The Gandy Dancer
The Official Publication of
The Alameda County Central Railroad Society
April 2002
Spring Issue.
| The Gandy DancerThe Official Publication of | April 2002
Spring Issue. |
| Club Officers: | |
|---|---|
| President Gary Lewis |
Vice President Henry Chandler |
| Secretary Dean Lewis |
Treasurer Cathy Chrisman |
| HO Trainmaster Mike Browne |
O Trainmaster George Cumming |
| Newsletter Editor Bob Johnson |
Webmaster Jim Ferreria |
| Visit the club website | |
If you have any information that would be of interest to the membership please contact Bob Johnson, so that it may be included in the next issue. The deadline for submitting information for the May issue will be Friday, April 26 with a goal of being mailed and uploaded to the website by April 28. Members are encouraged to submit photos, announcements and other club and model railroad related material for use on the club website. Please contact Jim Ferreria with items for the website, or questions relating to the website. |
| Go to March 2002 Issue | Return to Gandy Dancer Index | Go to May 2002 Issue |
| General News | HO Scale News | O Scale News | Test Your Word Power |
| Friday, June 21 thru Sunday, July 7. | |
| Monday thru Thursday 11:00 AM to 10:00 PM. | Friday, Saturday and Sunday 10:00 AM to 10:00 PM. |
| Thursday, July Fourth 11:00 AM to 6:00 PM. | |
Treasurer Cathy Chrisman read a letter from AmeriCares thanking the club for its donation to the AmeriCares "Hero's Fund" a dedicated fund for the spouses and children of those New York City uniformed Firefighters, Police Officers, and uniformed Port Authority employees, who have perished in the WTC tragedy.
The April general business meeting will be held on Friday, April 5, Big Bertha the club BBQ, will be fired up for those wishing to bring your own meat for the self-service grilling session prior to the meeting.
The weather for this weekend show was very good with cool mornings and pleasant afternoons we had large numbers of visitors on both days. Saturday saw 1,578 visitors and Sunday saw 1,121 visitors for a weekend total of 2,699 visitors. Many good comments were heard about both layouts throughout the event. Thank you to the members from both sides who pitched in cleaning glass, sweeping floors, making coffee with a balky pot and staffing our display for this important event of the 2002 show season. It should be noted that OSH has been one of our longest running and best attended shows outside of the fair.
An interim roster was handed out at the March business meeting. There is still a bit of work to be done on the updated version, which should be available by May.
The last couple of years club members had the opportunity to purchase vests to be worn for shows and other club related functions. We currently have five orders for vests. The deadline for orders will be Friday evening, April 5.
The cost of the vest is $25.00 and includes a railroad logo of your choice. XXL costs an additional $2.50. The vest features the RR logo in the left breast pocket area. The member name is in the right breast pocket area. The club initials are across the back of the vest. Members purchase their vests and the club pays for the embroidery of their name and ACCRS on the vest.
If you are interested in ordering a vest or want more information about the vests please see Dean Lewis.
A new push button timer has been installed for the heating and cooling systems. There are five buttons on the control box. The bottom button turns off the heaters or coolers, depending on which has been selected. The second button from the bottom sets the timer for two hours. The third or middle button sets the timer for four hours. The second button, from the top, sets the timer for eight hours. And the top button sets the timer for twelve hours. Each button is marked for the time period that the timer will be set for. Thanks to Don Pomplun for this welcome improvement to our club facility.
A supply of membership applications is located in the beige file cabinet in the upstairs room. As additional materials become available, such as club information brochures and new member packet, these materials will be stored in the cabinet as well. Copies of the bylaws, with proposed changes, are also located in a folder in the cabinet. The top of the cabinet says "membership applications."
A calendar has been posted adjacent to the dispatch panel showing the scheduling of Analog and DCC running for Friday evenings. The letter "A", on the calendar, denotes an analog run night. The letter "D", on the calendar, denotes a DCC run night. The schedule for April is as follows:
Analog: |
Friday, April 12 and Friday, April 26. |
DCC: |
Friday, April 5 and Friday, April 19. |
The following remarks are from the HO Scale Trainmaster.
Hello everyone,
With the up and coming 90 day break between the Good Guys show and the fair, we have a number of projects to get done. Here is the short list.
At the next meeting we shall form the committees to work on these projects.
Thanks in advance,
--Mike Browne, HO Scale Trainmaster
The following remarks are from the O Scale Trainmaster.
At the request of the PCR, the ACCRS O Scalers will be participating in a layout tour on Sunday, April 7. This is our regular DCC operations day, so we hope to see a good turn out to show off our stuff. The HO scale is also encouraged to run that afternoon.
Doug Barskey has been visiting us regularly, and after we finally found a membership application, he filled it out and paid the dough. Welcome aboard, Doug!
George will turn in the order for NWSL metal wheelsets shortly, so be sure and let him know if you want to change the quantities listed on the sign-up sheet. It looks like we achieved the volumes necessary to get $1.70 pricing on the 33-inch sets, and $1.80 on the 36-inch sets.
If you are thinking about purchasing any DCC equipment, check with Curley, Henry, or George. We are planning to pool some orders with Rod Miller, and would be glad to include you.
--George A Cumming, O Scale Trainmaster
Listed below are this month's questions about American railroad slang. Some terms refer to people and others to equipment, facilities or actions. Many of the terms for this month are again, courtesy of member Bill Kennerley.
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Steam trips scheduled. |
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Since last months report news of additional steam activities have surfaced.
Former Frisco 4-8-2 # 1522 is scheduled for a break in run St. Louis to West Quincy, MO, and return on Saturday, March 23. This trip will carry cars for the St. Louis Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society, open ONLY to SLSTA and Chapter members, families and friends. It will NOT be an excursion open to the general public. This operation is being conducted to evaluate the continuing work done on the engine over this past winter. Additional information.
Former Milwaukee Road 4-8-4 # 261 is scheduled for several rail excursions this year. Early trips include a two day round trip from Minneapolis to the Lake Superior Railroad Museum in Duluth on May 18 and 19. There will be a round trip from Chicago Union Station to Galesburg, IL and return on June 22 and a round trip from Chicago Union Station to Rochelle, IL and return on June 23. Additional information.
UP 4-6-6-4 #3985. Union Pacific Railroad is to operate its 3985 steam locomotive on an eastern swing of the system. The route is to be from Cheyenne to Omaha, across to Chicago, up to Milwaukee, northwest to St Paul, south on spine line to Des Moines, on to Kansas City and then back to Cheyenne. Time period is to be late May to mid - late June.
As part of this tour, the Camerail Club is to sponsor a public excursion over the spine line from St Paul to Kansas City with an overnight stay in Des Moines. TENTATIVE dates for this excursion are June 22nd & 23rd.
Regular steam operations ended on this line in the early 1950s with only a special trip by C&NW 1385 some 10 years ago being the only steam power since then. The last regular public passenger train, on this line, was the Rock Island "Twin Cities Rocket" which last ran in July 1969. The spine line is mainly former Rock Island trackage with some use of former CGW, Milw and M&StL trackage. Excursion trip information.
The annual Denver Post excursion from Denver to Cheyenne and return for the Cheyenne Frontier Days rodeo is reportedly on tap for Saturday, July 20. The Rocky Mountain Railroad Club tentatively will be sponsoring a one way excursion from Denver to Cheyenne on Sunday, July 21, pending final arrangements.
The Sherman Hill Model Railroad Club has scheduled an excursion from Cheyenne to Laramie and return for Saturday, July 27. Trip Information.
Above information from the loconotes list and Trainorders.com
Diesel Locomotive, freight car and pasenger car images courtesy of Dan's Depot.
The club has a number of public showings each year, the largest of which is the annual Alameda County Fair. In the old days when the Fair was the only show that the club was open for, there was time to work on major projects at almost any time during the year. Now with the show schedule it is more difficult to find a window of time to start and more importantly, to complete projects between shows. That said, it really is not that much different now, as it was back then there was no real push to accomplish any improvements, for the Fair, until this time of year.
There will be a good-sized block of time, in the neighborhood of 90 days to work on projects and have them complete in time for the Fair. Now is the time to discuss what needs to be done and for us to get to work. I'm sure that both Trainmasters have a project or two in mind, which would improve the layouts from an operational or visual standpoint. The window of opportunity is now open, lets take advantage of the time available between now and the Fair to make those much needed improvements.
The Classification Yard is a recurring section of The Gandy Dancer. This area is where members may list items to buy, sell or trade.
San Francisco Giants baseball tickets are available for many 2002 home games at Pac Bell Park. Tickets are for seats on the club level, which are not offered for sale to the public. For details on which games are available please contact Bill Kennerley.
This is the eighth in a series of reports about railroad related sites and museums visited during your editor's recent vacation. This month features coverage of the equipment display at Hermiston, OR.
The Maxwell Siding Railroad Display is an interesting collection of railroad artifacts. The display features two rotary snowplows, several support cars, maintenance of way equipment, signals and signs from the Union Pacific Railroad. The source of these display items is obvious considering the close proximity of the display to the UP Hinkle yard complex, just a couple of miles away.
The larger plow is the 900076, is steam operated, and is a product of the Lima-Baldwin-Hamilton Locomotive works, built in December of 1949, builders number 9388, and looks very similar to the plow offered by Athearn in their product line. The 900076 was last operated on the Rock Island in March of 1977 and is attached to a large tender from a scrapped former Chesapeake and Ohio articulated steam locomotive. It was retired in 1985 and was the last steam operated rotary plow on a Class 1 railroad. UP CA-6 class caboose 25372 is coupled to the tender.
The smaller plow, 900083 appears to be more modern than the 900076, but is actually much older. Originally built by Alco (Cooke) in February of 1910, builders number 46931, as a steam powered plow for the Milwaukee Road. The Milwaukee converted the plow to electric (catenary "that's overhead wire") operation. Acquired by UP in 1982 and converted to locomotive powered electric operation. It was retired in 1988. The 900083 has sprouted a long pole with a star made of Christmas lights. Apparently this is lighted during the holidays. A string of equipment is coupled to the rear of the 900083.
Two heavyweight passenger cars are also part of the display. These cars at one time were used in mainline passenger service and were moved to maintenance of way service in later years. Kitchen and dining car 904365 and derrick sleeping car 911435, both appear to be examples of Harriman passenger equipment.
Following the two passenger cars are UPMW 905491 a F-50-9 class flat car built in 1931. UP 906935 a bunk car built in 1963 from a boxcar and UP CA-4 class caboose 25132.
A number of smaller artifacts such as a speeder, a number of signals, station signs, and rail car parts round out the collection. While the collection did appear to be cared for, with the equipment being painted and surrounded by a fence, no information on the hours of operation was posted at the time of my visit. Subsequent to the date of my visit additional information has become available on the museum. The museum is open on Saturdays from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM, and I was there during the week. Telephone (541) 567-8532 for more information. Photo Supplement.
If you would like to visit the display, it is located at 200 West Highland Avenue, Hermiston, OR. Hodge Park, which is adjacent to the display, is suitable for a picnic.
A few words on Union Pacific's Hinkle Yard. While it is nearby, and it might be tempting to try to get some photos, and it is possible to approach the yard vehicle parking areas from Hermiston via city streets, there are no signs noting where the yard is located. There are large No Trespassing signs posted on all of the various railroad owned (private) roads leading to the yard. The yard facilities do not include a visitor's center, so it would be wiser and safer to stay off of the yard property. There does not appear to be any location to observe the yard from public property, even with a large telephoto lens or binoculars, as the distances are just too great for decent photos. There are much better locations along the Columbia River on both sides to photograph trains and the scenery is much better at those locations than at the yard.
The final installment of the museum report will cover the equipment display at The Dalles, OR, The Dalles Dam Railroad, The Hood River Railroad and semaphore signals on the Central Oregon and Pacific.
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