Farewell to Bill Kennerley.

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

January 2006

Next Public Operation Session:

Great Western and Atlantic Train Show

The successor to GATS is coming to our little corner of the world on Thanksgiving weekend, and we have been asked to be open.

Club News

January Meeting Sees installation of New Secretary

Your Editor, Dan Espinosa, has taken up the office of club secretary, bringing all the club information functions into a single office. As such, it is my intention to run the meeting minutes (in unapproved form) as a regular feature of the newsletter. Further, it is my intention to only publish a newsletter for those months in which we have a business meeting. As always, I will welcome contributions and suggestions.

Unofficial Minutes for January 6th, 2006 meeting:

President Gary Lewis called the meeting to order at 20:04 PST, 6 January 2006; approximatly 20 members attending.

Paul Newhouse presented the treasurer's report, also presented to members via E-mail correspondence. Jere Ingraham moved that we split the monies equally between scales. Dean Lewis seconded the motion, which passed by voice vote. Traimasters Dan Espinosa and Seth Abrahams each expressed the desire to have the money placed in the savings accounts for the respective scales.

There was some discussion of the parking difficulties presented by the arrangement of fencing for the RV show. Gary Lewis will make a phone call to the fair and present our concerns.

Gary Lewis indicated that we now have a new fair liason, by the name of Richard Scealana. Gary also updated those present on our old Fair contact's condition; Clark seems to be doing well; Gary reports that he still has his sense of humor. Please see Gary for the details.

Seth Abrahams proposed the creation of a club lending library to be housed in the upstairs room with other general club information. Much discussion ensued revolving around practical issues of record keeping and responsibility for borrowed items. Additional concerns were voiced regarding the size and cost of the collection for library; Seth indicated that he had envisioned the library be made up of donated items and rare volumes that could be had for very reasonable or discount prices. Member-in-absentia Garrett Kirby has offered the club first refusal on a portion of his personal collection to get the library off the ground. Dan Espinosa moved that the club establish a library, and appoint a committee to oversee the establishment and organization there-of. Bob Hopkins seconded, and the motion passed easily by show of hands. Seth was appointed head of the library committee by general acclaimation.

Andy Herrera showed an example of a free booklet from Kalmbach on scale model railroading, and indicated that Kalmbach might be willing to donate a supply of the booklets to give away to the public during shows. Dan Espinosa will investigate and report back.

Seth presented a book on animation and indicated that he had spoken with the author, and that the author had requested an opportunity to make a presentation to members on animation techniques. Lee Buckner has donated the book to the new club library. Brief discussion ensued about logistics and types of animation covered in book. Seth moved that we accept the offer of a presentation and in aid of same, that he contact the author to work out the details. Lee Buckner seconded. Motion passed by voice vote.

There being no futher business, George Engemann moved to ajourn. Henry Chandler seconded; meeting ajourned at 20:27.

Top of page

HO Scale News:

HO Scale Port Project underway

In the North end of the HO scale layout, much upheaval is apparent as Project Leader Gary Lewis and crew install a representation of a modern intermodal port facility. Besides a major revision of the scenery, about 20 feet of main line and several industry spurs have been pulled up, along with the industries themselves. The plan, as seen by your O-scale editor, seems to be to dredge a shipping channel out to the ocean (backdrop) and use the crew walkway as a turning basin and wharf. It looks like a bridge will carry the main line over the shipping channel in close to its original alignment. It appears to be an ambitious undertaking intended to freshen up the layout for our return visitors during the Fair.

Top of page

From the HO Trainmaster:

The Charmin port project is a big project. It is an important project since this is the first thing people will see when they walk into the building. Please help Gary make it a successful project.

While we are talking about projects, I invite you all to look at the layout and think about what we can do to add animation. It does not have to be a big project. For example, In Model Railroader there is an article about animating the spout of a water tower. Lee has graciously donated a book on animation to the club. I have the book so please ask me for it. There are a lot of great idea. Have a look, pick a project and have fun. Adding animation to the layout adds a lot of eye candy. I would also like to hear about sound projects.

When proposing a project please try to have:

1. Drawings or models which include any changes to the current track plan and scenery.
2. An estimated time schedule. Please indicate if the project is broken down into phases.
3. An estimated budget.
4. Anything else you feel will help convey your ideas to the group.

Well, that is probably more then enough verbiage from me except to say that I want to thank you all for selecting me as your train master,

Thanks,
Seth

HO Scale Trainmaster

Top of page

O Scale News:

From the O Scale Trainmaster:

Hey gang-

The time has come to break ground on the Great Traction Extension and Interchange project. Absent a better idea from one of the overhead wire guys (speak up quick!!), the current plan is to cookie-cutter out the section of roadbed that currently holds the set-up track than no one uses, and to connect it to the existing traction ROW where it comes off the bridge from the central mountain. We will need some help from people experienced in the quirks of trolley wire to install and tension the wire over the newly connected trackage. Once the track has been found satisfactory, we'll need to push ahead and get some scenery around the edges of the roadbed so that we're in presentable condition for the fair. This will entail the elimination or revision of parts of RussTown because there will be track and wire in the way of where the old buildings stood. So be thinking about how to fill the new scenery gaps.

The biggest challenges I can forsee is the laying of the switch for the new route, and rearranging our wiring so that both mainline power and overhead wire units can get to cars spotted at the Fruit packing plant.

In other news, George Engemann and I have been working out the details of the signalling system for our side of the aisle. It has been decided to use the Chubb system of occupancy detection (for compaibility with HO scale) and to build our own design of signal logic, which is designed for 3 aspect single-lens searchlight signals. I hope to present a proof-of-concept prototype at the February meeting. Please be on the lookout for good deals on quantities of searchlight signals, as we're going to need quite a few. If someone wanted to give a workshop (or just supply plans) for the scratchbuilding of signals, I think the rest of us would be happy to pitch in to manufacture them in house. We will be building enough detection to cover the entire layout and will be providing indications to a new main control panel, which will be a ambitious undertaking of its own. We can add new signals to the layout proper as we build/obtain them, but I'd like to at least have enough to do the aisle-side of the layout by Fair time.

-Dan

O Scale Trainmaster

Top of page

General Hobby and Prototype News

2005 Last Gasp for GWaATS in Pleasanton

O Scale West changes Venue

O Scale West, the popular mid-winter gathering of O Scale afficianados, has changed hotels. Or rather, the name on the boxhas changed. The meet date (February 2nd - 4th, 2006)and location remain unchanged, however.

WinterRail set for March

WinterRail, the annual gathering of West Coast railfans is set for Saturday, March 11, 2006, celebrating its 28th year. The 2006 installment will be held at the

Stockton Scottish Rite Center
33 W. Alpine Ave,
Stockton, CA

Details on the event are available from the official WinterRail site. Specific questions not answered by a sister site with lodging information and directions should be routed to:

Vic Neves
P.O. Box 23721
Oakland CA 94623-0721

or you can e-mail Vic at winterail at yahoo dot com.

Top of page

The Gandy Dancer, a monthly publication of the Alameda County Central Railroad Society.
Last updatedFebruary 17, 2006.

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.