The Gandy Dancer

Treasurer's report. under the usual separate cover. See Paul for details.

Gary: announcement of request to specify what locker (if any) a member occupies. Members will be given until January meeting to identify their locker to Paul and/or their Trainmaster.

A suggestion was made to make the home and garden shows club ops weekends, and if someone visits and donates, so much the better, as opposed to being an official "show." Paul may start an operations mailing list. see him for details. various people expressed verbal support for concept. Dan moved that we have a operations meet to coincide with October Home and Garden show in lieu of the current open house/show. Paul Newhouse second. Unanimously passed.

Gary mentioned damage to swamp cooler. Seth mentioned that new water valves have been installed on swamp coolers, to replace damaged ones. The new valves will be placed in lockable boxes to reduce tampering as experienced with existing units. The swamp coolers will be drained, powerwashed and chlorine rinsed.

Election of club officers

Nominated:

• President          - Gary Lweis
• Vice President - Bill Wills
• Treasurer          - Paul Newhouse
• Secretary          - Dean Lewis

Bob moved that the slate be accepted and nominations be closed. Dan seconded the motion. The slate of candidates was unanimously accepted by voice vote.

Discussion of Seth's platforms.

• Additional rails to be added to railing before being considered as "complete".
• Design based on Walnut Creek's units.
• Can be moved as desired.
• Alternate configurations discussed.
• Discussion of raising floor.
• Questions about aisle width and the amount of stroller traffic.
• Gary has spoken with safety people at his work, got some information about ADA relating to aisle width and ramp slope (1:12) will contact Pleasanton or Livermore fire dept for additional guidance.
• Seth, others: Possibility of narrower construction? Stability issues may result, attachments to layout structure may be required.

Bob Johnson: Motion to utilize (completed) prototype for GATS and revisit issue in January. Paul seconded motion. Motion carried by unanimous voice vote.

A table to be set up outside the front door for club use during GATS; not an official GATS table.

Motion to adjourn by Bob Johnson. Motion seconded by Henry. Motion carried by unanimous voice vote.

Meeting adjourned at 8:40 PM.

ATM John Kolburg absent due to family business.

R. Johnson advised the membership that the O scale will be covering half of the cost of the upgrade for the DCC programming station.

Old Business

• Project Reports:
  
  
• Port Project-Reported by Gary Lewis:
  Final details in progress.
  New flashing lights for bridge towers installed.
  New lighting unit for Light house.
  Final project report to be made in January.
  
  
• Road/River Project-Paul Newhouse reporting:
  More rapids and water needed
  Work continuing
  
  
• Layout Detailing Budget-R. Johnson reporting:
  Spent some $ in October on layout details; There is still detail budget funds remaining.
  See official minutes for details.
  
  
• A motion was made to replenish the discretionary fund for purchasing four shop lights to replace old lighting fixtures, which were recently installed. Voting sheet posted in the usual location.
  
  
• Layout maintenance issues were discussed. Kudos to the members that participated in the previous maintenance sessions. Several holes for new drops were made, the drops will be installed soon. Next work session will be Friday, November 21.
  
  
• Unfinished Projects.
  
  
• In response to a query relating to the icing platform, R Johnson reported:
  The ice house storage buildings are complete
  Track and switches are fully functional
  The ice manufacturing plant is backordered at the manufacturer level has been this way for years
  Having no roof on the platform is prototypical for most PFE facilities
  Animation ideas were abandoned due to complexity
  
  
• Wiring for coach yard was briefly discussed.
  
  
• Radio upgrade testing for DCC - R Johnson reporting;
  A longer antenna was installed on the base station; communications between upgraded radio cab and the base station seem to be improved compared to the unmodified cab. Testing using the functional unmodified cab showed more drop outs on communications than the upgraded cab.
  NCE will be contacted to determine if any damage will occur to cab circuitry, if the radio portion of the cab is activated without the antenna being installed.
  
  
• O scale DCC booster.
  R Johnson reported that the O scale has inadvertently purchased a five amp NCE booster for their layout. They use ten amp NCE boosters for their layout. The O scale is willing to sell the five amp booster, which matches what the HO scale uses, for less than MSRP. This unit would be good for a spare or potentially for future turnout control under DCC control for limited locations. Voting sheet posted in the usual location for this item.
  

New Business

• Elections for Trainmaster and ATM.
  Nominations for Trainmaster and ATM were opened.
  Bob Johnson was nominated and seconded for Trainmaster.
  John Kolburg was nominated and seconded for ATM.
  Nominations were closed.
  Both candidates were elected to their respective offices.
  
  
• New Projects:
  Initial discussion on the 2009 detail budget was conducted.
  Signaling will be emphasized in this budget.
  More details to be available in January.
  
  
• There was some discussion of a rework of the structure and track arrangement for Jamestown. No formal proposal presented.
  
  
• There was some discussion of modification of the hidden yard area to increase aisle space and tidy up support structure. No track work would be involved. No formal proposal presented.
  
  

Announcements

• The annual club Holiday potluck will be Friday, December 5. Sign up sheet is posted on the refrigerator in the locker room.
  
  
• GTE sign up sheets posted upstairs. Saturday (DCC) is good, Sunday (Analog) has more room available.
  
  
• There was some discussion of a rework of the structure and track arrangement for Jamestown. No formal proposal presented.
  
  
• Next HO scale meeting will be Friday, January 9, 2009.
  
  

Well, our last show of the 2008 season is nearly upon us. We have a big signup for Saturday, November 29 and a fair number of signups for Sunday. It would be great if we could get this level of participation for most of the shows, but that is wishful thinking at best. The GTE show will mark the end of the 2008 show season, and we will have the chance to do heavy maintenance and work on things that may require making some areas look less than presentable for public exhibition. Our first show of 2009 looks like about the middle of February, at least at the present time. So we have a window of opportunity to make some improvements and changes.

We have had a very good year in improving the level of detail on the layout. Many of the detail items that were purchased have been installed and the layout looks much better for it. Some items have yet to be installed, but they will be during the next few weeks as we prepare for the 2009 show season. I would like to thank everyone who participated in maintenance, detailing and show operations during the year. We got a lot of good work done on the layout, and it looks a lot better. The full detail budget was exhausted in November with the purchase of the lighting kit to restore the Gulf gas station to its good night time appearance. Also purchased was an animated Union Station sign for the passenger station in the city.

Looking forward, I would like to continue upgrading the details on the layout, but the primary focus will move from structures, figures and vehicles to signals and track side detailing. There will be some of the former but much more of the latter. Pat installed a set of crossing signals in Jamestown and that certainly helps to bring that area to life. We have many more crossings that could use crossing signals, some with gates and some without. I would like to see some working line side signals that work with input from switches and block occupancy. This will require some detection circuitry and that will not be inexpensive, but the end result should look impressive to visitors and members alike. The passenger yard could use some dwarf signals that indicate turnout position, that would look good and help the cab 3 operator see turnout position without looking at the panel. We have a number of Oregon Railway supply signals that have been on the layout for years and some are really showing their age. In some cases they are not working anymore. We have some signal bridges on hand; we really should look into getting one or more installed and working. I have heard some interest in having a working wig wag and some semaphore signals; those would add some visual interest, providing we can locate these delicate items in protected locations. A good location for a crossing signal would be the crossing at the mainlines, near the river. If we do a signal install there, we need to install a protective piece of Plexiglas to keep stray elbows from us from trashing the installation. We had some block signals for the crossovers by the river and the signal closest to the aisle was annihilated by a stray elbow or two.

For the roads, Walthers has some nice looking working traffic signals that would look good in Oildale and the city. A couple of the smaller neon or animated signs would be good additions to the Oildale business district.

I would like to look into reworking the Jamestown area to improve the appearance and locations of the buildings and some limited rearrangement of the track layout. New signage on some buildings would be helpful along with some added details, figures and lighting. This can be accomplished without disturbing the mainline or the siding. This area might lend itself to having the switches controlled by DCC accessory decoders in addition to push buttons for switching operations. This would be a limited installation that might make it easier to work with switching without crawling under to layout to work the switches.

I would like to close this with a heartfelt wish that everyone have a happy, safe and healthy holiday season.

Show attendance by club members was discussed.

Suggestions to avoid problems like this last home and garden show.

Dick suggested that shows be put on calender much earlier.

Roster update: Linda will e-mail the update as soon as she gets it. Please update your information as needed and send back to Linda.

Discussion of how to deal with problem members (brought on by roster discussion).

Discussion of siding names.
Dick suggested getting employee time table for WP and SP and choose names.
Dan will send around station names as decided in august, and also resend the list Steve Colby developed.

Discussion of passenger yard rebuild:

• George C recommended talking to Old Pullman and/or others about building custom switches/ new drop-in throat.
• Logistics of best layout of the yard throat ensued with Henry describing his vision for eliminating the troublesome s-curves. We will need to make an accurate survey and drawings to send out for bids. Dan proposed also investigating custom layout builders' interest in a "drop in" throat replacement.
• More logistics discussions ensued. The consensus seems to be to farm out as much as we can. Dennis proposed that for other than old pullman, we send out a single turnout as proof of ability before letting the entire project.
• Concern expressed about the elevation contours affecting the design of a drop-in replacement. discussion ensued on methods for measuring the elevation profiles.
• Action:
• Dennis survey and generate scale drawing.
  Survey done by:
  Existing alignment Drawings done by:
  proposed alignment drawings done by:
• All: look over "existing" and "proposed revision" drawings and decide on final alignment
  Final Alignment drawings done by:
  Final alignment out to bidders by:
  Bid accepted and contract let by:
• Failing an outsource, Dick is of the opinion that all switches should be built at the same time, building out from the minimum radius inside main.
• Dennis wants to make a fiberglass cast of the throat area. Recommendations were heard that he do that on the weekend.

Discussion of Thomas.

Back-to-back wheel spacing needs correcting. Dan will face the backs of the drivers and radius the flanges when he receives them from Seth. He will pick up the profile tool from Bob.

Turntable:

Dan has lost the old drawings and is regenerating them. He should have a working device by December.

From the O Scale Trainmaster:

The topic for the O-scalers this fall has been how we can jumpstart the O-scale side of the club, and bring railroading back into model railroading. To that end, we started to meet off-site once a month to discuss who we are and where we want to go.

-Linda
ACCRS O-scale Trainmaster.

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General Hobby and Prototype News

San Leandro club hosts open house

The San Leandro Historical Railroad Society is having an open house on Saturday, December 6 and Sunday, December 7.

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2008 Train of Lights

Niles Canyon Railway will be running their annual Train of Lights. The first train runs on Friday, November 28 and trains will be running until Monday, December 29th. Tickets start at $25.00 per person. Additional information.

New steam locomotive debuts in the UK

1966 saw the scrapping of the last of 49 Peppercorn A1 class 4-6-2 locomotives of the London & North Eastern Railway (LNER). Brain child of Arthur H Peppercorn the A1 class were used in heavy passenger service pulling 15 car trains (550 tons) for their entire service lives. The A1 Steam Locomotive Trust was founded in the late 1980's with the goal of building a new Peppercorn A1 class. The goal was realized in August, 2008 with the first steam up of A1 class, No. 60163 Tornado, at the Darlington locomotive shops. The locomotive cost £3m to build. Limited test running has been conducted, with more extensive testing to be conducted in February 2009, in order to receive certification to run on the mainlines.

The Tornado was designed to run on coal or oil and can easily be converted from one fuel to the other rather easily. Tornado features three cylinders as the original locomotives had and has roller bearings as the final five of the original build had. In addition Tornado has both air brakes and vaccuum brakes, the former for use with modern equipment and the latter for when being used with vintage equipment.

Newspaper article on Tornado.

Video of Tornado in action.

Former Santa Fe 4-6-2 under steam

Former Santa Fe 3415 (1919 Baldwin) was hot in early November for the first time in many years for the purpose of setting the pop valves. The Abilene & Smoky Valley Railroad has been the home of the 3415 since 1997.
Specifications of the engine are reported as follows:
Wheel arrangement: 4-6-2
Builder: Baldwin Locomotive Works
Build Date: 06/1919
Construction No.: 51861
Empty Weight: 325,500
Weight on Drivers: 193,700
Driver Diameter: 79
Tractive Effort: 41,400
Boiler Pressure: 200
Cylinders: 25x28
Fuel: Oil
Info from Steamlocomotive.info

An old photo of 3415 from some years ago.

Link to youtube video of 3415.

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The Gandy Dancer, a monthly publication of the Alameda County Central Railroad Society.
Last updatedNovember 20, 2008.

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.