Upcoming Events: May 2014 Saturday May 3 11AM Gary & Cathy Raymond Thousand Oaks (805) 492-5858 1:32 Battery Power Only Please bring: A-G Desserts H-O Appetizers P-Z Salads Saturday May 10 National Train Day Santa Barbara Amtrak Saturday May 17 11 AM Bob & Rochelle Hahn Ventura (805) 648-2282 Track and Battery Power Eggliner Racing Please bring: A-G Appetizers H-O Salads P-Z Desserts June 7 Siegel's Parkinsons Assoc Fundraiser June 14 Morse June 21 OPS June 28 Power Raymond Meet This month we will start at the home of Gary and Cathy Raymond. On the 10th, there will be quite a lot of action at the Santa Barbara Amtrak station, including Art Sylvester with his portable layout. Their layout is #1 scale (1:32) only with 11 1/2 foot radius curves, no grades to speak of, and no bridges or tunnels. It is raised to 57 inches above the ground. Or, you could try something a bit farther afield. Say,the San Luis Obispo Railroad Museum. Or Railtown 1897 Historic Park near Jamestown CA. Gary sez: Please bring any 1:32 standard gauge equipment you'd like to run that is battery powered and RC. All equipment wheel sets should conform to the NMRA and B1MRA back to back semi-scale standard of 1.575 inches (40 mm). Hahn Meet Thanks Gary. You know, raising a layout to nearly eye level certainly gives a different perspective on the trains. It isn't just like standing beside the track, you ARE standing beside the track. Luckily, Gary's track work is excellent, so you won't have to worry about being crushed by a derailment. National Train Day May 10 The good news is that for 2014 the NTD finally has a decent web site, and even a Facebook page. LA Union Station will have its celebration a week before to coincide with the 75th anniversary of the opening of Raymond's Meet: Union Station. Directions and map omitted from on line edition. Please call meet host for directions. Raymond meet, 2013 We finish May by visiting Bob & Rochelle Hahn's Rocky Top RR in Ventura. It has many one of a kind features, including an overhead loop with brilliantly painted bridges. There are also three loops at about waist level. The outer loop has 20 foot diameter curves, and easy grades. The others have tighter curves and one has a couple of grades, but nothing to worry about. There are also two streams, a lake, a mountain, and a town. No description of this layout would be complete without mentioning Rochelle's plants and structures. She has a real eye for attractive plants, and her wonderful figures and imaginative structures bring the layout to life even when there aren't any trains going by. Map and directions on page 2.
All Aboard!! I'm attaching a favorite photo that a friend took of us a few David Eldridge years ago during a 'behind the scenes' visit to the Knott's Berry Farm railroad. Please welcome our newest member, David Eldridge of Goleta. David did not respond to an email before the newsletter went out, so the only thing I know about him is that Jim Eldridge says they are not closely related. Thanks, Gary, and we look forward to seeing both of you. Gary Woolard and Carla Breitner It's not too early to think about volunteering for this very worthwhile event. Marilyn would like to have some Eggliner action on the new layout. If you have an Eggliner and would be able to spend a few hours watching it go around and talking to a lot of very nice people about Eggliners, and trains and garden railroads and whatever else comes up, contact Gary or Marilyn Siegel at (805) 969-7687 Oops, sorry, David; please welcome our newest new members, Gary Woolard and Carla Breitner of West Hills. West Hills, not to be confused with Woodland Hills, is wedged between Canoga Park and the Ventura County line. I met Gary on line when he published a load of photos that Carla took of the 4014 move across the parking lot at Pomona. They very graciously allowed me to reprint them in the March issue and then decided to join our group. Gary says: Carla & I saw our first garden railroad sometime late in the last century, and then attended our first 'Big Train Show' at the Queen Mary. Immediately interested, we started attending open houses, conventions, and train shows, and have been to hundreds of layouts in the last decade and a half. Carla's taken pictures at all of them, and we've posted many photo essays on MyLargescale.com. (Where I call myself a 'garden rail hobo', for obvious reasons!) Siegel's Parkinson Fundraiser June 7 Bridge Building Fever John Ryan sent a ton of pictures of a newly decorated layout. Decorated with bridges, that is. The question for you is, do you recognize the layout? There will be a much larger article, with lots more pictures in a future issue. In the meantime, I've designed and redrawn our backyard layout at least a half-dozen times, and even laid down test track several times. In the last several years I've become especially focused on the 'live steam' aspect of the hobby, and active in that community. I think I've finally designed a plan that fits the requirements of live steam, but also has room for the landscaping and modeling elements that we enjoy so much in a 'normal' garden railroad. Wish us luck!...five...
.Don & Linda Morgan's Meet It was windy enough again this year that you'd think we would have stayed off the exposed high line, and run only around the out-of-the-wind koi pond. You'd be wrong, though, as almost everyone couldn't resist the lure of that landscape that looks like a diorama. If there is a drawback to having a scene like that, it is that people don't pay enough attention to several other almost as photogenic scenes, such as the tunnel entrance on the west side, or the mill town and roundhouse inside the end loop. Don's lantern collection is threatening to take over his extensive train collection. John Lyans ran his gorgeous green K27 with rocks in the gondolas. And despite the resemblance to Paul Bunyan and his ox, that is really John in the picture at the top of the next page. which is an Eggliner chassis with a different superstructure. Bill Fincher capitalized on the recent fracking boom by bringing a brand new all Hartland oil train. Not having DOT 111A tank cars, he did stay on the line around the koi pond. Doc Riese ran his Ten Wheeler without any cars because the cars were too light for the wind. Ed Morse wants everyone to know that his Connie is from Aristo Craft; not Accucraft, as I seem to have said at one time before. It still looks great and runs very well. The trailing covered hopper car is full of batteries, so no wind problems here, either. Jim Eldridge ran his track powered GP9 without any cars to avoid the wind. Mark Goodman ran his Uintah Mallet with a box car full of batteries. Crazy Charlie Richard brought his Southern doodlebug, and Tankliner Randy Bryie's GP30 was pushing his video cam equipped flat car. But the big event for the day was the Eggliners. There were so many that they were hard to count, but there were well over a dozen; including some new ones. No group picture, unfortunately, although a crowd of photographers took a lot of pictures of them. I had nearly 100 pictures to choose from, so if your favorite isn't here, let me know and I can send it to you. Thanks to Bill Fincher, John Ryan and Kim Whitaker for contributing most of the pictures today. And thanks to Don and Linda for another terrific meet.
Dry Landscaping Lately there's been a lot of loose talk about water rationing. What might this mean for garden railroaders? Clearly, one course of action would be to retire to a shady spot with a frosty beverage or two (or six) and wait for wetter weather. Or we could be proactive, and adapt to changing circumstances. Here are a few ideas to get your creative juices flowing. One approach would be to model what the big guys are doing. For example, some local avocado growers are stumping out their entire orchard. The lack of top growth means they don't need nearly as much water for a couple of years, but obviously they also don't get any fruit, so they can only do this occasionally. The ones in the picture are about four feet tall, and one foot across. They are then painted white to avoid sunburn. Although you could cut down your nice miniature trees, a more cost effective approach would be to get some dead branches off real trees, and stick them in an open area. Or, how about a kare-sansui? Better known as a zen garden, they feature gravel in place of water and rugged volcanic rocks with sharp edges in place of mountains. Their original purpose was to help the viewer meditate about the true meaning of life, but who's to know if you use it to meditate about buying that new $9,000 Accucraft live steam Big Boy, and how is it really going look on ten foot radius curves? If your idea of California native plants is limited to chaparral, then you don't know native plants. For this a visit to Matilija Nurseries in Moorpark is recommended. It's open weird hours, and is way, way, way back up in a can-yon, but is well worth the trip. They have a number of native plants that stay small, have flowers, and don't need a lot of water once established. These two are yarrow, and chocolate plant. They have many other choices that have to be seen. For the nearly ultimate in low care plants, it's hard to beat sedum, also known as stonecrop. There are literally hundreds of varieties, and quite a few are just the right size for garden railroads. Beware, though, many others get too big and are too aggressive for our purposes. In addition to sedum, there is also silene, which is doing quite well in my yard. There are also hundreds of varieties; all seem to be small. Another family is Crassula, although this includes several varieties that are much too large for our purposes. Sedum, Silene and Crassula are all readily available. These came from Green Thumb in Ventura. For the absolute ultimate in low care, for an area that is in the back of your layout and just needs a mass of green, Michael's Arts and Crafts sells fake Christmas trees every fall. They vary quite a lot in how realistic they look, and in how well they hold up, but a week or ten days before Christmas their price drops to under $5, and they will last from a couple to several years outdoors. All of the trees in this photo are from Michael s and have frequently been mistaken for real trees. They come in a container that is only suitable for indoor use, so I take that off, stick the trunk into a two inch mini-pot, and fill the space around the trunk with concrete. The tree has to be supported until the concrete sets up; but it is able to withstand any sort of weather and soil conditions
GCGRS Membership Application Form Membership in the Gold Coast Garden Railway Society is open to anyone who is interested in outdoor model railroading. Dues are $20 per year to get a printed copy of the newsletter mailed to you; or $10 if you can take the newsletter via email. New members, please add $6 for each name tag that you want to have. Membership runs from January to December. Make checks payable to Bruce Kuebler for GCGRS. Newsletter: Gary Olmstead (805) 648-1770 garyolmstead@earthlink.net Membership: Bruce Kuebler (805) 649-3050 pbkuebler@sbcglobal.net Bring this application and payment to any meet, or mail it to: Bruce Kuebler 10908 Encino Dr Oak View CA 93022-9238 First Name Last Name: Spouse/Partner/Other(SPO) First Name: SPO Last Name, if different: Street Address City State Zip Home Phone: ( ) email: I enclose $20 because I love to receive a printed newsletter in the mail I enclose $10 because I want to get the newsletter two days earlier by email I also need name tags, so I have added $6 each Shipping and handling for name tags: $4 per order For new members: Would you like some help designing and/or building your layout? (Yes/No) If yes, what would you like help with? Gold Coast Garden Railway Society 10908 Encino Dr Oak View, CA 93022-9238 Meets: Jim Eldridge (818) 954-9809 sjeldridge@earthlink.net Webmaster: John Albin jtalbin@aol.com http://www.gcgrs.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/group s/145996342219253/ High Priestess of Facebook: Kim Whitaker whitdevelop@sbcglobal.net Please put GCGRS in the subject line of any correspondence.