Club Elections November 5, 2004

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

Next Public Operation Session:
The Great American Train Show

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General Club News and Upcoming Events

Upcoming Events:

November

The monthly business meeting will occur on 5 November.
Officer Elections will take place during this meeting.
Big Bertha, the club's Industrial-Strength BBQ, will be hot pre-meeting for your grilling enjoyment. The usual weather caveats apply, of course.

Great American Train Show (GATS):
Saturday, November 27 and Sunday, November 28.

December

Annual Club Holiday Potluck:
Friday, December 3. The potluck will replace the usual business meeting.
Signup sheets have been posted on the refrigerator door. Remember, the whole family is invited! Both warm and cold dishes are welcome. Items such as finger foods, cold cuts, vegetables & dip and whatever else might be good. There are plugs for those wishing to bring a crock-pot or other item to keep food warm.

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Trivia

1. What was a 'Snapper' on the Pennzy? (No, guys, it's not what you're thinking!)
2. The Pennzy boasted the most track of any railroad in the world. However, it didn't span the distance of the Santa Fe or the SP. How was this possible?
3. In 1906, the Pennzy tunneled under the Hudson River to put a weed up the NYC's backside with service into New York. However, the Pennzy was forced to adopt two important changes in it operations and equipment to do so. What were these two changes? (And they are even around to-day!)
4. What city was the most Western city served by the Pennzy (in other words, the furthest West?) Be careful, and look at a map first!
5. Did the Pennzy have ANY articulated locomotives?

HO Scale News:

Note: The above may be incorrect. HO correspondent Bob Hopkins had not confirmed the information by press time.

GATS Sign Up sheets are posted in the usual spot.

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From the HO Trainmaster:

Hello HO Members,
Well, these may be my final comments as HO Trainmaster for a while. We have an HO member interested in taking over the reigns. Hope he still has the Interest by the next HO meeting.
As far as projects go, Gary will be working on the next presentation phase of the bridge at Charmin. Dean has already started ripping out track in the Mesa area for the mine loop going in. Paul Newhouse has presented a few of us on an improvement to the Hidden Yard. It would involve moving the supports at the north end to the outer framework and thus allow extending the first 3 rows of staging track to the north. It shouldn't cause much down time. We can go over these projects in more detail at the next HO meeting.

See you at our November meeting.

Andy Herrera
HO Trainmaster

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O Scale News:

From the O Scale Trainmaster:

George did not provide comments this month.

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Member News

Don't forget to attend this club meeting to vote for club officers. Nominations will be open right up until the voting begins, so it's not too late to nominate someone worthy for sacrificial lamb Club Office.

New Web Address! The ACCRS has a new home on the web. Because the domain name 'accrs.org' and 'accrs.com' are already in use, we are now the proud owners of http://www.pleasantonmodelrr.org. Currently the site is minimalistic, but a new look and feel are in the works. The Alert Reader will notice that the web address for the Gandy Dancer has also changed. Please bear with us as the kinks get worked out and watch this space for progress announcements.
Any member who has an interest in having a web-based email account on the new domain, (your.name.here@pleasantonmodelrr.org) please contact Dan Espinosa.

Too late for the last edition: Thanks are due to Bob Johnson for recently performing some much needed cleaning and general upkeep of the snack fridge. It's only been a year or so since the last one. It DOES look more appetizing in there, Bob!

HO operating session: On October 23rd, several members, including organizer Dennis Stokely, did a preliminary operation session on the HO layout. A good time was had by all, and some wrinkles in the system were discovered. It is estimated that a crew of 8 are required to operate the Sierra Western in a "move freight" mode, rather than the "please crowd" mode we use during shows. Several members expressed pleasure at learning more about the features built into the layout over the years.
Dennis hopes to have another session soon; I'm sure he'd be pleased to include you.

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General Hobby and Prototype News

From Andy Herrera:
Most of you know about Daylight Sales in Concord. They deal in railroad Shirts, hats, mugs, etc. They are presently having a moving sale going on. Come January, they will be moving their operation to Sacramento, specifically, the old McClellan AFB area.

Brought to my attention be one of the club officers:
The South Bay Historical Railroad Society is having its 'Fall 2004 model train Show and Open House.'
The event occurs Saturday and Sunday, November 6 and 7 at:

Santa Clara CalTrain Depot
1005 Railroad Avenue.

Information is also availabe by phone: (408) 243-3969

They will be open from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM Each day. They are asking a donation of $3.50 adults and $1.00 for children. A family rate of $8.00 is also available. Flyers with a map and contact information are available in the Clubroom near the Ambassador's Chair and HO Main Dispatch Panel.
One of their club members stopped by Oct. 22nd and was complimentary of our layouts. He also specifically invited us by to see theirs.

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1. 'Snappers' on the Pennzy were helper engines, usually applied to the front of a train, but could include rear helpers. Typically, the were I-1s Decapods, sometimes J-1 Texas types. It just depended what was in the yard below!
2. The Pennzy boasted 4-track mainline throughout most of its system. On some trunk-lines, it was 2-track, and little branches were singles. On the mainline from NY to Chicago, it was 4-track most of the way, with 3-track in some tight mountain areas, and 2-track in parts of Ohio and Indiana.
3. The first concession was NO steam engines in New York, hence the Pennzy electrified its mainline there. The mainline, called 'The Corridor,' continues being electrified from New York to Washington DC. The second concession, for fire reasons, was NO wooden cars into NY. Hence Pennzy's great fleet of P-54 and P-70 coaches. The jazz band Manhattan Transfer got its name from the actual station Manhattan Transfer in New Jersey where you disembarked from a steam train with wooden coaches, to an electric train with steel coaches into New York.
4. No, it wan't Chicago, it was St. Louis!
5. Yes! It started out with three experimentals from Alco, Baldwin and Altoona respectively. The Altoona HC-1 was pretty powerful, 147,000 lbs. tractive effort. They were all eventually scrapped. Then they built 10 CC-2 loco's, 0-8-8-0's out of the Ft. Wayne shops for coal drags. During WW2, the Pennzy was power strapped and bought 6 Y-3, 2-8-8-2's from the N and W. But they preferred double-heading smaller locomotives.

The Gandy Dancer, a monthly publication of the Alameda County Central Railroad Society.
Copyright 2004, ACCRS Inc. All rights reserved.
Last Revised 27 October, 2004.
For more information, email Dan Espinosa, Editor, at: steelnomad2002@yahoo.com