NEWSLETTER Central Arizona Model Railroad Club January - March, 2018 PRESIDENT S MESSAGE by Terrel Tinkler They are a hard act to follow! That is our previous Board. Thank You s all around for Jim Hanna, President; Dick Gage, Secretary and Jim Sigmon, Board Member. They are moving off the Board as new people arrive to fill their shoes. Thank you s also go to Peter Atonna, who does so much for our club, including the newsletter, the recent South End Layout Tours open house coordination, and the field trip to the Grand Canyon Railway shops. To Bonnie and Steve Rudy for coordinating the Christmas Banquet, and to Julie and Brian Gladish for helping make the candy train table favors. Bonnie also was in charge of the club s participation in the Angel Tree. Thank you s also go to Richie Scanapico for overseeing the sale of 50/50 raffle tickets during the year and for managing the club only spring swap meet and to Jim and Eleanor Sigmon for hosting our club picnic. A special thank you goes to all who helped rebuild the baggage cart and build the Prescott Layout for the Sharlot Hall Museum. Tom McColloch, our club V P, did a great job throughout 2017 finding interesting programs for each club meeting. And other members who contributed their time and expertise to making 2017 a very good year for the club, including Anthony Piscitelli for his airbrushing class in October, Stan Cedarleaf and Peter Atonna for appearing on television promoting the Beat the Heat Swap Meet; and those who set up and operated trains at the Prescott Resort in December. What is in store for 2018? More emphasis will be placed on introducing younger adults and school children to the wonderful hobby of model trains. We will ask club members to visit schools and other facilities, taking actual layouts or just running trains on tables provided; sharing their knowledge and enjoyment of model trains and the history of train travel in this country and abroad. Hopefully, we can organize actual monthly sessions for the youngsters, showing them track building, layout planning and implementation, maintenance, etc. (Something that would require extensive discussions and planning by the board and the club members.) Finally, I have heard requests for more Open House Layout Tours--let s make that happen! New Board Members for 2018: Terrel R. Tinkler, President Doug Gilliatt, Secretary Julie Gladish, Board Member Continuing Board Members for 2018: Tom McColloch, Vice President Programs Larry Gauthier, Treasurer Charlie Scardino, Board Member Jim Patterson, Board Member SCHEDULE CAMRRC regular meetings are held on the second Wednesday of the month. They feature tables where you are welcome to bring items for sale and most months also feature a program. They are a also great way to get together with your fellow members.
Meetings begin at 6:30pm for socializing and swapping and the meeting at 7pm located at the Prescott First Lutheran Church, 231 W. Smoketree Lane off Willow Creek January 10 - CAMRRC meeting, First Lutheran Church January 20 - Desert Division 350 lot auction - Phoenix, tinplate and construction vehicles. For info: tcadd.org February 14 - CAMRRC meeting, First Lutheran Church February 17 - Cactus Swap meet - all gauges. North Phoenix Baptist Church. (see flyer this issue) March 14 - CAMRRC meeting, First Lutheran Church LOOKING BACK by Jim Hanna Well, here it is the end of 2017 and I m looking back on my journey with our club. It just seems like yesterday that Shirley and I moved to Prescott but it was 2003, almost 15 years ago time flies when you re having fun. We weren t here more that a week when we ran in to Bob Pratt in a window coverings store. We were picking out some blinds for our new house and Bob asked me about the Santa Fe shirt I was wearing. When he found out I was a model railroader and not a retired rail worker, he invited me to visit a meeting of the club. Bob was president at that time he even offered to pick me up take me to the meeting, which he did. I remember the meeting was at Anthony Piscitelli s house when he lived inchino Valley. Back in those days our monthly meetings were held at member s homes. I remember that our membership was in the 20 s or maybe 30 s. I believe Bob had been President of the club for 14 or more years. Bob stepped down as President sometime later and Brent Schnitzius took over for two terms in about 2004. I went on the Board of Directors at that time and served two three year terms. During this time the late Mike Nelson also served as President and following his term, Steve Bumgardner was president for two terms and I became Secretary at the beginning of Steve s four years. BOARD OF DIRECTORS TERREL TINKLER, President 707-494-1517 Board Members TOM MC COLLOCH, Vice President 237-4666 JIM PATTERSON 636-5043 DOUG GILLIATT, Secretary 480-390-0320 CHARLIE SCARDINO 443-0869 LARRY GAUTHIER, Treasurer 632-4180 JULIE GLADISH 714-357-2087 Website: http://trainweb.org/camrrc/ Editor: Peter Atonna: mjatonna@gmail.com
At the end of Bumgardner s terms, I was elected President and proudly served until the end of 2017. So, if my arithmetic is correct, I served in some elected capacity for almost 14 years. During this time, our club has grown to over 100 members and from meetings in private homes to our present day location at the Lutheran Church. Our move to this location was accomplished under President Brent Schnitzius. Our annual Beat The Heat Swap Meet has grown to be a premier event in Central Arizona. During Steve Bumgardner s presidency, the board of directors spent many hours looking at possible new locations for the Swap Meet as conditions at the old Armory location were not good and the availability of parking for both vendors and customers was poor. Thanks to the tireless efforts of Secretary Dick Gage, we were able to secure our current location at Liberty Traditional School in Prescott Valley. Lots of parking and really great venue. In February or March of 2016, the local Sharlot Hall Museum director approached BOD member, Jim Sigmon inquiring about the possibility of the Club s participation in a planned Railroad historical exhibit to be opened in 2017 and exhibited for one year. Jim presented the idea to the BOD for its consideration and eventual approval and things got started. We ended up restoring a 100 year old baggage cart and building an operating prototype model railroad depicting Prescott in the 1920-1930 era. HELLO FROM DENNIS EGAN I have been a member for a few months and am just getting started in G Scale. When we moved from Texas last, we left a 2600 sq. ft. house with a large garage for 900 sq. ft. with a 10x10 shop. I have modeled in HO, On3, O 2 rail and On30. Given that any extra space in our home is almost nonexistent, I need to go outside. I have a 1:20.3 Bachmann Side Tank Porter that has an Air Wire system installed and runs very well on a test loop that I set up on the driveway. I really didn t want to mess with wires and some of the challenges that track power brings with it. I would like to model a representation of a HO layout that was in Model Railroader a few years ago. It is the Jerome and Southwestern by John Olsen. I realize that I will not be able to include all the details he had in original layout, but would like to capture the flavor of it. I have a space about 30 x 10 next to our house. We live in Orchard Ranch, a retirement community where you own your home but lease the land that it is on. As a consequence, I would like have something that could be dismantled when the times comes Here is a picture of the space. There is also additional space behind the house that also could be used. The rocks are about 1 in diameter. Some of my questions are: + Do I need to remove all the rocks to lay the track? Thanks to BOD member Joe Agosta who let the club use his former lumber company space for the construction of these exhibits. We formed a volunteer team(too numerous to list here)and spent the rest of 2016 completing the restoration of the baggage cart and construction of the Model Railroad. Installation in the museum was completed and on December 3, 2016, the exhibit opened to the public. On January 2, 2018 the exhibit was dismantled and removed. The museum estimates 30,000 people saw our work. Looking back, it has been my great pleasure to serve and work with so many of you through the past 14 years. It has truly been one of the most, pleasing and memorable events of my life thank you all.
What is the best way to lay the track (assuming sectional) that will make it less challenging to remove or change? + I will be able to manually operate any switches. Should I mix flex track and sectional track? + I am planning on scratch-building most of the rolling stock from plans by Ted Stinson that I got from Garden Railroading. Would I need to add weight to the cars or are they stable enough as they are? I would greatly appreciate any advice, criticism, help and other ideas that any one has. A CAROLWOOD UPDATE FROM MICHAEL BROGGIE Michael thought our members would enjoy seeing what is currently happening: http://carolwood.com/ 2018-calendar/ A LOOK BACK AT A FULL YEAR The club had a wealth of activities during the past year. Here are photos of some of our activities: Prescott Resort by Don Schiller Beat the Heat Photos from Lorne Notes
Paul Jankowski at Acker Night And from Stan Cedarleaf Christmas Party sent by Jamie Moran
TRUE STORY During the 50 s the Model Railroader ran a series of monthly, delightful cartoons, drawn by a Dallas editorial cartoonist. This one struck me as it just happened! I serviced some trains for a recent visitor to my place. After a tour of the layout, he left, but Mary Jane asked when I went upstairs, did you notice his wife in his car? Yup, she sat out there the entire time. Why, who knows?
GUY STILLMAN IN MODEL RAILROADER Many of us know Guy as the donor of the land and builder of the original Scottsdale Railroad Park. But, in going through some of my 1940 s and 1950 s Model Railroaders, I discovered he was also a plain old model railroader. And he wanted help in building his HO layout! LAYOUT IN GRAND CENTRAL S TRANSIT MUSEUM BY TWTRAINWORX
CHRISTMAS LAYOUTS A couple of members send photos of their beautiful Christmas displays. And I added a couple from the Atonna living room too. Steve Toth Richie Scanapico
Peter Atonna AND NOW FOR A SPRING OPEN HOUSE TOUR With the extremely successful fall South Side layout open houses, it is time to put together our annual Spring North Side open house tour. Last year we had eight members who opened their homes for our members! So, if you live in the Prescott and North area and would like to host an open house, would you please drop me a note at: mjatonna@gmail.com. Remember, you don t need a huge train room. Typically you will not have more than 8-10 visitors there at a time. When all are in, we will look at dates that work for all. Typically we host them in the March - April time frame.
ONE OF ARIZONA S LARGEST MODEL RAILROAD SWAP MEETS SATURDAY, FEB. 17TH, 2018 9 AM - 1 PM $6/PERSON $11/FAMILY ($1.00 off cards and coupons available - next to large Farmers Market!) NORTH PHOENIX BAPTIST CHURCH FELLOWSHIP CENTER 5757 North Central Avenue, Phoenix, AZ 85012 Aggressive Promotion * All Scales Great Location * Free Parking Food Available * Fantastic Raffle Test Track * End-O-Swap Auction Presented by your pal Casey Cactus and the GRAND CANYON MODEL RAILROADERS To reserve your space and required admission name badges, submit this form by February 10, 2018 No refunds after February 10, 2018 Set-up opens at 6:00 AM Please print form legibly. Name Address City State Zip Phone Email Security: I will abide with badge identification and entrance requirements. Buying, selling, ethics and behavior: In case of dispute, the Meet Chairperson and/or impartial referee appointed by the Meet Chairperson shall arbitrate the dispute and render a timely decision and I hereby agree to be bound by such decision. I will not pack until 1:00 PM. Not responsible for lost or stolen articles. Signature Date Make check payable to: Grand Canyon Model Railroaders Mail to: John Draftz, 1507 W Willow Ave, Phoenix, AZ 85029 or Credit cards accepted via PayPal - Visit www.gcmrr.org Email: info@gcmrr.org Info: John Draftz 602-942-3457; Glenn Saber 602-956-6695 $25 per 8 banquet table (Bring a table cover, if desired) How many tables? Amount enclosed? $ Request? Will you participate in the auction? Seller? Buyer? Admission Name Badges 1 or 2 tables = 2 badges max. First and last name please Badge Name Badge Name 3 or more tables = 4 badges max. Badge Name Badge Name More badges available at $5.00 each Name Badges REQUIRED for your security