Page 1 July 2007

MVGRS Meeting Times Unless otherwise noted, all meet-ings start at 2:30. You are wel-come to gather at 2:00 to visit and view the host’s railroad. When we meet outside you should bring a folding chair and you are encour-aged to bring a refreshment item to share. The host provides the bever-ages. Meetings last 2 to 3 hours.

Volume XIV Issue VII

Miami Valley Garden Railway Society

TRACKS

July 2007

Miami Valley Garden Railway Society Area Code 937 Jack Wilson, Pres. 848-3017 Jim Pugh, Vice Pres. 429-1551 Judy Havens, Secy. 832-9038 Bud Ragan, Treasurer 439-2477 Frank Klatt, Marketing 419-394-0740 Bob & Dolores Premus, Programs 426-7586 Denny LaMusga, Programs 429-2386 Pat Hagerty, Membership 429-0197 Gordon Havens, Operations 832-9038 Tom Elliott, Equipment 890-0722 Wil & Jeanne Davis, Editors 237-7919 Karen Engel, Historian 256-0450 Peter Wine, Webmaster 219-5017

Annual Membership Dues Family $15.00 Business $50.00 Mail Inquiries to:

MVGRS 1733 Kensington Dr. Bellbrook OH 45305

Web Site: mvgrs.com

Six of our member’s layouts will be hosting the three clubs from Columbus, Cincinnati, and Indianapolis and our members are invited to join the layout tours on Saturday, July 14 starting about 1:00 PM. Please try to visit the sites between the other three clubs scheduled times. The three clubs will be meeting about 11:30 at Aley United Methodist Church at 4143 Kemp Rd in Beavercreek for lunch. If you are going to be there for lunch, please contact Karen Engel at JEngel1047@aol.com, no later than July 6 Cost is $12. Listed below are the hosts and approximate times each club is to arrive at each location. 30 minutes is scheduled for

July 7 – EnterTRAINment Junction open house . See page 2 for details. July 8 – Monthly Meeting at La-Musga’s. The program will be pre-sented by Sharon Wilson and Jim Pugh. In Sharon’s words “Your tallest vice-president (at least, till now...) and a short sidekick connected to your presi-dent are going to talk to you about how you might use different sized people on your railroad. Jim and Sharon say you can bring some of your own little persons and ask questions about the use of them, but ask you to leave ripe vegetables at home.” Bring your lawn chair and a treat to share. July 14 – Four Club Bus Tour. Club members are invited to join in. July 19 – Board Meeting at Ragan’s. July 29 – August TRACKS deadline. August 12 – Monthly Meeting at Hum-ston’s August 25 – Xenia Rail & Arts Fest. Set up at 7:30 am.

Randy and Tom Watterworth prepare to run their train on the layout at Carillon Part during the Railfest. Everyone seemed to have a great time in spite of the marginal weather. At least the heavier rain was Friday.

(Photo by Peter Wine)

O P E N H O U S E S N E X T MVGRS ACTIVITY FOUR CLUB LAYOUT TOUR

COMING EVENTS

Page 2 July 2007

each site. Jim Pugh, Frank & Bonnie Klatt, and Wil Davis will be acting as bus hosts and riding the busses with our visitors. (A tour map with addresses is on page 8.) Also are listed the co-hosts for each of our layouts. Cohosts should arrive by noon unless the hosts request otherwise: Wright’s 12:45 2:20 4:00 Pat Hagerty & Jeanne Davis, Donna & Rodney Meek Sine’s 1:30 3:05 4:45 Bob & Dolores Premus, Alan & Penny Tapp Elliott’s 1:25 3:05 4:50 Randy, Carolyn, and Tom Watterworth, Greg Walters Wilson’s 1:35 3:10 4:30 Bud & Marty Ragan, Rick & Carolyn Hughes La Musga’s 12:45 2:20 3:50 Tom & Judy Bartsch Humston’s 12:45 2 :25 4:10 Paul & Debbie O’Connor, Gordon & Judy Havens As of this newsletter we do not know the number coming from the other clubs, but we will notify the open railroads as soon as possible after we know. Questions? Contact Bob Messmore 429-2495 messmore@ameritech.net

Bob Messmore, Tour Chairman

Tom and Theresa Elliott are extending their tour hours for MVGRS club members. We will be open from 5 to 8, Saturday, July 14, and from noon until 4 P.M. on Sunday, July 15.

Theresa & Tom Elliott, Proprietors

With the completion and cleaning of the “back room” (behind the wall adjacent to the Modern City), we now have a place to work and meet in “relative” comfort. All we need now is functioning air conditioning and more than just the current not-too-pleasant single restroom, and the place will be great to work in. Even so, the ability to use the facility for meetings of the section gangs means that such meetings will become more frequent, and your opportunities to participate will increase significantly -- for example, the Bridges Section Gang meetings on 27 and 30 June. The next scheduled event of significance will be the Open House for volunteers on Saturday, 7 July, from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM. Come see what’s been done. And, come see where you can help, either with your hands or with your minds. We have no shortage of physical work that needs to be done and also no shortage of challenges that need to be tackled with creative ideas. One of those newly minted challenges comes from how dense the structure is under the layout tables. This is especially noticeable, so far, in the Middle-Era city. It will be a major challenge for constructors and maintainers of the layout to get to the openings for the buildings from under the tables. These openings should be the primary method of reaching the central part of the city to do both construction and maintenance on the city elements like the trolley system. Access from underneath prevents having to walk on top of the layout itself, risking damage to the scenic details and becoming a Godzilla-like presence for the customers who have come to see the layout, not the workers. We’re going to need a lot of small and/or skinny people to squeeze between the structural supports under the tables to get to the central part of the city, or we’re going to have to modify the structure to provide reasonably sized paths. You can help with good ideas on how we might reduce or eliminate this problem. As I mentioned in last month’s article, we have some interest in getting the Modern Era Amusement Area up and running as soon as possible to provide a teaser for visitors to the seasonal maze that is expected to open for the Halloween season this October. To help with the planning process, I’ve constructed some 1/12 scale “mockups” of some of the Piko kit buildings that we’re planning to use for the “Old-West” themed area. This is a method you too can use to help with your own layout planning process. I’ll go into the details of the process for making these mockups in a separate article some time in the future, but I thought I’d share the results of the work so far. The

THE EAST CLAYTON & FROG POND RAILROAD EX-TENDED OPEN HOUSE

This is the twelfth monthly installment

of this series of articles. It’s hard to believe we’ve been at this in earnest for over a year already. Even harder to believe is the speed at which changes have happened recently. If you received and read the June issue of Larry Koehl’s Big Train Project newsletter, “The Gandy Dancer,” you know what I mean.

BIG TRAIN PROJECT STATUS REPORT (PART 12)

Page 3 July 2007

following figures show the miniature mockups and how they can be used on a copy of the track plan. In this instance the 1/4–inch scale plan was enlarged by a factor of four so that the mockups would be of a reasonable and sufficiently visible size. Figure 1 shows the source image from the Piko website. Figure 2 shows the detail of the station mockup. It’s been simplified but does represent the scale dimensions (footprint) of the intended model. The dime gives you an idea of the actual size. Figures 3 and 4 show an arrangement of some of the buildings. This method can give a good idea of what an intended

arrangement would look like and makes changes simple enough to allow exploration of a number of alternatives. We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us to make this layout great, so, please, respond positively when Section Gang leaders contact you to help with the layout work. I hope to see you at the Open House. And, as always, stay tuned to the Big Train Project Yahoo group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bigtp for the latest news.

Tom Bartsch, MVGRS Big Train Project Coordinator

The Walbroehl Bahn (WbB) recently acquired a large group of second hand ore cars. These are the plastic Oriental LGB knock-offs which were included with Sesame Street sets and others. I bought a load on eBay (where else?) and had them sitting around the basement. I had repainted one or two but was looking for something different to do. Several European and American railroads had multi use tank and gondola cars so I figured the WbB could use one or two also. Photo 1 shows the short ore cars as they arrived. A bit dirty, but other wise intact. With careful prying one can remove the bins from the frames. I cut off one set of end buffers from each car and butted the ends together. A bit of filing, sanding and copious amount of Squadron White putty led to a more or less clean joint.

I bolted the two cars together, and then added bottom stringers made of plastic and Popsicle sticks (surprise!). I added two tubes on the bottom to represent the European undercarriage equipment. Two bogie trucks from an Echo plastic kitbash provided the trucks. The under frame was sprayed flat black, then the top painted forest green to approximate the green of the LGB gondolas. The over spray was cleaned up after painting and the trucks re-installed. I added air hoses left over from another kitbash

Figure 1: The Piko Station Photo from Their Website

Figure 2: The Piko Station Mockup

Figure 3: The mockups on the plan.

½ PLUS ½ EQUALS 1 FOR THE WALBROEHL BAHN By Gordon Walbroehl

Photo 1- Before

Page 4 July 2007

Figure 2 The restrooms from the public side

and swapped out the couplers for LGB hook and loops. The famous WbB logo in white was added along with reporting data. I now have an unique car that should fit in well with other LGB European cars. (Photo 2)

Each member of this couple is a Dayton area native. The male partner owned trains as a child; the female partner didn’t, but she always loved them. Two years ago they became interested in ponds-- and at about that time they attended the Great American Train Show at Hara Arena. Once there the lady of the house broached the idea of a railroad, which she had been mulling over in her mind.. She got a positive response so they spoke to vendors and club members Chris and Leslie Schultz about the possibility of adding trains to enhance their backyard pond plan. But they didn’t do anything about it then. In 2006 they began to think about and plan a layout--and they called upon Chris for help. Then they won the train raffled by the club at the Xenia Rail & Arts Fest!! And that did it!! Work on the rail road picked up and even though at times (mostly during the digging process) he wanted to be reminded that “garden railroading IS fun” they continued to work and their first train tooled around the track at the end of summer. That was the beginning of the Cascade Falls Express. They are currently working on phase II. Track will run behind the numerous waterfalls and into the newly-landscaped garden area. Building kits are on order and in various stages of construction. And their enthusiasm is at full crest. Each has a grown son—one worked as a nuclear engineer on submarines for ten years and who is now a recently commissioned officer in the Marines., and one in college studying criminal justice. And even though they work at First Tool Corporation (which manufactures special machines) they now find time to work on their newfound hobby--and they love it. This couple jumped right in when they joined the club--even hosted a meeting when their railroad was less than a

year old. They met at Champions Gym 17 years ago, went to a Philharmonic pop concert soon after and having been working and making beautiful music together ever since. Meet Lisa Davis and Frank Finney!

We had two former members rejoin this month, the Blackaby’s, Bill & Jeanette and the Brazie’s, Dan & Shauna, who rejoined at Carillon. We have two new members month, Paul Ryan of Springfield and our newest member, (who joined at the Miami ValleyRail Festival) Tom Zimmerman, bringing our total memberships to 87. We welcome you all and hope to see you at the next meeting where everyone can meet you and welcome you in person.

Pat Hagerty, Membership

As I write this column, we have just finished the 2nd Annual Miami Valley Rail Festival. My personal thanks to Jerry Humston, the Chair for this show, Lyn Humston (who fortunately always comes with Jerry), and to all the members who supported this excellent layout. A special thanks also goes to those who worked in the rain during the first part of the set up on Friday. It is such a pleasure and a lot of fun to work with the talented and dedicated members of the MVGRS. Another special item from the show -- Bill Blackaby and his wife Jeannette came to see the show. After his bout with illness, it was great to see him back! I hope to see him at a meeting soon. Now it’s back to shining up the Little River Railroad for the 4-Club Tour on 14 July. Are the buildings where we want them? Do we need more signs? How about the trees and plants? Do we need more plants in the pond? Where should the vehicles, people, and animals go? How do things look from here? Why do weeds grow so fast? What trains should we run? An open railroad is the best incentive to get everything up to snuff but the questions are endless. Sharon and I do look forward to the visits and we hope that many of you will take the opportunity to visit the open railroads. The June Membership Meeting was held on 17 June at the home of Rick & Carolyn Hughes to celebrate their wedding that took place the day before. Sharon and I were among those who attended the family wedding to see the joining of these two good friends. What a pleasure to

Photo 2 – After

MEET THE MEMBERSHIP by Pat Hagerty

MEMBERSHIP UPDATE

NOTES FROM THE WILSON LINE II...

Page 5 July 2007

witness! Over 65 people attended the meeting including members of both Rick and Carolyn’s families. Peter Wine presented the program on “Photographing Your Railroad”. It was originally planned for the May meeting but he was called to work instead. Peter told us how to use a natural sight line for objects and people (real or scale), how to use lighting, and how to use (or not use) a flash. He passed around photos he had taken of Lisa Davis & Frank Finney’s railroad as examples of what to do or not do. In addition, he answered questions about photography and camera operation. Thanks, Peter, for sharing your expertise with us. Door prizes included: a hanging plant won by Bobby Premus; a red neckerchief won by Amanda (a young Hughes guest); a towel with trains won by Paul O’Connor; five scale figures won by: Carolyn's father Buford, Bob Messmore, Jim Pugh, Tom Bartsch, and Bob Premus; a deck of train cards won by Judy Bartsch; a throw decorated with trains won by Theresa Elliott; and a bouquet of flowers won by Gordon Havens. Show & Tell included: Bob Messmore showed a digital & laser level from Sears that shows the angle from the

horizontal to measure grades on your railroad; Dave Hamilton showed a portable 12 volt Makita chain saw that uses the same battery as his drill, $160.00 with oil and case -- he also showed the size of oak logs it would and would not cut; and Larry Kraft told about his home and garden railroad he hopes to sell together. Board Bits: discussed final plans for the Miami Valley Rail Festival; discussed plans for the 4 Club Tour including inviting members to visit the open railroads; discussed program & meeting plans for future meetings; discussed TRACKS plans for this issue and reviewed TRACKS budget status - approved purchase of laser jet printer cartridge for the editor and approved an advertisement for North Dayton Garden Center for their excellent support of the club; discussed and approved a MVGRS clothing price list which will be published in the TRACKS; discussed the Xenia Rail & Arts Fest coming August 25; discussed potential for a MVGRS picture calendar; we have a new member plus another renewal; discussed how to better welcome and encourage new members including having someone “mentor” new members; and approved the sale of a small used AristoCraft transformer to Jack Wilson for $10.00.

Map for This Month's Meeting

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Dayton-Xenia Rd.

US Route 35

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Denny &Judy LaMusga2599 Valdina Dr.

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US Route 35

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Fudg

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Yolanda

Will

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Valdina Dr.

Denny &Judy LaMusga2599 Valdina Dr.

937-429-2386Fa

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Page 6 July 2007

Our next membership meeting will be held at Denny & Judy LaMusga’s Garden Northern Railroad in Beavercreek on Sunday, 8 July. (The second Sunday comes fast sometimes!) Come see this unique railroad and learn about scale people from our own 1:1 Sharon Wilson & Jim Pugh. Please bring a goodie to share and your own lawn chair (that almost sounds like the first line of a poem). Come join us. The next board meeting will be held at 7pm on Thursday, 19 July at the home of Gordon & Judy Havens in Clayton. As MVGRS members, you are certainly welcome to attend the meeting. All we ask is that you call Judy or Gordon at (937)832-9038 to let them know that you are coming so that you have a place to sit and they can give you directions. If you have any item(s) for the board to discuss and can’t come to the meeting, please pass the item to me or to any board member and we will be happy to discuss the matter and let you know the result. The Xenia Rail & Arts Fest is coming on Saturday, 25 August from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM. This one-day show is held on East Main Street in downtown Xenia with our single track display in a flower garden on the North side of the street. Set up will begin at 7:30 AM with a hope that we won’t see rain until after tear down. (Last year we were looking for an ark after about 3:30.) After set up, we will need people to bring and run a train and people for the information table. This show has a lot of support from Xenia Merchants and we have earned money for participation in the past. Please plan to support this effort. Except for tearing down in the rain, we had a good time at the Fest last year. Happy trainin.’

Jack Wilson, President

fund managers and speculators. The best guess from commodity economists is that buyers will see another 35% price explosion this year for a market basket of six key nonferrous metals that escalated by 56% in 2006.” Stainless steel track is up about the same as there is an increased demand for stainless and it‘s component materials. Again, according to Purchasing.com “Stainless steel demand has been so strong that nickel supplies haven't always met demand during the past three years. That's why nickel has jumped by 340% since 2003. About two-thirds of nickel is consumed in the production of stainless steel. Cold-rolled stainless sheet has risen by 160% from 2003 and has surpassed $5,000/net ton already this year—mostly because nickel has exploded to $23/lb.” I don’t mean to sound like I am trying to justify Aristo Craft's price increases, but it does seem that there are market forces driving these increases and not as some have speculated, the perceived lack of competition from LGB. AristoCraft is making an attempt to mitigate some of this increase by offering their “buy four, get one free track sale. The sale is back-dated to June 18, 2007, when they announced the price increase and will last until February 28, 2008 according to a letter Lewis Polk sent out last week. You can get the rules at http://aristocraft.com/.

MVGRS 2007 SCHEDULE OF EVENTS

12 Aug Club Meeting 16 Aug Board Meeting 25 Aug Xenia Rail & Arts Fest 26 Aug September TRACKS Deadline 9 Sep Club Meeting

I am sure most of you have heard by now that AristoCraft has announced a 100% increase in their brass and stainless steel track. The explanation that Lewis Polk gave is that they have had long term contracts for brass and in the interim copper prices have skyrocketed in the last three years. When their contracts came up for renewal the price of brass was out of sight causing them to double their track prices immediately. It’s copper driving the price of brass track according to Purchasing.com “Base metals (Copper is a base metal. eitor) cost more than ever before—often substantially more—in a continuing inflationary surge caused by tightness in supply of feedstocks and scrap, a surge in Chinese buying of finished mill products and investment activity by retirement

EDITOR’S DERAILED THOUGHTS

ARISTO CRAFT TRACK PRICE DOUBLES

Jack presents Tom Zimmerman with his door prize. Tom joined at Carillon and also won the drawing!

Page 7 July 2007

There is really nothing new to report as far as the status of LGB goes. LGBoA has announced that they still have very good inventories of LGB products and they are working with long-time LGB suppliers on production efforts. For example, it is rumored they have reached agreement with Buehler Motor, the motor manufacturer, to procure motors for LGB engines. They will have a booth at this week’s convention in Las Vegas so perhaps at our July meeting we will get an update from someone who attended the convention.

Congratulations on his recent retirement to one of our seldom seen members, Al Karl. He promised me that he would be more visible in the coming months, so I expect to see him at the Xenia Train Festival ready to go to work!

You have a chance to take a train ride over some rarely traveled tracks this fall on the National Railway Historical Society‘s, Cincinnati Chapter’s excursion. For more details and an application form go to mvgrs.com and click on the link.

Advertising Schedule Full Page $16.00 Half Page $9.00 Quarter Page $6.00 Business Card $4.00* *Business Card every other issue (or minimum of six times per calendar year) included with business membership and complimentary insertion at board’s discretion for businesses that make a contribution of some type to MVGRS operations or events. All rates are per insertion. Payment should be submitted at time of ad copy submittal.

Deadlines The deadline for TRACKS articles is shown in the schedule on page five. Articles may be submitted anytime prior to that time and are always welcome. Submissions may be made via hard copy, electronic on diskette, or via e-mail. Send e-mail to wdavis5069@earthlink.net.

Wil & Jeanne Davis, Editors qhlbBz

(MVGRS TRACKS Copyright 2007 by Miami Valley Garden Railway Society)

THE LATEST ON THE LGB SAGA

NRHS LEBANON MASON & MONROE EXCURSION

MVGRS MEMBER RETIRES

MIAMI VALLEY RAIL FESTIVAL PHOTOS (PHOTOS BY PETER WINE)

For more of Peter’s Photos go to www.DDN.mvgrs.com, or click on the link on mvgrs.com.

A young engineer carefully reloads the barrels in the dump car so the next person can have a turn.

Paul & Bob try to stay dry while they support the track boards with trestle bents.

A slightly damp Theresa, Paul and Jack install the track boards and track on the main bridges.

MVGRS TRACKS

Page 8 July 2007

Page 9 July 2007

June Meeting Photos By Peter & Edy Wine

Peter gave a talk about photo-graphing your railroad. He’s usu-ally found on the other side of a

Bob brought his new digital level that he is using to construct his railroad.

Tom shows the throw that Theresa won.

The original part of the railroad, by the patio, is a favorite spot to view the railroad.

Rick has the pond in, but still has to work on the bridges and water-fall, now that the wedding’s over!

The newlyweds, Rick and Carolyn welcomed everyone.

A freight heads off into the wilds. If you look closely in the upper left, you can see the elevated track back in the woods.

People tended to gather on the large elevated deck which provided a great view of the trains.

This is how we normally see

Page 10 July 2007

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