TelltalesOct 2014 for website.pub

Telltales
October
2014
Newsletter of the Boulder Model Railroad Club
A trolley rattles through a mid-20th Century urban setting at dusk on Joe Crea’s fine G-scale
layout. Our October 18th layout tour focuses on Anthem, CO and features the layouts of Joe
and Dave Ennis. See details on page 5. No contest and maybe no clinician this month;
however, it’s our annual “feeding frenzy” at Caboose Hobbies with generous discounts for
BMRC members only. So join us Thursday, October 16th, 7:00 PM at Caboose Hobbies,
500 So. Broadway in Denver. Come and share in the camaraderie as we stock up for
Fall! Note: Some of us are apt to gather across the street at 5:30 PM for a pre-meeting
Mexican meal at the Blue Bonnet Café, 457 Broadway. (Photo by Joe Crea; used with
permission..) x
EDITORIAL
Last month’s layout tour certainly lived up to its “spectacular” billing. Three of the
area’s best modelers opened their homes to us and displayed the magic that
can be created through model railroading.
For the designation of “most popular scale,” Nscale is certainly nipping at the heels of HO scale,
and Mike Danneman’s layout is a marvelous
demonstration of why this is happening. He has
superbly captured the majesty and vastness of
Colorado railroading as Rio Grande diesel lash-ups
hauling long unit trains wind their way across the
openness of Rocky Flats, through the enormous redrock formations in the foothills (photo 1) and into the
pristine snow scenes at the entrance to the Moffat
Tunnel—all in a modest-sized basement.
HO scale, however, “don’t take no back seat to
nobody,” as evidenced by Doug Wright’s popular
B&O layout.
While he maintains a stable of
1
operating trains, the focus of his layout is scenery
and period accuracy—October 5th, 1958 Maryland, to be exact. To the firsttime visitor, entering the room borders on visual overload, but by slowly
moving around the perimeter, one encounters one highly-detailed mini-scene
after another, (photo 2) each one worthy of careful study. Couple this with
award-winning structures and extremely realistic foliage and trees, and it’s a
layout where repeated visits always turn up things previously overlooked.
Modeling F-scale (typically reserved for garden railroading) and doing it
on a small basement layout is unusual and almost unique to Ron Keiser.
Here the emphasis is on rugged, rocky scenery and highly-detailed Rio
Grande Southern steam power and rolling stock. Most structures and cars
2
are scratch-built, and while the
roster is limited by space, it’s truly a
3
thrill to watch a sound-equipped steamer come rattling by at eye
-level and close enough to touch with your nose (photo 3).
There’s nothing like a large-scale consist to impart the feeling of
realism!
Yes, three spectacular layouts were featured, each different
in its scale and emphasis, but taken together they embody the
all-encompassing hobby of model railroading. The next tour will
be October 25th. Don’t miss it! X
—Jack Rummel, Editor
Telltales
Official publication of the Boulder Model Railroad Club, P.O. Box 1851,
Boulder, CO 80306. The BMRC meets on the third Thursday of each
month at 7:00 pm at the Tri-City (Louisville) Elks Club, 525 Main St.,
Louisville, CO.. We are on the Internet at:
<http://www.bouldermodelrailroadclub.org>.
M
----------------------------------------
2014 Officers
President - Jerry Bengtson—
Vice-President - Dave Ennis—
Secretary - Jack Curl—
Treasurer - Chad Horner—
Past President - Joe Baldwin—
----------------------------------------
Submissions
The TELLTALES welcomes articles, art, cartoons, puzzles, classifieds,
workshop hints and other model railroading related materials. Mail or
e-mail all contributions and/or changes of address to:
Jack Rummel, TELLTALES Editor
e [email protected]
2
President’s Message:
On the Mainline
Welcome to October. Don’t forget that our monthly meeting will be at Caboose Hobbies on Oct 16th at 7:00pm.
Be sure to wear your name tags.
Our annual train show is rapidly approaching. Dates are December 12-14th. This year we
will be open three days, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. This is a great time to show off our
hobby. It’s a chance to expose children to the fun you can have with trains. I encourage
everyone to sign up to help at the train show. We need volunteers to help out in many
aspects of the show, from ticket takers, to tending the raffle layout, to running trains on
modules. Also, we’ll need help with setup and takedown. Even if you can’t be there for the
train show, you can help in setting up. Share info with your friends about the BMRC train
show. Use Facebook, word of mouth, posters, email, etc. Our annual BMRC Train Show is
our biggest exposure to the public. Let us make the most of it.
Thanks to Jack Getz, for his clinic in September on “Enhancing Model Structures.”
We will see you at Caboose Hobbies this month.
—Jerry Bengtson
Reality is the leading cause of stress among those in touch with it.
—Lily Tomlin
BMRC ELECTED AND VOLUNTEER POSITIONS
Club Historian
Layout Tour Coord.
Layout Manager
Photographer
Video Cameraman
Club Store Manager
Lgmt. Library Layout
Bob Uhr
???
OPEN
Jon Bond
2009
Keith Bobo
2008
Mike Gleydura
2013
Jeff Morrison
2012
Ray Hoppes
2014
Jerry Gilland*
2007
WOW Museum Layout Bob Rothe
2008
Train Show Manager
Jim Froning
2013
TS Layout Coord.
Jon Bond
2013
TS Raffle Manager
Marv Van Puersem 2010
TS Advert. Coord.
OPEN
TS Vendor Coord.
Jeff Morrison
2013
TS Setup/Teardown Coord. Derek Walker 2013
TS Door Prize Coord. OPEN
(*provides electronic tech support)
Position
Name
Began
ELECTED POSITIONS
President
Jerry Bengtson 2014
Vice-President
David Ennis
2014
Secretary
Jack Curl
2014
Treasurer
Chad Horner
2013
Past-President
Joe Baldwin
2014
VOLUNTEER POSITIONS
TELLTALES Editor
Jack Rummel
1997
Webmaster
Joe Baldwin
2010
Membership Chair
Spen Kellogg
2013
HO-SIG Leader
Frank Smucker 2004
N-SIG Leader
Warren Hester
2011
Club Auditor 2014
Appt. pending
Contest Coordinator
Jerry Gilland
2011
Video Librarian
Loren Blaney
2001
Book Librarian
Mike Mead
2011
3
HO-SIG NEWS
20 years ago, more
or less
Contributed by Bob Uhr
See article on page 6
—Jack Rummel,
TELLTALES Editor
F
From our V.P.
1.
2.
OCTOBER, 1994
Thirty eight years ago (October 2nd, 1956),
Neal Miller photographed the D&RGW Farmington
train, near Carbon Junction, on its way to
Durango.
The October program was presented by Jack
Rummel,
who
gave
an
outstanding
presentation on building and weathering plastic
structures using India ink.
Jim Ferenc reported on the Saturday, October
22nd layout tours, hosted by John Nahodyl, Bob
Rothe, Larry Price, Jerry Wilson, Neal Miller,
Jack Rummel, Tom Johnson, and Chris
Komloski. In addition, the Sunrise Division of the
NMRA arranged for 5 layout tours scheduled for
Saturday, November 19th.
Rich Coleman reviewed the Twin Peaks Mall
show (October 8-9), Larry Price reviewed the
upcoming youth modeling clinic (October 29th),
and Rod Black and Carl Babb discussed the
upcoming BMRC November show.
Jerry Bengtson was looking for donations
to the Longmont Library Layout, to include HO
people, late model vehicles (1970-1994), a power
pack, and an Athearn BN locomotive. The layout
was 90% completed and was expected to be
finished by November and installed by midDecember.
The October Contest was “Scratch-built
Structures”, and the results were:
Tier I: First place: Rich Coleman, HOn3 Truss/
Deck Bridge
Second place: Carl Schneider, HOn3 Turntable
3.
4.
I have four items for your consideration:
Please arrive at Caboose Hobbies, 500 S.
Broadway in Denver, promptly at 7:00 PM for
our October 16th meeting. Badges are not
required, but they help identify you as qualifying for a discount on your purchases. Someone from Caboose will present a short clinic.
Put December 18th on your calendar for our
annual Holiday Dinner meeting. It will be at
the Louisville (Tri-City) Elks Lodge with drinks,
food, entertainment and fun. Look for more
about the cost, food choices, tickets, etc., in
the November TELLTALES.
A slate of club officers for 2015 needs to be
presented to the membership at the November
meeting. The offices of vice-president and
treasurer are open as of now. Please be thinking of volunteering your time and talent to keep
the BMRC the high quality organization it is.
Our annual Train Show is in December and
will be three days this year. Volunteers are
needed to fill varying shifts between 10 AM
and 5 PM on December 12, 13 and 14 at the
Boulder County Fairgrounds. Club members
are also needed before and after for set-up
and tear-down, so put on your volunteer hat
and sign up!
—David Ennis, Vice-President
LQR
Third Place: Brian Maytum, Lineside shanty
Tier II: First place: Jack Rummel, Wooden
trestle
Second place: Darel Leedy, Como depot
Third Place: Les Morris, Alpine Jct. depot
The club financial balance as of October
28th was $4,429.99. X
4
Library News
Visual Library Report
Serial number 743 "Otto Perry's Rio Grande San Juan Express" is a
collection of 16mm films shot during the early 1940s. They're mostly in
color, somewhat grainy, and the chuffing steam engine sounds have been
added. However they do provide an authentic view of the Denver & Rio
Grande Western Narrow Gauge railroad that ran between Alamosa and
Durango, and along the Colorado-New Mexico border and over Cumbres Pass.
The narrator explains, "In 1880, the Denver and Rio Grande built a narrow
gauge line from Antonito, Colorado, on the Alamosa to Durango line, to
Española, New Mexico, leaving it 34 miles short of Santa Fe ... It was
not until 1896 that it was able to complete the route to Santa Fe. 1941
was the last year of operation of this line, known as the Chili Line."
This DVD was produced in 2003 by Machines of Iron in conjunction with The
Rocky Mountain RR Club. It's 50 minutes long.
—Loren Blaney, Visual Librarian
October Layout Tours
This month’s layout tours will be in the Anthem Subdivision of Broomfield, which is just off Highway 7
and Lowell Blvd. There are 8-9 model railroaders
who live in the Anthem area and they have banded
together to form the Anthem Model Railroad Club.
Two of them, Joe Crea, a well-known modeler and
railroad artist, and David Ennis, who is also a member of the BMRC and serves as our vice-president,
will be opening their layouts for visitors on Saturday,
October 18th from 1:00—3:00 PM.
Layout tours are one of the best ways to get new
ideas and concepts you can incorporate into your
own layout and modeling endeavors. These opportunities to see our friends’ railroads in operation are
certain to bring great value and maybe even inject a
little motivation into your hobby. I hope to see you
on the tour.
—Joe Baldwin
Joe Crea - Transition Era Trolley Large Scale
4983 Democrat Drive
Anthem,
Broomfield, CO
David Ennis - HO Scale
4680 Wilson Dr.
Anthem,
Broomfield, CO 80023
5
Wow, what a great trip! Most of the HO SIG
group journeyed to Kansas City (actually Overland
Park) for the 34th National Narrow Gauge
Convention. Spen Kellogg, Roy Johnson, Joe
By Bruce
Ditta (Dawson’s father), Dawson Ditta, SIG Leader
Dickerhofe
Frank Smucker and Bruce Dickerhofe made the
trip (Photo 1, L to R). We drove out on September
1 (Labor Day) and returned the following Sunday.
1 Our ranks were strengthened by a chap from Overton UK, Peter
Christie. Peter is a friend of Frank’s from Chama, NM who flies
across the pond to attend conventions like this and visit places in
Colorado that he models back in England. Jolly good having him
with us.
We got there and found we
were the second group to enter 2
the exhibit hall, which worked
nicely for unloading (Photo 2).
Set-up and becoming operational
was our best yet, thanks to a few
months of intense work. As with
many aspects of this hobby, the
efforts and resulting success
become their own reward. We felt pretty darn good about how things
worked. We actually were at the point where, in addition to running
impressive standard gauge trains, we did narrow gauge switching
operations—a long time coming but very enjoyable.
I was a newbie in the realm of national train conventions. I never would have
thought I could be in one such venue for five days and not see everything I wanted to,
much less see it all; but that is exactly what happenedR so many trains, so little time.
Our team wore Trout Creek and Western shirts and hats, thanks to Frank. We looked
pretty snazzy at the closing meeting. I think about 1,500 enthusiasts attended.
Narrow gauge is not to be confused with narrow minded. Our Trout Creek and
Western was the only modular layout that had both standard and narrow gauge track.
That difference and our overall layout quality really impressed a lot of viewers who
stopped by (Photos 3,4).
The clinics were well organized and Duncan Harvey was a presenter on “Clear
Creek Canyon, Then and Now.” I am constantly enthused that so much modeling is
of places in our own back yard. Colorado is a great place to live. The other modular
layouts were high quality and the Fn3 Sundance Central Layout from Odessa, Florida
was a beautifully crafted sight to behold. Frank, Peter and I saw three amazing
DAWSON DITTA
layouts on tour; one had an extraordinary four track presentation of the PRR
Horseshoe Curve. Spen and Roy got to operate on the well-known Sn3 layout of Peter Ellis. Joe and
Dawson enjoyed K.C skate parks. By the way,
everything is up to date in Kansas City, just like the 3
song promised.
A notable
exception was how Google maps
got us to a BBQ joint that was 15
miles out of the way, but a tasty
ending for the effort.
Will we make the trip again?
Probably not, since Houston is
next on the docket and then
Maine; a bit far to haul the Trout
Creek and Western. BUT, in 2017, The National
Narrow Gauge Convention will be in DENVER. We
will let the NNGC come to us. This was a true team
effort and, by golly, it sure was fun! X
“Off to Kansas
City…”
4
6
My apologies, but there won’t be a report on the September contest this month. Look for it in the
November TELLTALES.
Below is the schedule for the remainder of the year:
Oct
No Contest – Caboose Hobby night
Nov
Un-powered Rolling Stock
Dec
Model of the Year Contest
Happy modeling!
—Jerry Gilland, Contest Coordinator
It takes more than a
stroke and a heart attack
to keep me away!
s
Keith’s Corner
Scenes from the
September meeting.
All photos by Keith Bobo.
Bob Rothe was
in good spirits.
Our clinician, Jack Getz, and one of his detailed models.
Jerry Gilland’s Service Dog-inTraining keeps watch.
Keith Hahn & his N-scale earth mover. (Note N-scale auto)
Our merchandise mart.
Have you been downstairs at the ELKS to visit our book and visual
libraries? Be sure to look them over — they’re free to BMRC members!
7
Secretary’s
Report
PUNNY DEFINITIONS
Avoidable:
What a bullfighter tries to do.
SEPTEMBER MEETING
President Jerry Bengtson opened the meeting.
There were 38 members and 1 visitor present.
Next month’s meeting will be at Caboose Hobbies in Denver.
There will be a layout tour September 20.
We are accepting nominations for 2015 board
members. We need a Vice President and Treasurer to fill possible empty positions. The present
President and Secretary have agreed to serve
another year but if you know someone that would
like to serve please forward your nominations to
Jack Curl.
Our speaker, Jack Getz, presented a clinic
entitled “Enhancing Model Structures.”
Jerry Gilland conducted the model contest.
—Jack Curl, Secretary
Ray Hoppes Wins Award
Congratulations to BMRC member Ray
Hoppes, who took 3rd place in the “ Internal
Combustion (Diesel)” contest at the September
National Narrow Gauge Convention in Kansas
City! The model was a HOn3 4700N U.S.
Army Davenport locomotive which Ray had
entered in an earlier club contest.
Next TELLTALES Deadline
Submissions for the November TELLTALES should
be sent no later than November 6, 2014.
y
Photo by Ray Hoppes
2014 Timetable
Oct. 16—BMRC Meeting, Caboose Hobbies, 500 S.
Broadway, Denver, 7:00PM.
Oct. 18—Layout Tours: Anthem, CO, Joe Crea (Gscale trolley) and Dave Ennis (HO), 1PM—3PM.
Oct. 25-26—Trick or Treat Train, Colorado Railroad
Museum, Golden, 10AM—4PM.
Nov. 15—Swap Meet, at Green Mtn. Presbyterian
Church, 12900 W. Alameda Pkwy. at Mississippi,
Lakewood - 9AM to Noon.
Nov. 15—Open Car Day, Colorado Railroad
Museum, Golden, 10AM—4PM.
Nov. 20—BMRC Meeting, Tri-City Elks Lodge, 525
Main St., Louisville, 7:00PM.
Nov. 22—Layout Tour: Doug Geiger, Longmont
(HO), 10AM—4PM.
Dec. 12-14—BMRC Train Show, County Fair
Grounds, Longmont, CO, 10AM- -5PM.
Dec. 18—BMRC Meeting & Holiday Program, TriCity Elks Lodge, 525 Main St., Louisville, details
TBA..
Photo from Denver Public Library Collection
8