February Meeting at the

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1 Visit RED at : January March 2011 All railroad enthusiasts are welcome to enjoy an afternoon of model railroading fun on Saturday, February 19th. There is no charge to attend. February Meeting at the Napa Valley Northern RR The next meeting of the Redwood Empire Division will be held in Napa on Saturday February 19th starting at 1 PM. The hosts for this meet will be the Napa Valley Model Railroad Historical Society, operators of the Napa Valley Northern Railroad. They are located in Napa on the grounds of the Town & Country Fairgrounds, at the Third Street gate. Doors open at noon. Unfortunately, at this meeting, food and drinks will NOT be available for you to purchase. Please dine ahead or afterward. A short RED business meeting will be held to accept nominations for superintendent and chief clerk. More information is included in the articles on pages 2 and 3. Napa Valley MRHS member Wayne Monger will be presenting a clinic entitled "Pros and Cons of Running Live Loads: A case study To see this practice in action, a club operating session afterward will have crews operating trains with live loads. As usual, everyone will get a free door prize ticket. If you are wearing your Division name badge, it will be worth an additional free ticket, as will bringing at least one guest and/or a model for the show & tell or contest display. See the article on page 4 for details. Tickets can be purchased (3 for each dollar) for the special door prize, which will be a $25.00 gift certificate donated by The Loose Caboose Hobbies store in Napa. They are located at 820-A Third St., on the corner of Soscol Ave.; the store entrance is on Soscol. The phone number is (707) They will be open on Saturday from 10 to 6, so drop by and say hello to RAY DAHLGREN and his crew and thank them for the day s special door prize. The map below shows the Napa Club and Loose Caboose Hobbies locations. We hope to see you on Saturday February 19th before 1 PM.

2 Page 2 January March 2011 STAFF ROSTER DIRECTOR Carol Alexander 5307 Spain Avenue Santa Rosa, CA (707) carolnma@msn.com SUPERINTENDENT Steve Skold 5306 Yerba Buena Rd Santa Rosa, CA (707) sandcskold@att.net CHIEF CLERK Dr. Ed Merrin 2115 E Foothill Drive Santa Rosa, CA (707) edmerrin@earthlink.net CONTESTS Giuseppe Aymar 1330 Medical Center Drive Rohnert Park, CA giuseaymar@aol.com MEMBERSHIP Gus Campagna PO Box 6344, Santa Rosa, CA campgus@earthlink.com NOMINATIONS Ed Zakareckis 2408 Homestead Court Fairfield, CA (707) ezak@castles.com ACHIEVEMENT PROGRAM Giuseppe Aymar 1330 Medical Center Drive Rohnert Park, CA giuseaymar@aol.com ESTATE COUNSELOR Don Clauder 305 Garfield Park, Santa Rosa CA, (707) CALLBOARD EDITOR John Rolston 240 Chase St., Sonoma CA, (707) jrolston@pacbell.net DIRECTOR S REPORT BY CAROL ALEXANDER There is a lot happening in the Redwood Empire Division (RED) in the coming months. At the top of my list is the election of a new Superintendent and Chief Clerk. The jobs have been ably filled by STEVE SKOLD and ED MERRIN but their turn is over and now we need a couple of you to step up and take on the tasks. It s not a hard job, and you ll have help. I hope we ll hear from you soon as we need some nominations at our next meeting. There is the PCR convention coming in May. The registration fee is low and includes a good breakfast. Go to this web site: to find out more and get a registration form. There will be clinics, a contest, and layout tours. Come on down and have some fun with us! This year is the 50 th anniversary of the RED. Keep an eye out for special activities to celebrate this special milestone! A few columns back I talked about how it was time for me to stop waiting for the perfect conditions and get busy on my layout and start enjoying more of this fantastic hobby of ours. Well, I am happy to report that construction has started. It doesn t look like much yet but it feels really wonderful to see the bare wood beginning to take shape. I ve been building this thing in my mind for so long that I can see what it will be as easily as what it is. We re having a show-and-tell at the Napa meet. I hope you ll bring a model and share it with us. I just finished a billboard refer kit and I ll bring it along. Either way, I am looking forward to seeing you there. SUPERINTENDENT S REPORT BY STEVE SKOLD Our next meeting is coming up on Saturday February 19th at the home of the Napa Valley Northern. We have a very important subject to discuss. We have elections coming up at the May meeting for Superintendant and Chief Clerk/Paymaster. My 4 years are up as Superintendant and ED MERRIN is running for PCR Vice President. We need two people to step up and take these jobs. We have a lot of events coming up this year that will be a lot of fun to be part of. The PCR mini convention will be in Santa Rosa on May 14 and 15. There is more information elsewhere in this issue and also in the latest PCR Branch Line issue. RED's spring meeting will be the following Saturday and will include the 50th Anniversary for RED. There will be free pizza and soft drinks and other things are on the drawing board. July will feature the NMRA annual convention in Sacramento. If you have never attended a National, you will never again be as close. Go to (Continued on page 3)

3 Page 3 January March 2011 (Supt. Report Continued from page 2) the web site for X2011 to see all the activities planned. Local layouts will be on the tour on Wednesday July 6th and we will let you know which layouts will be open and the times so you can visit even if you do not attend the convention. In September, the National Narrow Gauge Convention will be held in Hickory, North Carolina. In October, there will be a train show again at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds in conjunction with the Home Show. RED will have booth and we will need people to man it. The current issue of the PCR Branch Line includes a ballot for President and Vice President. There are three people running for Vice President including RED's ED MERRIN. Please read the qualifications they submitted and vote for the best qualified. It is nice to have a ballot where your vote can help select that individual. I hope I see a lot of you at Napa next month and please consider taking one the elected positions. CHIEF CLERK'S REPORT BY DR. ED MERRIN We had a last minute change of plans for the RED meet in November, but the membership wasn t deterred. A total of seventeen RED members and one guest showed up for the festivities at Monroe Hall in Santa Rosa on Sunday November 21 st. The format went as usual. We had some announcements, Show and Tell, a clinic or two, and door prize drawings interspersed throughout. Food and beverages were made available courtesy of Mary Moore-Campagna, so no one went hungry. PCR President Ron Plies reported on news from the PCR Board Meeting held in Santa Rosa on Saturday, October 23 rd. Topics covered included the current financial status of PCR (not bad, despite lowered interest rates on our funds), Tom Crawford s excellent work as Secretary, and the good progress on planning for the NMRA National this coming summer, hosted by PCR in Sacramento. Ron encouraged us to register soon for the PCR mini-convention next May, headed up by Steve Skold s planning committee. He also put in a strong pitch for the joint PCR/PNR meeting in May 2012, taking place up in Medford, Oregon. RED Director Carol Alexander was pleased to announce a sizeable donation to PCR from the sale of the video of PCR members she produced and presented as a lead-in for the PCR Banquet last spring in Sparks. She also reminded us that both the Superintendent and Chief Clerk positions will be vacant as of May and that nominations for new faces to hold these positions are critical. Hopefully some of you will heed her call and come forward with your interest in taking an active role in guiding RED forward. Is that a strong enough statement? C mon folks! Superintendent Steve Skold encourage us to register as soon as possible for the Mini-Convention and has registration forms available for us. The $50.00 fee includes the Sunday banquet breakfast at Roberto s Italian restaurant in Santa Rosa. There will be clinics, layout tours, and non -rail activities. Not a bad deal for fifty bucks. Mary Moore-Campagna thanked PCR members who attended the recent Railfair and helped out. Railfair is an annual event in Roseville and is well worth going to. Plan on it next year if you missed this time. As an aside, she guaranteed that there would be a Lunch Bar on site at the Mini-Convention in May for everyone s convenience. Then came Show and Tell. Allow me to interject a personal opinion here; this part of our meet is fast becoming the highlight. It has become a way to get to know other members and what they do with their hobbies, get inspiration and feedback, and functions as a kind of structured bull session. This time around we had some great presentations and I am sorry that space does not permit a detailed discussion of each one. Mike Ernst came down from Lake County with a heavily detailed SP GP-9 and a marvelously modified MDC tank engine, now a proud Dave Turner brought the SP&S flat car he has modified from a B&O kit and shared some of the challenges of adding weight and in trying to recreate a prototype load. Brice Benson trucked in three magnificent structures, two build from Fine Scale Miniatures kits and one a scratchbuilt replica of a grain elevator from Brice s hometown. As usual for Brice, there were extra details and interior lighting. Ron Plies and Steve Skold also brought structure projects, Ron in progress replicas of depots at Sonoma and (Continued on page 4)

4 Page 4 January March 2011 (CLERK S REPORT Continued from page 3) Schellville and Steve an O scale building done at a Modeling with the Masters class at the Sparks convention. I myself only had the outline of a wall, with pictures and diagrams of my still barely started Willits Roundhouse project. But I appreciated what people had to say and regarding my plans. The program ended with two audiovisual clinics. Ron Plies showed us some beautiful shots from the Eel River Model Railroad Club layout, which portrays scenes on the NWP from Schellville to Eureka. Gus Campagna played videos from the recovery of an old NWP baggage car, for years used as a residence on a hillside in Mill Valley, and its move to the NWP Historical Society s restoration site in Petaluma. We were having so much fun we overstayed our time at the Hall and were firmly reminded by management that it was time to leave! Come on over to the next RED meet on February, when the Napa club members will host us in their clubhouse upstairs from their magnificent railroad. And please, don t forget our three mantras for this month: 1. Just because there is a National coming up in Sacramento, don t forget there is still PCR meeting in May. Register for the Mini-Convention! 2. Go to the National in July. It s not far away and will be packed with innovative programs. 3. Time to get off your donkey and run for a RED office! CONTEST/DISPLAY REPORT BY GIUSEPPE AYMAR Oh, if only I could build models like you..if only I had the time to build models..if only I had the tools to build models.. if only my wife would let me build models.if only I would not have to walk the dog everyday I could build models..if only I did not have to go to Starbucks to get my coffee everyday I could build models..if only I did not have to prepare my taxes I could build models Any more reasons you could add to the list? I am sure I only scraped the uppermost surface of a gigantic iceberg called If only. Remember how fun it was as a kid getting a new toy and immediately taking it apart to see how it was made? We then tried to put it back together, only to find out that a few extra pieces invariably were left over. But it sure was fun. Why not recapture those youthful feelings of discovery and innocence and build yourself a model, a simple model at that, one you can say I did it myself. So what if you have a few pieces left over! Who s to know. The fun is in the journey, in the process of learning new techniques, in trying new mediums, in expanding your capabilities and horizons. Do not be confined in stereotyping models as only rolling stock and structures; How about trees, or chain link fences, or turnouts, or painting a backdrop.. just like the iceberg of if only, there is an iceberg of modeling ideas waiting for you. You need to get below the surface and explore. The next RED meeting in Napa on Feb. 19 th is shaping up to be a classic and you just cannot miss it. Your participation in the Show & Tell will further increase its value as a meeting by the members for the members. I wish for you to let go of the fear of failure or rejection and participate by bringing a model; there is NO judgment made; tell how you made it; we ll be glad you did and spoke about it. For many of you, this should be the chance to bring the work that you intend to enter at the PCR mini Convention in Santa Rosa in May. Finished or unfinished, to show the rest of us and possibly to collect some constructive ideas. Then we can schedule a time, if you want, for me to help you fill out the forms for the Contest at PCR, it s that simple. So, what do you say, just walk to Starbuck and bring your dog with you and you immediately have created some time to build a model. What other excuses do you need!!!!!! Go RED, Go RED

5 Page 5 January March 2011 A case for Slow modeling Or anything that requires effort By Giuseppe Aymar It was a party like no other party at the Skold s house that night in December 2010; a gathering of old friends and new faces (like mine), all members of the Sonoma High-Ballers Society. A giant Tannenbaum stood as a silent sentinel by the foyer, welcoming the party goers and creating that perfect Christmas atmosphere that is so dear to all of us. Our hosts, Steve and Carol, attired in Holiday colors, made everyone present feel so welcome. With his typical dry sense of humor, Steve announced that the favorite beverage of the night would be ready by eight o clock, and not any moment sooner. Eight o clock it is. That s when the venerable Swedish Glogg (sorry Steve, I did not know how to place two dots on top of the o in Glogg) would be served to the expecting guests. Don t gulp it down Steve warned me, just sip it slooooowly, let it rooooll on your tongue ; why did he have that sheepish grin on his face when he delivered that warning, I thought. Surely he is pulling my leg, knowing that, as Italian, I can down a glass of that libation known to many of us as Carlo Rossi s unremarkable table red. Just sip, he repeated. At the prescribed time, here it comes, this Glogg, vapor steaming from this here non-important crock-pot where it has been a warming for awhile, an aromatic stimulus for our genteel nostrils. Steve gently pours it in individual glass cups so the color could be appreciated, slowly steaming and fogging up the glass. What more appropriate for a bunch of model railroaders than having a drink that pretends to be a steam locomotive. And so I sip it, with trepidation, worrying that my teeth would fall out of my head. But nothing really happened, in fact it did taste good. A second sip, hum, this is good stuff, I thought. Dave Croshere chimes in that this stuff can remove plaque from teeth, believe me. And he takes another swig with a look of delight and contentment. A few more sips, and we all seem to become happier by the moment. A new guest arrives and Dave graciously makes the introductions and goes on describing me as here is a guy who is really a scratch-builder. I would not dwell on that comment at any other time in my life, but, when all those little gray cells in the brain have had a little too much fun from the Glogg, different thought patterns seem to emerge with clarity and purpose. Thus, I start thinking about scratch-building, how we use raw elements and blend them together and give them a form that makes them useful. It takes time to do, not just minutes but depending on the project, it could take hours, days, months. Similar to how Steve made his Glogg; he took various ingredients and slowly, very slowly blended them together. The result was nothing but a spectacular beverage, one of a kind. The same trend is now found taking hold in restaurants cuisines; referred to as slow cooking it wants to distance itself from the fast food trend that has become so prevalent. Sure fast food does not require work, just buy it and eat it as is; it doesn t even require you to sit at the table any longer. It is the same anywhere you go. No ingenuity, no diversification, no character. Slow food requires preparation, using fresh ingredients taking the necessary care and, most importantly, the necessary time to get the job done well. I like to equate scratch-building to slow-cooking. Gourmet Chef to Teenage-food-microwavewizard, Mary s pizza to Domino s. Sure Domino s can satisfy you, sure Taco Bell will fill your tummy, but a good plate of carefully prepared Gnocchi Verdi at Roberto s, where the preparation starts in the morning and is finally presented to you that evening, cannot be equaled. Just ask Steve and Carol if this is not true. (By the way, Roberto s is the restaurant selected for our PCR Convention breakfast ). A model that is scratch-built, where care is taken to create a facsimile of the real thing, where maybe some history of the prototype needs to be learned, and understanding of how parts are made and put together, is important; that is what I call Slow- Modeling. Presently Ed Merrin is living that Slow-Modeling trend; his efforts in recreating a Roundhouse for his railroad does not just involve putting boards together, close enough to the real thing. No sir! He wants to recreate the precise angles and methodology of the prototype, and is doing (Continued on page 6)

6 Page 6 January March 2011 research to confirm his understanding of the thing. Bravo, Ed! You are the Chef of Scratch-building. Our friends in Operations Sig and Layout Sig and your very own home grown Sonoma County High Ballers are also embarking in the Slow movement. They do not want trains just going from here to there, on and on. No they want a purpose for the railroad and the train movements. So they do research, set up a railroad that resembles the prototype or create a totally fictitious one, yet with a scheme of operation that makes sense. They want to replicate the feel of running a real railroad. They want to be the Chefs. So, the trend is clear; the Slow Movement is gaining ground in all aspects of the Hobby. Yes, Yes, we still go to Taco Bell on occasion to get our tummies full fast. I am not discounting the need (Slow modeling Continued from page 5) for the ready-to run models, especially when many of them are beautifully done and run superbly. But nothing compares to the savoring of a scratch-built item where time and effort come together as the chief ingredients for a one of a kind model?. So, it is to you, Steve and Carol, and to your wonderfully scratch-prepared Glogg that I want to say thank you. Yes, thank you for transporting my thoughts to a state of Limbo and to Dave and Ed for being the spark and the fuel to put these thoughts in a coherent form. By the way, is it not Slow Building when a Ferrari is put together? EDITOR S NOTES April June CALLBOARD Staff Meeting: 7:30 PM, April 19 Text Deadline: April 26 Mailing: May 3 Meeting: Saturday, May 21 Submit all articles, calendar items, adds, comments and corrections to the Editor. Attention CALLBOARD readers: Please advise if you are willing to read future newsletters on-line at the RED web site (vs. reading a printed mailed copy). Any or all pages can be printed by you at any time. Please send your ok by to the Editor at: jrolston@pacbell.net List Yes Notification on the subject line. No message is required except your first & last name. Redwood Empire Garden Railway Society (REGRS), No. 1 gauge, various scales. If you are interested call Ken Brody at (707) or westie@sonic.net Napa Valley Model Railroad Historical Society, HO layout. Meets Fridays 7:30 PM at Napa Fairgrounds, 575 Third St., Napa. For information call: Clubhouse (707) or John Rodgers (707) Lake County Model Railroad Club, HO layout. Meets Wednesday at 7:00PM in the old National Guard Building at the Lake County Fairgrounds on Martin Street, Lakeport. Call Mike Ernst at(707) Coastal Valley Lines, HO modular. Meets 1st Thursday of the month at 7:00 PM at Sam s For Play Café, 2630 Cleveland Ave., Santa Rosa. Call Steve Lewis (707) or CLUB SCHEDULES Blain Hendrix (707) NPC Operators. An On3 operating group meets one Sunday each month. Contact Steve Skold (707) or sandcskold@att.net Redwood Empire Live Steamers. A new group is forming with the goal to build a 7 1/2 inch track facility in a local park. For information, call Don or Ann Bruner Welch at (707) or write to PO Box 4594, Santa Rosa, CA Bay Area S Scalers. Contact Lee Johnson at (925) Mendocino Coast Model Railroad & Historical Society, currently building a G Scale indoor/outdoor layout located on California Western Railroad (CWR) property located adjacent to the Fort Bragg depot. The group meets every third Saturday of each month. Society memberships are available. For more information, contact Phil Miller at (707) North Coast Live Steamers, a group, from the Fort Bragg-Willits area, that promotes the hobby of large-scale railroading and other steam related history. Contact Bill Shepard at (707) Eel River Valley Model Railroaders, HO Scale layout. Meets each Friday evening at 7:30 P.M. at the Humboldt Co. Fair Grounds, Ferndale, CA. Write to P O Box 950 Fortuna CA or contact Ron Plies at (707) or rlplies@cox.net for more information. Humboldt Bay & Eureka, HO layout, Eureka, CA. Contact David Berriman, PO Box 915 Arcata, CA (707)

7 Page 7 January March 2011 Sonoma Short Line PCR's 67th Annual Convention Friday May 13 Saturday May 14 Sunday May 15 By Gus Campagna Short schedule, full value-packed convention; these two seem not to go together well, but at this Redwood Empire Division sponsored convention you will get both. Friday starts out with the PCR Board of Directors Meeting (one of the things required by our bylaws) and finishes up with layout tours in the southern end of Sonoma County. Saturday will find us at the Finley Center in Santa Rosa for an action-packed day. We will be starting with coffee and a no-host continental breakfast. The morning clinics will include one track with some serious hands-on modeling techniques involving turnouts; and the alternate clinics track will start off with an introduction to local railroad history and evolve into operations and design of local layouts. The afternoon will feature more clinics on modeling techniques and layout operations and design. The convention will include a full contest with all three categories of entries: photos, models and arts & crafts. The contest room will be open for entries and viewing all day, with judging starting at around 3:00 pm. There will also be an area for display of models not entered into the contest. A no-host lunch will be served in the courtyard with "Mary's Snack Bar" providing the goodies; and there are also a few nice restaurants located nearby. Following the dinner break, a number of local Santa Rosa area layouts will be open for tours. Sunday morning starts with a full breakfast at Trattoria Lupo, a fine dining establishment in Santa Rosa. This breakfast is included with your registration and will include the PCR Awards Ceremony. Following breakfast we will have the PCR Annual Meeting (also a requirement of the bylaws) and the door prize drawing. To conclude the convention, there will be several layouts - some new to PCR Conventions - available for touring on the way home. Because of the short duration of this event, we will not hold our usual Hobo Breakfast. But don't despair: it will be held this year at X2011, the National Convention in Sacramento. (In fact, it will be held in a very unusual location - come and see for yourself!) And last but not least, there will be an additional attraction this is Redwood Empire Division's 50th birthday year, so look for some extra celebration to mark this event. Please see the website for up-to-date details. A registration form is also available, which was also included in the previous Callboard issue and PCR Branch Line issues.

8 Page 8 January March 2011 COMING DOWN THE LINE February 12: Sierra Division meet at the Rancho Cordova library February 19: RED meeting in Napa. Details are on page 1 March 6: Coast Division meet. Location TBD May 13, 14 & 15: PCR Sonoma Short Line Mini-Convention in Santa Rosa. Some details and the website address is on page 7. May 21: RED meeting in Santa Rosa. July 3-9: NMRA Extra 2011 West Convention in Sacramento Admission to the California State Railroad Museum for the week is included with all registrations. Information on registering, clinics, tours, contests, sales and other events is available at their web site: July 8-10: National Train Show in Sacramento Public show starting Friday at Noon. Details at: # Contact information is listed on page 6. Visit RED at: Many of the art items used in this newsletter are courtesy of Ken Houghton Rail Images or came from the web site: CALLBOARD John Rolston, Editor 240 Chase Street Sonoma, CA FIRST CLASS