January-March - TrainWeb.org
Transcription
January-March - TrainWeb.org
NEWSLETTER Central Arizona Model Railroad Club January - March, 2011 PRESIDENTʼS MESSAGE by Steve Bumgardner As our President-Elect, I asked Steve if he would tell a little about himself as an introduction to our members - Ed My wife (Marge Dreher) and I moved to Prescott from northern California. We have four children and seven grandchildren. I attended Marquette University in Milwaukee. After college I worked in Wisconsin developing high tech capitol equipment for the medical and semiconductor market sectors. Then in California I developed large scale capital equipment for semiconductor fabricators. I was at a director level in the semiconductor companies leading engineering, factory automation and applications. I retired after approximately 45 years in engineering and management. We then moved to Prescott to enjoy our retirement years. In Prescott, I have been active in the Yavapai Search and Rescue for the Sheriff's Department, playing golf at the local courses (2 - 3 times per week), participating on a homeowner's board and presently working at two equine sanctuaries in Chino Valley. This layout was developed for operations. I have also moved away electric turnout control mechanisms. This layout has all Caboose Industries manual throws. (The original layout used four different types of mechanisms.) The layout is approximately 31 by13 feet and is built around the perimeter of the room with a large middle isle for people. There is a drop in bridge with three tracks on it to allow entrance into the area. It is not a standard train bridge that you may be thinking of. Rather, it is more of a drop in section of the layout in a curved corner. The build cycle for the pike has been six months. Here are some specifics for the layout: o o o o o o o o Scale: HO Primary use: freight & passenger op's Use of “RAILOP” for manifest generation. Control system: NCE DCC (RF/Cable) Benchwork surface is plywood covered with homasote. Track: Code 83 Estimated total track footage: 300 ft. Main lines: two parallel, w. five crossovers and 24 turnouts Turnouts: Caboose Industries manual throw. Engines: 16 Rolling stock: 156 fright/15 passenger Industries: 22 w/sidings Passenger: three w/sidings Major passenger station: one w/ 5 tracks No major yard areas on the layout (all yards are in storage boxes under the layout). No major grades (or minor ones). Maximum depth from front to back is a 28” reach. o o I have also been involved in the Central Arizona Model o o Railroad Club for approximately four to five years. I o joined the CAMRC special interest group (sig's), o operations group when they started up a couple of years ago. That has been a very beneficial experience o for me. o o I am now completing my second major layout since being here in Prescott (if that is possible). All of the bench work is complete, road bed/track laid, wired, I am looking forward to working with my fellow ground cover/hills, roads and starting ballasting. I members in the CAMRC and the new board this expect to have the ballast compete by the end of coming year. January. My original layout was initially a model for train watching. No real operations, freight or passenger. arrived about 10:30 that morning and spent the better part of an hour touring Steve and Sandra's magnificent layout. Steve had trains running on all 13 tracks while I brought my two unit Santa Fe RDC-3's to run on one of the main loops. SCHEDULE CAMRC regular meetings are held on the second Wednesday of the month. They feature tables where you are welcome to bring items for sale and most months also feature a program. They are a also great way to get together with your fellow members. Meetings begin at 7pm at the Prescott First Lutheran Church, 231 W. Smoketree Lane off Willow Creek Road or Prescott Lakes Parkway in Prescott. January 12 - CAMRC meet - First Lutheran Church February 9 - CAMRC meet - First Lutheran Church February 26 - Prescott area open houses. See article this issue. March 9 - CAMRC meet - First Lutheran Church Late April - Potential Amtraking trip see article this issue YEAR END FINANCIAL REPORT by Norm Delucchi Club Financials as of Dec 13, 2010: Checking Savings CD Total $5,868 10,124 10,746 $26,738 THE COTTONWOOD TRIP by Stan Cedarleaf On Wednesday, last November 17 fourteen members, wives and friends of the CAMRC went on a day trip to Cottonwood to visit Steve Kossack's Cottonwood Falls G gauge railway. Most of us Trains running included narrow gauge mining and logging Shay's to many different trolley's on reversing "to and fro' tracks to a seven car Rio Grande Ski Train pulled by a Heritage SD-70. We also saw a complete nine car Super Chief headed by an LGB consist of ABBA F7's with sound and a coal train behind two LGB Rio Grande ALCO's. Whimsical lines were occupied by LGB Disney Moguls pulling classic tourist passenger cars and The Thunder Mountain inner loop was running continually. Videos are available on You tube at... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMGuCfhc_ZQ&f eature=related We then left Steve's and headed for lunch. One group went to Ming's China Buffet and the others went to the Office. Following lunch the next stop was at the Clemenceau Heritage Museum to view the newly redone HO layout BOARD OF DIRECTORS STEVE BUMGARDNER, President BOB LANNING, Vice President JIM HANNA, Secretary NORM DELUCCHI, Treasurer 775-3184 772-1024 778-2110 445-5379 Board GEORGE KLIMAS PAT SAVAGE MIKE SCIGLIANO Members 778-9249 636-0391 776-8238 hosted by Bob Lanning. The Clemenceau group has done a wonderful job upgrading their layout depicting the Cottonwood/Jerome area during the mining boom of the last century. Thanks to Steve, Sandra and Bob for a super day trip. WINTER LAYOUT OPEN HOUSES We have three volunteers from the Prescott area who have offered to host layout open houses on a Saturday afternoon. They will have their layouts open from 1 5pm on Saturday, February 26th for you to visit and enjoy. I will send out an email, with the map, a week beforehand to remind you and will try to have maps available at the February meet for those who wish hard copies. For this weekend we have three different scale layouts for you: + Norm Delucchi - a new Sn3 layout + Brent Schnitzius - his large sceniced HO layout + Jeff Lowe an indoor G gauge layout with trains running, awaiting the start of scenery. MEMBERSHIP RENEWALS It is that time of the year for all of us to renew our CAMRC membership. Included with this issue is a copy of the membership form for 2011. Please note that it is to be returned to our new Secretary, Jim Hanna. You can mail a check or get it to him at a meeting in January or February. As soon as the renewal date is up, we will then publish your 2011 Membership Directory. 2011 AMTRAKING TRIP by Peter Atonna After last year’s fun trip to Los Angeles, we have had several chats about possible locations for this year’s trip. From the input, I am seeing if I can put a trip to San Diego together. It has been many years since we made that one, so I am ready to return! From a timing standpoint, the last half of April looks best for me. San Diego offers the spectacular Balboa Park model railroad clubs as well as a great light rail system to ride. I am also checking into a day trip to the railroad museum in Campo for a visit and train ride (their rides are weekends only, so that means our trip will have to include a Saturday or Sunday.) I have also read of a great hobby store there and will work on a couple of “special” visits if I can work them out. Because of the greater distance and the need to have a rental van, it will be more expensive than last year’s. Here are some tentative costs: Amtrak coach: Adult $195 rt; Senior $165 rt Amtrak sleeper: Adult $302 rt (2 per room) Senior $274 (2 per room) Note: the sleeper would be Williams to LA and we all take the Surfliner coach to San Diego. Mini van, seats 7, $60 per day for the vehicle Motel $75 per day for two I will keep all informed by email, so let me know if you might be interested in going. SILVER STATE RAILS AND TRAILS by Norm Delucchi “Silver State Rails and Trails” was the title of an eight day tour we took exploring the railroad legacies of Nevada and Eastern California. The tour was put together by Rolland Graham of Mountain Outin' Tours of Irvine, California. Rolland conducts 6 - 8 tours a year and usually at least three of which have a railroad theme. We joined the tour at the San Bernardino station. The station houses an excellent museum of AT&SF memorabilia. Then it was off by bus to Nevada. After an overnight in Vegas we headed for Pioche via Caliente. The original station at Caliente of the Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad still stands and is on the National Registry of Historical Buildings. A small museum, located in a box car, has numerous artifacts and photos of the LA&SL and UP railroads. As part of his tour arranging Rolland contacts local historians to conduct tours of their town / area. The guide at Pioche met us at the “million dollar” courthouse and conducted an excellent of tour of the town - ending at the Boot Hill cemetery. Along side boot hill and still standing are the tram towers with tram buckets that hauled the ore from the mine to the stamp mill - I have a small representation of this on my layout and was very surprised to see a prototype still standing. Now for a day of railroading. Our next stop (after some scenic detours) was at Ely Nevada - home of the Nevada Northern Railway. The executive director of the railway conducted a thorough tour of all the shops. This was followed by a diesel excursion towards McGill Junction on recently reopened track. The afternoon started with a detailed tour of the town and its history by the town historian. Of somewhat importance she pointed out the two brothels that still operate in town. Then it was back for a steam excursion to Keystone. The mine at Keystone is now operated by a Canadian firm - but all hauling done by truck. Now - - off to the “loneliest road in America”. We traveled highway 50 all the way to Carson City. Along the way we stopped for visits at Eureka and Austin. In each town we again had local residents with stories of the olden days while pointing out various historical sites. After a restful night in Carson City (all those bus ride hours take there toll) - we headed back up highway 50 about 5 miles to the current end of the restored Virginia & Truckee Railroad. The train we rode was powered by an ex-McCloud River Railroad Mikado (#18) - the locomotive had just returned from California for the filming of a new movie - “Water for Elephants”. We had three hours to enjoy Virginia City then a rear running locomotive trip back to Carson City. The railroad is working on extending the line closer to Carson City. Next morning started with a great tour of the Nevada State Railroad Museum by the museum's restoration director. The museum then brought out their recently restored McKeen rail car. The car built in 1910 - had lives as a restaurant, plumbing supply and various other businesses over the years. Running the car around on the museum track was a special treat for our tour group. This visit was followed by a tour given by a fifth-generation Carson Valley resident who pointed out numerous V&T sites south of Carson City and again many of the historical sites, including the Stewart Indian School, Genoa, and then a great Basque lunch in Gardnerville. Now continuing down highway 395 and after visits to June Lake and the Tufa Towers of Mono Lake, we paid a visit to the Law Railroad Museum. By prearraignment the museum operated their recently restored Death Valley Railroad Brill rail car. This car is possibly the only narrow gauge Brill rail car still in existence. The bus then detoured off of highway 395 to many sites of the Southern Pacific's “Slim Princess” line. Included were Keeler (end-of-the line) and Owenyo (interchange with the standard gauge jaw-bone line of the Southern Pacific). Our last stop was at the Manzanar National Historic Sit, one of the many Japanese interment camps of World War II. We were scheduled for a private ranger led tour. We got that tour but also got what I considered a highlight of the entire tour. One of the volunteer directors of the site was there that day. This gentleman, a retired high school teacher from Glendale, California, was at Manzanar between 1942 and 1945 as a youngster. Our group of about 39 could have kept him talking for hours. In addition to his stories of the 'camp' life and answering all of our questions he talked about how he integrated the whole story of the internment into his high school classes. In total a great tour of historical mining towns and a lot of railroad history combined with a tour director who really knows how to put together a tour. For more information on tours, go to: www.mountainoutin.com TENNESSEE TOURING by Gary Simons While on vacation in Tennessee in October, my wife and I took a ride on the on another train, the Tennessee Valley Railroad, a short line tourist ride. The train leaves the depot just outside of Chattanooga and runs a thirty minute ride at about eight mph to a engine repair facility and end of the track roundtable. One of the interesting trains I saw there is just stored there at this time (for seven years now) by a wealthy owner from Florida. It was explained to me that the train was an innerurban commuter made by Fiat and was used in Italy and Germany before being bought by the American rancher. He actually had a track running all the way around his ranch so he could ride anywhere around the ranch and stop for the night and sleep in the unit that was converted into a railroad train mobile home with all teak interior. The railroad spokesman told me that it is now in negotiation for sale to an Italian for use again in Italy if the sale is complete and the train can be shipped back to Italy. A BARGAIN TENDER FOR A BARGAIN ENGINE by Anthony Piscitelli A while back I wrote about a bargain brass engine I found at our swap meet. I did not like the tender that came with the engine, To me it was too big even though it was the correct tender for a USRA 0-8-0. Digging through my junk box, I found a Mantua square tender, I painted and lettered the tender for Verde Tunnel & Smelter. I thought this smaller tender looked better behind the 0-8-0, but I was not quite satisfied. The Mantua tender looked like an 1800's style model, too early for my liking. But I let it go for the time being. Later on, while digging through another junk box, I found another tender. I bought this tender several years ago at York. I think I paid $5 for it but don't know who made it . It had Athearn style steel weights, Athearn style under frame, and an Athearn style coupler pocket, so I assume it was made by Athearn. After applying the decals, I weathered the tender and connected it to the engine. I think this new tender made a big improvement, what do you think? MAKING MOUNTAINS by Mark Ziven Now that I have an operational O scale Hi-Rail layout, it was time to advance into a more permanent setting by committing “paper and cardboard” to plaster. Coming from the flatlands of corn and soybean fields, my only experience with real rock was the Grand Canyon, Sedona red rocks, the landscape of the “Painted Desert” and the geology that surrounds the Verde Canyon railroad. Armed with my digital camera, I tried to capture more than the eye could see. The trucks were plastic and the draw bar pin was plastic. This model was never designed for electrical pickup. I removed the plastic trucks and installed the Mantua tender trucks. The plastic draw bar pin was removed and a new pin made of brass rod was installed. This solved the electrical pick up problem. The tender was lettered for Pennsylvania, so I scrubbed the lettering off with a Q-tip and alcohol. I then repainted the tender. I designed new decals using MS Word and a Rio Grande speed lettering font. Stan printed the decals for me. I got the idea for using the speed font while watching a Cumbres & Toltec video. One of their K36 locomotives was lettered for Cumbres & Toltec with the Rio Grande Speed font, and I thought it looked pretty good. So I decided to letter my VT&S engines with this font. Getting ready to work, all the track is taped to keep it clean The result was condensed down to a two track main line through what is now a mountain that sits atop a grade on the “far west” end Most recently, I’ve jumped in with both feet into a tub of wet “Hydrocal”. I began to lay the plaster soaked hi-quality paper towels on the form that made up my mountain and tunnel. It took a while to get the right proportions of plaster to water and to work quick enough before the mixture began to set in the mixing bowl. It was all about “texture” for me. The surface needed to look like the rock walls I’ve seen. I attempted to mimic the surface with it’s strata and scars left from the millions of years of “wear and tear” on the rock. So, now I’m committed. My mountain with it’s tunnel is locked in “stone”. The next step was to take it from stark white to a resemblance of reality with paint and brush as you can see in the last photo. CAPITOL IMPROVEMENTS ON THE S&P LINES by Peter Atonna Mixing the “goop” After the plaster is on One more time, events in the real world would visit themselves on the Seligman and Paulden Lines. About thirty years ago, Amtrak was designing their new Superliner passenger cars based on the ATSF’s El Captain bi-level cars. They had a prototype they wanted to show off at the Chicago Union Station. Unfortunately, the car didn’t quite make it. Seems that the car was “just a little too tall” to fit under the Roosevelt Avenue bridge over the yard lead into the station. Amtrak solved that problem by lowering the tracks by six inches and the car made it into the station, just a little later than planned. Little did I know, but twenty years later the same problem would visit the S&P lines here in Paulden. Lionel and K Line introduced full scale double stack cars in the early 2000’s. Management here wanted to make sure we could profit from that new traffic, so ordered a K Line version. On its first run over the line, after leaving Seligman, the Dispatcher got a call from the train’s engineer. “We’ve had an Oops”, he said. Seems he felt a severe jolt after crossing the bridge over the Big Chino wash. Upon stopping the train, he noted that the upper container was lying on its side down in the valley. Seems the bridge over the wash would not clear double stacks. Management then carefully checked clearances on the remaining portions of the line and found to their dismay, not only the Lionel bridges over the Big Chino would not clear the new, taller cars, but the Lionel Bascule bridge over the Colorado would not nor would the Feather Mountain Road highway bridge at Paulden. In addition, there were a couple of other minor clearance problem locations, but it looked like double stacks could squeeze by them. But with three major obstacles, double stacks would be limited to running with only one container for the time being. It’s time to make it look like a mountain. Here we are with slate gray, some burnt umber, a dash of yellow ochre, some burnt sienna and some umber and a dust of gray. As double stack container cars became more and more prevalent on “real” railroads, many discovered the same problem. Many existing bridges and tunnels would not clear the higher cars and they had to be rerouted onto less desirable routes. Fortunately, during the boom times of the last ten years, many railroads were able to spend the funds to increase clearances and be able to improve freight service on those routes. The S&P management, being more oriented to a procrastination mode of management, did nothing for several years. Finally, the continuing availability of fine new double stack models as well as neat auto carrier cars from MTH and Atlas pushed them into authorizing an upgrading program. clearance needed. The west approach, however would have to be sacrificed completely. Fortunately, stimulus money was available and the project was able to proceed quickly. Soon the new bridge was in place, and the second obstacle removed. First to be tackled was the Bascule bridge. Fortunately, some low level clerk in the main office had secreted an article published on line a few years ago by a fellow who had the same problem with his Bascule bridge. He had solved it by disassembling the bridge and adding a wooden spacer between the roadbed and the bridge span to increase the clearance. He then cut off the track portion of the base from the bridge piers and raised the piers an equal amount. Fortunately, management at the S&P had since replaced their postwar version of this bridge with the current production model, so slicing it apart did not pose the heartbreaking choice of preserving an Now only the last remained, the bridges over the Big original, vs. never running double stacks. Chino. The Lionel bridges could not be modified so were removed completely. Planners in management had two choices, purchase an Atlas bridge, a beautiful structure, but too short to fully clear the valley. Or build an entirely new bridge. Since there was already an Atlas bridge on the S&P and they were pretty expensive, frugal management decided to try building a kit offered by Plastistruct. It too would need extra length, but K Line offered unlettered girder bridges and two of them would complete the length needed. Next up was the Feather Mountain Road bridge. Here there was no quick solution. The old bridge would have to go and a new one built. Fortunately, the surveying crew determined that the east bridge approach would only have to be modified for the last several feet to allow the needed grade to create the Upon arrival, it turns out that the Plastistruct “kit” was nothing more than a box with an inventory of their structural parts and a couple sheets of flat styrene from which gussets were to be cut - and a set of plans that were never quite figured out by the S&P’s engineering staff. Nonetheless, the construction crews persevered and a bridge slowly took shape. When done, the survey crew went on site to measure for the four needed abutments and soon cranes were lowering the new spans into place. Track crews quickly re-laid track and installed ballast. This made management quite happy as since demolition of the old Lionel bridges, through traffic on the line had been suspended and revenue had plummeted. The day arrived and a test train, complete with old and newly acquired double stacks and an Atlas auto carrier car slowly left Seligman to travel the line to Douglas, testing clearances. All went fine through the three new spans. But, whoa, the new Atlas car was not only a fraction taller than double stacks, but had a wider profile. So, naturally it found the remaining spots on the line that the double stacks had “barely” cleared. The auto carrier did not! Fortunately, construction crews were following the train to watch for just such problems. Two tunnel clearance problems were shortly taken care of and landscape/painting crews removed signs of the alterations. The most serious problem, located in the tunnel leading to the Douglas station, required an afternoon of demolition work from both inside and outside the tunnel. It was successful, however, and the train was allowed to proceed to its terminal at Douglas. Now, regular traffic is happily flowing throughout the line, income is back up and management is now on the search for some of those MTH auto carrier cars to built that end of the business. I have been a member of the club going on three years, but Brent made me feel welcome right away with his very easy going and supportive way. The first time I went to his house either for an open house or a "train sale" he was a generous host. I enjoy kidding with him and almost feel guilty that often when I see him at a meeting, train show or at the house he would almost buy some train item I had for sale. He is either addicted to trains, like we all are, or he just wanted to help a fellow member get rid of some unwanted train item. We will miss his running the meetings, but hope he will continue as an active member for years to come. Dick "HO" Gage Brent the Track-Meister: I met Brent in 2001 at Ken Gousman’s old Prescott home when Brent was soliciting comments on his layout plan. Later he, Hal Harner and I worked a lot on each others’ layouts. Hal and I called Brent the track-meister for his meticulous work on track. Brent’s attention to detail set an example that has made a better modeler and home repairman of me. Brent and I also made two long railroad-related trips with each other: one to O Scale West (including the California State Railroad Museum) and the other to Los Angeles and Barstow for a guided inspection of BNSF yards and facilities. We’ve also been golfing buddies and have occasionally shared a beer or two. To conclude this issue, given that Brent has concluded six years as our President, I thought it might be nice if some of our members might like to share some thoughts about him (no Brent, none had to be edited out!) - Ed Brent is the kind of friend who is always there when you need him. He has helped Lavon and me solve many household problems ranging from leaky faucets, to malfunctioning sump pumps, to installing a dishwasher, to the proper mixing of a martini. He has watched our home on many occasions when we’ve gone traveling. Brent did a great job being President for the CAMRC. He is very a very efficient person, very helpful and friendly. Thank you, Brent. Warren Webster I just can’t imagine a better friend than Brent. Darrell Levi I volunteer for a group called Horses with HEART. Last year, I made a pitch for the CAMRRC members to donate as, individuals for, the cause. Brent took it upon himself to ask the club to donate as a Club. The club subsequently donated $100 to Horses with HEART. So, after the annual February HWH Bowling fund-raiser, I gave Brent a bright red tee shirt from the HWH bowling event with the HWH logo on it. He actually wore the shirt to preside over the October 2010 meeting. Thanks Brent for your years of service with a grateful heart, to CAMRRC and the Community. Donn Pease My first contact with Brent was a phone call I made to find out about the Club. I had read an article in the Courier that included Brent's phone number. He talked with me for a considerable time even letting me know about the upcoming dues increase from $12 to $60. When I expressed concern about a 500% increase he carefully explained what it was for and how it came to be. I attended the next Club meeting. BRENT TALES My best moments with Brent are not related to his CAMRRC activities; it was his friendliness hosting my trains running on his layout and helping me correct some passenger car running problems. But my most significant impression of Brent is based on his willingness to let me bring over passenger train equipment to run on his layout. Brent's layout is (was?) the perfect place for running passenger trains with full length cars. The sweeping curves, cuts and tunnels show off passenger trains to great advantage. And a DC layout was great because my old equipment was not DCC. Brent spent considerable time with me during one session fixing some of my poor modifications to my trains. As usual I offered several suggestions for improvements to his layout for operations but he seems convinced to ignore my sage advice in favor of building a new layout. It will be interesting to see how Brent adapts to being an ordinary (!) member. I'm looking forward to working with him on developing a kids program. Bob Ellis Mike Nelson’s module A funny one on our lame duck president...Brent is always looking for a "good" deal when buying HO equipment. So was the case about 2 years ago when I had a very fine, pristine, black painted brass steam locomotive and tender for sale on my table at one of meetings. I had written the price of $250 on the round sticker and proceeded to view some of the other items for sale by other members. A few minutes later, Brent stopped me and handed me $2.50 and said "That's a real great deal, I'll take it". Yeah, right. It took me 5 minutes to explain that the $250 was not two dollars and 50 cents. He finally understood and walked away quite dejected. Mike Owens, Bob Ellis, Brent Schnitzius We've had a wonderful laugh about that ever since. Thanks for all the fond memories, Brent... Stan Cedarleaf PRESCOTT RESORT 2010 Bob Lanning took some nice photos of this year’s train display at the Prescott Resort he is sharing with us. Bob Frank Korenchan setting up Flyer layout Whittman Rod Lorenz O gauge layout Bob Ellis contemplating his demo setup Mike’s On30 layout in operation The O Gauge layout CHRISTMAS DISPLAYS We had hoped members had lots of train running around the tree or in front yards. But only Steve and Bonnie Rudy send in shots, so we are sharing theirs and the Atonna Christmas train as a farewell to the 2010 Holiday Season - Ed This is part of our outdoor Christmas Trains display at our home in Prescott Valley. There are 7 at the moment, but Steve's sister just brought him another, plus a Panda Bear, which he may get up before Christmas. Steve also made the tree display out of our flagpole, crafting the star and of course the electrician's nightmare of wiring. We only had one "Chevy Chase" blowout early on, but he found the short and fixed the problem. We are now looking for some more outdoor extension cords that he found last year, with plugs in every few feet, so far to no avail. Bonnie & Steve The Atonna Christmas layout. Each year we alternate between prewar and postwar trains on each of the two levels. This year it was the turn for the oldies. A LEN KRATZ ALBUM CABEESE: PART 5 Great Northern at Denver Canadian Pacific at Weyburn Sask. Wabash Valley at Decatur IL TP&W at Monticello Indiana BN Bad Order at Pueblo CO Illinois Terminal at Springfield IL KCS at Gravette Arkansas CAMRC NEWSLETTER Peter Atonna, Editor 253752 N. Feather Mountain Rd. Paulden, AZ 86334 Len Kratz shares another of his caboose photos this issue as part of his Cabeese Series Here we have a Rio Grande example, shot at Chama NM