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 DWL1944@cs.com
Our mailing address is PO Box 53674, Lubbock, TX 79453
By David Lamberts, editor
Most of you know that I am a big fan of the annual National Narrow Gauge Meeting (NNGM) held every fall and I would like to tell you why I go each year.
Education
A big part of this meeting is the morning and afternoon clinics. They are eclectic in nature. This years meeting had clinics which included how to detail a scene on your layout (complete with manufacturers names and addresses), how to model water (six different ways), how to photograph a layout, how to weather anything, trestle construction (from kits or from scratch), using DCC, and many more. Some of the clinics are slide shows which present the history of a particular line. Some are aimed at one certain car or engine (a lecture last year on Mason Bogies, for example). Al Boos gave a talk on water tanks! The variety is amazing and most are well done. Many have handouts. The clinics are a goldmine of information, informal and questions are always welcome
Comradery
The NNGM is the only meeting I go to where everyone is happy! I have been going to them for so many years now, that I know many of the members and look forward to seeing them again at next years meeting. The best part of the friendships is that they seem continuous. Even though I may only see a person once a year, withing five minutes, it is as if you never had a hiatus.
Inspiration
Humility is a virtue - go to the contest room. I will show many of the contest models at the November meeting. They are incredible.
Shopping
The vender room is one of my favorite parts of these meetings. If you can imagine a football field filled with nothing with model railroad stuff, you get some idea of the manufacturer's room. If you are like me, there is a lot of great modeling material available that you don't know exists because you have never seen it before. Here you can see it. The NNGM vender's room includes all the major manufactures of narrow gauge material and generic venders such as Accucraft trains, Benchmark Publications, Caboose Hobbies, Chooch Enterprises, Classic Trains,Downtown Deco, Digitrax, Micro Engineering, Precision Scale, and dozens more. In addition there is an enormous display of books and artwork. You can spend a fortune, but part of the fun is to see all the material that you did not know was available (I never knew that Jordan Highway Miniatures made tractor kits from the 1920s. They make two!).
Layout Tours
Layout tours are often part of railroad meetings. People in the community open their home layouts to conventioneers for viewing on scheduled days and times. You will see everything! Some folks don't have more up than bench work, and some are essentially complete layouts. You can learn something from almost all of them.
Fun
These meetings are a real escape. Depending on what you do for a living, you can fill in the following statement to suit your job. "While I was at this meeting, for four continuous days nobody mentioned . . . . . . !" It's great!
I will give the November clinic. It will be my annual slide presentation on the NNGM (Salt Lake City). Hope to see you all there.
Ron Kutch is trying to get some of the members interested in obtaining the Golden Spike Award from the NMRA. It is a noble goal. The qualifications are as follows: 1) Display six units of rolling stock, either scratch built, craftsman or detailed commercial kits. 2) Construct a minimum of eight square feet of layout, including scenery. 3) Construct five structures, either scratch built, craftsman, or detailed commercial kits. If a module has less than five structures, additional structures separate from the scene may be presented. 4) Show three types of trackage (turnouts, crossing, etc.) All must be properly ballasted and installed on proper roadbed. Commercial trackage may be used. All installed trackage must be properly wired so that two trains can be operated simultaneously (i.e., Double-track mainlines, single track main line with sidings or command control). 5) Provide on an additional electrical feature such as powered turnouts, signaling, turnout indication, lighted buildings, etc.
Please contact me or Ron Kutch if anyone is interested in perusing this.
Ron Warner has recruited Jerry Rector of the BNSF to speak to the club in October. His topic is called "Operation Life Saver."
By Wilma Rugh Taylor, as published in Guideposts, April 2001, p. 23. seeChapel Cars
As the weeks passed and Norman lovingly labored away, machining new parts and replacing rusted platforms, I kept him company, working on various writing projects in the small but cozy living quarters. Norman had found a copy of the journal of Howard Parry, Grace's last live-aboard pastor, and in the evenings when work was finally done, I'd listen as he read aloud from it. From my missionary days I knew something about the challenges of bringing God's Word to places where it wasn't entirely welcome. As I studied the tarnished brass bed that all but filled the cramped sleeping quarters, or the tiny gas stove where meals were cooked, I began to feel a new closeness with Grace's former occupants. Images came to me of a preacher and his wife, hundreds of miles from everything that was familiar to them, with only the security of this single car, and their living faith, to sustain them. This car isn't just some old curiosity - it's a place where people lived, worked, suffered . . . and most of all, believed. Just as Grace had claimed Norman, so the mystery of her past - her human past - was now claiming me.
It was around then that friends vacationing near Yellowstone Park sent up a card featuring - of all things - a chapel car. "Why, its Grace," I said to Norman. "Look closer," Norman replied. "It's another car." The caption on the back of the card told us that the car was the Catholic Church Extension Society's St. Paul, and that it was on display in Nevada City. We knew by then that Grace hadn't been America's only chapel car. But we'd been pretty certain she was the only one that had survived.
. . . To be continued - see Chapel Cars 3
By Chris Van Wagenen as published in the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, June 17, 2001, Section D, p. 1.
All indications suggest that Ports-to-Plains is already running ahead of schedule.
AMTRAK officials will no doubt be brought up to speed on Ports-to-Plains and how both could work hand-in-hand in reinvigorating an area of Texas that by most accounts, including census data, is slowly fading away.
If Ports-to-Plains gets done - and it will - combined with a rail route, you can bet there will be a lot of reasons for business and industry to come here.
Castles suggested as much last week and that SPS palas to commit time to the project.
Castles said AMTRAK could heighten tourism in the region and could be used to promote Lubbock and events such as Texas Tech football games, which could bring a ton o leisure travelers on any given weekend.
Michael Reeves, vice president of governmental affairs for the chamber, said AMTRAK has already been told it has to be
come self-sufficient withing a year. "So they're looking for ways to improve their routes. At this point, we're just going to follow their lead," he said.
Castles said AMTRAK already plans to promote the anticipated Vatican art exhibit that' coming to Lubbock next summer.
If that's the case, it seems to me they might also be willing to put Lubbock on their route. That takes vision.
And so there you have it. Who knows?
If Ports-to-Plains and AMTRAK come to fruition, then maybe Lubbock and the rest of West Texas won't look as remote to the rest of the world. All aboard!
Ron Warner has an extra 1968 Santa Fe calendar that he would like to trade for any other 1960s (i.e., 1961-1967 or 1969) Santa Fe calendar. His phone number is 832-4743.
October 20 is play day at the church. We will be setting up the modules on Friday from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. We will play from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Saturday. Two clinics will be presented, one by David Lamberts on airbrushing and the second by Jack Seay on scenery. Be there!