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
At the Executive Committee meeting in December, Robert Mamlok presented a proposal to our board. He suggested the club consider building a layout in the lobby of the Children's Hospital (which will eventually be where St. Mary's Hospital is now). This project would be similar to the one undertaken by Malcolm Furlow at the Children's Hospital in Dallas. The response was enthusiastic and Ron Kutch will present the idea to the club at the next meeting. Some things to think about and discuss are the scale, gauge and "theme" of the layout. We don't know yet about available space, so some of our discussion will be premature. Jack Seay suggested that the club form committees to help with the project which might include the following: design, bench work, wiring, sound, lighting, scenery, rolling stock, finance, structures, standards, and a web page and video documentation.Jack also mentioned some goals for the layout that might include no duck-unders or lift bridges, wheelchair accessible, show-tracks designed to run trains without supervision (no inclines, turnouts, or crossovers), a good variety of switching tracks, easy to maintain, a wide variety of scenery, realistic time goals regarding building, sound, keeping viewing areas as close as possible to scenery and tracks, and perhaps offering some areas that could be controlled by visitors when unsupervised.
Peter Wierzba and David Lamberts volunteered to go to Dallas sometime this spring to examine the layout at the Children's Hospital.
This would be a big undertaking for the club and will be the subject of the "clinic" for the January meeting. Please think about these things and whether or not we can or should undertake this project. If you think it is a good idea, think about which committee you could serve on. This project is big so there will be a niche for everybody. You can help with this even if you are not a model builder!
BUT WAIT - THERE'S MORE!
The LMRA will host the Lone Star State Convention in 2004. The club did this several years ago and did a good job. Also, the club could make some money from hosting the event. Ron Kutch will discuss the convention at the January meeting. The state meeting is a great deal of fun to do (and a lot of work) and if your layout is on the layout tour, it is a great motivator to get things up to speed.
By Roy Appleton as published in The Dallas Morning News, Sunday, December 16, 2001, pg. 12A.
After almost 56 years in the pastime business, Bobbye Hall's Hobby House is closing. It's one last Christmas, the end of the line, for a big player in the world of small planes, trains, and automobiles.
Sales have declined in recent years. A buyer is ready. And at age 92, Mrs. Hall says it's time to do something else. "I'm not getting any younger."
By the calendar at least, she was no kid in February 1946, when her doors opened at Bryan and Fitzhugh Avenue with antique furniture and all the trains and model kits she could buy.
"I opened my big mouth," Mrs. Hall says of the day in Omaha, Neb., when she and her soldier husband, Buddy, were putting together accessories for his model trains. "I said, 'We're just going to have to open a place when we get home so I can get rid of all these buildings,'" she recalled. Back in Highland Park, her husband "came in one day and said, 'I've rented you a building.' I said, 'For what?' He said, 'For a hobby shop,' and I said, 'Oh no.' "
The business took off with the help of employees and customers, who taught her about buying and assembling the merchandise. In time, she sold off the antiques. And in 1956, she and her husband opened today's shop across the street, anchoring a neighborhood that has seen its ebbs and flows like the model railroad industry. Gone is her first shop, lost in a fire, and most of her walk-in traffic. The neighborhood - with its mix of stores and restaurants, aging apartments and vacant lots - is home to mostly Asian and Hispanic businesses and residents who, Mrs. Halls says, generally bypass her place.
Now, she and a neighboring property owner have a tentative sales agreement. After two offers to buy the shop fell through this year, she came to terms with the man. "I decided enough is enough."
The last call will be Dec. 31. "Probably yes," she says. Repair work is no longer being accepted, and most prices have been reduced to move inventory. New stock is limited to special orders, except for necessities like track and power transformers. "You've got to have that for Christmas," Mrs. Hall says.
"She's very well-known in the industry," says Russ Larson, editor and publisher of Model Railroader Magazine, the trade's leading publication that announces her closing in its January issue. "I wouldn't say I'm a big deal," Mrs. Hall says. "I've just been around a long time."
Her husband and son passed away years ago, and she hopes to stay busy reading, volunteering, playing the organ, and running the brass train importing business from her home. She can empty the building on Bryan Street and drive away for good in her cherry red Cadillac, but some memories will be more difficult to dispose of. The Fiat that crashed through the shop's front door . . . Her first customer, Neil Brans, who became a Dallas attorney and her lifelong friend . . . That first wooden airplane her employees insisted she build . . . And children like the 10-year-old boy who bought his mother two train switches for Christmas.
"This is sad because I really enjoyed the children," Mrs. Hall says. Not to mention the kids of all ages. Now where will they go? "They're going to miss up because we've been around so long," she says, "but they'll find a place I imagine."
I recently received a catalog called Historical Rail. Most of the items are books and videos. They seem to have an impressive inventory. I will bring the catalog with me to the January meeting.
This article was brought to my attention by Peter J. Wierzba. It is from the web site of the Texas Association of Rail Passengers www.txarp.org . It was written by Chris VanWagenen
Amtrak official Joy Spencer Smith told members of the Lubbock Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday that the railroad will consider all options when it comes to extending service. "I'm not saying we're coming to Lubbock, but there's nothing we cannot do when it comes to bringing train service to our communities," said Smith, general manager of the railroad's Southwestern Business Group.
Smith, who was expected to meet with the chamber's transportation committee later in the day, said Amtrak will not turn its back on Lubbock or any city that shows a genuine interest in rail. "It's become pretty apparent to me that there are a lot of cities in Texas that don't have a train service but still believe they could benefit from it," she said later. However, Smith said the bottom line is cost. Smith, who was in town to also discuss Amtrak's role in the upcoming Vatican art exhibit that opens here in June, said Amtrak also needs to get a better handle on obstacles the railroad faces in running a line through Lubbock.
The chamber, for its part, is working in tandem with the Texas Association of Rail Passengers in extending a route from Fort
Worth to Denver through Lubbock a route that has not been recognized by Amtrak. Chamber officials are also interested in a second line that Amtrak has proposed involving a reroute of another line that would run through the Midland/Odessa area from the West Coast to Fort Worth.
Michael Reeves, vice president of governmental affairs for the chamber, said the organization planned to tell Smith about efforts under way to build a regional coalition aimed at making rail service in West Texas a reality. "The question now is where do we go from here?" he said.
Smith told chamber members that other communities have been successful in petitioning the railroad for service in the past. "Is it possible to have a train in this city? The first thing you have to do is have a dream . . . You'll never know, unless you try," she said.
www.lubbockonline.com/stories/110801/bus_1108010003.shtml
Chris Van Wagenen can be contacted at cvwagenen@lubbockonline.com
The new board of directors are: President, Ron Kutch; Vice President, Randel Bittick; Treasurer, David Lamberts; Secretary, Terry Chancellor; Librarian, Terry Chancellor. Also serving are Ron Warner, Peter Wierzba, and Rip Maples.