The Gandy Dancer
The Official Publication of
The Alameda County Central Railroad Society
February 2003
Valentines Day Edition.
| The Gandy DancerThe Official Publication of | February 2003Valentines Day Edition. |
| 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 March issue will be Friday, February 28 with a goal of being mailed and uploaded to the website by Sunday, March 2. 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. |
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| General News | HO Scale News | O Scale News | Test Your Word Power |
Dates and Hours: Saturday, February 8th, 10:00 AM to 7:00 PM and Sunday, February 9th, 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM. Please note that our closing time will be earlier that the closing time for the show. Signup sheets for this event are available. Sign up today!
Friday evening February 14th is the informal "stop by" session. The more "official" open house is on Sunday, Feb. 16, from 11 AM to 3 PM, more or less. HO scale members are welcome to attend and run for this event.
Orchard Supply Hardware's annual event. Saturday, March 1st and Sunday, March 2nd. Hours are 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM for both days.
Good GuysSaturday, March 22 and Sunday, March 23; 21st All-American Get Together. Show hours are: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. (Sat.) and 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. (Sun.). Normally our exhibit opens at 10:00 AM for Good Guys shows. |
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The February general business meeting will be held on Friday, February 7th. Big Bertha, will be fired up for the pre-meeting grilling session, weather permitting.
Membership Dues are Now Due.If you have paid your dues, thank you. If you have not paid yet, start looking for loose change in the sofa and under the car seat, please see the Treasurer and ante up! Dues are $24 per year. Club bylaws state that dues become delinquent if not paid by the February Business Meeting. |
 Time is running out. |
Distribution of club badges for 2003 began on Friday, January 31, 2003 for members that have paid their dues.
A new club roster will be available once all the dues have been collected and it has been determined who is in the club and who is out of the club for 2003. If you need to change your address, phone or E-mail information please contact Dean Lewis, Club Secretary, or Bob Johnson, Club Newsletter Editor.
We are still accepting orders for club vests. If you are interested in ordering a vest or want more information about the vests please see Dean Lewis.
Gary Herberger suffered a major stroke on Monday, January 27th. Reports on Gary's condition have not been encouraging. Gary was a member of the club for several years and he relocated to the Fresno area a while back.
According to the calendar posted adjacent to the dispatch panel, which shows the scheduling of Analog and DCC running for Friday evenings, the schedule for February is as follows:
Analog: |
Friday, February 14 and Friday, February 28. |
DCC: |
Friday, February 7 and Friday, February 21. |
(The letter "A", on the calendar, denotes an analog run night. The letter "D", on the calendar, denotes a DCC run night).
A number of cars were recovered from a locker that had been abandoned for a number of years and have been returned to service on the layout. Many of you may have noticed the gondolas with the turquoise pipe loads in one of the freight trains; these cars are from the group that has been restored. More recently six coiled steel cars have been added. Most of the steel cars required new hoods for their load areas. Additional cars will be making an appearance in the near future. Dean Lewis has been doing the restorations on these cars.
Since the HO layout has an increasing number of club owned freight cars in the hidden yard, it might be a good idea to relocate some of those cars to the freight yard for public shows. This action would free up some much-needed space for member owned equipment in the hidden yard in addition to adding an appearance of some activity in the freight yard. The congestion of the hidden yard makes it over used, while the emptiness of the freight yard indicates that it is under used. Between shows the club owned rolling stock should be returned to the hidden yard so that it is out of the way for the ongoing construction relating to the Phoenix project.
The following remarks are from the HO Scale Trainmaster.
Well we're into the New Year and approaching our first show of the year.
Glad to see we have some sign-ups for the Home and Garden Show. Hopefully we will have pleasant weather for this event. I hope to have a short HO meeting on Friday February 7th. I would like to see if we could schedule some helpful clinics. I know some of you had mentioned conducting some in the past.
I recently got together with Ray Bailey who proposed a circuit for running the trolley system through the city. He also ran this past Detlef who was looking for some assistance on this project. Ray said he could come up with a demonstration. I'll keep you posted on a setup date.
I would like to thank Bob Johnson for the repairs he made to the passenger platform lighting. Looks like Carl and Gary are moving right along on their road and station projects. Thanks to Seth Abrahams for all the tweaking he's done to the DCC system.
Until next time, feel free to bring up any other topics or projects at our next HO meeting. See you then.
--Andy Herrera
-- HO Trainmaster
The following remarks are from the O Scale Trainmaster.
I have reserved one selling table for the use of club members, so collect those dust catchers, and Come On Down.
The Club will be open as usual on Friday night (Feb. 14), and we will be listed on the OSW layout tours as open from 7 to 10 p.m. On Sunday, we will be open from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. DCC operators are especially needed. The barbecue will be fired-up for visitors and members about 12:30 p.m. HO members are encouraged to attend and operate (and eat). You would be pleasantly surprised to hear all the compliments of your layout that we receive from O scale visitors. Keep up the good work.
It's the busy season--we have four shows in the next two months. In addition to the aforesaid O Scale West, we have the Home & Garden Show (Feb. 8 & 9), Orchard Supply (March. 1 & 2), and last but not least, The Good Guys season-opener on March 15 & 16. Please sign up to operate, to make sure the load is spread evenly among all members. O Scale is in good shape, numbers-wise, but only if everyone takes a turn. These shows are important, not just as moneymakers, but also to show the Fair Administration that ACCRS provides real value all year long.
After The Good Guys show, we are "dark" until the Fair.
--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. The answers to this month's questions will appear next month.
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 These semaphores at Oakland Oregon on CORP mainline were removed from service in November 2002. This is on the former Southern Pacific Siskiyou line. |
Semaphores make last stand.Members with an interest in antique railroad signals may wish to pay a visit to the Central Oregon and Pacific line through Western Oregon. This stretch of rail line (the former Southern Pacific Siskiyou line) features a good number of Union Switch and Signal company semaphore type signals. These signals date back almost a hundred years to when the line was first signaled. A reliable source has stated that the days of the old signals are numbered and all of them are to be replaced with colorlight signals with electrocode within the next four years. The newer trackside signals do not require the pole line to communicate with each other. The elimination of the pole line will save CORP a substantial sum on its signal maintenance budget each year. Map of CORP service area. |
The former Southern Pacific Brooklyn roundhouse in Portland, OR houses a collection of steam locomotives. The former SP 4449, SP&S 700 and OR&N 197 all call the roundhouse home. One of the other stalls houses another treasure, an Alco PA. The PA was one of four ex-Santa Fe units that went to the Delaware & Hudson railroad and eventually ended up in Mexico. The years were not kind to these units, all suffered from various ailments and they were almost to the point of being scrapped at one time.
Two of the units were repaired and now reside in museums in Mexico. The other two, or the skeletons of the other two were returned to the US through the efforts of the Smithsonian Institution. One of the PA's will be cosmetically restored as a Santa Fe unit complete with the famous War bonnet paint scheme and will become part of the Smithsonian's railroad collection. The other will be retained by Doyle McCormick and is currently being restored as an operable locomotive as Nickel Plate 190. The 190 has had rebuilt trucks installed, nose restored and painted, electrical cabinet installed, air compressor installed and engine lubrication system installed. The main generator and prime mover were to be installed by late January, if all goes as expected. Information about the Smithsonian railroad collection.
This editorial is for the HO scale membership, but everyone is welcome to read along.
The world and the club is full of electronic gadgets. We have electronic circuits in our locomotives, the layout and various devices throughout the club building. We have installed DCC in the layouts and in many locomotives.
A recent development has been the installation of a wireless (radio) setup for DCC on the HO layout. Many members have cell phones and bring them along to the club, so that family members can stay in touch with them while they are away from home. These are both examples of wireless technology that works at the club. There is however, one area of wireless technology that is available but is currently unused at the club.
This technology consists of the dozen two-way radios that are available for use during operating sessions. Each radio is capable of using one of many available channels. The use of the radios would allow efficient communication between the dispatcher and the various train operators. This is especially important during DCC operations, when many folks are operating on the layout at the same time. This situation makes clear communications much more essential. For example, if someone has a problem with their train on the layout and say loses a car the sooner everyone knows the better chance everyone has of avoiding running into the stray car or cars.
There are times, during shows, that the background noise is so great that it is difficult to understand dispatcher instructions or train operator reports. Members end up yelling louder and louder to be heard and more importantly understood by each other. This tends to present a less than positive image to some of our visitors and puts an unnecessary strain on voice and ear.
We have made some significant progress in the application of technology at the club. It only makes sense to apply a little more technology that will allow us to coordinate our operations on the layout. This makes for a safer, more fun and professional situation for everyone. I would urge members to consider utilizing the radios during our Friday operating sessions and for upcoming shows also.
This is the sixth in a series of reports about railroad related sites and museums visited during your editor's recent vacation. This month features The Nebraska Central Railroad facility, located in Grand Island, Nebraska, which was open for a tour by the Union Pacific Historical Society. The Grand Island shop is located in a former Union Pacific stone machine shop building built about 1885. Info from Nebraska Central website.
The Nebraska Central Railroad is owned by the Rio Grande Pacific Corporation, a holding company that owns several short line railroads in North America. The Nebraska Central Railroad Company operates 266 miles in three disconnected lines in northeastern Nebraska.
One line runs from a connection with UP at Columbus to Norfolk, 46.1 miles with branches from Oconee to Albion, 34.6 miles, and from Genoa to Spalding, 44.5 miles. Another line runs from a UP connection at Grand Island to Ord, 59.9 miles. The third line runs from a UP connection at Central City to Brainard, 62.7 miles. In addition, the UP has granted the company trackage rights between Central City and Grand Island, 22 miles. Rail is 131-133 pound.
Traffic on the Nebraska Central is predominantly grain (corn, soybeans and milo) with some fertilizer and scrap iron - 40,000 cars a year.
The history of the former Union Pacific branch lines is an interesting part to railroad history in Nebraska. The Columbus lines were built by the Omaha, Niobrara & Black Hills Railroad, chartered April 24, 1879. The main line to Norfolk opened December 1, 1879 and the Cedar Rapids (Spalding) line opened five years later. In 1887, the ON&BH was acquired by the Omaha & Republican Valley railroad. O&RV was chartered August 17, 1876 and built the Ord and Brainard lines. The Brainard line opened from Valley Station to Stromburg in January 1884 while the Ord branch was completed early in 1886. O&RV was controlled by Union Pacific and was merged into UP in November 1898. UP leased the property to Nebraska Central on June 27, 1993.
The Nebraska Central shop in Grand Island is housed in a former Union Pacific machine shop that was built in the 1880's, constructed of cut stone, and is one of two remaining structures from the extensive roundhouse and shop facilities that were located in Grand Island. The other remaining building is a Union Pacific storehouse, which is still in use by the UP. The roundhouse, water tank and other buildings are long gone, although the foundations of some of the structures are still present, buried under stacks of concrete ties produced by the CXT concrete tie plant which occupies a portion of the former UP shop area.
The shop building is quite interesting in its construction. It is possible to see the arch of a former equipment bay door, which is much smaller than the adjacent rollup door that accommodates today's larger equipment. Several fluted cast iron columns still perform their intended purpose of supporting the roof. More modern steel I beams assist in this task and also serve to support an overhead crane used for locomotive repairs.
Several locomotives were at the shop on the day that I visited, including an unmodified SD45 and GP38MAC locomotives. The SD45 was in for a routine inspection and the GP38s were awaiting their next assignment out of Grand Island. Several locomotive components were on display, including a traction motor and axle assembly, a set of locomotive batteries, a valve assembly, a cylinder sleeve and a starter motor.
The shop crew was quite hospitable, answering any and all questions and had their home built locomotive BBQ grill setup and served up some nice refreshments. Photo supplement. Photos of Nebraska Central Locomotives.
Next month we will take a break from museums and will have a little tongue in cheek look at places and businesses that sound like some members may be involved with. The museum report will return with the April Issue.
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