The Flimsy. Show & Tell Our other Rob, Nesbitt that is, advised of the DVD set of all National

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1 Volume 4, Issue 7 July 2013 The Flimsy The Newsletter of Division 2 of the NMRA AR Marginally better weather than at our previous meeting well, at least it was raining less led to a slightly larger crowd of 16 at Brad Hinton s for today s meeting. Our Valiant Leader was about to award the Long Distance Pilgrim Award to our host for having made a frantic dash from family netball at Charnwood all the way to Kambah in time to open the house up before we froze to death outside. For those less familiar with Canberra geography, think Dural to Sutherland. If that doesn t help, try Seattle to Santa Fe. But then Stephe Jitts from Yass and John Payne from Goulburn turned up. Before it could be settled who had come further, Rob Nesbitt announced that he had come from Sydney for today s meeting. Graeme Hodges the First modestly mentioned that he had just arrived from Darwin. John Bullen then played the ethnic card, having come from New Zealand though he neglected to say when. At this point our All-Powerful Leader stepped in, declaring magnanimously that he wasn t about to claim his own travel from Her Majesty s United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and that the only way to settle the Long Distance Pilgrim Award was to dump it. Fixed! Our host (L), Brad Hinton, enjoys a joke with John Gillies Announcements Coming straight to the point, our Fearless Leader called upon our Convention Registrar John Gillies to announce the number of registrations so far received for the September Convention. John s response of 21 led immediately to a second question, expressed in an ominous tone... And how many of those are locals? Looking around the room, John found nervous eyes everywhere fixed on him in addition to the stern stare of our Redoubtable Leader. Pausing to think carefully, John tactfully admitted that at this point in time he didn t actually happen to have the detailed breakdown of the overall figures ready to hand. The nervous began to relax again. Our Noble Leader firmly reminded all the nameless defaulters that "England expects..." You all know the rest, don t you! Change of subject. When is this year s model railway exhibition at Wagga Wagga anyone know? No response. Is there going to be one this year? Still no response. Well, if anyone hears anything, do let our Indefatigable Leader know. The exhibition at Bungendore is now being held on October, which clashes with the planned date for our Div 2 meeting at Brian & Fran Thomas s place. Can we possibly change our meeting date? The well organised Fran consulted her diary and on the spot gave us a fresh date of Sat 12 Oct (got that, everyone?) already with the full approval of the Thomas Ministry for Domestic Affairs. With the available in June advertisement still ringing in our ears, Rob Anderson was cheerfully asked if he had any announcement to make about his long awaited VR R Class loco. The short answer was No! The longer answer was Don t mention the R Class! Oops! The look on Rob s face indicated an even longer response that I m sure would have been unprintable. Sorry, Rob. Rob about to cry at the latest slippage in his R class delivery Show & Tell Our other Rob, Nesbitt that is, advised of the DVD set of all National Continued on page 2)

2 Geographic magazines from 1888 to 2009 currently available in small quantities in Australia Post offices for only $30. Rob found the 1950s advertisements for American railroads particularly interesting, often varying from month to month. Of special interest were advertisements for such items as the Cleveland & Ohio RR in 1890 and for Lionel Lines. The search facility for this DVD set works quite well. To illustrate this, Rob called up the National Geographic on his laptop computer and demonstrated a search on items requested by the audience. Fran Thomas showed us the O scale weeping willow tree she has handmade for a friend in Sydney who needed a feature tree near a pond. Fran had started with a branch framework from a tumbleweed of a type found on roads in South Australia. Tough, flexible and durable, this makes an ideal frame from which the hanging foliage is suspended. Fran has built this tree with a show side to be viewed from in front of the layout. From the front, you can t tell that this magnificent tree only has a viewing side. The non-show side at the back reveals just how this tree was meticulously assembled. Most impressed, several of us rushed to submit orders, but Fran waved them away. Sure the result is lovely, but the time taken prohibits mass production. Maybe a short cut is possible? Doodling as usual during meetings, John Bullen quietly sketched the local variety of weeping willow, commonly seen around Canberra, following the local government s eradication efforts. Good models of these are already available commercially and they re dirt cheap. Any more models for Show & Tell? No, not today, but out tumbled a veritable library of books instead. Graeme Hodges the First produced two intriguing modern reprints by Pranava Books of nineteenth century publications originally published in the Nelson s Pictorial Guide Books series. Rhymes of the Rockies, subtitled What the Poets Have Found to Say of the Beautiful Scenery on the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad is a collection of banal ballads in a flowery language that quite defies description. Much better to quote an example.. Oh, sacred mount with kingly crest Through tideless ether reaching The earth-world kneels to hear the prayer Thy dusky slopes are teaching, With mystic glow on sunset eyes All trembling lie thy blood-red leaves, Their silken veins with gold inwrought, Oh, glorious is thy world-wide thought The other volume is titled The Central Pacific Railroad : a Trip Across the North American Continent from Ogden to San Francisco. This presents the history of the railroad in fascinating fashion, in equally flowery language and illustrated by 19th century woodcuts. John Gillies showed us Take the Train to Town Volume 1, subtitled The Story of the Railroads of Bonner County, Idaho, 300 pages, written and published by Paul Rechnitzer in Using old newspaper clippings, artefacts and other published sources, this book covers the four pioneer railroads in this part of the Idaho Panhandle, beginning in Plenty of information here on the Northern Pacific, the Great Northern, the Spokane International Railway, and the Idaho & Washington Northern Railroad. John also showed us two publications from the AAR (Association of American Railroads). One was the "Field Manual of the AAR Interchange Rules" and the other was the TOFC/COFC Interchange Rules as shown in the accompanying photo. The Rules were adopted by the AAR Operations & Maintenance Department and published by the AAR. John has the 1977 version of the (Continued on page 3) 2

3 Office. See TT&TO was the principal system for dispatching trains on American railroads from the 1870s to the mid-1970s. It is now just as common on model railroads, so those who aspire to be serious operators need to understand TT&TO. Even if a model railway doesn t use TT&TO, the John Gillies book of Bonner County, Idaho (Continued from page 2) latter book. These two manuals contain a wealth of information on specifications and correct practice relating to American railroad freight interchange. It is prototypical documents such as these that help us model railroaders get a better feel for the way the prototype does business. Brad Hinton displayed his copy of 19 East, Copy Three, 160 pages, by David Sprau and Steve King, published by OPSIG in OPSIG is the NMRA s Operation Special Interest Group. Subtitled The Art and Practice of Timetable and Train Order Operations for the Railroad Historian and Modeler, this book is a compilation of Time Table and Train Order (TT&TO) articles written by the same authors that originally appeared in the OPSIG s magazine, The Dispatcher s concepts, definitions and procedures in this book give an understanding of how railroads actually run. The first part of the book, written by David Sprau, looks at operations from the perspective of a professional railroader. The second part, by Steve King, treats the subject from the model railway point of view. For the inexperienced, this is not a book for a quick read. Better to tackle just one chapter at a time and digest it slowly, possibly starting in Part II. The Main Show Brad Hinton briefed us on the NMRA Thousand Lakes Regional Convention which he attended in Minneapolis earlier this year. There were about 130 participants, which is only slightly larger than the attendance at the NMRA Australasian Regional Convention at Niagara Park last year. There were no commercial stands at the Minneapolis convention, but there were about 30 local layouts that could be visited, together with 3 prototype rail tours. Presentations outnumbered the clinics and no ladies programme was offered. Brad gave us details of what was done at this convention and showed us examples of the information handed out to participants. His talk was well illustrated with photos and other information presented on the TV screen. With our own NMRA AR Convention coming up in Canberra only two months away, there was a lot of very (Continued on page 4) 3

4 (Continued from page 3) useful study material presented here for those who may not yet have realised that they are about to volunteer to help run it. This valuable field reconnaissance by Brad could not have been better timed. Thanks Brad for nobly bearing the cost of an overseas trip from which we all have benefited. z Wasn t me Wasn t me either 4

5 National Model Railroaders Association Australasian Region Division 2 ACT From the Editor: A short month this time. As John states in the meeting write-up, Brad s talk was most timely, presenting as it did an American NMRA Regional Convention. Some good ideas and some very good ideas, all to be followed up by our own Convention committee. I d like to commend Gerry Hopkins efforts on the NMRA website, with a little rearrangement, and with ALL of the Mainlines now available there, all the way back to Well done Gerry. And did you all notice the Paint Chart in the latest Infonet , listing a large number of Floquil equivalents (or very near) now that Floquil is going off the market. Definitely worth keeping. Viv div2sup@nmra.org.au Bringing model railroading to you News Next meeting will be at John Bullen s home in Weston on Saturday, 29 June when he will give us a talk on the Orient Express. The 2013 Convention here in the ACT will be held 21/22 September Called Canberra Rail 2013, it will be held in the University of Canberra High School Kaleen (was the Kaleen High School). Disclaimer: Any resemblance between characters in this newsletter and real model railroaders is purely intentional but no offence whatever is intended. Only the facts may have been altered to protect the guilty. Every reader has the right of reply and we look forward to publishing them! 18.4 x 13.6 (by Viv Brice) SA Wheat train arriving Junee, 9 February Tbfpmox # 5 #