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

June, 2007

Next Public Operation Session:

The ALAMEDA COUNTY FAIR!

Upcoming Events:

July

The Monthly Business Meeting will not occur due to Fairtime.

August

The Monthly Business Meeting for August 3rd will be replaced with the usual potluck 'We survived the Fair' celebration.
Remember, the Potluck is open to your family, too! Please indicate the number in your party, when you sign up, so we can purchase the proper amounts of various foodstuffs (like meat).

Hors D'Oeuvres served between 6:30 and 7:00 PM

Sign up sheets are posted on the refrigerator door in the locker room.

Fair warning:

2007 Alameda County Fair
June 22nd to July 8th, 2007

Good Guys Car Show.

August 24, 25, 26, 2007

21st Texaco/Havoline West Coast Nationals

Hours
Friday, August 24: 8am to 5pm (for reference only, we are not open on Friday during the day)
Saturday, August 25: 8am to 5pm
Sunday, August 26: 8am to 3pm

Unofficial Minutes of the June Meeting

Meeting minutes were not available when the newsletter was prepared for posting.

No July Newsletter.

Due to the Fair and general lack of staff time, the newsletter will not appear in July.

Editor Change.

This is the last issue that I will be doing for a while. Dan has indicated that he will be resuming his duties as Editor later this year. It has been fun doing the newsletter again after a while away from it. That said, I may be assisting with the newsletter from time to time...

I will be visiting some railroad related places this summer and will be putting together some photo essays on some interesting locations in the midwest for later in the year.

Be seeing you around the club.

-Bob Johnson, Acting Editor.

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HO Scale News:

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Unofficial Minutes of the June HO meeting

The meeting was called to order at 8:23 PM by Trainmaster Seth Abrahams.

1. The unofficial minutes of the May meeting were related and accepted by the members present.
2. Project Status Reports:
• Scenic lighting: power supply testing has not been completed due to no time being available for Jim S. to conduct the tests. Discussion followed.
• Riverbed project was not discussed at the present time.
• Port Project: The track is installed with some minor exception, bumpers etc. Turnout controls and related wiring are in progress. Control panel has been rebuilt. Remote control of the container crane was discussed. Discussion of the project followed.
3. Seth has a personal air conditioner that is being made available for club use during the fair, but it is not club property.
4. Sound committee: Due to extensive discussion during the general club meeting, further discussion was tabled on this item.
5. The vote on reimbursement of Wayne for camera system parts was redone. Extensive and heated discussion on this topic was conducted.
6. A motion was made by Seth to purchase a Thomas the Tank engine and two passenger cars for the fair. There was some discussion of the topic and a voting sheet was posted upstairs.
7. Discussion of layout prep for the upcoming Fair was conducted with the following requirements:
• Layout to be divided into five sections with associated teams.
• Each team to select a team leader.
• Teams to determine what repairs and maintenance for their area is required. Needs to be reported to the Trainmaster.
• Testing of the layout for track related electrical issues was discussed with several small tank type steam locomotives made available to search for problems.

A move was made with a second to adjourn the meeting. The motion passed and the meeting was adjourned at approximately 8:50 PM.

Respectfully submitted by,

Bob Johnson, HO Assistant Trainmaster.

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O Scale News:

From the O Scale Trainmaster:

The Fair begins next week on the 22nd and the O-Scale sign-up sheet has some volunteers to operate the layout. We could, however, use some more. As of Monday June 11, there are no sign-ups for 6 to 10 PM on Friday, June 22; 6 to 10 PM on Tuesday, June 26; all three shifts on Wednesday, June 27; all three shifts on Thursday, June 28; 6 to 10 PM on Monday, July 2; 6 to 10 PM on Tuesday, July 3 and 6 to 10 PM on Thursday, July 5.

There are also openings for the evenings (6 to 10 PM) on the Fridays June 22, June 29 and July 6, but I suppose some of us will show up for the usual get-together on Fridays and, thus, those time slots will be covered.

So, how about it friends? Can we get some more O-Scale folks to help out?

As a result of some work last week-end, the fascia has been touch-up painted to cover the holes that Henry and Dave C. so kindly filled in. Since some work was being done on the fascia, three missing furring strips were replaced and painted as well. Dan E. performed an operational check-out and inspection of the freight and passenger yard north-end leads to see if all was OK for bringing trains into and out of those yards. The ne'er-do-well O-Scale trainmaster did some scenery repair to hide some of the glaring plaster divots that were apparent by applying an assortment of colors and ground cover in the pertinent spots. The aforementioned O-Scale trainmaster is also trying mightily to finish the repairs to some motive power to be sure that there is enough available for the fair show.

Regards to all from-

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The Gandy Dancer, a monthly publication of the Alameda County Central Railroad Society.

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Copyright © 2004 - 2009 Alameda County Central Railroad Society. All Rights Reserved.
For more information, email Dan Espinosa at:
steelnomad2002 at yahoo dot com.