The meeting last Tuesday night was kind of a bust as far as working on the layout was concerned. We had lots of guys show up but for the most part all we did was sit around and shoot the breeze! We did manage to get the portable layout packed up for the Toronto Train Show this weekend, but then everybody except one person just sat down and chatted. Then we went for coffee and chatted some more!
I'm not complaining. Everybody seemed to be enjoying the comradery. We have a good group of guys.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Well, I must be doing something that people are interested in! As of right now this thread has been viewed 60064 times and there are more than 800 posts.
Okay, I'll admit it. A significant percentage of the posts are mine. Too much to say I guess.
Seriously, I owe a huge debt of gratitude to all of those who have helped me both on this thread and several others. My club is building a layout that we can be proud of with your help!
Thank you!!
rrebellPM me if you want address in Philippines,
Hi rrebell,
I'll send you a note.
hon30critter rrebell They are great, survived a basement layout and are awaiting instalation in new layout Thanks rrebell, Dave
rrebell They are great, survived a basement layout and are awaiting instalation in new layout
Thanks rrebell,
ANother place to get more club members involved - they want to save on the budget, start making cheap trees, assmebly line fashion. Save the fancy expensive trees for the fooreground, fill in with mass produced home made ones. A tree making weekend or two with enough volunteers and you should have a nice forest ready to use, using any number of published ways of making inexpensive trees.
For other scenery - the ones who are good at it always make it seem so easy, but at the Reading Modeler's Meet a few weekends ago, one of the clinics was on using topo maps and extruded foam to make scenery. It sure seemed simple enough, and the results at the end of the 1 hour clinic were amazing enough, then the guy spent another hour or so the next day adding more details and it was absolutely fantastic. Sure looked like I could do this (but then I said the same thing about Fast Tracks turnouts, too, after watching them live at a train show and then numerous videos). The thing about this guy's technique was, even when it wasn't nearly finished, it still looked decent - MUCH faster then the old cardboard webbing and plaster cloth, or chicken wire, or any of that sort of thing. A complete layout full of this style scenery at the point it was left at the end of the clinic would be more than acceptable - far better than open benchwork with track running through it, and then you cna go back and update it a bit at a time until it's truly finished.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
rrebellThey are great, survived a basement layout and are awaiting instalation in new layout
They are great, survived a basement layout and are awaiting instalation in new layout, quick vacuming and they were like new. Bought about 1000. They look real good up to the 6" high ones, beyond that height you need more detailed ones. I could cut them down or trim them to go along back and I got them in all sizes up to 6" (also got taller ones but those did not look as good). These were the ones called fir trees. If you get the ones called pine they needed to be sprayed and foamed (not a big deal but why do anything). These are good enough to to for me (and I am very picky train wize). My few foregrond taller trees were made in a kit by a now defunk company but for those you can build your own. They went by the name Architrees but I beleive that is a defunk company but I know the trees still exist and show up under varius monikers.
rrebellWhen I needed alot of trees, I ordered boxes of fir trees from a guy on e-bay (he is gone now but called himself tree dad) who got them from the Philippines
I remember the ads for the trees from the western Pacific. I didn't know exactly where they were from but it was pretty obvious that they weren't in downtown Ottawa.
I don't care where they come from. Were you happy with those trees and how have they stood up over time?
Thanks,
hon30critter We are working on the layout budget for 2020. I'm figuring on $4500.00 Cdn to do the scenery, signals etc. That will probably be a hard sell because a few of our members are a bit on the frugal side. A major part of that is for trees. I'm in favour of buying ready made trees as opposed to making them from scratch, largely because I want them to be reasonably sturdy and stand up over time. One of our members wants to experiment with trees that use sedum for the trunk and branches. I'm guessing we will need 700+ trees of various sizes. That's a lot of sedum, and a lot of work, and in a few years or less I suspect that they will be crumbling. Past budgeting processes have created a bit of a problem. The Layout Committee did our level best to figure out what we would spend in 2019, but because the layout progressed faster than we thought it would, we used the budget up well before the fiscal year was over. I wanted to simply go back to the members and say that the budget that they had approved was not sufficient and we needed more money. Simple, right? Well, others on the Executive Committee disagreed. They didn't want to appear to the members to be out of control with the spending. The net result was that I figured that I should hold my invoices back until the start of the new fiscal year. The result of that shell game is that, since I do most of the buying, the club owes me $700.00+. I'm not too happy with that situation and I will be darned if I will allow it to happen again next year. That is club politics for you. I'm sure the story will reinforce the reasoning behind those of you who choose not to be a part of the club scene. For me, it's just part of the job. Cheers!! Dave
We are working on the layout budget for 2020. I'm figuring on $4500.00 Cdn to do the scenery, signals etc. That will probably be a hard sell because a few of our members are a bit on the frugal side. A major part of that is for trees. I'm in favour of buying ready made trees as opposed to making them from scratch, largely because I want them to be reasonably sturdy and stand up over time. One of our members wants to experiment with trees that use sedum for the trunk and branches. I'm guessing we will need 700+ trees of various sizes. That's a lot of sedum, and a lot of work, and in a few years or less I suspect that they will be crumbling.
Past budgeting processes have created a bit of a problem. The Layout Committee did our level best to figure out what we would spend in 2019, but because the layout progressed faster than we thought it would, we used the budget up well before the fiscal year was over. I wanted to simply go back to the members and say that the budget that they had approved was not sufficient and we needed more money. Simple, right? Well, others on the Executive Committee disagreed. They didn't want to appear to the members to be out of control with the spending. The net result was that I figured that I should hold my invoices back until the start of the new fiscal year. The result of that shell game is that, since I do most of the buying, the club owes me $700.00+. I'm not too happy with that situation and I will be darned if I will allow it to happen again next year.
That is club politics for you. I'm sure the story will reinforce the reasoning behind those of you who choose not to be a part of the club scene. For me, it's just part of the job.
Cheers!!
carl425Guess again. I "decorated" my track plan with trees in XtrackCAD the other day.
Hi Carl,
You may well be right! Time will tell. This just goes to show how difficult it is to budget for a layout!
hon30critterI'm guessing we will need 700+ trees of various sizes.
Guess again. I "decorated" my track plan with trees in XtrackCAD the other day. This is a modest around the walls plan in a 9.5' x 13' bedroom. When I checked the parts list, I had placed 800 trees - and I had gotten tired of it and quit before it was really finished.
I have the right to remain silent. By posting here I have given up that right and accept that anything I say can and will be used as evidence to critique me.
rrinker 6 bookshelves reduced to only needing 2 to hold it all.
That's our problem at the club. We have little space to store the magazines. I have given the magazine afficionados one month to get them out of the clubhouse.
I someone managed to end up with not 1, not 2, but THREE of those battery powered trains. I think they were all complete, so I gave them to some of the younger family members. I'm not even sure how I ended up with them. One I'm sure was the exact set you described, right down to a caboose and a passenger car. One was actually a freight train with a caboose, the other was a gaudy Christmas thing, I think it even played music.
As for magazines - I just recently took another stack to the recycler. I would have taken them to the museum/club, but they already have large stacks that others have brought along with signs on them that they are free for the taking for any visitor. Always a good way to get/maintain interest of people if they can snag a magazine or two, even if they are 20 years old, to see what you can do in this hobby. I wouldn't be so quick to toss them all, but use them in this manner as a freebie for the kids (and adults) who come to the open houses/shows. At some point you may have more than you can store and disposing of them may be the only option, but keep the nicer ones for freebies.
Crazy when I think of how much magazine collecting I did to amass the colelction I had, nearly complete from the mid-50's to present (obviously had all the ones from when I was a subscriber to the print version) and some select older ones. Multiple train shows, sometimes getting full years or multiple years in one buy, other times picking up a missing issue here or there at the same shows, or flea markets and the like. Now I have only those which are not available in electronic form, plus the pristine set of 1944 MR I picked up. 6 bookshelves reduced to only needing 2 to hold it all.
Speaking of donations, we were contacted a couple of weeks ago by a long time railroading fan who wanted to donate his magazine and video collections to the club. His offer had already been declined by several other clubs so he was quite pleased to hear that we would take his collection. We have a couple of guys in the club who devour railroad magazines, modelling related or the real thing. We also have several guys who enjoy watching videos (and who still have their VCRs!).
The gentleman was in Georgetown, Ontario and I'm in Bradford which is about an hour away, so I offered to pick the collections up. It was a nice opportunity to go for a drive in the country and maybe get some backdrop photos too.
When we got to Georgetown the couple was waiting at the entrance to their apartment building with the magazines etc. in tow. I wasn't quite prepared for the quantities that we were being given. They gave us well over 200 magazines of all varieties and about 30 videos! The whole back of my van was covered 3" deep in magazines!
We had a very nice lunch with the couple and then headed home. On the way home we got stuck (first in line) at a double track railway crossing for close to 20 minutes while we waited for two trains to pass. An eastbound container train was straddling the road as it waited for a westbound which was all autoracks. We started to laugh because the trains just kept coming and coming and coming, and when we thought we were finally seeing the end of the second train, it still kept coming and coming..... I'm sure you have been there too. Interesting seeing all the different road names on the autoracks.
Back to the magazine collection. The two magazine hounds couldn't believe their eyes when they opened the back of my van. Ron kept asking if it was okay to take some more and I kept telling him that they were headed for the recycling if he and Mike didn't take them all.
We had a bit of a chuckle at the club on Tuesday night. Our Secretary, Henk, received a phone call earlier in the day from a gentleman who had a train set that he wanted to donate to the club. He claimed to not know much about it, and he didn't know what scale it was. Henk thought it was worth a look so he arranged to pick it up Tuesday evening.
To say we were a little let down would be to put it mildly! What we were given was a battery powered 4-4-0, a passenger car and a caboose somewhere between O and G scale. The original price was printed right on the box - $20.00, and there was a price sticker on top of that for $6.50. Half the oval track was missing. We weren't sure if it still runs or not and we didn't have any batteries to test it.
Oh well, ya win some and ya lose some! It's the thought that counts. Ron took it home for his 6 yr. old grandson to play with so all was not lost.
Hi Brian,
I think I just need to remember to hit the 'save draft' button regularly. However, if I continue to have problems, I will have a look at the site you recommended.
In the past I've ended up 'losing' a lot of text/photos I was composing on a site. I finally ended up composing it in a free document that helps me even with spelling. I can then copy it and post it where ever.
Open Office Writerhttps://www.openoffice.org/product/writer.html
Brian
My Layout Plan
Interesting new Plan Consideration
I published my first article on the website tonight (barm.ca - Building the Layout Part 3). I still had a heck of a time figuring out how to insert pictures but I got it right eventually. The article is way out of date because it shows stuff that was done more than a year ago, but it is part of a series and I have two more articles written up that I will publish in the next week or so, and those will bring us more or less up to date.
I'm actually pretty pleased with myself. I barely did any cursing even when half of the article disappeared into thin air as I was typing! I'm not sure what I did to cause that but I slapped my hand for not having been hitting the save button every few sentences.
I have experienced a miracle!!! (well, for me at least).
We got into a crunch with our website. The two guys who were keeping it up to date have both left the club (one of them moved to Toronto to work for Rapido so we can forgive him for leaving). That left nobody to keep the website up to date, so I decided to take the job on. That required me to be set up as an administrator for the website. Simple, right? Wrong!!! It has taken me several weeks to figure out how to accomplish that.
I readily admit that I am a computer dinosaur but usually I can figure things out. This time around things were just not clicking. It all came back to the same catch 22. I wasn't set up as an administrator so I couldn't get access to the web hosts but I had to be an administrator in order to get access to the web hosts. I couldn't figure out how to get set up. Finally, our Treasurer who has been paying the bills for years, sent them a note telling them to let me in, as it were. Now I'm in!!! I have great plans for updating the website, but I'm not going to start tonight. I'm too buzzed on pain killers for my back to even consider starting the updates now.
mobilman44So it would be much more interesting if we could see pictures - lots of pictures - so we can get an understanding and appreciation for what you all are doing.
Hi mobilman44,
I'm sorry if I am boring you with my insights into the operation of a train club.
As far as more pictures is concerned, others have asked for the same thing - show lots of pictures! I will admit that for a while I was a bit remiss in that regard. The fact is that I could take pictures every week but there would be very little obvious difference from one week to the next and that could get boring really quick too. I choose to take pictures whenever we have made some noticeable visible changes. Over the past few weeks we have started some of the scenery forms, which I have shown, but before that most of the work over the preceding months was electrical. How many pictures of dangling wires and Tortoise machines would you like? We have also installed several spurs and sidings. Taking a picture of each piece of track being laid would be pretty boring too IMHO.
The truth is that we are only working on the layout for a few hours each week. That means that the time between recognizable layout changes can be weeks or even a couple of months. I choose not to photograph every track nail being placed or every piece of foam or plaster cloth that is being installed.
As far as commenting on the events and observations that make up a club, there seems to be some interest in what may seem to be mundane to you. IIRC, the thread is almost up to 59,000 views. I will continue to share my experiences for the foreseeable future since there seems to be at least a modicum of interest in what is going on in the Barrie Allandale Railway Modellers Association.
Thank you for your comments,
Hi!
While I have no interest in club politics or personalities, I have a huge interest in the building of a layout - especially one like you describe.
So it would be much more interesting if we could see pictures - lots of pictures - so we can get an understanding and appreciation for what you all are doing.
Please, forget about the gossip and politics and show us some layout pictures!
ENJOY !
Mobilman44
Living in southeast Texas, formerly modeling the "postwar" Santa Fe and Illinois Central
We opened the nomination period for the annual election of the Board of Directors (Executive Committee) on Tuesday night and it looks like nothing is about to change. Nobody else put their names forward so 'we is it!'. I'm happy!
The Show Committee meeting went great! The agenda had 31 different subjects on it (!) but more than half of those do not require immediate attention. All the current important decisions were made so we are well on our way to having a successful 2020 show.
Most of the copies that the Secretary had asked me to make were not used so I just added about 1/2" to my recycled paper pile!
On Monday night we will hold the first Show Committee meeting for the 2020 show. I'm quite a bit more involved in the preparations for the show than I have been previously. Man, is it a lot of work!!! I'm not complaining, but I think between the show floor plan and the vendors/exhibitors lists I have used about 20 gallons of ink!!! Okay, not quite, but my show folder is about a half inch thick. So many details!!!!
If we have a show that is anywhere nearly as successful as last year's we will be in good shape.
We are just starting preparations for our 2020 Annual Train Show and Sale. It is held in February in Barrie, Ontario (crazy Canucks). Next year will be our 50th annual show!
Last year we had 3000 people brave the weather (which was quite nice by the way) to come through our doors. The show is listed in the MR Events Calendar.
I have taken on the job of sending out all the invitations to the vendors and exhibitors, so my secretarial skills are being stretched right now. I have sent out about 100 emails in the past couple of days. Of course, there has to be a phone number on the applications so guess who's number we used!
Oh well. If we don't have a successful show, we don't have a clubhouse!
Moderators: I hope this post doesn't fall outside the forum rules. If so, please delete it or edit it as appropriate.
rrebellHave operations night for only those who have read the rules and qualified. A simple set of rules is all you need at first, like when to stop and go etc.
We are a very open and supportive club. Despite all my whining I would much rather put someone on the track who needs to learn and then try to follow them enough to prevent them from crashing, more or less like a dispatcher might do but on a more basic level.
We will start the next few sessions with a brief tutorial explaining how they will proceed around the layout, i.e. stopping wherever necessary to find out if other trains are approaching as well as to check the turnouts. There will be a lot of stopped trains in the next couple of months!
A couple of the members will have to have their hands held until they get the picture. I'm prepared to be patient with them even if that takes some time.
SPSOT fanwhen I visited a club this summer I was offered a throttle and did exactly that with another visitor.
We do the same thing when visitors drop in during our running nights. It makes it much easier to get the membership fees out of their pockets!!
hon30critter Hi Big Jim, Sheldon and Henry, I don't mind doing my share of the work needed to keep the club going. That's what I signed on for when I put my name on the ballot to be the President. The fact is, because we are in the midst of building a new layout and teaching members to operate, there is a lot more work on the table now then there will be in a year or two. I just wish that the guys who already know how to operate would take a more active role in getting operations established. Thanks for letting me whine! Dave
Hi Big Jim, Sheldon and Henry,
I don't mind doing my share of the work needed to keep the club going. That's what I signed on for when I put my name on the ballot to be the President. The fact is, because we are in the midst of building a new layout and teaching members to operate, there is a lot more work on the table now then there will be in a year or two. I just wish that the guys who already know how to operate would take a more active role in getting operations established.
Thanks for letting me whine!
Dave, as I told you once before, you are doing a great job, and I read this thread even when I don't comment.
Clubs can be great, and I wish you guys well with your layout.
I just know my own strengths and weaknesses, years ago I enjoyed both a club and a round robin, though I must say the round robin was better for me than the club ultimately.
But family stuff was always conflicting with group activities and cutting into my own actual modeling time - so I made a choice, family and my own modeling won over socializing and other peoples layouts.
Now as I start a new layout soon, it is actually a relief to not feel obligated to any other hobby activities.
I can be a single focus kind of guy......
Sheldon
SeeYou190 hon30critter we want to teach people to stop stretching the throttle cords to their maximum length! . Oh, that is always an aggravation. When Scale Rails of Southwest Florida switched to HOGGER packs in the 1990s, they were all stretched soon. I think only wireless throttles will be the solution to this problem. . -Kevin .
hon30critter we want to teach people to stop stretching the throttle cords to their maximum length!
.
Oh, that is always an aggravation. When Scale Rails of Southwest Florida switched to HOGGER packs in the 1990s, they were all stretched soon. I think only wireless throttles will be the solution to this problem.
-Kevin
Agreed, wireless throttles. Even my DC powered layout has wireless throttles.......