The Gandy Dancer

Upcoming Public Operation Sessions:

Alameda County Fall Home & Garden Show October 4 & 5 - Sat. and Sun. Hours: Saturday 10:00 AM to 7:00 PM and Sunday 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM. Normally we close at five or six depending on the number of visitors, weather and at what time it becomes dark. GATS   -   Great American Train Show November 29 & November 30 (Thanksgiving weekend). Hours are 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM.

General Club News:

September Business Meeting:

Nominating Committee Named:

In accordance with the club bylaws, a nominating committee was formed to put together a slate of candidates for consideration by the club membership for the November general election. Club offices up for election are President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer. The members of each scale select train masters for that scale in elections that are held independently of the general club elections. The nominating committee members are Jeffrey Brown, Paul Newhouse, David Chandler and George Cumming. The committee will report back at the October general business meeting with their list of candidates. Anyone that would like to volunteer to run for office or that may have a suggestion for a candidate for a specific office should contact the committee with their suggestions for candidates.

Probationary Members Announced.

A number of people have turned in applications for membership and have started their probationary period.

George Engeman (O & HO), Ken Williams (HO), Scott Callan, sponsor and father of Miles Callan (HO), Ion Irwin, friend of Miles (HO), John Byrne, sponsor and father of Brendan Byrne (HO).

The club bylaws indicate the process by which a probationary member progresses to full membership. Following a three-month probationary period, which may be extended by an additional three months in some cases, a vote of the club membership, is conducted to determine the acceptance of the probationary member into regular membership.

For the benefit of the newly announced probationary members a few words about what is expected of them. The new probationary members are expected to assist in pre-show preparations. These tasks are the usual things such as cleaning the window glass, sweeping floors, emptying the trash, removing cobwebs and dusting. Ed note: Participation or lack of participation in show and pre-show activities is noted and is considered by the members during the period leading up to the vote on the question of regular membership for the probationary member.

October Business Meeting

The October general business meeting will be held on Friday, October 3rd. Big Bertha the club BBQ will be fired up for those wishing to bring your own meat for the self-service grilling session prior to the meeting. The Nominating Committee will be reporting a slate of candidates for the November Elections for club officers.

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HO scale news:

October schedule for run nights.

According to the calendar posted adjacent to the dispatch panel, which shows the scheduling of Analog and DCC running for Friday evenings, the schedule for October is as follows:

Analog:	Friday, October 10 and Friday, October 24.
DCC:	Friday, October 3, Friday, October 17 and Friday, October 31.

(The letter "A", on the calendar, denotes an analog run night. The letter "D", on the calendar, denotes a DCC run night).

The following remarks are from the HO Scale Trainmaster.

Hello HO Members,

Well, we are departing from those lazy, hazy days of summer and moving on into fall.

On Saturday, September 20, the "American Family Pet Expo" started out a bit slow. Things began to pick up after high noon. We had just over 700 folks go through our exhibit by Saturday's closing. The donations we got were good. I know some of you come down on Wednesday evenings to work on the layout or do some test runs. I think that's what was intended for these sessions. So, let's not count on Wednesdays being a fun "just run trains night".

We will have some project issues to go over at the next HO meeting.

I would like to kindly request that we refrain from using over toned adjectives during some of our argumentative discussions at the HO meeting. Keep in mind that we do have ladies and young adults present.

Anyway, moving on we have signup sheets for the "Home and Garden Show" the weekend of October 4th and 5th with DCC and Analog runs on those respective days. Hope to see some participation.

So, until our next meeting, smooth running and may your coupler glad hands stay free from snags.

-- Andy Herrera, HO Trainmaster

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O scale news:

Things are a bit slow and quiet on this side of the house, so no news for this issue.

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Name the Railroad.

Listed below are the answers to last month's questions about railroad slogans. How many did you get right? Next issue five more railroad slogans to ponder.

The railroad that used the slogan "The Route of Personal Service" was the Aberdeen and Rockfish. The railroad that used the slogan "But the railroad always runs" was the Boston and Maine. The railroad that used the slogan "Route of the Havana Special" was the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad. The railroad that used the slogan "The Corn Belt Route" was the Chicago Great Western. The railroad that used the slogan "Route of the Rockets" was the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific.

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Model News.

2003 International Model and Hobby Expo In Chicago Field Report.

Member Jere Ingram visited the show on September 12, 2003, while in Chicago, and supplies the following information and photos.

A number of well-known manufacturers were showing off new items.

Athearn displayed several locomotives including CF 7's see photo, SD 50's, and GP60M A&B's, but they did not have any samples of their announced Challenger for this show. Intermountain had samples of their F3's scheduled to be released later this year. Norscott had several HO scale Caterpillar earthmovers on display including a scraper, all terrain truck, and road grader all to be released later this year. Overland had a beautiful O scale DD40AX on display, photo link below. Red Caboose displayed samples of their new coiled steel cars, photo link below.

Walthers had many new products on display. On HO side the long awaited UP passenger cars are supposed to be shipped end of this month if not sooner, Rivarossi's business issues not with standing. See photo of the dome observation car. New structure products included a roundhouse, indexing turntable, and locomotive repair shop.

Conspicuous by their absence were Atlas and Lionel. So no samples of the Atlas SD24's or U30C or the HO scale Lionel Challenger.

There was a fair amount of chatter about this show not paying enough attention to model railroaders. Several manufactures are showing only at National Train Show and a new show that will occur in Las Vegas. At this point it is unclear if Chicago will be a big showcase for model railroad products in the future.

Model Expo Photo Supplement.

More extensive photo coverage is by modeler Harry Wong is available here.

Ed note: Many thanks to Jere for his report and photos from the Chicago show.

News of the Prototype.

Niles Canyon Railway.

Trains operate on 1st and 3rd Sundays of the month. Departure times from the Sunol depot at 10:30 AM, 11:15 AM, 12:00 PM, 12:45 PM, 1:30 PM, 2:15 PM and 3:00 PM. Fares: (suggested donation) Adults $8.00, Seniors $7.00, Children (age 3 to 12) $4.00, under age 2 free. Additional information: Phone (925) 862-9063 or Email pla_ncry@ncry.org

Sunol Depot
6 Kilkare Road
Sunol CA

Northern California Events.

Just Trains Annual Open House.

Just Trains Annual Open House.

Just Trains, 5650-H Imhoff Dr, Concord, CA 94520, will be holding their annual open house and store wide in-stock sale on Saturday, October 4th. Hours are from 10:00 AM through 5:00 PM. Additional information about the Just Trains open house: (925) 685-6566.

South Bay Historical Railroad Society Open House.

The South Bay Historical Railroad Society will be holding their fall open house on November 1 & November 2 from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM both days. The museum is housed in the Santa Clara railroad depot portions of which date from 1863. Other buildings that are part of the museum include an interlocking tower, speeder shed and a section tool house. Admission is Adults $3.50, children 6 to 17 $1.00 and Family $8.00. Additional information is available from the museum website or by phone (408) 243-3969.

Northern California Model Railroad Show.

The International Railfair is presenting its annual show on November 8 and 9, 2003 at the Placer County Fairgrounds in Roseville, CA. Hours are 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM on Saturday and 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM on Sunday. Admission is by donation: Adults $6.00, children 12 and under are free. Parking is $1.00.

Museum Report:

This report is part of a series of reports on railroad-related sites and both rail and non-rail related museums visited recently. Information on the museum is from their website.

The Trails & Rails Museum is operated by the Buffalo County Historical Society and is located at 710 West 11th Street, Kearney NE.

Railroad related displays include the Sheldon, Nebraska UP depot with order board, UP 1903 Baldwin C-57 2-8-0 #481, a flat car loaded with farm implements and UP CA6 caboose # 25396.

The depot was built in 1898 and when the railroad closed the Sheldon agency the depot was moved to the museum where the waiting room and ticket office have been restored to appear as they did when the depot was in use. One concession to modernity is a window mount air conditioner that keeps the office area and gift shop nice and cool on those humid Nebraska summer days.

A number of other buildings are also on the museum grounds and include:

The Boyd Ranch House which was the first frame house in Buffalo County. It was built in the late 1850's when it was part of the J.E. Boyd Trail Ranch on the Wood River near Gibbon. The ranch furnished supplies to travelers on the Platte Valley Overland Trails.

A Log Cabin of the 1860-1870 period on the museum grounds is a fine interpretive exhibit of a structure "like" the one at Post South Loup Fork, and will provide a place to show and tell local history.

District No. 1 School House. Pioneers traveling on the Mormon Trail settled in eastern Buffalo County. They organized the country's first school district and, in 1871, built this school. It was the first frame schoolhouse to be completed in the county.

Loup River Freighters Hotel. This house was built in the 1880's to provide freight wagon drivers a place to stay over night when taking supplies from Kearney to Broken Bow.

1898 Church. The German-Baptist Mission church, which was established in Kearney in 1898 is now a part of the Trails and Rails museum complex.

The museum is open daily, Memorial Day through Labor Day only. Hours Monday to Saturday 10:00 A.M. to 6:00 P.M and Sunday 1:00 P.M. to 5:00 P.M. Also open by appointment. Admission by donation of $2.00 per person is encouraged, children 14 and under are free. Photos of museum..

The next installment of the museum report will cover a potpourri of photo subjects that will close out the series of reports on the Nebraska trip in 2002

              

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Go to September 2003 Issue

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Go to November 2003 Issue

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The Gandy Dancer, A monthly publication of the Alameda County Central Railroad Society, Inc.
Copyright ACCRS, Inc 2003 all rights reserved
Last Revised March 4, 2004
For more information contact Robert Johnson, Editor