing this for about a year, and so far have never had a clog. Quite different from my sorry experience before I started to filter the paint.BUSINESS CARDS
The club now has business cards. They look like this. (I'll try to put a picture here).If you have a business, please take as many cards as you want and put them in your waiting room or lobby where people may see them and pick one up. It is very inexpensive advertising. I will have the cards with me at every meeting. Also, we now have plastic card holders so we can display the cards at shows and events.
Construction starts January 12, 2000 on the Baoji-Laozhou railway section, which will run in northwest China from Shaanxi Province to Gansu Province, and is expected to play an important role in the economic development of the western region of the country. The 487-km long project consists of 95 railway bridges, and 90 tunnels totaling 62,500 meters. It will be built in four years at an investment expected to cost some 9.88 billion yuan (about 120 million US dollars) according to the project director.This rail section, which is also part of the new Europe-Asia land bridge, will increase the daily transportation capacity on the line to 16 return trains and the annual cargo transportation to 13 million tons. The previous railway section running through these two provinces was opened in October 1952, the first to run through China from west to east. Because it can no longer satisfy the increased transportation needs due to national economic growth since the 1980s, the second line has become essential, said the project managers. (Submitted by Ron Kutch. Originally published in the China-guide News.)
GODEKE LIBRARY
The club is committed to set up the demonstration pike at Godeke Library from March 13 - 17. Some have already volunteered to help run the trains, but we could use a few more. The library is open from 9:00 A.M. to 9:00 P.M. Monday through Thursday, and 9:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M. on Friday and Saturday. Setup will be on Sunday, March 12. Bob will have a volunteer list at the March meeting.DUES ARE DUE!
Membership dues for this year need to be paid by next month. Dues are $12.00 for single membership and $18.00 for a family. Please pay the treasurer at the March meeting, or you can just mail them to: Lubbock Model Railroad Association, PO Box 53674, Lubbock, TX 79453. Dues not collected by the March meeting will result in your name being taken off the club roster and also removed from the newsletter mailing list.THE SCHEDULE FOR 2000
Ron Kutch asked me to publish the clinic schedule for this year. Seemed like an excellent idea, so here they are.FOR SALE
Pins are $2.00, patches $1.50 and the decals are $2.00 a pack. There are enough decals to detail two cars in each pack.The club has some items that are always available for purchase by the membership. Sometime I forget to set them out at the treasure's table. They include:
Pins for your vest commemorating the 30th anniversary of the Lubbock Model Railroad Association (1962- 1992)
Cloth patches commemorating the same as above. Decals for the fictitious line Lubbock Western Railroad. They are available in HO and N scale, both in white and black.
Staying on Track is published monthly by the LMRA
David Lamberts, editor.
Visit us on the Internet at http://www.railserve.com/lmra,
E-mail me at mailto:DWL1944@cs.com,
Our mailing address is: PO Box 53674, Lubbock, TX 79453