THE SIGNAL BRIDGE PHOTO CONTEST WINNERS

Transcription

1 Volume 16 NEWSLETTER OF THE MOUNTAIN EMPIRE MODEL RAILROADERS CLUB Number 5 MAY 2009 ISSUE From the Conductor s Desk CLUB OFFICERS PHOTO CONTEST WINNERS President: Fred Alsop Vice-President: John Carter Secretary: Art Daniels Treasurer: Duane Swank Newsletter Editor: Ted Bleck-Doran Webmaster: John Edwards LOCATION ETSU Campus, George L. Carter Museum THE SIGNAL BRIDGE HOURS Business Meetings are held the 3 rd Tuesday of each month. Meetings start at 7:00 PM at ETSU Campus, Brown Hall Science Bldg, Room 312, Johnson City, TN. Above is the Second Place Winner: Titan of the Timber by Christy A. Rabetoy. It Features Western Maryland Shay No. 6 at the bridge over Shavers Fork near MP 77. Below is the First Place Winner: Wilmington & Western Double-Headed by Geoff Stunkard. - A social gathering is held prior to the business meeting at EL TORITO on State of Franklin near ETSU in the Kroger Plaza starting at 5:45 PM. Visitors and those interested in joining MEMRR are invited to attend. - Work nights are held weekly on Thursday evenings starting at 4:30 PM and lasting until??? - Open viewing and operating layout is available every Saturday from 10:00 AM until 3:00 PM.

2 THE SIGNAL BRIDGE MAY 2009 Pg. 2 MOUNTAIN EMPIRE MODEL RAILROAD CLUB MINUTES OF THE MEETING APRIL 21, 2009 Call to Order and Recognition of New Members Fred Alsop called the meeting to order at 7:00 PM. There were no new members present. Officers Reports: Secretary s Report: The Minutes for the March Meeting were approved as previously submitted by Art Daniels and published in the Signal Bridge. Newsletter Editor s Report: Ted Bleck-Doran was not present. Fred Alsop commented upon the Photo Presentation Article and the Weathering Article, both of which appeared in the April Signal Bridge. Treasurer s Report: Duane Swank presented details of the financial status of the club treasury, reflecting the increased revenues and balances available due to the increased membership in recent months. Webmaster s Report: John Edwards reported that the club and museum websites were fully functional with no issues reported. Vice President s Report: John Carter reported upon upcoming programs for the monthly meetings in May, June, and July. John Carter will present the May program with a workshop on model railroad track. Jim Millhorn will do the June & July workshops on airbrush painting techniques. The July painting program presentation will be moved to the museum after the business meeting to provide necessary facilities. President s Report: Fred Alsop reported upon renovation progress in the new museum rooms. The children s room is nearly complete and the new display room is expected to be complete by mid-may. Old Business: The special-run Accurail Interstate Hoppers have been delivered and are available for pickup by members who pre-ordered these cars. The club purchased an additional 19 Black and 2 Yellow cars to balance the runs and these cars are available for sale to members at the prices of $11.50 each for the Black car and $12.50 each for the Yellow car. Duane Swank has the cars and will sell them to members on a first-come basis. The 1 st Club Photo Contest was a success. The 1 st winner, 3 rd Place, was announced in the April Newsletter, with other winners to be announced in subsequent newsletters. There will likely be additional future contests with varying themes. The Museum has obtained a new computer and printer-scanner from the university. John Edwards reported that all needed software has been loaded and that the system functions as needed. John Carter has researched costs of having the museum promoted locally via an electric billboard. This information will be provided to the university in the event that the university wishes to fund such a promotion. New Business: Fred Alsop reported highlights of Bob Barrett s memo to the club outlining HobbyTownUSA s discount policies for purchases by the club and by club members. Discussion centered on the value of having a well-stocked local hobby shop and the need to provide support through purchases at the shop. Fred Alsop reported upon his initial contacts with Greg Soots, President of the Southern Railway Historical Association, regarding the Association s plans for a mid-october 2009 meeting at the Bristol Train Station. More details will be forthcoming regarding the opportunity for the club and museum to participate in this activity. The MEMRR is being asked to have the Carter RR Museum open on Friday evening, 16 October, for the SRHA meeting. Fred Alsop introduced the need for the club to support the relocation to the museum of the HO Layout being donated by Gary Rabetoy and the opportunity to acquire additional display equipment being donated by Bob Barrett of HobbyTown. Completion of both activities must await completion of the renovation work mentioned earlier in these Minutes. A potential moving date for the Rabetoy layout is Thursday, May 21st, with final dates for both moves to be determined. Support from club members is needed to accomplish both tasks. Gary Cameron reported upon his conversation with Tom McGee, who has graciously offered to host a club social event at his residence on Boone Lake sometime during the summer. Dates convenient to Tom will be determined and a club social event will be planned accordingly. John Carter made a motion for the club to purchase and Ott Light/Magnifier unit. Discussion about the lack of need for such a unit resulted in the motion being withdrawn. John Edwards mentioned the possible future purchase of a Digitraxx Zephyr unit for use in programming locomotives which do not respond properly to present programming capabilities. Allen Morton made a motion, seconded by Rich Gallaher, to have the club issue a one-year honorary membership to Dewey Roland, one of the original founders of the club. The motion was approved. Layout Reports: N-Scale: Tod Eaton reported upon significant progress made to improve wiring throughout the layout, which has resulted in smoother running of longer consists at more prototypical speeds. Trackwork still needs major renovation, which can proceed as members are able to devote time to these efforts. A quantity of flex track has been donated to the museum for this effort. HO-Scale: John Edwards reported that all supplies needed to rewire the layout have arrived and that work needs to commence on this effort. Fred Alsop reported that the Roundhouse construction is nearly complete. Fred also mentioned the possibility of using the old DCC System on the Rabetoy layout and that the club needs to develop a plan for theme and scenery for the Rabetoy layout. G-Scale: No specific report on the G-Scale layout, which is running satisfactorily. Other Items:

3 THE SIGNAL BRIDGE MAY 2009 Pg. 3 The volunteer schedule was set for the next several weeks. The date for the May meeting was confirmed to be May 19 th. The April DVD Program on The Cumbres and Toltec Colorado Narrow Gauge Railroad was presented by Larry Fraser. The meeting was adjourned by Fred Alsop following the program at approximately 9:15 p.m. Minutes complied and respectfully submitted April 22, 2009 by Arthur T. Daniels, MEMRR Secretary THE VIEW FROM THE ENGINEER S SIDE OF THE CAB: By the time you are reading this edition of The Signal Bridge the environment at ETSU will have changed considerably. The Academic Year will have ended, some students will be in summer classes, but there will be plenty of parking places on campus until the 3 rd week of August as most of the students and many of the faculty will be elsewhere. If you have been missing meetings or Thursday night work sessions because you thought you could not find a place to park; this is your time so come on down, join in the fun and see what you have been missing. The renovation of our two new rooms is now completed by the University and we are already beginning projects to bring them up to museum quality with exhibits in one and a Little Engineers Play Room (LEPR) in another. Dollywood has donated a G-scale package of locomotives, rolling stock, track, wiring and power packs that will be used in the LEPR as a running exhibit circling the room near the ceiling. Some of our MEMRR members already have that project underway and if you want to be involved with this project we have room for more helping hands. We will be making plans to move Gary Rabetoy s donated HO & HOn3 layout to its new home in room 100B at the next club meeting. The designated moving date is set for Thursday, May 21 st, and we will need some help with that undertaking as well. Once it is in place in the museum room we will need an interested group to begin to plan to make this operating exhibit resemble some of the Southern RR and E.T.& W.N.C (Tweetsie). If you have ideas and the interest this may be the layout for you. As soon as Bob Barrett of our local HobbyTownUSA can get them in position to transport we will be moving several (4 or perhaps 5) glass fronted display cases, each about 4 feet long, from his storage area into this same room of the museum. I hope a number of items from the collection of Mr. Ken Marsh, Kingsport, a sponsor of that particular room will be displayed in some of these cases. Later in the year, probably in the fall, we will be dedicating both rooms as we open them to the public. Tom McKee and his wife, Carolyn, have invited the MEMRR to a picnic at their home on Boone Lake to enjoy a meal and fellowship together and to see his garden G-scale layouts in operation including some live steam. The club picnic will be on Saturday, June 27 th, beginning around 5:00 p.m. Mr & Mrs McKee will be furnishing everything for the picnic. All we have to do is give them advance notice of how many members to expect. Since they are furnishing the food, this picnic is for members only, not for any members of our families who are non-members (This might be a good time to add family members to your membership at only $5/person). The Club and the Carter RR Museum wish to thank the McKees for their invitation and their generous offer of southern hospitality. The custom painted and built Interstate RR 50 ton hopper kits have arrived and been distributed to those who ordered them at the last club meeting. The club had ordered a few extras and though some of them have already been purchased there are still a few for sale from the club treasurer, Duane Swank. Contact him if you are interested. We also have engineer s hats with club/museum patches on them, and the patches as separate items for sale (patches are $2.50 for members), and you can order a club logo shirt in several styles from the treasurer as well. The MEMRR has been purchasing the Dream, Plan, Build DVD series from Kalmbach Publishing Company (they publish Model Railroader and many how-to-do-it model railroad books) since the series began. Copies of these DVDs are available for checkout and viewing to members. They are stored in the small workroom in a cabinet just behind the curtain off the main museum gallery. All we ask of members is to check them out on the forms provided for that purpose, not to keep them out of circulation for too long a couple of weeks or so, and to please bring them back and check them in when you are finished viewing them. Currently, we have several copies that are missing and that were not signed out. If you have one, or more, of the club s copies at home, please return it/them ASAP, and if you have not been aware that this service is available to you, you may want to check out one or more real soon and see what they have to offer you. The newsletter editor, Ted Bleck-Doran, often reviews the newest releases in The Signal Bridge so you can look at a back issue or two of the newsletter and find out more about these interesting and educational DVDs. Well, it finally looks like summer is finally just around the corner. There are lots of large and small building projects going on in the museum and plenty of opportunities to get involved in and to lend your modeling skills to the group effort, or learn some new ones of your own by working with a great bunch of guys and gals on the hobby of model railroading. Don t have a layout or a module? We have plenty of real estate you can claim a part of and lend a hand on. Just drop by and ask us what needs to be done. It s time to take the snowplows off the fronts of the locomotives and move on down the line. Come join us! It s a great model railroad club. JOIN THE FUN THURSDAYS ARE WORK NIGHTS THE CREW GATHERS BEGINNING AT 5:30 OR SO COME WORK ON THE LAYOUTS - OR - SATURDAYS WE ARE OPEN TO THE PUBLIC - GET IN THE ACTION AND RUN SOME TRAINS; WE ARE OPEN 10 AM UNTIL 3 PM - THERE S ALWAYS SOMETHING TO LEARN SEE OR DO IN N Gauge G Gauge and HO

4 THE SIGNAL BRIDGE MAY 2009 Pg. 4 ISTORIC NAME TRAINS: ILLINOIS CENTRAL S PANAMA LIMITED AND CITY OF NEW ORLEANS The Panama Limited was a premier all-pullman car service between Chicago, Illinois and New Orleans, Louisiana. For most of the trains' history a St. Louis section also operated between St. Louis, Missouri and Carbondale, Illinois where it connected to the main train. The Panama Limited was operated until the advent of Amtrak in 1971 by the Illinois Central Railroad and by Amtrak until The train ran on an overnight schedule between Chicago's Central Station, St. Louis Union Station and New Orleans Union Station (replaced in 1954 by the current New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal. At various times during the history of the train it also carried through sleepers for connections to Gulfport, Mississippi, Little Rock and Hot Springs, Arkansas and San Antonio, Texas. The train, which commenced service on February 4, 1911, replaced an earlier train, the Chicago and New Orleans Limited and was named in honor of the anticipated opening of the Panama Canal. to 23 hours, and in keeping with its luxury status the Illinois Central charged an extra fare. The train was temporarily discontinued between 1932 and 1935 due to low ridership during the great depression. On December 2, 1935 service was resumed with upgraded, air-conditioned equipment on an 18 hour schedule. After 1935, it ran as Illinois Central train 5/105 southbound from Chicago/St. Louis and 6/16 northbound until Streamliner The Panama Limited was streamlined in The United States War Department allowed delivery of the new lightweight equipment by Pullman-Standard, the builder, because the construction of the train-sets were nearly completed. It was the last delivery of passenger equipment for any railroad until the end of World War II. The first diesel/electric-powered streamlined run of the Panama was inaugurated on May 1, 1942 on an 18 hour schedule. For the duration of the War the Illinois Central dropped The first Panama Limited ran as train numbers 3 northbound and 4 southbound carrying only sleepers, dining and lounge cars between Chicago and Memphis and adding coaches south of Memphis. In 1912 the train was replaced with an all-steel, all electric, all-pullman consist for its entire route. On September 15, 1916 the Panama Limited was again upgraded with new steel equipment. The train was renumbered as 7 northbound and 8 southbound with the earlier numbers re-assigned to a slower companion, the Louisiane. The Panama's schedule was reduced the extra fare. Following World War II the schedule was reduced to 16 hours, 30 minutes and again charged the extra fare. The Panama Limited maintained a high level of service until the Amtrak era, ranking it among the nations' finest trains. It was noted particularly for its dining car service, employing a first rate culinary staff and offering creole fare in the Vieux Carre-themed dining cars, a service which the Illinois Central marketed heavily. A well-known multi-course meal service on the Panama Limited was the 'Kings Dinner', which was on the menu for approx. (note

5 THE SIGNAL BRIDGE MAY 2009 Pg. 5 that other deluxe, complete meals such as steak or lobster, including wine or cocktail, were typically priced around $4-$5 at that time). In 1952 the Illinois Central acquired several 2-unit 175-foot (53 m) dining cars from the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad which it used for operation on the Panama to further promote this service. Along with the Pennsylvania's Broadway Limited it was the among the last two "all-pullman" trains in the United States. 1960s and early 1970s called itself Panama Limited Jug Band, later shortened to Panama Limited. Chronology 1856: Illinois Central Railroad Chicago - Cairo completed, connecting with Blue Line steamers to New Orleans. 1873: Trains Chicago - New Orleans, ferried across the Ohio River until completion of the bridge in : The Chicago & New Orleans Limited was renamed Panama Limited. 1916: Panama Limited an all-sleeper Pullman 1932: Panama Limited discontinued until Dec : Panama Limited an all-sleeper streamliner. 1971: Amtrak saved passenger train services, Panama Limited later renamed City of New Orleans, including coaches. In 1967, due to losses incurred by the operation of the train, the Illinois Central combined it with a coach-only train called the Magnolia Star. After 1970 the separate designation of Magnolia Star was dropped from the timetable and Illinois Central discontinued the St. Louis section of the Panama Limited, replacing it with a connecting bus service between St. Louis and Carbondale. Amtrak Service The final day of operation of the Panama Limited by the Illinois Central Railroad took place on 30 April On May 1, 1971, Amtrak took over the operation of the service, but dropped the name in 1974 in favor of that belonging to the City of New Orleans, which during the days of the Illinois Central operations was the daytime equivalent (chair cars only) of the Panama Limited. The name change was made due the popularity of a hit song performed by Arlo Guthrie, recorded in 1972, which called attention to the route. The folksinger Tom Rush previously honored the train with the song "Panama Limited", adapted from a blues tradition of train songs. Also, a British band of the late Panama Limited Chicago - New Orleans, Illinois Central, winter 1963 (according to Arthur D. Dubin): colors: orange/yellow/brown 2 diesels GM-EMD, E group 1 mail 4 sleeping cars 1 club lounge 1 twin-unit diner 2 sleeping cars 1 parlor car 1 sleeper, observation lounge From Wikipedia, Vintage Postcards and trains-worldexpresse

6 THE SIGNAL BRIDGE MAY 2009 Pg. 6 Date MEMRR Member Name Total $ Merchandise with MEMRR Embroidered Logo Quantities POLO SHIRTS Small $18 2 Total Paid Delivered SWEAT SHIRTS Small $15 2 Total Paid Delivered T-SHIRTS (short sleeve) Sm. $ Total Paid Delivered T-SHIRTS (long sleeve) Small $12 2 Total Paid Delivered HATS (with club logo for members only) = $11.00 each Total Paid Delivered Quantity GIVE ORDER FORM to: Duane Swank MAKE CHECKS PAYABLE TO: MEMRR Chicago, Aurora, and Elgin New Video in the Club Library: Chicago Aurora And Elgin Sunday River Productions America in the 1950s comes to life in this portrait of a well-loved interurban line which linked the bustle of Chicago with the quiet of the Illinois prairie towns. Two major lines are covered almost in their entirety, from trackside and from the cab. Trains dating back to the early 1900s burn up the Illinois countryside at speeds which rival those of modern day rapid transit. This feature is an important historic record, but also an ode to a time when life in America was a little slower and a little sweeter. Film by Frank Pfuhler. I was especially struck with the Chicago- Aurora segment. It is wonderful in its detail and comprehensive presentation of the line. It is one of those special tapes that I will cherish...this is a prime example of what video tapes can do at their best. I applaud your contribution. Donald K. Kaplan, Kensington, CA