STAYING ON TRACK

The Newsletter of the Lubbock Model Railroad Association SEPTEMBER 2002
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IT''S COMING!

As ya' all know, the 2003 LSR convention is coming to Lubbock, TX in June. If you have never been to a regional or national meeting, you might not know that layout tours are a big part of the convention. This is a great time to think about getting back to work (or starting work) on the layout. Having others come visit your layout is a terrific way to get motivated. You know that track work that needs to go down, or that area that needs scenery, now you have a good reason to get started. On my layout I am beginning again to finish the yard that has been "under instruction" for two years. Look at this event as a mutually beneficial situation. You get some work done, and the conventioneers get to see your good works.

WINGS AND THINGS - THE LUBBOCK LAYOUT

Robert, at Wings and Things, is trying to start a community layout. Herein his flyer.

Mission: The Lubbock Layout is an effort to provide the space and opportunity to develop a HO scale operating layout for the Lubbock and South Plains area. Though it is next door to Wings and Things, it is a completely separate project.

The eventual goal of the project is to design and maintain a HO scale layout that will feature quality track and turnouts, yards, sidings, a town or three, businesses, industrial areas, scenery landscaping, DCC control, an operations control center, storage areas, work-in-process areas and display areas.

Membership: Membership is open to anyone whom Robert approves and who:

a) Pay dues of $25.00 each month (for space rental) and

b) Provides at least four hours of work on the layout each month. (This does not include operating time) though hours and hours might just be used to "test" the track, turnouts, and electrical work. Anyone who is more than a month behind in dues, loses operating privileges until paid up with Robert.

Standards: Standards for the construction and operations on the layout will be the NMRA standards and such amendments that members adopt as the layout develops and grows. Amendments and definitions will be found on the last page.

Overview of Development: Since participants are beginning with a new space, a space currently best defined as a "storage area," the first work will consist of cleaning and preparing the space they will be using. Robert has a well-defined idea of what needs to be done to the space (walls, ceiling, and floor) before participants can begin the actual construction of the layout. At the outset, Robert contemplates three stages of development:

Phase I

Once the interior of the building allows; setting-up of existing modules, configured in such a way members allow space for the beginning of planning and construction of the permanent layout while permitting the running and testing of locos, cars, and trains.

Phase II

Connection of some portion of the modules to the first part of the permanent layout with main line in place giving additional running area, and permitting operations while construction continues, gradually replacing all modules with the fully constructed layout.

Phase III

Continuing to develop the sidings, yards, scenery, buildings and fine-tuning the operating sessions and having lots of fun running and operating trains.

Ownership: Ownership of the buildings and fixtures of course resides with Robert, he owns the land and building. The layout would also be a part of the building itself since members would build it in place. Track, bridges, landscaping and wiring would become a part of the permanent layout. Buildings affixed to the layout (read glued in place) would also become part of the layout. Buildings simply "set in place" would remain the property of the individual owners. Clearly development of the layout will depend on the donation of materials, expertise, time and energy by those interested. There is no magic source of monies or materials.

Operating Sections: These would develop as the work on the layout allows. Eventually it is hoped that regular operating sections could be scheduled throughout the month.

Note: There should be nothing in the development of the Lubbock Layout seen as competing with the fine work of the Lubbock Model Railroaders Assn. The Layout seeks only to complement the work of the LMRA over the many years by now providing the opportunity of a place to run trains regularly.

TRACK TO THE FUTURE - CONTINUED

By Bill Marvel as printed in the Dallas Morning News, May 17, 2002, pg 2c.

And, just as it does the mighty, full-sized Union Pacific and the Burlington Northern Santa Fe, a computer helps Lloyd Keyser dispatch trains on the layout that fills the second floor of his North Dallas home. Software designed by another Dallas modeler, Phil Chamberlain, draws upon a list of available freight cars and on-line industries on Mr. Keyser's pike. After Mr. Keyser makes up the train, the computer issues a manifest telling him what route to take and what cars to pick up and set out along the way. Mr. Keyser, of course, gets to run the train.

"Some modelers let the computer run the whole layout," he says. "How that can be any fun is beyond me." Some things, after all, have to be left to the model railroader's imagination.

Saturday mornings, those modelers prowl the aisles at Discount Model Trains in Addison, filling shopping baskets with engines, cars, switches, and signals. And, increasingly, electronics.

"What's different?" asks owner James Paterson, gesturing to shelves of boxes behind the counter. "Thousands upon thousands of dollars worth of computer chips back there."

"Six years ago, we sold none of these. Now we sell hundreds of decoders a month."

Decoders are the microcircuits that give miniature locomotives breath, movement and life. In the old days, one engine at a time could move on any given section of track. Each section required its own power and controls, creating a spaghetti bowl of wires that only an electrician could understand.

With decoders, a "throttle" a hand-held device much like the TV remote sends instructions to an electronic box called a command station. The station, in turn, passes coded commands through the rails to each engine.

To be continued . . .

SEPTEMBER CLINIC

The clinic for this Monday's meeting will be by Jan Kutch. She is going to discuss weathering rolling stock. She will use some cars Ron Warner used at last clinic for his discussion on decals. Nothing makes a car look more realistic than weathering. Weathering is fun. There is no way to mess it up! Be there.

HUMOR

Homer Morrow submitted these. There are many of them, but I only print a few selections.

You know you're a railfan when. . . .

1. You shop for a house by the tracks instead of away from them!
2. When planning your next vacation, you choose your travel route based upon the location of active railroads and railroad museums
3. When you blow your horn two longs, a short, and a long through every intersection.
4. Speaking of intersections, you call the signals as you go through them.
5. You call zoning to ask if you can use a boxcar for a shed.
6. You wonder why automobiles don't come equipped with couplers.

More anon.

QUIZ

What is a ton-mile?

A ton-mile is the transportation of one ton of freight one mile.

Staying on Track is published monthly by the LMRA - David Lamberts, editor.
Visit us on the Internet at railserve.com/lmra
E-mail me at DWL1944@cs.com
Our mailing address is PO Box 53674, Lubbock, TX 79453

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