The Gandy Dancer
The Official Publication of
The Alameda County Central Railroad Society
January 2004
New Years Issue.
| The Gandy DancerThe Official Publication of | January 2004New Years Issue. |
| Club Officers: | |
|---|---|
| President Gary Lewis |
Vice President Henry Chandler |
| Secretary Dean Lewis |
Treasurer Don Pomplun |
| 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 February issue will be Tuesday, January 27 with a goal of being mailed and uploaded to the website 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 December 2003 Issue | Return to Gandy Dancer Index | Go to February 2004 Issue |
| General News | HO Scale News | O Scale News | Test Your Word Power |
Saturday, February 14, 10:00 AM to 7:00 PM and Sunday, February 15, 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 20 is the informal "stop by" session. The more "official" open house is on Sunday, February 22, 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 6 and Sunday, March 7. Hours are 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM for both days.
Saturday, March 27 and Sunday, March 28. 22nd All-American Get Together.
This list should be all of the shows that we expect to be doing between the first of the year and the Fair. Please note that we will not be open for the Good Guys show in early June.
Final visitor count for GATS is as follows:
Saturday 1,754; Sunday 1,106; total 2,860 for the weekend.
Due to the annual club potluck falling on the first Friday of December, there was no business meeting. Therefore there are no meeting minutes for December either.
The January Business Meeting is scheduled for January 9, 2004. Big Bertha will not be fired up January meeting, so grab a bite before you come down.
The annual club holiday potluck was held on Friday, December 5th. We had a good turnout including several spouses of members. Many thanks to all who attended and brought in all of those scrumptious goodies for all of us to sample and enjoy.
Membership Dues are Now Due.It's that time of year again, please see the Treasurer and ante up! Members are reminded that dues are $24 per year. Dues will become delinquent soon! |
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For the benefit of those who might have missed this important announcement in the December issue this item is appearing again this month. Someone always fails to get the word… 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.
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 January is as follows:
Analog: |
Friday, January 2, Friday, January 16 and Friday, January 30. |
DCC: |
Friday, January 9 and Friday, January 23. |
(The letter "A", on the calendar, denotes an analog run night. The letter "D", on the calendar, denotes a DCC run night).
Note: This schedule subject to change to allow for layout maintenance and upgrades.
The following remarks are from the HO Scale Trainmaster.
Well, a new year is upon us once again. Hope you didn't forget to pick up your 2004 OSH Train calendar.
Thanks to all who joined us for our annual Christmas get together Pot Luck. All who attended enjoyed lots of good eats. Those who weren't present really missed out on a good gathering.
Believe it or not, we have less than 6 months to the Fair, our biggest burnout, I mean event of the year. Looks like we have enough projects on our layout to keep us busy until then. We should be able to install the remainder of our Tortoise switch machines and finalize the City.
I want to again thank all those who worked so hard and willingly on the city project prior to GATS. It sure was a big improvement.
Hope to have good participation for the events coming up soon in the next two months. That will be the Home and Garden Show and the OSH "How to" Fair. Well, hope all of you have a great and safe year ahead. See at our next meeting.
--Andy Herrera, HO Trainmaster
Happy New Year to all members, and special thanks to those (in both scales) who participated in operations during the GATS weekend. This is a big event with youngsters, who are the next generation of our hobby (and who will buy all that Brass you think has gone up 10x in value!)
O Scale West is coming up February 20 and 21, 2004, at the Westin Hotel in Santa Clara. I have again rented a selling table for our Members, so be sure and use it if you have only a few items to sell. As is usual for the OSW layout tours, ACCRS will be open Friday evening (Feb. 20), plus hosting our customary Open House and Barbeque on Sunday, February 22. Hours are 11 am to 3 pm. The HO members are again invited to run their layout, and chow down with the Boys of the King of Scales.
If you haven't noticed, we've purchased some trailer-train flatcars, and roadrunners, to give our layout the modern look. More to follow.
Finally, there will be an O Scale "2004 Kick-off" meeting on Friday evening, January 9, following the ACCRS monthly business meeting. Please attend if you can, as we will be discussing the election of a Trainmaster, and various new and maintenance projects that need to be launched and completed before the Fair.
--George A. Cumming, O Scale Trainmaster
Listed below are this month's questions about railroad slogans. The answers to these questions appear at the end of this issue.
I would like to wish everyone a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year.
-Bob
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Fans of the Orchard Supply Hardware calendar will be able to add to their collections as the 2004 OSH calendar will be available again this year starting December 26th. This year' calendar features a special pull-out poster and a page of coupons. Larry Fisher is the artist for the 2004 calendar. Click on the calendar image, at left, for more information. |
Union Pacific's Challenger 3985 will make a rare wintertime outing in January. 3985 will pull a short train consisting of water cars UPP 809 and UPP 814, express boxcar UPP 9336, tool car Art Lockman UPP 6334, boiler-dorm Howard Fogg UPP 209, concession car Sherman Hill UPP 5818 and coach Sunshine Special UPP 5480.
The train will depart Cheyenne, WY for North Platte, NE on Monday, January 12. On Saturday and Sunday, January 16 and 17 the train will be on display at St. Louis, MO from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM each day. On Tuesday, January 20 the train will be on display at Pine Bluff, AR from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM. The train and a number of UP business cars will be open for invited guests in Houston, TX on Super bowl weekend. On Friday, February 5 the train will be on display at North Little Rock, AR from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM. On Monday, February 9 the train will be on display at Kansas City, MO 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM. The train is scheduled to return to Cheyenne, WY on Thursday, February 12. Additional schedule information available at the U.P. Steam website.
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In Memoriam,Former member Bob Orr answered the call of the great dispatcher and took his final run to the station of eternity on December 12, 2003. Bob served in the U.S. Navy as a member of the submarine service during the Vietnam conflict and was a member of ACCRS for many years. He was an active participant with the On3 portion of the O scale layout, was a skilled modeler and participated in many club events. He was well known by many of our long time members. For a time Bob worked at Just Trains in Concord. A few years ago, Bob returned to Colorado and took up residence in Durango, Colorado. Since he modeled the Rio Grande narrow gauge, it seems fitting that he spent the last years of his life near a surviving remnant of his beloved narrow gauge. Bob will be missed by those who knew him; his name will be added to the memorial board. |
  U.S. Navy Flag |
Listed below are the answers to this month's questions about railroad slogans.
The Pittsburgh Tribune Newspaper had a couple of interesting model railroad related stories recently. The stories were A Whistle for Christmas and The perfect gift.
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