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Here's
what's hapening at, in or for the club and our members. Addison
Harbor
Jon Addison's Team has completed the harborfront area of the layout. If you've missed it, you've also missed the combined skills of Jon, Bob Kaiser, Dick Dorsey, Steve Albers and Bill Orr.
This area includes some spectacular structure and scenery and sets a new standard for the layout going forward. Next time you get a chance, duck under, and wye to the right, all the way around.
You'll see the W.Forr Cannery that Jon and Bob built along with Jon's Lighthouse and Alber's Marine Service structures.
Take a closer look at Steve "the dockmaster" Alber's pier, and the fishing fleet contributed by Dick Dorsey and Bill Orr. Thanks Jon, for your leadership on this project! 3/21/05 Dick's
Been Workin' on the Railroad! N-Scalers in our club finally have a chance to see their layout with new dimension and depth. Dick Dorsey moved in a few weeks ago with his "backdrop machine" and began painting the more than 55 feet of mountainous backdrop. This is just one example of the fine work and dedication to the club that Dick contributes in an on-going way. While he spends most of his time on the HO layout, those of us on that side were glad to see his work showcased on the N-scale side, too!. Dick recently did a superb clinic on painting backdrops at the Narrow Gauge Symposium in Clearwater. If you want to know more about how Dick learned to do this just a couple of years ago without any previous experience, he'll be happy to let you look over his shoulder. Nice job, Dick!
2/06/05 More progress on the new double-deck staging yard and Improvements on the mainline
The HO layout was the scene of some intense modification to the mainline during Superbowl week-end, in an effort to tie-in the trackage on the bottom level of the new staging yard, while at the same time, replacing a section of inside mainline rail to improve performance. The order of the night was: Out with the old:
In with the new:
and DCC engineers with trains ready for testing the outcome.
Keep watching the progress and if you want to learn more about track-laying and wiring or put your skills to work, call or see our HO Superindendant --Chris Janks at: (727) 771-1262 and get involved---it's what makes this the world's greatest hobby and it's more than half the fun! 2/1/05 Train Show and Open House is a Huge Success! The Suncoast Model Railroad Club's Big Winter Train Show and Open House was successful, breaking all attendance records with over 500 paid admissions on Saturday and around 300 on Sunday. More than 100 vendor tables produced record sales for the vendors and returned comments like: "I've been attending this show for 15 years, and this is the best turn-out I've seen." from one of the vendors. Another vendor quipped, "We'll definitely be back, we're very happy!" Our club display layout stayed busy with inquisative show attendees and children--the next generation of model railroaders--and their parents. The fascination level was high at both club layouts (across the street from the sale location) Visitors got a close-up look from inside and outside both the N-scale and HO layouts, and the second floor overlook was continually busy. We operated with DCC and shared a look at some of the latest and finest equipment our members own including many sound-equipped locomotives. Thanks to everyone in the club who helped send out postcard show reminders, distribute flyers to hobbyshops, coordinate vendor table rental, prepare the club house and layouts for the show. Thanks to those who operated during the show to introduce visitors to our railroads, those who toiled tirelessly collecting admissions at the door, positioning directional signs, setting and tearing down vendor tables, helping vendors bring their product in from the parking lot, greeting vendors and visitors, running the door prizes manning the club table and serving food from the kitchen. Special thanks to our President, Steve Albers who did all the shopping to stock the kitchen --then supervised it both days--and his girlfriend who I hear turned out a burger so good they sold out and had to run out for more beef on Saturday! And thanks to our immediate Past President, Chris Janks who's role was Ambassador-at-Large, talking with prospective members both at the show and open house. (If I missed anyone I apologize) It was a huge job and a huge success thanks to our members who pitched in to make it happen. The vendors, the club, and the visitors all had a great time! Our
big spring train show and sale is coming up DWA 1-/21-/05 DCC Decoder Installations DCC decoders were the order of the night last Thursday. Seems quite a few of our members needed help installing sound and silent decoders in their locomotives. Several of us pitched in with help, advice, and even learned more about them ourselves!
This unplanned event turned out to be a real learning experience in a "clinic"- type workshop. More interaction like this will help us all share what we know and learn what we don't know. As a result, we're becoming better modelers.
12-29-04 Jon's Silverton Central Sn3 modular layout also won, Best of Show, Best Modular Group and Best Individual Module, earlier this year at the national NMRA convention in Ft. Lauderdale.
Previous honors during 2004 included: Best in S Scale at the National Narrow Gauge Convention in Santa Clara, California.
Jon's work also earned him Best Modular Group at the 2002 National Narrow Gauge Convention. Jon is a superb modeler, and responsible along with Dick Dorsey and others for some of the recent, major scenic improvements we enjoy on our HO club layout If you've
never seen Jon's Silverton Central, you can see it next on display at the
2005 Sn3 Symposium in Clearwater this February. See the calendar
for dates. Jon has provided these pictures, to share a peek at this outstanding layout. (Word has it that the Silverton Central will be featured in an upcoming issue of Model Railroader Magazine ) Special Note: Jon is not
only a terrific modeler, but effective as a recruiter for our club, having
built the 4x8 layout we use for public show. (He was personally responsible
for re-introducing this writer and his wife to the club just before we joined
recently)
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