August 2023 Newsletter
Last July 3rd UP
4014 returned to Cheyenne after traveling to the College World Series. Full details of this latest trip can be found
here. https://www.up.com/media/releases/big-boy-omaha-nr-230519.htm
Club Business
August Luncheon dates
August 4th and
August 18th - Bloomington Country Club at 11:30am. If you plan to attend, contact Bryan Enarson
(bryanlax@aol.com) no later than August 2nd and/or August 16th. NOTE:
Unlike a typical restaurant which welcomes any number of patrons, the
country club arranges tables and chairs specifically for our luncheons. Again, if you plan to attend, contact Bryan
at the email above.
Member Marketplace
Carl Machutta has "027"
gauge track available for free. He also
has some "O" gauge track for sale at a reasonable price. Straight is $1.00 each. Curved at $.40 each. It does need some clean up and he has the
recipe for you to use. Contact Carl at traincarl@yahoo.com
Member sojourns to the world of Trains
National Garden Railroad
Convention – Keith Johnson attended the convention. Here is his description of the things he saw. “Every year, there is a National Garden Railroad
Convention held at various locations throughout the country. Locations such as
Nashville, Portland, Denver, Chicago have hosted conventions. This year, the
38th convention was hosted by the Bay Area Garden Railroad Society (BAGRS) for
the third time and was held at the Santa Clara convention center in Santa
Clara, California. The purpose of the convention is to hold various clinics
about aspects of garden railroads and to view numerous G-scale layouts
throughout the area. This year the convention was held from July 1 through July
8. There were a total of 88 layout open to the public throughout the week. In
addition, various activities included the Napa Valley Wine Train tour, a wine
country barbecue, a barbecue and train ride hosted by Bachmann, an ice cream
social hosted by LGB and a banquet hosted by Accucraft. There was also an
exhibit hall that displayed several layouts from regional clubs running actual
G-scale trains and included over 40 vendors.
There was an additional post-convention tour
of 13 more layouts in the central California region, for a total of over 100
layouts that could be viewed by the public.
There were over 1000 people in attendance from several different states and several countries, including the UK and Australia among others. This convention showed that the G-scale hobby is still active.
Attached are several photos and videos of various layouts and are only a small example of what was available.” Click HERE.
“PS. I believe the G-scale layouts in
the Color Country train club of St. George are just as good (if not better)
than many of the layouts I saw at NGRC2023.”
Larry and Peggy Schneider
used the German passenger railroad network, including a stop-off at Miniatur
Wunderland, to navigate their travels.
Click HERE
for photos of the trains and passenger depots comprising the Deutsche Bahn and
local passenger networks.
Museum Magic and Mayhem - Tim Fitch reports the recent happenings of the Children's Museum train. Click HERE to read his descriptions.
Modeling
News and Products
Tips for selling your trains –
This document is posted to our website under Modeling Resources and details the
process of selling your model railroad equipment.
The updated list adds a new business, Model Railroad Sales and Services.
Lee Witten – 20th century Ogden, Utah in HO
scale
Rod Stewart – Before relocating
the model railroad to England, Stewart commissioned ITLA Scale Models Inc. to
build a 25-story skyscraper in HO scale to add to his Grand Street & Three
Rivers Railroad. Follow this link to see
an exquisitely crafted model building.
Repair Lionel and MTH equipment – Trainz is making available
training courses to repair Lionel and MTH equipment. (Thanks for the link, Larry.)
Walt Disney Backyard Railroad (Carolwood
Pacific Railroad) – Bryan Enarson shares this story with us. “In the Spring of 1948, Walt Disney was a very busy
man. The Disney Studio Nurse, Hazel George, suggested he take some time off to
visit the Chicago Railroad Fair. Being an enormous train buff, Walt agreed to
the trip. He knew his wife, Lillian, and his daughters would not be interested,
so he asked his friend and colleague, fellow railroad enthusiast Ward Kimball,
to join him on the train ride out to Chicago for the fair.
Walt and Ward had a fantastic time. So
fantastic, as a matter of fact, that Walt came home to Los Angeles and told
Lilly (and I'm paraphrasing), "That was the most fun I've ever had! I'm
building a backyard railroad!" Walt and Lillian started looking for a new
home as a 25th anniversary present to themselves. Walt really had no interest
in a new home, he just wanted enough room for his railroad. They settled on the
perfect plot of land on Carolwood Drive in the Holmby Hills section of Los
Angeles, and architects got busy designing the home, while folks at the Disney
studio began designing the railroad, complete with bridges, overpasses, and
miles of railroad track!
When construction finally began on both,
there was a problem. Lilly believed Walt's railroad would be contained on one
side of the backyard while Walt believed he had free reign to build the
railroad across the entire yard. Lilly told Walt that she had had plans for the
big hill in the yard, and that it was to become home to her new flowerbeds.
Walt had to think. They property was already
purchased and construction had started. How is he going to get his train AND
make sure Lillian also got her flowers? It came to him one day on the way to
the Studio. He went in one morning and had the studio attorneys write up a
"legal contract" that would permit Walt to build a railroad tunnel
UNDER Lilly's flowerbeds. Both Lilly and Walt signed off on the contract, and
construction of the railroad tunnel began.
When construction of the tunnel was underway,
Walt stopped by one day to see the progress. One of the architects showed Walt
the plan for the tunnel, and explained to Walt that the tunnel wouldn't get
very dark. With an opening on one side and the other and no turns, the sunlight
would shine right through. That drove Walt crazy. He redrew the design of the
tunnel under the flowerbeds, making it an S-curve so that his riders were left
in total darkness for a moment. When the architect saw it, he told Walt,
"Mr. Disney, this is going to cost way more money if we do it your
way." Walt responded, "If I was worried about what it cost, I
wouldn't do it at all!! We are going to do it right."
This is another one of those stories that's
in a ton of books. I picked up some of it from Jim Korkis and his Vault of Walt
books (which you can get on Amazon & on Kindle), some of it from Bob
Thomas's biography on Walt, and some of it from podcasts and whatever else I
can get my hands and ears on! Thank you for reading!!!
Frank Sinatra Lionel
Train Masters of Babylon layout
Lionel 2023 Catalog
Adding water and smoke to an O scale garden railway
Adding diesel sounds to American Flyer
The Orient Express stars in newest Mission: Impossible film:
Dead Reckoning Part 1
Split Jaw acquires stainless steel track product line
Prototype/Railfanning
Poor Track Maintenance and REALLY slow speeds
Track Replacement Machine
Three employees arrested in India rail disaster
Madison Square Garden & Penn Station in new remodeling project
Vermont Rail System recovers from recent flood damage
Tour the Abraham Lincoln rail car
Cab Forward video
UP Big Boy 4014 shoves stalled Manifest over Blair Hill
(6/29/2023)
Big Boy operations in Cheyenne, Wyoming 1958 –
RailfanDept.com
Big Boy’s Story Continues
Silvis shop continues work on several projects
Nashville 4-8-4 project reaches milestone with re-wheeling
Santa Fe No. 3751 to appear at LA Union Station event in
September
Memorial for Dirt (the cat)
Until September, All Aboard !!
Lloyd Thomson