The Gandy Dancer
The Official Publication of
The Alameda County Central Railroad Society
April 2003
Spring Issue.
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The Gandy DancerThe Official Publication of
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April 2003
Spring Issue. |
| Club Officers: | |
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President Gary Lewis |
Vice President Henry Chandler |
| Secretary Dean Lewis |
Treasurer Cathy Chrisman |
| HO Trainmaster Andy Herrera |
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 Tuesday, April 22 with a goal of being mailed and uploaded to the website later in that week. 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 2003 Issue | Return to Gandy Dancer Index | Go to May 2003 Issue |
| General News | HO Scale News | O Scale News | Name the Railroad |
The PCR convention is April 23-27. Our open house will be the night of the 25th at our club. Also possible for us to be open the night of Wednesday the 23rd if anyone wants to come down and open up.
| Friday, June 20, through Sunday, July 6. | |
| Monday thru Thursday 11:00 AM to 10:00 PM. | Friday, Saturday and Sunday 10:00 AM to 10:00 PM. |
| Friday, July Fourth 11:00 AM to 6:00 PM. | |
The April general business meeting will be held on Friday, April 4, 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.
OSH.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 983 visitors and Sunday saw 902 visitors, for a total of 1,885 visitors for the weekend. 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 and staffing our display for this important event of the 2003 show season. The photos show most of the Sunday crew having a good time and an old friend who just stopped by to say hello and visit for a while. |
 Garrett, Wayne and Dean at the main HO panel |
 Andy Herrera and Mike Brown at the passenger panel. |
 Dick Stark and Clark Redeker at the OSH show. |
 Ted Tulley mans the O Scale control panel. |
 Joe Cancella greets club visitors |
 Ken Olsen takes a turn up front. |
 OSH boxcars and Caboose on the HO layout. |
We had a good turnout of members to staff our exhibit for this event. This was despite the very difficult trip to get onto the Fairgrounds on Saturday. Various members reported an hour and a half to two-hour ordeal to travel a few short blocks to get to the parking area. Reportedly access was restricted to gate 12 and the amount of traffic overwhelmed that access point. Access was much easier on Sunday, as reportedly gate 8 was also open for parking lot access. We had a light number of visitors with 604 on Saturday and 352 on Sunday for a total of 956 visitors for the weekend. Many thanks to all of the members who made things happen for this show. Photos from this event will be in the May Issue.
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 4.
If you are interested in ordering a vest or want more information about the vests please see Dean Lewis.
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 11 and Friday, April 25. |
DCC: |
Friday, April 4 and Friday, April 18. |
The following remarks are from the HO Scale Trainmaster.
Hello "HO" Members.
Well as you may know, those of us who participated in last Saturday's Good Guys Car Show Get Together found it quite a trek just getting into the grounds. It took me two hours from Hopyard and Valley Ave. to Gate 12. Let's hope that won't be a repeated event.
Moving on, I would like to thank all of you who participated in the Good Guys Show and to those who have been making it down to our Wednesday work nights this past month. A lot was accomplished with installing switch machines, mounting them to our new wooden bases that Carlo so finely crafted, and the nice track ballasting Carl achieved. My thanks go out to all of you involved. We are still looking at new sources for purchasing our switch machines. The Train Quest deal somehow didn't go through.
It has been brought to my attention that Athearn is coming out with a set of ACE passenger cars and that it may be nice to have an ACE club train. That's an issue that can be brought up at our next HO meeting. We may also discuss our clinic on wiring the Tortoise switch machines. Until next time, will see you at our April business meeting.
--Andy Herrera, HO Scale Trainmaster
Member's Model of the Month.This month's model is owned by Ted Tulley. The 6201 is a US Hobbies model purchased in New York City for $420 circa 1972 - a year before my marriage. It was really a plain-Jane model, with limited details. The 6201 was painted and detailed by the late Lou Boyd of Long Island, who was featured from time-to-time in MR and RMC. Lou also converted and detailed an old Max Gray car to build the auxiliary water tender - perhaps not prototype, but who knows. My interest was HO in those days and there was no layout on which to operate the 6201. It never saw the light of day for 30 years, most of which I spent in the Far East and Eastern Europe. After returning to the USA in 2002, I was welcomed as a prospective member of the ACCRS and one evening brought the 6201 for its maiden run. A little stiff at first, some members showed me how to lubricate it and it quickly loosened up. It saw a lot of duty during the 2002 Fair. I've enjoyed it ever since. |
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This month features the introduction of a new of a new recurring feature called "Name the Railroad". The way this works is that a slogan, official or unofficial, will be given for each of several railroads on one month. The answers for each of the slogans will be given the following month. The feature "Test your word power" will return from time to time and will replace Name the Railroad when it appears. The answers to this months questions will appear in the May issue.
This month sees several changes in the newsletter. Starting this month is a new item "Member's model of the month". This feature will cover many of the beautiful models that various members are willing to share with other members and our visitors. A photo of the model and associated description by the model owner will comprise this feature.
Name the Railroad replaces Test your word power. There will be fewer questions, but the format of questions one month and answers the next will remain.
Photographs of club members at club events proved to be popular, so the inclusion of these type of photos will continue for future events.
The copy deadline for the newsletter is being changed. The deadline for copy for future editions will now be the Tuesday of the week of publication. Formerly the deadline was Friday of the week of publication. This change will significantly reduce the stress level for the newsletter editor at publication time.
With the return of warmer weather a number of railroads and museums have announced the return of steam operations.
Canadian Pacific has announced their schedule for the CPR Empress (4-6-4 # 2816) that will visit a number of cities across Canada. Schedule.
McCloud will operate steam again this year starting on Saturday of Memorial Day Weekend. More information.
Railtown 1897 (Jamestown) and the Sacramento Southern (Old Sacramento) will begin steam operation on April 5th. Railtown schedule: 2003 operating season begins April 5. Train runs at 11:00, 12;00, 1;00, 2:00, & 3:00 every Sat & Sun thru October. More information.
Sumpter Valley Railway will begin their season on Memorial Day Weekend. More information.
Union Pacific has three trips scheduled for the 3985. One trip, sponsored by the Sherman Hill Model Railroad Club, will feature rare mileage on the Sidney and Yoder subdivisions. The annual Denver Post round trip to Cheyenne Frontier Days. And a one-way Denver to Cheyenne trip sponsored by Rocky Mountain Railroad Club. UPRR excursion page.
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This is the seventh in a series of reports about railroad related sites and museums visited during your editor's recent vacation. This months feature covers the Rock Island Museum, located in Fairbury, Nebraska. The Rock Island Museum is in the former Rock Island station, which was built in 1914. |
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The Rock Island Museum is located in the former Rock Island station located at 910 Second Street in Fairbury, Nebraska. While in service the station housed the Western Division Headquarters of the Rock Island and the dispatcher controlled all Rock Island trains west of Des Moines, Iowa.
During the 1920's the railroad was a major employer in Fairbury with some 1,290 persons working in the division offices, station and adjacent shops. Several passenger trains called at Fairbury daily, over the years when passenger service was offered. The most famous train was the streamlined Rocky Mountain Rocket, which ran from Chicago to Denver and Colorado Springs. On occasion the famous or important rode the Rocket or its predecessors through Fairbury including two American Presidents, Teddy Roosevelt and Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Passenger service through Fairbury ended with the discontinuance of the Rocky Mountain Rocket in 1965. The station closed completely when the Rock Island was liquidated. Although the Rock is long gone, the tracks behind the depot are still in use as Union Pacific's Hallam Branch of the Marysville Subdivision serving a number of grain elevators and a coal fired power plant. The track is currently rated at 25 mph for the most part, a far cry from the days when the Rocket would hit the Century mark (100 mph) on a regular basis.
The museum consists of the two-story passenger station and division headquarters, the surrounding grounds and the adjacent freight house. The waiting room contains several benches, display cases full of small artifacts and the adjacent ticket office contains the agent's desk and a gift shop. The grounds feature a memorial for Rock Island employees and a recently added Rock Island motorcar. While the switch for the house track has been removed the house track itself is still in place next to the freight house.
A few years ago there was a significant snowfall on the Hallam branch, which required a snowplow to clear the snow from the tracks. The UP sent a plow that had been converted from a steam locomotive tender. The UP had acquired the plow from the C&NW as a result of the merger with that road. The Northwestern had purchased the plow from the liquidation of the assets of the former Rock Island. So the plow has returned to home rails, for the time being.
This station is a special place to the editor as his Mother boarded the westbound Rocky Mountain Rocket in 1942 and met his Father for the first time in San Diego, California. A subsequent trip on the Rocket brought Mom to California to marry Dad in 1946. Photos of the museum.
Background information from Jefferson County Historical Society website.
The next installment of the museum report will cover the Rails West museum in Council Bluffs, Iowa.
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