Holiday Edition.

The Gandy Dancer The Official Publication of the Alameda County Central Railroad Society

December, 2007

Next Public Operation Session:

Spring Home and Garden Show

This annual event returns in February.

Upcoming Events:

January

The Monthly Business Meeting will occur on January 4th, 2008.
The club Bar-b-que, Big Bertha is currently in hybernation. It is expected to wake up when the weather warms up.

Under the heading of heads up. We are not open for these, but just so you know when they are...

2008 Northern California Boat Show January 4 - 13, 2008

2008 Manufacturers' RV Show January 26- February 4, 2008

Recent Events:

Club Elections were held in November

The nominating committee reported their slate of candidates at the October general business meeting.

Membership Dues are Due.
	If you have not paid your 2008 dues, please see Paul and ante up! Dues are $24.00.

Annual Pot Luck

The annual club holiday potluck was held on Friday, December 7. We had a very good turnout for this annual club event. There was plenty of food and everyone seemed to have a good time. Thank you to all who attended our traditional holiday get together. Photos from December potluck

Upcoming Events Page Updated

The upcoming events page on the club web site has been updated. The dates for most pre-fair shows are listed. Check it out! 2008 club run schedule.

Editorial Note

The regular newsletter editor, Dan Espinosa, has a bit of technical issues with his hardware, his computer is not playing nice in other words. So with his agreement, Bob Johnson, will be filling in on the newsletter and web site duties for a little while.

--Bob

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HO Scale News:

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November HO Meeting Minutes

The meeting was called to order at 8:40 PM by Assistant Trainmaster Bob Johnson.

1. HO Trainmaster Seth Abrahams was absent, Assistant Trainmaster Bob Johnson presiding over the meeting.
2. Project Status Reports:
1. Port Project: Gary reported: "The tedious job of doing the "concrete" around the track work in the container yard is continuing. Highway bridge work is continuing at home." Dean reported that difficulty in obtaining supplies of bridge components is slowing progress on one bridge.
2. River Road: Paul reported: final details in the works, to be finished by Great Train Expo (November show).
3. Block 34/44 repairs: Bill W. Work is continuing. John is out of town this week.
3. Announcements:
1. Assistant Trainmaster Johnson has donated an Athearn blue box AC44-CW to the club to be painted, decaled and have a DCC Decoder installed so that the club will have some DCC freight power available. The Athearn locomotive was won as a door prize at the UPHS (Union Pacific Historical Society) convention in Chicago. There is one string attached to the donation, no orange paint to be applied, grey paint for body color was suggested. Some discussion of paint schemes followed.
2. Lee Buckner had a book that he wished to donate to the club library. Since we currently do not have a library, this will be discussed in more detail at the January meeting.
4. Scale Elections:
1. Nominations for Trainmaster were opened. Bob Johnson was nominated, seconded (by several) and agreed to serve if elected. There being no additional candidates nominated, nominations were closed. Bob Johnson was elected as Trainmaster by a unanimous vote.
2. Nominations for Assistant Trainmaster were opened. Bob Johnson nominated John Kolburg. There was at least one second. There being no additional candidates nominated, nominations were closed. John Kolburg was elected as Assistant Trainmaster by a unanimous vote.
5. Miscellaneous Items:
1. Trainmaster Elect Johnson announced that he would like to see some smaller detail oriented projects done on the layout. Examples given included crossing and block signals, which would provide additional animation near the track at several locations around the layout. Additional discussion to take place in January.
2. Member participation or lack of same for shows was discussed. The question of the dearth of visitors during the last Home and Garden Show was also discussed.

A move was made with a second to adjourn the meeting. The motion passed and the meeting was adjourned at approximately 9:03 PM.

Respectfully submitted, Bob Johnson, Assistant Trainmaster / Trainmaster Elect.

From the Assistant HO Trainmaster:

The 2007 show season has closed, and we have entered the annual winter shutdown period. I would like to thank everyone who participated in the various shows, the fair and other club events during this year.

This time of year allows us to undertake upgrades of layout and infrastructure. We have a large layout with a goodly amount of basic detail. We need to look at what we can do to make the layout look and work better. There are a couple of projects that still have some work to do to reach completion. These projects should be finished before the show season begins again.

I would like to call on everyone to participate in the process of improving our layout. You might ask what can I do, I don´t have skills to do... (Fill in the blank). Not everyone is an electronic expert or is inclined to sling plaster.

What I have in mind does not require great skills on anyone´s part. Simply stated, pick an area of the layout, take a look and see what needs to be done. Is there a building that needs lighting? Are the buildings in need of cleaning, replacement or additional details (signs, awnings etc)? Do we need more/better or fewer vehicles? Does the area look like a ghost town (needs more figures)? What added details would improve a scene? Is there a railroad crossing that is lacking something (cross bucks, signals, or road surface)? Do the signs on the buildings need to be replaced (faded, peeling etc)? Does a building have a lousy paint job (paint runs, sloppy trim painting, etc)? Is there a need for more landscaping (trees, bushes, etc)?

Once we have an idea of what is needed, we repair, install, upgrade, clean etc. This process may be as simple as setting vehicle(s) on the layout, applying a small drop of glue to the bottom of a figure and placing it on a sidewalk. I think that most everyone can do that sort of thing. I would like to see several teams of two or three working together to make things better. That said we can also use a member or members that are comfortable with lights to participate in lighting buildings (interior and exterior).

I would like to establish a layout detailing fund. That way we can streamline the process of purchasing necessary detail components without the need to resort to repeated votes on needed expenditures. Periodic reports (monthly) on amounts expended, budget remaining and what was purchased would be made at the scale meeting. We will be discussing this at the January scale meeting.

Just a reminder for those who might have forgotten, the Northern California Boat Show (January 4-13, 2008) and Manufacturers' RV Show (January 19-27th, 2008) will be at the fairgrounds. In past years this has included the erection of a fence…

The club will be on the layout tour for O Scale West, Friday, February 8, 2007. I would like to ask that the layout be presentable on that date and that we have trains running. The O scale will be hosting the event and I feel that it is appropriate for the HO scale to support the event by operating trains. It might be a good idea to wear our vests so that visitors will know who to ask questions.

Happy holidays, see everyone at the club.

Bob Johnson, Assistant Trainmaster

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O Scale News:

From the O Scale Trainmaster:

George was busy with real life and was unable to comment for this month.

O Scale West

The 2008 edition of this annual event is coming up. 2008 O SCALE WEST WEB PAGES for additional information.

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General Hobby and Prototype News

OSH Calendar

The 2008 Orchard Supply Calendar will be available on December 17th.

To Sacramento by Train.

The World´s Greatest Hobby on Tour will be in Sacramento on January 5 & 6, 2008 at the Sacramento Convention Center, 1400 J Street, Sacramento, California. The location looks to be about 9 blocks away from the Amtrak station. Show hours are Saturday from 10am to 6pm and Sunday from 10am to 5pm. Admission is $10.00.

Andy suggested that a group trip to the show using the Capitol Corridor might be a fun outing. Tickets would be purchased by each member for their own transportation. It is expected that the trip would be on Saturday, January 5.

For those who are interested in participating, we would board Train # 720 in Oakland or in Martinez, which ever station is most convenient, on Saturday morning and meet up on the train or at the station in Sacramento. Train #720 departs Oakland at 7:20 AM departs Martinez at 8:09 AM and arrives at Sacramento at 9:18 AM. Train #747 departs Sacramento at 5:40 PM departs Martinez at 6:40 PM and arrives at Oakland at 7:31 PM. Train #749 departs Sacramento at 7:10 PM departs Martinez at 8:10 PM and arrives at Oakland at 9:08 PM. Link to Capitol Corridor Schedule.

For those who would be boarding in Oakland, the station parking lot is closed as the Port of Oakland is replacing the lot with a parking garage. Currently, parking for the Oakland station is located across the tracks at the former Jack London Village shopping center. Link to Capitol Corridor rider bulletin.

All Aboard!

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The Gandy Dancer, a monthly publication of the Alameda County Central Railroad Society.
Last updated March 16, 2008.

Unless otherwise noted, this web page and all images and information it contains are
Copyright © 2004 - 2009 Alameda County Central Railroad Society. All Rights Reserved.
For more information, email Dan Espinosa at:
steelnomad2002 at yahoo dot com.