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AMHERST BELT LINES |
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HO Modular Railroad |
Copyright © 2003, Amherst Railway Society
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Sudro Brown BrownSudro@cs.com |
Clark Huber chuber@charter.net |
Alan Rice abel.planning@comcast.net |
Well, this edition of the Modular Mumblings started into production in March with a target release of April. Suddenly it was May, so the heading got changed to "April/May 2003". Well, now it is June, and the writing has come to an end, the graphics are finally in place and displaying properly and we will now call it the "Spring 2003" edition of the Modular Mumblings! Well, what else can you expect for free!
With the closing of the trailer door at the end of the Little Rhody show in West Warwick, Rhode Island, in a record 45-minutes to pack up no less, we closed the door on the 2002-2003 Show season. Now we can all take some time to relax, make repairs to both modules and family relationships, start a few new projects and think about what needs to be done around the house to get it ready for spring and summer. We will take a moment here to look at some new business, then review the past season so that we can recognize the accomplishments of this past year.
While another show is likely to be the last thing on your mind right now, a quick review of the May 2003 issue of Model Railroader revealed that the Great American Train Show (GATS) is coming to our town. On Saturday and Sunday, October 11 & 12, 2003, GATS will be in West Springfield at the Eastern States Exposition Fairgrounds; the show runs both days from 11 AM to 5 PM. We anticipate that setup will not be until Saturday morning; still it is possible that access for layouts to the show site would be available Friday night. In the past we have typically limited the number of shows we attend in a year to five, however, we feel compelled to throw our hat in the ring for this traveling show that will be occurring in our own back yard.
According to their web site, GATS produces the floor plans for their shows about 60 days before the scheduled date. This would mean that the floor plan for this show would be started in early August and, because it is now June, we need to propose our layout size very soon as time has already slipped away from us more quickly than we would like. We cannot produce a layout the size of the Amherst Railway Society Show (fortunately!) for this event, but would welcome as many modules as would like to participate to fill out the plan beyond our "standard" layout. To secure a place in this show, contact Alan by June 25 if you would like to have your module(s) included in the layout, so that we can propose a layout size to the GATS planning staff in a timely manner.
This year marked the twenty-fifth consecutive appearance of the Amherst Railway Society's HO Scale Modular Layout at the parent organization's annual show. Wow! It is really hard to believe that this group has been active for 25 years putting layouts together for the purpose of entertaining and educating the public. It is also hard to believe that after 25 years we still haven't quite gotten assembling the layout for West Springfield down to a science! Setup this year was rather more stressful than it has been in years past, caused primarily by the inability to close the layout by noon on Friday. This was partially due to a planning issue, and partially due to a communication issue. When all of the factors are considered that go into the planning and assembly of a layout that is composed of over 15 scale miles of mainline, the fact that so few of these items "went wrong" is really quite amazing.
Overall, the layout looked pretty good, even though it was only about 50% scenicked. The plan was pretty simple - basically a large, convoluted oval with a smaller more basic oval at one end - but there was plenty of operation potential contained within the framework. After the layout was assembled, however, we still were not without our problems. We had some DCC problems that plagued us on Saturday although they were mostly ironed out by or on Sunday morning. We still have not worked out all the bugs to fully implementing operation at this show, but we are getting closer.
What we learned primarily from the Big E is that we have a very, very large layout and in order to make it an effective display we need to better manage the whole operation. We have tried to remain a very flexible and non-political organization, but the size and complexity of this project have placed us into a position of requiring more effective site management at all levels. The problems we had this year with module arrival, layout assembly and DCC operation have caused us to review some of our policies and management procedures. We hope that by making these changes, we can take some of the frustration out of the West Springfield show and make the overall show experience more enjoyable for everyone. We hope that by targeting the primary areas of concern, the 2004 show can run that much smoother. When we finalize the details, we will issue a newsletter outlining the changes.
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John and Dana Bock operating their rotating Coal Car unloader. Detail below.
Photo copyright © 2003 by Doug Scott
This year saw a number of noteworthy changes to the layout. We introduced two new junction modules - CPBK and CPBN that provide a simple junction to branch off the "main loop." We also saw new modules from Mike Cormier for a power plant and a new set to replace his Cormier's Mill scene. Due to some post-show vandalism, this was almost the last year these modules were displayed at a show as someone had cut the cords holding the modules to his trailer and they took off on their own as he traveled home on I-91! Fortunately, the modules survived with only minor damage, after being picked-up by Mass Highways. Carlton Rohmer, of the Cape Cod Model Railroad Club, added his Bayard engine facility modules to our mix this year. Hooterville, built by Joe Biagioni and John Flanders, returned to the layout this year with some horizontal and vertical realignment of track. Patrick Kubala's Berkshire Yard grew another eight feet this year, although it may be the last year that these modules come to the show since he has bigger plans for a new module set. The star attraction at this year's show, however, was the rotary coal dump facility and power plant built by Dana and John Bock. This animated module set attracted quite a crowd as the strings of live load coal hoppers were pushed up into the dumping shed to be slowly rotated upside down and kicked out the tail track. Amazingly, there were no accidents with the live loads at this show...we weren't quite so lucky in Rhode Island, however! (See the NMRA Little Rhody Show, below.) The Bocks have threatened to return next year with a working flood loader so that the cars won't have to be loaded behind the scenes!
Saturday night the crew of the Belt Lines and invited guests got together at the Holiday Inn in downtown Springfield for a 25th Anniversary dinner. The Holiday Inn staff was very accommodating, and put together a nearly bottomless supply of food for the event. The evening began with a PowerPoint presentation of photographs of past layouts and people, from slides provided by Steve Belforti, Jamie Robinson and Stan Slowik. Several of the charter members of the group were present including Steve Belforti, John Jenkins, Allen Pomeroy, Alan Rice and Bill Venman. Also present were all of the past and present module coordinators including Bill Venman, Allen Pomeroy, Steve Belforti, Chet Louis, Jamie Robinson, Tom LaRoche, and, of course, Sudro, Clark and Alan. Alan, with the help of others, presented a history of the modular group from its humble 11' x 19' beginnings to its current 72' x 96' size. ABEL member and Guilford Rail Systems employee Gary Munsey, Sr. presented a multi-media slide show on the past 20 years of Guilford for the main entertainment. Gary has been producing these shows on a variety of railroad subjects for the past several years and has done a super job of mixing still picture with music for a show that grabs the attention of the audience. His Guilford show was fresh out of the editing room and was nothing short of excellent. Thanks, Gary.
Preproduction Samples of 2003 Anniversary Cars
Final Car Numbers 1978 and 2003 with the Years Changed to Match
Thanks also go out to those members of the Cape Cod Model Railroad Club, the Dry Hill Model Railroad Club and the Nashua Valley Railroad Association involved with the layout, and all of the modelers and module owners who made this layout possible.
Well, we did it again! Somehow we managed to get the layout out of the trailer, up on its feet and in operation in 3 hours before the doors opened at the Auburn Elks Club at 10:00 AM on Sunday, February 23. There are two obvious factors that allow us to do this: a relatively small layout - 16' x 26' (34' if you included the Bolton Junction tail) - and help from a lot of very dedicated people. Layout assembly was a little touch-and-go as we waited for the last piece to arrive, but it was worth the wait to see a completely scenicked South Hooksett come in the door after being finished by Steve Belforti. Steve has been very busy putting new modules together, many for replacements of those that have been retired. We are grateful for his efforts to rebuild or replace some very important and active modular scenes. The replacements for Eastside Yard and Sullivans are currently on his workbench and making good progress.
The layout seemed to run well, without many of the DCC problems that had plagued us in West Springfield, due to some changes made to the applied layout wiring and busses. An OLW (westbound) through freight ran pretty close to continuously through the day, sometimes with little operator intervention or attention! The usual array of local and through trains ran, with a special appearance by Gary Munsey's sound equipped C&O Alleghany. The Belt Lines received a hearty "Thanks" from our host, the Worcester Model Railroaders, and an invitation to return in 2004.
Our thanks go out to Steve Belforti, John Bock, Sudro Brown, Mike Cormier, Jim Fenner, Clark Huber, Tom Lowry, Gary Munsey, Alan and William Rice, Carlton Rohmer, Doug Scott and Stan Slowik for getting up early and helping to make this show a success!
Sullivan's as Seen from Behind
Photo copyright 2003 by Clark Huber
Accident at Sullivan's -
Photo copyright 2003 by Clark Huber
What a way to end the season! This year was the Belt Lines third appearance at the NMRA Little Rhody Division Show in West Warwick, Rhode Island and each year seems to be better than the last. After dropping spouses and children off at the hotel, the 16' x 38' layout was unloaded and assembled. By the time lunch rolled around, the layout was well on its way to being ready for operation. After the usual connecting of rails, show wiring and testing, we were ready to get cars on the track and start operation. We tried a different method of setting cars out at this show - setting the car cards/waybills out at various industries and then finding the car and spotting it there - which relieved the yard of the usual congestion. While the concept was a good one, we really needed to set the car out first and then find the car card/waybill to go with it - it is much easier to find a car on the layout while holding the car card, than to have a car in your hand and find the car card on the layout! The idea here is that all, or most, of the industries will already have "work" for the local when it arrives, and we can sort the remaining cars into the yard on appropriate tracks to reduce the amount of time it takes to build that first local. We will continue to experiment with this part of set up so that we can be ready for operation when the power is applied.
Dana Bock brought the rotary coal dump facility to Rhode Island, and it was as big a hit there as it was in West Springfield. It became an operational challenge to keep locals and westbound freights moving through the sea of coal that was circulating on the layout. By the end of the show, between the original train set that Dana brought, the second one that he bought at the show, and a set that Gary Munsey brought, we had three live load coal trains on the layout! With that much loose material traversing the rails, we were just asking for an accident, and we got one - two actually! We still haven't figured out exactly why the first spill occurred - a car flipped in Conn River Yard blocking not only the yard track, but also both main lines - probably a pulled coupler, but the second was caused by "brake failure" by an engineer (Sudro - yes, we are naming names - rammed the train in Sullivans!). Both spills required calls to a clean-up crew - Dana with a vacuum - and both Gary and Sudro are suspended pending a full investigation. (Just kidding, guys!)
The Partners in Crime...
Who's Fault was it Anyway?
Photo copyright 2003 by Clark Huber
Our thanks go out to Steve Belforti, Dana Bock, Sudro Brown (I & II), Jim Fenner, Clark Huber, Dave Kmetz, Tom Lowry, Gary Munsey, Alan and William Rice, and Wes Warner for their efforts at this show.
Get your pencils out - here is the preliminary schedule for the 2003-2004 Show season. Mark your calendars now so you won't schedule something else for the same weekend!
The Pepperell Siding Model Railroad Club has lost the use of the North Middlesex Regional High School in Townsend, MA for their show and they are currently exploring alternate locations. Due to conflicts in the past with other shows on the same weekend, the group is also considering a change to one of the last weekends in September. We will keep you posted on the date and location as information becomes available.
The Bedford Boomer's show is typically the first or second weekend of November, so keep those dates free if you would like to participate!
If you heard the announcement at the end of the 2003 Big Railroad Hobby Show about the dates for 2004 being January 31 and February 1, you heard it correctly, but the Amherst Railway Society has changed the dates to February 7 and 8 to avoid interfering with the Super Bowl. Change your calendars now so you don't show up on the wrong weekend and miss one of the largest railroad hobby shows in the country!
The show plans that accompany [the printed copy of] this newsletter are available in electronic format and hardcopy. The electronic files, in Adobe Acrobat PDF format, are [soon to be] available on the web site and can be viewed with Acrobat Reader or downloaded any time. The drawings have been setup as 36" x 24" documents, but should print to any format printer by choosing the "Fit to Page" option at print time. The plan for the 25th Anniversary West Springfield layout will be available, including statistics, after Alan completes the drawings for some of the missing pieces. If you would like a hardcopy (or electronic copy) of the final plan, please drop him a line and he will send it when it is complete. As time permits, copies of past layout plans will be made available on the web, as well as individual module plans. We will keep you posted on availability.
The PowerPoint slide show that was presented at the 25th Anniversary dinner is also available on CD; Microsoft PowerPoint is required to view the presentation. Please drop Alan a line to request a copy. If you would like it sent by first class mail, please include $2.00 per CD to cover the cost of shipping and packing materials. Please talk with Alan about alternate delivery arrangements.
That is all for this edition of the Modular Mumblings. Have a good summer and be safe and smart in any railfanning activities.
Celebrating 25 years of Service
Modular Railroading is FUN!
Sudro, Clark and Alan
Modular Railroading is FUN!
Sudro, Clark and Alan
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