The Gandy Dancer
The Official Publication of
The Alameda County Central Railroad Society
December 2003
| The Gandy DancerThe Official Publication of | December 2003
|
| Club Officers: | |
|---|---|
| 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 January 2004 issue will be Tuesday, December 25 with a goal of being mailed and uploaded to the website by later in the 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 November 2003 Issue | Return to Gandy Dancer Index | Go to January 2004 Issue |
| General News | HO Scale News | O Scale News | Test Your Word Power |
Elections for club officers were held during the November business meeting. Since there was only one candidate for the offices of President, Secretary, and Treasurer, these offices were filled by the incumbents for the former and the one candidate for the latter. The office of Vice President was the only contested office with two candidates and the victorious candidate is noted below.
The end results of the election are as follows:
| President: Gary Lewis | Vice President: Henry Chandler |
| Secretary: Dean Lewis | Treasurer: Don Pomplun |
Clark Redeker and John Innes were special guests at the November business meeting. For the benefit of those who may not be aware of who these folks are both of them have been or are part of the Alameda County Fair Board of Directors. Clark has been with the board for many years and has recently retired from active participation on the board but will remain involved in an advisory capacity. John is currently a member of the board, the past five years, is a resident of Pleasanton for the last twenty-seven years and is a model railroader in HO scale.
John made some remarks about recent improvements that have been done to the fairgrounds facilities and some about future plans relating to buildings and so forth. For more detail on what John had to say please see the November business meeting minutes.
We had an excellent visitor count for Saturday with over 1,400 visitors. Many thanks to those who put in the time to work on the layouts, clean things up and staff the exhibit for this show. This marks the end of the 2003 club show schedule.
If your tab for beverages is over $2.00 (two dollars) please pay up when you pay your dues.
|
December Business Meeting:Since the December Business Meeting would fall on the same date as the annual potluck, the next Business Meeting will be held on January 2, 2004. Annual Club Holiday Party Scheduled.The annual club holiday potluck is scheduled for Friday, December 5th at 7:00 PM. Please join us for our annual holiday season kickoff. Bring your spouse and children to the most festive occasion on the club calendar. The sign-up sheet is posted on the refrigerator door. The sign-up sheet is designed so that everyone will be able to see what others are bringing in order to avoid duplication of others efforts. |
Membership Dues are Now Due.If you have not paid your dues yet, time to start scratching up the funds, please see the Treasurer and ante up! Members are reminded that dues are $24 per year. |
 |
Happy Holidays: |
 |
|
|
|
The editor of this newsletter would like to express the wish that all members and their families have a Happy Chanukah, Happy Kwanzaa, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
It was announced at the November business meeting that the combination for the locks on the doors to the club building would be changed in January. The combination will be given to members that have paid their dues for 2004. When you receive the combination do not pass it along to anyone else, as only paid up members are to have the combination. It has been a number of years since the combination has been changed and we have had some turnover in membership, were the reasons given for this change.
|
December schedule for run nights.
|
(The letter "A", on the calendar, denotes an analog run night. The letter "D", on the calendar, denotes a DCC run night).
Lots of Work.A number of members have put their hearts and some long hours into the work on the city project, electrical and track work in recent weeks. While the city is not perfect, few things in this life will ever be perfect, the appearance of the city is dramatically different, for the better, than just a few weeks ago. Some of the results of the work sessions are temporary for the GATS show and some other results look good enough to be incorporated into the finished city. A hearty thank you to all of the members who answered the call and came down for the Wednesday, Friday and special work sessions. All of your hard work on the layout shows in the city and in improved reliability of train operation on the layout. |
 Wayne Toigo and Garrett Kirby pause during a work session with one of their city projects. The old church and a resurrected cemetery now occupy a portion of the knoll behind the last street. Additional scenery work was done in this area after the photo was taken. |
The following remarks are from the HO Scale Trainmaster.
Well this year is almost gone. The last month or so has seen a lot of work by many of our members who turned out to improve our layout during our Friday and special work sessions. A lot of people have put in a lot of hours into projects like the city, switch machines and the ongoing wiring improvements.
I would like to thank everyone who participated in work sessions. The city looks very good and I know that it will look even better when we have the time to work on the finer details after GATS.
While on the subject of thanking members for all of their hard work, I would like to say thank you to one member in particular, Gerald DeWitt. Gerald came down on November 25th and spent the evening up on a ladder repairing the three heating units that were broken on the HO side. With the heaters fixed it is much more comfortable in our building. This was most helpful during the GATS show and will make things a bit nicer for the annual club potluck.
--Andy Herrera, HO Trainmaster
 |
|
|
|
This annual event is scheduled for February 19 through February 21 and will be held at the Westin Santa Clara Hotel.
Listed below are this month's questions about railroad slogans. The answers to these questions appear at the end of this issue.
|
 That's it! No more fully assembled layouts! |
Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, And Nobody.
This is a little story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody. There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that because it was Everybody's job. Everybody thought that Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn't do it. It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done.
Being a member of the club (Everybody) entails more than just showing up on a Friday evening and having a cup of coffee. We have a number of public exhibitions during the year in addition to the Annual County Fair. Some members (Somebody) just don't seem to understand that they (Everybody) are expected to participate in the fair and other shows throughout the year. This is not to say that everyone (Anybody) is expected to participate in every show. But no one (Nobody) should feel that they are exempt for participating in at least some of the shows during the year. If a member (Anybody) is not familiar with how to run trains or have no trains to run, come on down and talk to our visitors. People watching can be an entertaining hobby also. The shifts for the weekend shows are only a few hours and you don't have to work on both days or even both shifts. If anyone (Anybody) hasn't participated in a weekend show in a while, sign up and join the fun. It is a great way for members (Anybody) to get out of the house and participate with your fellow members (Everybody). Don't be the person (Somebody) that gets mentioned by others (Everybody) when the subject of who (Nobody) worked the last show is discussed.
Early on the morning of November 19 a fire destroyed a 420 foot trestle over Brenda Slough on BNSFs main line through Madera County at Sharon, CA near Chowchilla, CA. The fire was spotted and reported by a train crew that was able to stop their train short of the burning trestle. Amtrak trains through the area were replaced by a bus service until a shoofly could be constructed. Approximately sixty train movements pass over this line on a daily basis. Member Bill Wills reported that he saw BNSF trains at Fresno on Union Pacific's former Southern Pacific line while in the valley last week.
A shoofly was placed into service on Friday, November 21, and Amtrak service resumed at that point. The replacement steel and concrete trestle was under construction a couple of days later with completion scheduled for the evening of Tuesday, November 25. BNSF is offering a $10,000 reward for those responsible for setting this suspected arson fire. Original story written by Lisa Aleman-Padilla and Charles McCarthy of The Fresno Bee.
A fire in tunnel 13, which is referred to as the Summit tunnel closed the former Southern Pacific Siskiyou line operated by the Central Oregon and Pacific on November 17. The tunnel is located near Ashland, Oregon and in addition to railroad tracks contains telecommunications lines serving Qwest. The fire was reportedly burning timbers that were supporting portions of the tunnel ceiling, which began to collapse as the timbers were consumed by the fire. By the time that the fire was controlled some 300 to 400 feet of the 3,105-foot tunnel had collapsed. Railroad officials were optimistic that they would have the tunnel reopened to train traffic in approximately a month.
The fire is suspected of being started by transients or trespassers. The tunnel was originally constructed in the 1880's and was the site of the botched robbery of the Southern Pacific "Gold Special" in 1923. Original story written by Mark Freeman of The Mail Tribune.
The state railroad museum will once again be able to run their passenger trains over the Sierra Railroad. Earlier this fall, the Sierra Railroad refused the use of their tracks for the excursion trains that operate out of Jamestown citing track deficiencies. Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) rules require a certain level of track maintenance to permit operation of passenger trains. The railroad claimed that last fall, the track did not meet this criteria and the museum disputed this claim. It basically boiled down to who was going to pay for the track repairs.
After a period of negotiations, volunteers from the museum replaced 225 ties and made other track repairs to a three-mile stretch of track that will be used for some museum operations during the holiday period. The track has been restored to FRA Class One standards. Railtown will be operating steam and heavyweight cars on November 28 - 30 and December 20 - 21. Tickets are $6 for adults, $3 for children 6 to 12, free for children 5 and under. Original story written by Ron DeLacy of The Modesto Bee.
Listed below are the answers to this month's questions about railroad slogans.
 |
|
|
| Top of page |
| Go to November 2003 Issue | Return to Gandy Dancer Index | Go to January 2004 Issue |