NTGRC News

Welcome to the March / April 2022 edition of the NTGRC Newsletter.  We had hoped to have TWO home meetings to report on for this edition, but Mother Nature decided that the April 24^th date for our scheduled home meeting at Jack Huffman’s would be a great day for rain to fall.  So we were forced to cancel our April meeting and reschedule it for May 15^th instead.  That was supposed to be our date to travel to Decatur and see Patrick Miller’s updated layout, but I’m sure we will work Patrick back into the schedule at a later date.  Spring showers are always an unpredictable event in North Texas – we know there will be some, but just never know when!

Read on to hear about the great meeting we held at Victor and Lawanda Jones’ home in March, as well as the upcoming events in our ever-changing schedule.  We’ve also got several tips and tricks from our local model train experts that you won’t want to miss.    
 

The President’s Car

I am late with my article to our editor-in-chief (what else is new) and I am so thankful he is very patient.

I am sitting in front of a blank screen with a blank mind.  My fingers poised above the keys on the key board, but not moving.  Usually, the days leading up to the deadline (and a few days after it), a lot of ideas pop into my head.  Some have possibilities to share and others I toss into two categories, 1). Nope never, and 2). Maybe if I need filler (never seem to remember what I put into category Two.  I could sure use it now.

Last Home meeting was up at Lawanda and Victor Jones’ lovely home in Kansas (not really in Kansas, but I swear I saw a road sign that said “Oklahoma/Kansas border 2 miles”).  I was not able to move inside and outside like I wanted to because of knee mobility, but Victor has turned into a kid again and is laying an outside loop while experimenting with both a tunnel and water feature.

Our next meeting will be at Jack Huffman’s home.  He has two loops in a shaded backyard AND has converted to 100% battery power.  I can’t wait to see his accomplishments since I was there last time (about 9 months ago).  I hope to be a little more mobile than I am today, but if not, I am much better off than I was at the end of March.

My wife just told me I spend too much time on this computer writing this newsletter.  I am too wordy and make it too long and verbose.  She said “why don’t you let me write it?”  When I asked her to dictate what she would put into this article, she said “The Club is doing fine.  We had a great meeting at the Jones’ and Lawanda is a great host and cook.  See you all at the next event.”

So, I am back after a quick break and I guess I want all of you to know that we want you as active as you can be in our group.  We are slowly getting some young blood involved and some of us cannot get down on our knees as easy as we used to.  But it really is not the getting down so much as the ability to get up without asking for assistance.  And what is wrong with that?

Some of our members have such limitations they do not come because they feel they are not contributing to our club.  HOGWASH.  Verbal support is GREAT.  Taking one of the newest members (regardless of their age 10 or 50) and teaching them the lessons we have learned about laying track, picking it up, putting trains on the track, which direction they should (NOT HAVE TO) go, etc.  AS LONG AS YOU TELL THEM WHY IT IS DONE THAT WAY.

Camaraderie and lunch, breaks, strolling among other layouts at shows, sitting with someone you do not know at a Club non-hosted dinner.

If you do not participate, you will drift away from our group.  We are very, very, very, very diverse.  BUT we all love trains and we all love to get kids involved in our hobby, even if it is just planting a seed today.

As a city kid in California, I asked my mom to stop by a city pool where a bunch of adults were casting out from the edge into inner tubes placed in lanes and various distances from the edge.  As I watched, an older man came up to me and asked if I knew what they were doing?  Nope, was my answer.  He said they were all fishermen and lived in a city and this is their way of perfecting a spin cast to a certain spot on the water.  He gave me a pole, a couple of tips on the “how to,” then watched and gave me a couple of pointers.  He explained why it was done this way and that way.  I came there once a month for almost a year.  Another guy with an older son asked if I had ever fished on a lake or stream.  No was the answer and a weekend later I was with that man and his two sons.  Learned to bait a hook, unhook a fish too small and then how to prepare the dozen or so each of us caught.  THEN to meet the game warden.  As he checked our catch, the man explained why he and his two sons and I were out on Flower Lake.  They all had a license, but I did not.  That warden asked me one question.  Did I have an enjoyable day?  My answer was, “Boy did I”.  He never asked me for my license.  We had fish that night at our house even though my mom had something else to prepare (just in case).

Well, that is what we can do as a train club.  Talk to our visitors, plant a seed and guess what?  We will have many Victor and Owen Jones’ in our club.

Lots of event coming up for our club.

PLEASE, ALL OF YOU MARK YOUR CALENDARS AND COME TO A BOARD MEETING.  Again, we hold them on the 4^th Tuesday of the month (unless there is an event close to the end of the month, then we will hold them at the event) at 6 PM.   We have moved our meeting location to Spring Creek BBQ at 3514 W Airport Fwy, Irving, TX 75061 (183 and Beltline Road).
 
We will continue train runs and home meetings as soon as it is safe for our mature and more experienced club members to safely attend.  See the event schedule below and if you would like to host a home meeting in a month that is open, please contact Vard Moore at vardm@me.com.

Also, did you know that if you have questions about G scale trains, layouts, electric supply or anything you can submit your questions to Pete Dahlberg at dahlbpe@sbcglobal.net

Pondering of the Month

I hope you all understand that by being your President I make decisions all the time.  I have never said they were good decisions.

What is your Club thinking about?

We have the second LED light fixture to install in the trailer and replace some tie down rings.  Looking for a day in which David and Tom will be off at the same time. 

Lots of new bridges installed at Clark Gardens.  And now that they are opened, we have some cedar planking to remove and replace.  We have outdoor water proof wiring to run from the control area to tracks at Clark Gardens and some ballasting.  We are planning to install an auto reverse Trolley run at the Gardens.  If you're in the area, come join us about 10 am every Tuesday.

We also have some track leveling and re-ballasting at both locations of Discovery Garden’s and especially Clark Gardens.

Discovery Garden’s “Little Tex” STILL needs jeans, a shirt, boots, belt with LARGE belt buckle He has a kerchief and a cowboy hat.  They also have some cars that need some work to run again and could use someone to volunteer some TLC time to fix them.  Also, DG needs Pola and Piko, G scale western era buildings.  (Preferred already assembled with waterproof glue).   

We really need help to run the trains during the State Fair of Texas at Discovery Gardens.  You can sign up on line at tdg.org.  See the dates below.

UP AND COMING EVENTS

May 15^TH, 2:00 PM, Jack Huffman’s Home: 7001 Aspen Wood Trail, Ft. Worth TX 76132

June 5^th, 2:00 PM Annual Meeting Becky and Vard Moore’s home, 6175 Preston Creek Dr., Dallas, TX 75240

JUNE 20^th to 25^th, NATIONAL GARDEN RAILROAD CONVENTION DENVER


July TBD, HOME MEETING - OPEN

August TBD - Cook Children’s Hospital 1 day run

September 3^rd – 4^th Trainfest Clark Gardens, Set up 2^nd @ 1PM.  Make your reservations now …. Rate is $67.00 per night. 940-325-2270

September 30th—October 23rd, State Fair of Texas - Help run the Trains at Texas Discovery Gardens for passes to the Fair. Two volunteers are needed for the morning session and 2 people for the afternoon session  Check with Ron Natinsky: 972-732-4000 or ron@obgt.com
.
October 1^st & 2^nd, Fall Train Show in Plano.  Set up is 30 Sep.

November TBD, Home meeting - OPEN
 
December 3^rd, Christmas Gathering - Bavarian Grill at 4 PM.

May your tracks be true; your stay on passing’s be short; do not take any dead-end sidings and keep her between and out of the ditches.

Other good stuff upcoming includes the National Garden Railway Convention 2022, June 19^th -25^th. This year’s convention is in Denver. The URL is https://www.ngrc2022.org/. Several of our members are going. If you plan to go, tell us so we can get our club members together sometime.  If you want to add a water feature to your layout, you might take a look at the North Texas Water Garden Society Pond Tour which will be the weekend of June 11^th-12^th. Their URL is https://ntwgs.org and tour guides will be available at many nurseries.

Beefing up a sound installation in an LGB switcher

I have a small LGB switcher that I run at Texas Discovery Gardens (TDG) that did not have sound. It’s a real strong running engine so I use it a lot. Since everyone likes sound I wanted to add sound to it.

I had a Phoenix P8 sound board (one of the last available since it appears they’ve gone to the train heaven in the sky) and had it installed in the small switcher. The board and speaker were installed inside the front hood of the switcher and not much of the sound got out from under the hood. So, the sound worked, but didn’t do much, especially outdoors at TDG. It wasn’t the greatest. I decided that I had to dig into finding a way to make it better.

On to figuring out the precise German engineering that was put into designing the engine. 4 screws held the hood on but the handrails had to be removed first. When I opened the engine, I first found that the sound board and the speaker were basically loose inside the engine hood. So, note to self, do not use the cheap double-faced tape that comes with the boards. I usually use what I call the 3M Extreme Black Tape. It used to have a number, but for some reason not any longer. It’s easily identified by the bright red liner. It’s available at Home Depot, Lowe's and of course Amazon. It’s not cheap, but you don’t need much. It’s the same tape that is used to stick all the trim on cars at the factory. The good thing beside sticking basically forever is that it can be removed without leaving a residue by very carefully rolling it from one edge or using a little heat from a hair dryer and then rolling it up. If there’s any residue it easily rolls away with you finger. So yes, I re-stuck the speaker and board with the 3M Extreme Black tape.

There is a small “fake” radiator part on one side of the engine hood that seemed like it had some potential. After disassembling the engine, I found that the part I am referring to is easily removed. The ideas was to cut out the “fake” vents on this part and also an opening into the main hood area and let the sound get “outside” of the engine hood.
 
I cut 2 small pieces and glued them with E6000 to the inside of the openings of the smaller part. I like E6000 for this type of use because it’s super strong but has some give to it. Plus, if in the future you need to remove things you can get the part free. I use this for people around the layout also.

From there it was just re-assembling the engine and running it on the test track. The sound was significantly louder. Now the engine is ready for the outdoors at TDG.


Finding the 4 screws way down in there that hold the hood onto the chassis.


The hood where you can see the opening that I cut to let the sound out. The smaller slots are where the small part snaps onto the hood.


The speaker mounted to the inside front of the hood. Note the cheap white tape holding (or not holding) the speaker and board that I replaced with 3M Extreme Black tape.


The opening cut and filed into the side of main hood. I did smooth out the opening before proceeding.


The smaller hood with openings cut and filed on both sides.


Making sure everything still works before putting things back together


Closeup of the new sound vent.


And here’s a view from the rear.


Running on test track.


Project complete and no screws or parts left over.

---

By Patrick Miller

Happy Spring to everyone! The flowers are growing, the bees are buzzing, and the mosquitoes are starting to bite. We love spring here in Texas. Well maybe not the mosquito part.

I heard the home meeting at Lawanda and Victor Jones' house was a great get together. I wish I could have been there but I was zooming home from Alabama on the 27^th. I had a previously scheduled train related trip to visit my friend Grant Sweer in Huntsville. Grant was the president of my old club in Santa Clarita, California. He’s a rocket scientist (no, really) and a year after Donna and I moved here he got a job offer and moved to Huntsville. He had a multi-track layout in his back yard in Cali but what he built in Alabama is awesome! I went back for four days to help him with something and I got the opportunity to run my new Western Pacific SD70. Hours of fun!


The author's SD70 crossing over one of many bridges on the “Grant Funk Railroad”.


Grant Sweer replacing a troublesome switch before expanding one of two railyards.

Regarding the USA SD70, when I bought it new in the box from an Oklahoma vender at the January Plano show, it had no sound card. I was under the impression that a Phoenix P8 card would work and luckily found one that Ron Natinsky had available. Phoenix sound is having problems and not communicating with customers even though the website is still up.

Mike Pritchett was kind enough to expedite the installation and programming of the prototypical SD70 sounds. Yay! But, long story short, I found out that the P8 needs constant voltage as in battery or DCC operation. I and my friend Grant run track power DC. The card works but only after the voltage is high enough so there is no start-up or wind-down sound effects. Well, that sucks. Found out the hard way that I need a Phoenix PB17 card. Might take a while to find one of those.


Mike Pritchett’s excellent install of the Phoenix P8 sound card.

Speaking of the PB17 Phoenix sound card leads me to “what’s going on at Clark Gardens?”.

Two weeks ago, I assisted Pete Dahlberg in installing a PB17 into a locomotive tender to replace one that had seen better days. Among other continuing maintenance at Clark’s, we’ve been repairing and rebuilding steam and diesel locomotives. They run seven days a week when the weather is good and the wear and tear takes a toll.


Pete Dahlberg replacing a well-worn SD40 body with a new one on the original chassis.


You never know what’s lurking in your motor block.

Club members Charlie Greenlee, Paul Gramza, and Julie Spencer have been helping out almost every Tuesday repairing buildings, cleaning out the water feature, painting bridges, and laying down more ballast. The larger rock ballast we put down around loop four before the heavier rains came worked well in preventing erosion of the lighter grey ballast. We have been continuing to put down both the large and grey ballast around loop one to stabilize it for the continuing spring rains.


 Charlie Greenlee smiling big!


Julie Spencer taking care of the indoor plants.


Paul Gramza spreading more Ballast.

Clark Gardens last day before the summer heat break is July 4^th. Two major projects are being planned for that summer break. The track on all the loops is starting to wear down. Some has been replaced here and there over the 15 plus years the trains have been running but now major sections are in need of replacement.

Also, the trolley line on the west side by loop four needs a complete rebuild. We started this last year with new supports for the south east side by putting in PVC board and a French drain. We would love to have this running for Labor Day weekend when the Gardens re-open.


Above and below - the soon to be remodeled trolley line near loop four.


Looking for volunteers! We’re out at Clark’s every Tuesday if it isn’t raining. You can contact me at p-dmiller@sbcglobal.net or Pete Dahlberg at dahlbpe@sbcglobal.net. We get there around 10am after we have breakfast at R&K Café in Hudson Oaks at 8:30am. Good food, good coffee, good service, and good conversation.

I’m looking forward to the next home meeting at Jack Huffman’s house on May 15^th.

Donna and I were scheduled to host the May home meeting, but we've moved down on the schedule which will give me more time to have most of everything up and running. I’ve been remodeling the layout I have and if I don’t get ‘it’ in gear, you’ll be seeing a fantastic static display. The remodeling will be the subject of an upcoming article for the newsletter.

That’s about it looking down from my seat in the dome. Hoping to see everyone at our upcoming home meetings and events!

Best!

Patrick Miller
Secretary , NTGRC
 

The Mail Car