Inside This Month's Issue:

What's up, What's New and What's Going On

Well, the last number of months we have been quite busy, and are way overdue for a detailed update.

New One Day Show - June 14th

First, we have up-coming our new one day Train Show and Open House, Saturday, June 14th, Minnreg Hall - Fathers Day Weekend. Remember, this is a one day only show! Please see flyer and show schedule.

Our calendar has been fixed, and our shows for 2008 added. We may have an old fashioned swap meet in the fall at a new location which will be posted when we have finalized our plans for it. Also, in the next month, we will be setting our 2009 open house & show dates, and a probable Christmas Run Night.

If you have not been by for a while, boy, are you going to see a lot of changes! See more in the news below.

Old Fashioned Swap Meet

The Suncoast board is considering plans for an “old fashioned swap meet” to replace the void left by the now defunct fall and spring Happy Hobo swap meets. Hopefully we will have a decision and details on this by our June 14 th show. This event would be open to local model railroaders to clean out their closets; no dealers would be allowed. As presently conceived it would be a Saturday only event, from say 10 AM to 2 PM at a church hall in Seminole, with set up from 7 to 10. Food would be available, and parking free. Table rentals would be minimal, and admission minimal. We might then have the club open in the late afternoon for an early Saturday run night. There would be no dealers. This would be held 1 to 4 weeks after our September show; scheduling for the spring counterpart is to far off to tell. Stay tuned!

The New On30 Railway(s)

Second , we continue planning for the "new railroad". The club is now in the planning stages for building not one, but perhaps two new On30 (also known as On2 1/2) railways. One demo module has been built and will be on display at our upcoming shows. What we are looking at is a modular railway that would be displayed at Minnreg and at other regional events. We are also looking at a semi-permanent railway in the loft area that could be “extended” by the modules. These railways will model narrow gauge railroading in the 1920's & 1930's in O scale. For those of you into On30, well now is your chance to join and have some fun planning and building from scratch this new as yet un-named railway in this growing larger scale.

Model Railroader Visit

Well, unless you have been under a rock, you probably know Model Railroader’s Lou Sassi came by in March and did a photo shoot of the HO Gulf & Northern for an article in Model Railroader. It could be in MR 6 months from now, or 6 years, we will let you know. Some shots of the N scale Suncoast Lines were also taken, and could appear in Trackside Photos (gad, some included Guilford System power! Yuck! I can handle Penn Central, but Guilford!)

General Membership Meetings

As a reminder, our General Membership Meetings run from 8 to 9 PM on the second Thursday of each month. I would anticipate, as with prior years, they will be suspended in July and August.

2008 Officers

Here is your 2008 officer roster with primary scale affiliation:

Board Officers:

President: Jim Langston HO

Vice President: Bill Middlemas HO

Secretary: Mike Shirmer HO

Treasurer: Pat Berry N, some HO

Junior Director: Steve Kibort N

Director: Fred Guillermety HO

Senior Director: Rey Feldt HO

Directors serve a three year term, all other officers a one year term.

Elected non-officer Positions:

N Scale Superintendent: Bill Knapp

N Scale Asst. Superintendent: Ed Ronshausen

HO Scale Superintendent: John Addison

HO Scale Asst. Superintendent: Carl Marchand

All non-officers serve a one year term.

HO "Gulf & Northern" Layout Progress

Wow, where do we start. From January through March there was a blitz, perhaps best characterized as “controlled chaos”, to get Alco Yard and other sections of the railway “done”, or in some cases, re-done. A lot of club members contributed to this “big push”. If you have not been by this year, here is a summary of the major changes:

Alcoa yard has been finished off to an extent. Some buildings will be relocated as time goes by, and fueling facilities and other details added.

The area has been sceniced and structured. Jon Addison and his gnomes out did themselves. Ray Feldt, Bill Orr and others helped
Dan Lewis, Bill Middlemas and others competed numerous structures, my Big Freight Building found a home.
Dan Lewis also completed our railway car ferry, the Clifford Elsner, and the docking apron
Track was reworked, and for the most part works.

Pottstown has seen numerous structures repaired, upgraded, replaced and added.
Union Station was totally replaced with the new Milwaukee station and shed complex. Dan Lewis built the structures in a couple weeks, Carl Marchand and I installed them over a couple days.

The basic complex is the same, but with different structures.
The different spacing of the tracks and platforms resulted in the station complex gaining one more stub track for passenger trains.
The express tracks were lengthened by a car length, while others remain about the same.
Express track cross dock has been put in place adjacent to the Railway Express Agency warehouse
A new U.S. Postal building has been added near the station approaches, but is not quite finished or tracked in. This will be the “Clifford Claven United States Post Office Building” and will load mail in baggage cars and RPO’s.

Kaiser yard has been re-ballasted, with much done by Len Blecher
Proper crossing protection is in place at most crossings, and power switch motors installed at most mainline sidings. More “wayside” details are on the way, including flashing crossing lights at two crossings in Pottstown, and another with working gates. More crossings have been planked.
A lot more detail has been added here and there.

There are probably more changes, but that is what I can think of for now.

HO “operations” are in the near future.

Open Houses of late have done well, and the Gulf & Northern has been relatively free of wrecks etc. Of note, at the last open house, a certain blue 0-4-0 started to “smoke”, which is not an operational feature of this model. It is now on the work bench for repairs.

Special Work Curfew Notice – As a reminder, the first Thursday of each month is still designated a work night for both railways. This can include signal and track work that will shut down part or all of each railway at the discretion of the superintendents. In particular, signal installation and testing on the HO Gulf & Northern requires a complete shut down of operations, so please cooperate with Tim Maslyn on these work curfews so we can get the signal system up an running sooner rather than later. Tim will also on occasion be working on other days, in particular Saturday afternoon, and has my approval, and that of the HO superintendents, to impose a work curfew when needed, so please be patient while this work is going on.

The extra work nights for the Model Railroader Blitz are now suspended.

N "Suncoast Lines" Layout Progress

The N Scale Suncoast Lines continues to make small improvements here and there. The town has gone through some more revisions and improvements. Having Godzilla out every open house does result in a frequent need for urban renewal. There are a few alterations in the landscape here and there, but nothing major.

In recent shows the number and severity of derailments and collisions has decreased, but the Suncoast Lines safety stats do remain much worse than the Gulf and Northern!

Of note, some sleek SP Daylights have been seen here and there, and some Penn Central!

Special Work Curfew Notice – As a reminder, the first Thursday of each month is designated a work night for both railways. This can include signal and track work that will shut down part or all of each railway at the discretion of the superintendents.

DCC Operation Revolution Continues

The DCC revolution continues. The HO system has received some upgrades. The outside loop, a.k.a. the 3 rd Division, is the only segment retaining a seldom used DC capability. There are plans afoot to create a new connection between the 3 rd division and the 2 nd that will allow it to become an integral part of the “mainline”. Once this is done, we will provide more information. On the N scale side, DCC is about the only way the railway is run now as well.

The club has members to assist in DCC conversions, and club throttles and locomotives to get one started in DCC.

Welcome New Members

There are a number of new members, welcome to all!

Clinics – Fall 2008

With the Model Railroader Blitz this spring, there was little time for clinics. This summer we will plan some for the fall, and will post here.

Special note on clinics: As we all have other lives, please be aware that a particular clinic may be cancelled or postponed with little or no notice. Any postponements will be posted with adequate lead-time for the new date.

Visitors – Always Welcome!

To those who wish to visit the Suncoast Model Railroad Club, please check our "Meeting Times" tab to find the best time to visit. Visitors are always welcome, but please note we may not be able to host you as well as we would like during our scheduled business meetings. Visitors may approach our members for permission to test run some equipment on a limited basis, and if it is compatible. We reserve the right to withhold permission. Those who are seriously interested in our clinics are invited to attend.

Got a question, just grab one of us and ask it!

Special Group Visits

The Suncoast Model Railroad Club is pleased to announce that by special arrangement and agreement, the club will consider hosting visits by special groups. Please contact one of the board members to see if we can accommodate your group

In closing, thanks to everyone in the club for their efforts

Lastly, remember, model train tracks always lead to fun!

Sincerely,

W. James Langston, III

President

That's it for Now, See You Again, Right Here Next Month!

Carl Marchand
Editor and Webmaster