We'll miss you, Keith.

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

November, 2005

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.

Upcoming Events:

November

The Monthly Business Meeting will occur on November 4th, 2005.
This may be the last really GOOD meeting until spring for throwing something on the Bar-b-que. Are you going to let it pass you by?
And if that's not enough to get you down to the club, elections for club office will be held during the business meeting. If you don't get down there, YOU who knows who might get elected for something. So come on down and defend yourself vote for your club officers.

December

The Monthly Business Meeting for December 2nd will be replaced with a Holiday Potluck and Family Night. Look for the sign-up sheets on the fridge.

Club Elections in November

Two For The History Books

The last few months have been a sad time for our club. We have lost a pair of fellow members, who besides being fine and unique people, were skilled and helpful modelers. Men like these have forever dispelled my view of Model Railroaders as cliquish, asocial curmudgeons.

Keith Peck, June 18, 2005

Keith Peck I knew a little from my time at the club, and I for one enjoyed my interactions with him. He often had a fresh perspective or a humorous take on events. He was a club member in the truest sense, spending his time at the club on both sides of the aisle, and cheerfully helping those who asked.

Others have also written to say they will miss him, in particular, Lee Buckner:

Keith and I met about 14 years ago at a previous club and became good Friends.

My remembrances of Keith will always be that he loved gadgets, tools, and flashlights and liked to model the unusual such as critters. I admired the way he came up with ideas or took ideas presented to him and came up with a model to match. His imagination was boundless, and he had no fear of tackling a project. If he had a problem he took the model down to the club and asked questions so that he could correct the problem. I really admired his for that as I always feared making a mistake and ruining a model. I especially miss our drives to and from the club, where we talked about model trains and tried to solve the world's problems.

I/we lost a good friend and modeler.

Lee Buckner

Bill Kennerley, September 16, 2005.

Bill Kennerley has also left us. I was unfortunate in that I only met Bill once, but that one time he seemed to be an engaging and knowlegeable person. Only later did I find that he was the club's only Master Model Railroader, see some of his modeling, and learn that he had been a railroader for the Southern Pacific.

He [Kennerley] will be missed indeed. Bill's home layout was designed by the great John Armstrong, and is one of the earliest versions of the walk-in, multilevel layout that you now see so much of in Model Railroader.

Dick Stark and I visited Bill about 3 weeks ago, during his stay at Kaiser in Walnut Creek. It will bring a smile to your face to know that Bill's mental state had not suffered at all, and that his first words to me when I walked into his room were something like this: "Well, I see that USC is rated number 1, as they should be, but how can Cal be rated second in the Pac-10 but only 18th overall. That doesn't make any sense at all. Cal is clearly number 2 in the Pac-10, and that has to make them better than 18th."

After which we continued to talk college football for something close to two hours. And Cal is this week number 13 in the AP poll, proving that our Bill knew college football better than anyone.

Farewell, compadre.

George Cumming

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HO Scale News:

Bob Johnson sent the following notice:

[I am]  in the process of rewiring of the lighting for town buildings and street lights at MESA. Previous wiring resembled some sort of animal nest and behaved like the classic xmas lights (disturb one and a bunch go out). No track wiring is being disturbed and no tracks will be blocked by this project.

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From the HO Trainmaster:

Seth was on extended vacation, and thus had little to say.

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O Scale News:

From the O Scale Trainmaster:

Hey gang-

Here it is November, and it doesn't seem like we've accomplished much since the Fair. I'll take the blame for that. Heck, you might even be rid of my tyranny after the election. . .

There is some positive news, though: The Chandlers continue to push the mainline scenery along the back wall deeper into narrow gauge territory, which is definitly helping with one of the few real eyesores we have. Also, there seems to be some excitement in the ranks at the prospect of extending the traction wire down the back to the fruit packing shed; several meetings have seen people with measuring tapes and pencil and paper trying to survey out a new alignment for the traction ROW, and it's beginning to look like some of the old city may be deleted in favor of more exposure for our little traction empire. If so, that will be the first major change in the layout since I first saw it back in 2000. I'd like to have the ROW surveyed out and finalized by the end of the December meeting/potluck so that we have a solid six months to build track and wire before the fair.

Also, we have recently added some passenger equipment to the club roster; we have the makings of the "San Francisco Chief" forming up over in the passenger yard. The actual equipment is K-Line and seems to have good detail. The cars need their trucks changed from the 'as delivered' 3-rail style to 2-rail wheelsets. We're intending to use NWSL wheelsets, and they should be arriving soon. Also, we'll need to equip the cars with 2-rail style couplers; Bill O has the correct spacers, we just need some man-hours to install them. Step right up!

In the same vein; we have a diesel that needs painted to go with the rolling stock; we have the decal set to do it up in Warbonnet and we're intending to put some detail parts on it like grills and fans and maybe lights. Any volunteers for the soldering? Bill Brisko has stepped up to the plate and offered to put one of his 'rattle the windows' sound systems in it. Now all we need to do is decide if we want to have Gary Lewis paint it when he gets the chance, (He has indicated that he's willing but swamped.) or do we want to farm it out to one of the custom painters that advertise in the modeling press? Come ready to discuss the situation so we can proceed as soon as we're done with the detail and sound work.

-Dan

O Scale Trainmaster

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General Hobby and Prototype News

2005 Last Gasp for GWaATS in Pleasanton?

According to information gleaned by Bob Johnson, this year's show may be the last time GATS comes to the Alameda County Fairgrounds. As you can see from the list below, there are many shows near us next year, so those who want to go can still attend. It may be time to discuss our options for a backup November show.

UP Paint Shop Beats the Bushes for Ideas

Union Pacific's paint crews seem to be enjoying themselves of late; there are quite a few 'heritage' and 'commemorative' paint schemes running around the UP system. One of the most recent is a locomotive painted up to celebrate the opening of the George H. W. Bush Presidential Library. I wonder if they'll keep it cleaner than most of the power that wanders though Sunol? The Union Pacific Website has some pictures of the others, and they promise more over time.

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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.

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The Gandy Dancer, a monthly publication of the Alameda County Central Railroad Society.
Last updatedNovember 04, 2005.

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.