January 2014 Upcoming Events: Open Layout December 21 12-8 PM December 22 12-4 PM Ed Morse & Diane Thomas 4301 Edenbury Dr Santa Maria (805) 868-5362 Battery Power Only No lunch January 4 11 AM Sal & Deborah Mele Santa Barbara (805) 964-8236 Track and Battery Power Eggliner Racing 1 PM Please bring: A-G Appetizers H-O Salads P-Z Desserts February 1 Olmstead (new date) March 29 Siegels April 5 Bryie April 26 Morgan Mele's meet Directions and map omitted from on line edition. Please call meet host for directions. Open Layout This Weekend Ed Morse and Diane Thomas are having an open house, or open layout, this weekend. The public is invited, so you can bring something to run, but there won't be any lunch break. They are hoping for a good crowd, and could use some volunteers to help run trains and generally keep an eye on things. As if that weren't enough, there are also two loops of track. One is a logging line with steep grades and sharp curves. The other is flatter, with easier curves. There are some standard size truss bridges, so the vertical clearance is about 9 or 10 inches. The reason for having their meet so early in the year is that Deborah would like to have a birthday party for everyone born from December 25 to January 6. If that is you, she would like to know about it before the meet. Sal & Deborah Mele's Walnut Line We open the year at one of the most interesting layouts anywhere, so if you are planning your first layout, there is plenty to learn here. So, what makes it so good? Well, it is a reasonable size, but it has a lot of interesting features packed into it. It has real water, a working drawbridge, a working cable car, a circus, and a working volcano. Deborah would be very pleased if you thought it was real lava, even though that is pretty unlikely, given the geology of the area. You'll just have to come and see it for yourself. There are also lots of interesting buildings, many with moving parts and sound effects. Some of the buildings are truly one of a kind, such as the ball bearing mill, and Nikola Tesla's lab. A large machine tool Future Meets and Members We are in excellent shape for 2014; with meets scheduled for every month except July. What we need are members to show up and run trains and eat great food and generally have a wonderful time. Although a lot of people have renewed, a lot are still putting it off. This is your nextto-last reminder to renew for 2014. As before, if you are getting the hard copy newsletter, check the mailing label on the back page. If it says December 2013, it's time to renew. If you are getting the emailed newsletter, check the cover letter for the expiration date. Sal's model of Tesla's Lab
_.~,...;;... PO;;;::ii'T _~..,. -. ~- ED's GARDEN RAILROAD OPEN Dee 21st Saturday 12pm-8pm Dee 22 Sunday 12pm-4pm Weather Permitting 4301 EDENBURY DR SANTA MARIA (ORCUTT), CA. 93455 Phone 805-868-5362 I From Hwy 101 take the new Union Valley Parkway Exit West all the way to Blosser Road (dead ends) Turn left, onto Blosser. Turn left at next left which is Foxenwood You are there- ED'S HOUSEIS LOCATED on the right AT CORNEROF FOXENWOODAND EDENBURY Merry Christmas
Locomotives For Sale The leader of the project is Wes Easley. Wes has been laying track and running trains for many years, but has never had what he considers a permanent layout. Marc Iacobucci wants to sell his Dash 8s and buy something else. Marc says: "FOR SALE is 2 Union Pacific Dash 8 locomotives(mth 1:32 scale). If you are into realistic modern diesel operations, this ready to run set is for you. It is in "like-new" condition and includes 2 MTH Dash 8s and MTH's DCS system. There is a TIU decoder, 6 Nickel Metal Hydride Battery packs, a Smart Charger for the batteries that cuts off at full charge, Proto Sound 2.0 with smoke and lights in both locomotives, a DCS throttle with scale mph increments and a Rio Grande boxcar(mth 1:32 scale, which holds the TIU decoder). Also included for FREE is a Union Pacific Reefer car(mth 1:32 scale). Everything in this set is in like new condition and works great. THIS SET IS TRULY READY TO RUN AND IS ALREADY INSTALLED(installation was by Gary Raymond)!! If you have any questions or would like to test run the set please call Marc Iacobucci at (805)845-2021. SALE PRICE is $1,295.00 There are 14 loops of track of various lengths, all but two are G scale.. Some have scenery in the form of buildings, people and animals, others do not. One track has a scene from the movie The Nightmare Before Christmas. Most of the rest are more Christmas-y. New this year is more Thomas and Friends,as that is what the kids want to see anyway. UP 4014 Update Santa Sightings The 4014 has been moved across the Fairplex parking lot to the Metrolink station, which doesn't sound like much, but it is nearly a mile. They have agreed to move in an SD45,a reefer, and caboose in exchange. The UP would like to move the Big Boy out, and the new stuff all in one move, which makes sense, but the SD45 has to be painted first, so the rest of the move is now tentatively scheduled for the middle of December. After that, it will be moved to Colton for some minor work, and will be on public display. The move over Tehachapi Pass is tentatively scheduled for mid January, and the UP says it will be advertised in advance so lots of people can go and watch. Santa Claus was recently spotted trying out some new (to him) technology. I don't think I will be the one to explain to him that narrow gauge hasn't been state of the art in more than a hundred years, if it ever was. Although, the complete lack of visible controls would suggest that he is using some method of psychic control, so maybe the old guy is more up to date than it would seem. Holiday Train Display in Santa Paula The Odd Fellows Hall in Santa Paula is hosting its 6 th annual Holiday Train Display. It will be open Fridays 6 to 9 PM, Saturdays 1 to 7 PM and Sundays 11 AM to 4 PM through December 29th. It is $3 for adults, less for kids. It's on the second floor at 868 Main St. There is an elevator in the back entrance which is in the alley. This would appear to be a very early test run, and he hasn't quite gotten the hang of it all, as he doesn't seem to know what to do with his hands. Also, more and larger cars would probably be useful considering the number of deliveries to be made.. But that is what prototypes are for.... NINE...
Georges & Marie Arseneault's Meet We had some very unseasonable Santa Ana winds which blew whole trains off the track, and kept others from running at all. But it was a good crowd anyway. The dinner and party were the hit of the social season. We only needed one policeman, although he was there the whole time. If you weren't there, too bad for you. boards that all ran very well but had some problems with all the twigs that kept being blown onto the tracks by the wind. Jim Eldridge ran his RS3 and a sort string of cars that kept blowing over in the wind. John Whitaker ran a tiny hand car and trailer. Charlie Richard brought his Lionel Atlantic and several cars. I brought some LGB Santas in various hand cars, propeller driven rides and Doc Riese ran his U25B completely Snoopy and Woodstock riding surf uneventfully. Ed Morse brought the Aristo Pan Am Railways SD45 that was too good a price to pass up. He is going to repaint it in SP colors. Ed also ran Diane's battery powered Eggliner with two cars in tow. Collin Westphal spent the day piloting George's 1:12 ride on train around. Thanks to Kim Whitaker for all of the indoor pictures, and most of the outdoor group shots. And thanks to Georges and Marie for volunteering to host the holiday party.
Year End Updates From Our Out of Town Members Paul and Christine Jennings are members who live in Peterborough, England. Long time members will recall all the articles on Paul's steamroller a few years back. He also volunteers at the Nene Valley heritage railroad, where he is an engineer on their steam locomotives. Paul used to work for the local water agency, but has gone into the private sector in the last year. Paul writes to fill us in on what they have been up to all year. Paul wrote in mid November: Hi Gary, I haven t retired fully just work 4 days a week for a company that services private pumping stations for people not on a main sewer, do a lot of traveling as some of them are a couple of hundred miles away, I'm finding out how the other half lives. Was going to try and leave the buildings out on the railway this winter but put them away last weekend before our worst storm for 24 years was due to hit Southern England but we got off lightly with no damage. It s a lot rougher tonight as I write this. We had a garden meet July 29th. We had about a dozen people only one, John Jarman, brought one complete train to run; the others were happy to run my engines and rolling stock. Very lucky with the weather not too hot and no rain. Everybody said what an enjoyable afternoon they had. Took the camera today down to the Nene Valley to photograph Tornado. Started work on another project greasing a machine then hands were to dirty to use camera, Hoping to nip down early tomorrow to get some pictures. Managed to fall off a pavement and twist my ankle last Friday and today the same ankle let me down while I was down Nene Valley and managed to cut the back of my head open. This falling over lark don t go down so well as you get older. A couple of times last year at Nene Valley at Wansford we did a demonstration of Garden Railways and decided over the winter that we would build a permanent Garden Railway at Wansford. We kept it simple with two independent loops and we generally run Thomas and his Friends most weekends. We run proper trains at special weekends like Gala Weekend and Diesel weekend etc we have collected money that has paid for all the Bachmann and Thomas characters and buildings. We had an official open day by an Author who writes childrens' railway books. Had my annual week at the Great Dorset Steam Fair end August beginning September. No mud this year very dry and dusty. It was the worlds greatest gathering of steamrollers at least 120. Unfortunately ours wasn't one of them. We didn t get out and about with it very early this year. We have replaced the roof on it only done three shows this year. Sending pictures of our Garden meet and the Garden Railway at Wansford and if I manage to get some of Tornado tomorrow will send separately. Hopefully come to one of your garden meets in the future. Regards, Paul Thanks, Paul. The first three pictures are from his summer meet, the next three are from Warsford, this one is the Tornado.
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 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.