Emerald Coast Garden Railway Club WFRM Emerald Coast ... · Emerald Coast Garden Railway Club WFRM - 2 - July - August - September 2012 with storing all of the loose chairs, trashcans

Emerald Coast Garden Railway Club WFRM

www.ecgrc.com - 1 - July - August - September 2012

July - August - September 2012 www.ECGRC.com Vol 2012-4

Hurricane Isaac Visit Well, Folks, little ole Isaac brewed and brewed then it wandered and wandered. Eventually, Isaac took its sights off of the Pensacola and Mobile area and headed into the New Orleans area. Whew!! Too close for comfort.

Page Contents 1 Hurricane Isaac Visit 2 President’s Message, Dothan Train Show 3 Dothan Train Show (cont'd) 4 Dothan Train Show (cont'd) 5 Heritage, Labor Day, Baldwin Fair 6 Friends of the Garden Workshop 7 Sneaky Gnomes Pop Up,

Tailgate Swap Meet, Train Shed Painting 8 Calendar Events, Health & Welfare 9 Birthdays/Anniversaries, Munson

Heritage Festival, Jay Cotton Festival

10 Garden RR Upgrades, Warehouse Down 11 4th of July, Revolution, Articles

Welcome

Our preparations for Isaac's arrival at the RR Museum were well planned with a hefty dose of Ivan's results back in September 2004. Isaac had a lot of similarities to Ivan and plans were put in motion to bolster the RR Museum accordingly. Sunday morning brought bad news that Pensacola was going to be ground zero for a Category 2 and concerns got into high gear. Monday brought a much more moderated forecast for the greater Pensacola area, thankfully. Our Monday morning preparations were limited to preparing for strong winds and no concerns about any sort of storm surge. Loose signs were taken down, trashcans secured inside the Freight House, Baggage Cart with sign from the front was rolled into the Baggage Room (tight fit at the ramp door). Also, on Monday, Ian Sinclair and Ed Dice were at the Jordan Lot Garden Railroad and did similar preparations

Emerald Coast Garden

Railway Club



with storing all of the loose chairs, trashcans and all of the tall buildings off of the Garden Railroad.

With all of the storm preparations done, Isaac came and went with no problems at the RR Museum. Not even a tree limb came down with all of the winds blowing. All in all, it was a good exercise of our hurricane plans. Friday, 31 August, was busy putting everything back in place. We forgot where the buildings and billboard signs went, but hopefully they got placed somewhere appropriate. Things were all up and running for the public at the Jordan Lot all weekend.

President's Message From the Club President, Jack Grill:

Dothan. There were fewer vendors and smaller crowds than at the past couple of shows. As far as we of the ECGRC are concerned, though, the Dothan show was a great success if success can be judged by the rapt attention of kids of all ages. We had our usual array of cartoon trains, chug chug chugging and kids watching themselves on my camera train. I know we often say we do this for the visitors (mostly kids), let's face it, we have a great time ourselves sitting around all day running trains and

shooting the breeze. As usual, Ed Dice did a fine job as planner and ramrod on this. Thanks Ed!

Baldwin County Fair. Ed has the lead on this one, also. Contact him if you would like to participate in our usual entertainment. If you can't help I hope you can at least come over and see what we've done and help make this fair a success. This could become a regular event for us. It will be nice to have something else that does not require overnight stays. See you there.

Dothan Train Show Another Dothan Train Show has come and gone. And a great time was had by all. The vendors seemed to do OK but not making a killing. There were five operating train layouts. PMRC had their HO, N, and Z scale modular layouts. Miracle Strip Model RR Club had their HO modular layout. And ECGRC had their G scale railroad on the floor in a 37'x40' area.



The set up went quickly on Friday. Upon arrival we got some extra space from the Wiregrass Model RR Club hosts and, most importantly, they left the air-conditioning on during the Friday set up - TERRIFICLY WONDERFUL AND ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC. And after unloading Andy's trailer and members' cars, we constructed a total of 7 tracks. That was with three large loops, the cloverleaf, two back-n-forths, and Jack's 30" diameter elevated circle. All got good attention from the grateful public.

Jack's tiny elevated circle & the other 6 tracks

The various trains all drew accolades from the public. Paul Weston's cartoon train got lots of finger pointing from both parents and kids. Jack's elevated circle was always noticed as was Jack's traveling video camera (always a crowd pleaser!).

Finger pointing at Paul's cartoon train

Andy Sloan's log train with its chugging steam locomotive was a crowd pleaser every time it ran.

Susan and Bob Cope's trains included Thomas and a nice freight train.

Bill and Steff ran their ACL train, too. Bill's brand new hobo in the boxcar got special attention from seller/artist David Kirkland's daughter, Sarah. She approved of Bill's work. Ed's M&M

train ran off and on during the show, including one special request from a little boy that it run once more.

Andy's log train and Ed's M&M train with admirers

Andy gave many kids the thrill of blowing the horn of his steam loco. Andy passed out lots and lots of the Club's little info cards with the Club's and Museum's website info. Tom Walkup's railroad clock punctuated the air with a rousing steam locomotive shrill and chugging at the top of each hour, when it could be heard over the din



of the train show. More than once that railroad clock got folks looking for where is that train making the noise?

Andy's loco whistle being blown by another kid

At several times, we had NINE trains running on the seven tracks. All thanks to the Revolution control systems. And also to short trains. No room for a 45-car train chasing its tail. We did get lots of variety and interest for the folks. The Dothan Train Show ended at 4 PM Sunday afternoon. Takedown and pack up commenced in

rapid succession. All trains and buildings safely packed

away. All tracks disassembled and wrapped up. Trailer was loaded and Andy was on his way at 5:45 PM. Rest of the folks followed Andy in short order. Ed left the building at 6:06 PM. Once again we were the last folks out of the building. Somehow everyone else sneaked away while we were not looking. Crafty folks.

The Wiregrass RR Club hosts invited us back again next year. They were very appreciative for all of our hard work and the running of the trains. The G railroad was the best train railroad for the kids to watch and enjoy. All of the other modular layouts were usually too high for the kids to enjoy without some help or near disasters from little grabbing hands trying to climb up to see the trains.

Regretfully, the measuring of the track laid down did not happen. Ed's initial estimate was 700' but back-at-home calculations using the latest mathematical technology including trigonometry, geometry, and a touch of those old quadratic equations, plus a smidgen of calculus. The final calculated amount of track laid was 526', but it did seem like more than that. Hmmmm!!!!! And we had the measuring wheel there, too.

Also, regretfully the old eye-sight was failing old Ed. His dirty glasses soaked with humidity and sweat kept him from seeing the Club banner in its big white tube.

Four searches of the Train Room were all unproductive. Yes, it was found safe and sound after Dothan. So we made do with one of Ed's banners. Thanks to all for a job well done, once again.


www.ECGRC.com ‐5‐ July – August – September 2012

Milton Heritage Tour The West Florida RR Museum is participating in the

Milton Heritage Tour. This is a joint effort including the

Arcadia Mill Archaeological Site, the Santa Rosa

Historical Society and also the Bagdad Village

Preservation Association. The tour is set for Saturday,

29 September 2012.

Freshly painted Train Shed at the Jordan Lot

The tour will move around the various sites. A box lunch

is being provided with the $20 tour package and that is

reported to be in the Diner Car at the RR Museum. So

expect to see cleanup activities as the time approaches.

Glad we have the new windows all done and in place.

And the bright lights in the Kitchen area are still working

fine (funded through the Gate Kitty at the Jordan Lot).

So, get things spiffed up again. We got company

coming. Wash the Train Shed windows. Shake out the

carpets. Chase out the critters. Sweep away the

cobwebs. It's Show Time!!!!

Labor Day Work Party Some of the guys labored a bit at the Jordan Lot Garden Railroad this past Labor Day 2012. Keith Rapley did some ballasting of Loop #1 mainline using the heavy gravel and newly acquired chicken grit. Frank Paine, Orlando Gomez and Ed Dice did some prep work for the

siding control switch boxes mounting. Both of those tall poles have been cut down to size. [Note to self: Next time, bring bigger saw!] And one of the mounting

platforms has been started, at least until the space age drill battery gave out. [Thanks, Neil Armstrong and all of the rocket scientists.] Jim Campbell showed up after he dodged all of the tropical showers left over from

Isaac. Jim did a little brush work and was measuring spaces for another building or two in the petroleum industrial area.

Paul Karczewski stopped by with pictures of his 7‐1/2" track construction and the huge driveway recently paved with some of that chewed up asphalt that the road crews grinded up off of Hwy 90. Looks great. And the 500 feet of 7‐1/2" track is piling up ready to be installed soon.

Frank, Jim and Ed adjourned to Arby's for lunch. It was nice and cool there, as long as you dodged the dripping air‐conditioning vents in the table area.

Progress is being made at the Jordan Lot Garden Railroad. And have no worry, we did not get it all done. So there is still plenty of things for folks to do yet ‐ brush clearing work, painting, building rehabs, garden weed pulling and so on. So bring along some elbow grease, a spare shirt or two, lend a hand and then relax in the shade of the picnic tables after a job well done.

Baldwin County Fair A new event is the Baldwin County Fair in late September. The Baldwin County Fair has been running for 61 years. Think that is longer or older than some of us. This is their 62nd Fair. The Baldwin County Fair is very much like the Santa Rosa County Fair and not quite like the Pensacola Interstate Fair. Expect this to be another family‐oriented fun fair.

Final details are still being worked out. So far, it is very likely that this will not be near as big as our 33' x 83' G scale railroad set up at the Santa Rosa County Fair last



April. But expect it will be great. Expect the size will be 30' x 34' in the auditorium of the coliseum building. This is the hurricane storm shelter for Baldwin County and is designed to withstand a category 5 hurricane storm. It is solid and huge. Thankfully, no storms in the forecast.

Finger pointing at the Dothan Train Show

If you are interested in participating, helping or have questions, contact Ed Dice for info.

More train running opportunities and maybe some deep fat fried twinkies.

Friends of the Garden

Tina Tuttle held a garden railroad

plants workshop at the Jordan

Lot on 10 August. A lot of folks

have been working long and hard

to get the Jordan Lot spiffed up

and presentable. Clearing much

brush, including Mike Stokes

making a huge clearing into the

very thick brush on the north fence. Painting the Train

Shed. Pulling some weeds, lots of weeds.

The early Friday morning had the early arrivals showing

up. They strolled the Jordan Lot grounds while we

finished setting up things at the Jordan Lot. There were

80 gardeners there per reports heard. It was a lot of

people.

Lots of Friends of the Garden Folks for Tina's workshop

Tina held her workshop on garden railroad plants and

planting. While she was showing how to plant some

plants, Paul Weston showed up with his plastic plants

for her to plant. Fortunately, the gardeners did not

string up Paul by his toes.

Tina conducting her workshop about garden RR plants

After the workshop, the gardeners headed back to the

Santa Rosa County Extension Office for the rest of the

gardening workshops. We got lots of appreciative

comments.

Much thanks to everyone helping get the Jordan Lot

cleaned up and fixed up for Tina's workshop. The newly

painted Train Shed looks terrific. The new dark green

metal siding is terrific. Everything looks great. Thanks!



Sneaky Gnomes Pop Up

Gnomeville in the early morning mist

Well, those sneaky Gnomes popped up at the Jordan

Lot Garden Railroad. The Gnomeville village magically

appeared the weekend of 10‐11 August and was gone

just as quietly. They arrived to make an appearance for

the Friends of the Gardens of NW FL on Friday morning,

10 August. They showed off their little village to the

garden club ladies and gents for the workshop given by

Tina Tuttle.

Gnomes in the early morning mist

A sudden shower of torrential rains did no damage, not

even dampened their spirits.

Keep your eyes sharp for their next appearance. They just might bring you some good luck.

TAILGATE SWAP MEET It's that time of the year again, the Fall Old Fashioned Tailgate Swap Meet is being held Saturday, 20 October 2012. Normally, this starts about 8 AM and rolls along until about Noon when the various sellers run out of steam. Some of the folks and sellers will hang around till later in the afternoon. But get there early to find some great bargains.

Bring out your no‐longer‐needed "old treasures" and swap them for a bunch of new treasures.

Remember first there gets first choice of spot. No charge for spots. No admission charge. And there are some tables available but only while the supply lasts.

Swap Meet Oct 2011 was a busy, busy place

Hope to have some coffee and donuts in the Diner Cafe.

Train Shed Painting The Train Shed has a nice makeover. Besides the forest green metal siding and roof eaves white metal siding put on by Art Tuttle, the top half was painted the light green and the trim was painted white. This got the Train Shed matching the other L&N buildings on the RR Museum campus. Many folks had a hand in doing the painting work ‐ Jack, Ed, Orlando, Mike, Frank, Ian, Keith and likely some others I missed. All of the work was greatly appreciated and very needed. Special thanks to Mike Stokes for donating five gallons of dark grey paint for the tunnel inside the Train Shed. It all looks great!



LIONEL CHRISTMAS AT

THE DEPOT

Calendar Events 10 August ‐ Friends of the Garden Tina Tuttle workshop on garden RR plants 14‐19 Aug ‐ National Garden RR Convention Chicago, www.2012ngrc.com

15‐16 Sept ‐ Wiregrass Train Show, Dothan AL Set up a large G scale RR in Peanut Fairground Hall, POC: Ed Dice 25‐29 Sept ‐ Baldwin County Fair, Robertsdale AL Set up a large G scale RR in Baldwin Coliseum POC: Ed Dice 29 Sept ‐ Milton Heritage Tour Milton Heritage Tour of various historical sites, including RR Museum 13‐14 Oct ‐ Munson Heritage Festival Logging heritage events with G scale RR POC: Ed Dice 13 Oct ‐ TCA Meet TCA meet in D'Iberville, Miss. by Gulf Wind Chapter of the Cottondale Division of TCA. POC: Jack Grill 20 Oct ‐ Tailgate Swap Meet Tailgate Swap Meet starting early. POC: Ed Dice

20 Oct ‐ RR Museum Annual Meeting Annual RR Museum membership

meeting at 9:30 AM. POC: Ed Dice 20 Oct ‐ Club meeting Monthly meeting at 3 PM. POC: Jack Grill 18‐28 Oct ‐ Pensacola Interstate Fair Annual Pensacola fair

17 Nov ‐ Club meeting Monthly meeting at Noon in Dining Car 24 Nov ‐ Jay Cotton Festival Jay Cotton Festival and Christmas Parade, Jay FL POC: Ed Dice

1‐2 Dec ‐ St Anne's Christmas Market Christmas arts and crafts market POC: Ed Dice

7‐8 Dec ‐ Lionel Christmas Fri 10am‐3pm; Sat 10am‐8pm 14‐15 Dec ‐ Lionel Christmas Fri 10am‐3pm; Sat 10am‐8pm

15 Dec ‐ Club meeting Monthly meeting at Noon. POC: Jack Grill

Health & Welfare

Jim Neidermayer - Visited the Jordan Lot a little while back. Jim is doing fine except he is bored not doing much.

Stephanie Carrington - Stephanie has a very red eye from a broken blood vessel. Expect it to pass without lasting impact, it is still scary. And it is not Halloween makeup. Get better, Steff.

Paul Karczewski - Paul continues construction of his 7-1/2" railroad. Lots of track sections built and some sections laid. Good progress, Paul.

Mary Caraway - Getting things ready to sell her house and move up to Idaho to be with her son and family. Mary is fixing up the yard, packing lots and lots of things around the house. No date yet. Anyone need a very nice home?



Birthdays ‐ Anniversaries

OK, Folks, below is the known list of Club members’ birthdays and anniversaries that we know about. If you have not gotten your info into our Secretary, Ed Dice, please do so. Even if you don’t want to tell specifics, let Ed know so we don’t keep bugging you for it. Ed’s email is [email protected] so drop him a line.

4 ‐ Pat Stevens birthday

6 ‐ Stephanie Carrington birthday

10 ‐ Terry Tucker birthday

11 ‐ Orlando Gomez birthday

12 ‐ Bobbie Dorner birthday

14 ‐ Bob Fasnacht birthday

15 ‐ Bill Carrington birthday

24 ‐ Bob Cope birthday

7 ‐ Dee Miller birthday

24 ‐ Bob Berghage birthday

No birthdays or anniversaries reported for September.

1 ‐ Jim Crabb birthday

10 ‐ Kathy Perry birthday

11 ‐ Aaron Rausch birthday

29 ‐ Andy & Beth Sloan anniversary

26 ‐ Jim & Carolyn Rush anniversary

Munson Heritage A new event for our participation is the Munson Heritage Festival to be held 13 - 14 October 2012. This is the ninth year to celebrate the logging heritage of the Munson area. There are lots of historical craftsmen and artisans set up at the Krul Lake Recreation Area.

Munson Rec Area for G scale RR set up

We have been requested to set up a small G scale railroad in an 18' x 62' outside area. Along with the G railroad, there will be the RR Museum info table explaining about the West Florida Railroad Museum and its offerings to the area folks.

Plans are to set up on Friday, 12 Oct, and operate Saturday and Sunday, 9 AM to 5 PM. Logging related trains have been specially requested to help emphasize the Munson logging and forestry heritage.

If you wish to participate, contact Ed Dice for further info.

Jay Cotton Festival This coming Thanksgiving Saturday is the Jay Cotton Festival and Christmas Parade in Jay, Florida. The RR Museum has been requested to participate with a planned set up in an outside parking area. The RR Museum will set up the Museum information table including Tom Moody's history books for sale.



With that, a small G scale railroad is also being set up to help honor the cotton industry heritage for Jay and to entertain the kids. Many details are still to be worked out and planning is in progress. If you wish to participate, contact Ed Dice for further info.

Garden RR Upgrades The Jordan Lot Garden Railroad has some recent upgrades added. Ed Dice finally got two very-long posts planted into the ground by the sidings on the

Switch post at west end of siding area

north side of the garden railroad. On those two posts are mounted electrical boxes with switches inside the clear plastic cover. Those switches turn the sidings and mainline track segments on and off so a train can be parked while other train traffic operates on the same loop trackage. At this time, Loop #1 siding and mainline have been wired up and made operational. Further excavations will be needed to get the Loop #2 siding and mainline tracks wired up and ready to operate.

Switch box inside

A word of warning: The plastic cover ONLY opens 90 degrees (please don't force it further) and it will drop down closed. The cover will not stay open, which helps protect those electrical switches inside.

Warehouse Down The old Warehouse building over by the CSX mainline and the Museum passenger cars is coming down.

Warehouse insides sees the light of day!

Sanborn Construction is carefully disassembling it to salvage all of the heart pine lumber for resale. That heart pine is very, very valuable.

So likely by the time most folks get back to the RR Museum grounds, that old Warehouse will be history.



4th of July Do Bill and Stephanie Carrington went to the Jordan Lot on the 4th of July and tried out the new red engine. Bill got it recently from a win on eBay. The new father and son members were there. Jim Campbell also ran his train.

A family walked through and visited the Jordan Lot and Garden RR.

CSX had two trains go by, one from each direction

Stephanie and Bill only stayed about an hour and it started to really cloud up and get dark. They got everything picked up and put into their car just before it started to rain.

Stayed in the shade so it was not too bad, wind was blowing also - - Steff

Revolution Due The much anticipated and even more needed Revolution product line production is still due in October. Nothing from Aristo‐Craft points or hints at yet another delay.

That interminable delay has had its consequences. Our own Bob Cope has gone with AirWire system instead of waiting on a maybe Aristo‐Craft delivery. One of the chat forums has a report listed about one gent wanting to get into radio‐control for his trains but being frustrated/exasperated with the Revolution situation, went and spent several thousand dollars on a large AirWire set up. Aristo‐Craft missed that big boat.

Others of us are more‐or‐less stuck with waiting it out. Especially of keen interest is the new Revolution decoder with sound. The first batch of products are planned to have a generic version of diesel or steam.

Aristo‐Craft Insider info:

CRE 57002SD *Generic Diesel Sound*

CRE 57002SS *Generic Steam Sound*

Revolution Decoder with sound

Discussions/rumors indicate that better tailored sounds will be available in the future, and may even be downloadable. In the meantime, please excuse the tapping of many toes, feet, and sticks. "Is it here yet? Are we there yet?"

From Lewis Polk (rare appearance), Breaking News:

the component parts for the next Revolution production have all been acquired for an early October production run.

And Aristo‐Craft plans to air ship the same day. So things are looking good.

Articles Welcomed Newsletter articles, news items, photos and the like are always welcomed. This is the Club's newsletter. We need to have everyone's participation. So dust off that old parchment paper in a roll on

the top shelf. Sharpen the quill with the big feather. And squeeze the berries to fill up the ink bottle. Pen some narrative to share with your fellow Club members. Watch

out Shakespeare!

ALSO, let us know if you find errors in the newsletter. We try and try to keep it all accurate and on track, but occasionally things get

derailed. Dang! Hate it when that happens. Enjoy the newsletter ‐ Ed & Eva

Documents

Emerald Coast Garden Railway Club WFRM Emerald Coast ... · Emerald Coast Garden Railway Club WFRM - 2 - July - August - September 2012 with storing all of the loose chairs, trashcans