|
|
NTGRC Events Update
November / December 2023
Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year from the North Texas Garden Railroad Club!! Thanks for checking out our November / December newsletter.
As expected, the weather has started to cool down in North Texas but it still hasn’t hit the frigid level (yet!). What has finally started to come down in earnest are the leaves, which have seemed to hit the ground (and cover outdoor layouts) later than normal. According the JC’s Landscaping (Plano, Frisco, and Prosper), fall leaves typically last from mid-October through early November. The exact timing though will vary depending on the weather, and if there is a prolonged period of dry, sunny weather, the leaves may stay on the trees for longer than usual, which has been the case this year.
Your Club has been active these past few months. In November, we had a home meeting at the home of David and Cindy Valdez, and in December we had our annual holiday party at La Hacienda Ranch in Colleyville, which Patrick will cover in his Passenger Car column. As the calendar turns to 2024, we start the new year with the Dallas Area Train Show in Plano January 20-21 (our layout setup will be Friday afternoon, January 19 th.) Our current schedule for all of 2024 can be found in Thomas’ article below.
Read on to find out more about our recent happenings and Board member columns.
The President’s Car
I am writing this before our Christmas dinner and even before Thanksgiving!
It will be a busy time for us and I am trying to tie up loose ends when I have a few minutes available.
Our Board is not meeting until the Dallas Area Train Show in Plano in January, so there is not much to tell you as to future plans. I have completed my project of changing my 15-car streamliner over to full battery power and 100% roller bearing axles. My thanks to Mike Pritchett for his help, Joanne Tillman, Train-Li and Veron & Ellie, Reindeer Pass. (And those who can still get up after bending over for putting it on the rails.)
Last train show we did not have a signup sheet and I think that all who came and wanted to run trains were accommodated almost immediately. If there was an issue, I am not aware of any, but again, if there was, I would like to know. Please email or text or call me 972 754 5100.
Our by-laws committee (Jack Huffman, Julie Spencer, Paul Gramza, Ron Trees and Patrick Miller) are hard at work re-writing our by-laws by removing those items that are really not part of the by-laws, but more POLICY & PRECEDENT. e.g., amount reimbursed to a host for a club meeting need not be in the by-laws but should be in writing in a POLICY AND PRECEDENT File.
After the Dallas Area Train Show setup on January 19 th, there will be a NO HOST dinner at Love and War in Plano.
Also, at the show there will be a smaller loop with a remote control to let little one’s “run” a train. We will use a remote that is for Bridgewerks controllers, and a Thomas and Friends (Annie and Clarabelle). We shall need club members to volunteer to oversee the little ones.
We just had our annual club Christmas dinner. 46 attended and all loved the location, the private room, the food and the wait staff. Next Christmas dinner is the 15 th of December 2024, so mark your calendars NOW. Do not schedule any events or conflicts for next year. (Can you believe we can plan a year out!!!)
Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and a Blessed New Year.
Reminder that 2024 memberships are now due. $25 for a year and $250 for lifetime membership.
What is your Club thinking about?
Watch your newsletter or check the website ( ntgrc.org) to find out about the latest events. But if you want to find out early and/or have a say into what we are going to do, come to a Board Meeting. They are usually on the fourth Tuesday of the month at 6 PM at Spring Creek BBQ in Irving (SW corner of Beltline Road and Highway 183). NOW, when we have events like train runs, hospital runs or train shows that are close to a board meeting date, we will delay the meeting and hold it during that event. So, our January Board Meeting will be held at the Dallas Area Train Show in Plano after lunch. BOARD MEETINGS ARE ALWAYS OPEN TO ALL MEMBERS.
NTGRC 2024 EVENT SCHEDULE
JANUARY 20th-21st, Dallas Area Train Show, Plano Event Center, 2000 E. Spring Creek Pkwy, Plano TX 75074, set up Friday, Jan. 19 th. No Host dinner at 5PM; Love and War, 601 E. Plano Parkway, Plano, TX 75074
FEBRUARY 25th, 2 pm to 4 pm, Home Meeting - M’Lou and Tom Lytle’s, 2524 Willowdale Dr, Carrollton 75006
MARCH Date TBD, 2 pm to 4 pm, Home Meeting - Lawanda and Victor Jones
APRIL TBD, HOME MEETING OPEN
MAY Date TBD, Noon on -, Home Meeting - Edi and David St John. Bring trains if you want.
JUNE Date TBD, 2 pm to 4 pm, ANNUAL MEETING, Becky and Vard Moore
National Garden Railroad National Convention 2024, New York, CANCELLED There was talk of possibly organizing some regional events. The convention in Denver on June 2 nd to 5 th is for the National Garden Clubs Regional Convention NOT National Garden Railroad
JULY TBD, HOME MEETING OR POSSIBLE HOSPITAL Train Run
AUGUST TBD, POSSIBLE HOSPITAL Train Run OR SWAP MEET
AUGUST 31st – SEPTEMBER 1 st, Clark Gardens Train Fest, 567 Maddux Road, Weatherford, TX, 76088. Set up Friday, August 30 th. Aug 30 th No Host Dinner at Mesquite Grill, Mineral Wells. Aug 31 st Hosted dinner at Clark Gardens.
SEPTEMBER 27th – OCTOBER 20th, Layout at Texas Discovery Gardens, State Fair of Texas.
SEPTEMBER 28TH – SEPTEMBER 29TH, Fall Plano Train Show, Plano Event Center, 2000 E. Spring Creek Pkwy, Plano TX 75074, set up Sep 27 th, No Host dinner at 5PM; Love and War, 601 E. Plano Parkway, Plano, TX 75074
NOVEMBER TBD, HOME MEETING OPEN
DECEMBER 15th, All Afternoon, CHRISTMAS DINNER MEETING, Cindy and David Valdez, 129 Hidden Valley Airport, Shady Shores, TX 76208
M ay 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.
The Passenger Car
Are those jingle bells I’m hearing? My goodness where did 2023 go? It seems like the January Plano show just ended and now we are just weeks away from another one! Well, I hope everyone in the Club had a good year and had time to enjoy running trains.
So, we had some year end events of note. The Cindy and David Valdez home meeting and our NTGRC Christmas party. Ron Trees discussed the Valdez meeting and I am covering Christmas.
This year we had the Christmas party at a restaurant instead of a member’s home. Prez Thomas Lytle was able to find a nice room at La Hacienda Ranch in Colleyville. Members must have known the food is pretty darn good at La Hacienda because we had one of our largest turnouts ever! By my count there were 43 members and significant others who came to feast. Very good cheese enchiladas, chicken, beef, and shrimp fajitas, yummy guacamole and tasty chips and salsa.
The tables were packed with hungry members waiting their turn for the buffet as table numbers were called. It was all very orderly though I felt bad for the last few tables as the warm aroma of grilled fajitas filled the room. The servers did a good job keeping up with drink refills and other requests. I’m confident no one went home hungry.
As dinner and conversations were wrapping up it was time for the Christmas door prize drawing. Each member got a ticket and President Tom said it was a surprise that had recently been seen for $150 on eBay. Gerry Minna pulled the winning ticket from the bowl. Of course, the ONE person who had to leave early, won. Mike Weatherford had given his ticket to President Tom to hold should he win. Honest Mr. Lytle swears that it was Mike’s ticket even though he was holding one for himself. Guess Tom was trimming down his collection to all G Scale.
Door prize winner Mike Weatherford’s beautiful Lionel Train Lamp.
After the drawing the members said goodnight and headed home full of fajitas and good memories.
And now a quick look at what’s happening at Clark Gardens. The gardens received a grant to update the four permanent loops that have been running trains for the public for over 15 years. The heads on the brass rails are worn down to the web and in some spots wheel flanges are hitting the ties. Also switches that bring trains in and out of the Clark Depot are too tight to make a good transition. Those too are scheduled to be replaced with larger R5 switches.
The Tuesday Crew of club members are gearing up to rework and replace over 1000’ of track and those switches on all four loops. If you have time and some skills in G-Scale, we would love to put you to work!
Tuesday Crew has breakfast at R & K Café in Hudson Oaks
Work started on Loop 2 tunnels
Inside the tunnels.
The Tuesday Crew regulars consists of Pete Dahlberg, Jack Huffman, Julie Spencer, Paul Gramza, and myself. We have started on Loop 2 already and the track has now arrived. The fun starts on January 9 th!
The Grinch smiles down on Pete Dahlberg’s Christmas Train presentation at The Gaylord in Grapevine.
The Santa Fe whizzing by on the upper track above the Christmas Village. Great work, Pete!
That wraps up the year 2023 of The Passenger Car. I’m still full from the La Hacienda fajita dinner and plan to curl up in the Dome for a long winters nap.
Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year! Looking forward to seeing all our members in 2024!
Patrick Miller
The Mail Car
By Pete Dahlberg
Q: A light on my equipment has burnt out. How can I replace it?
A: The simple answer is to buy a replacement lamp from the manufacturer.
However, the problem will be determining which lamp you need to purchase and how to remove the old burnt out lamp. The answer to these questions will vary markedly depending on which company manufactured the piece. If the light is incandescent, you may want to consider replacing it (and other incandescent lights) with LEDs. Installing LEDs is a more involved process but the advantage is that if properly done they will never burn out.
USA Trains has a very helpful service department so finding the correct lamp is merely describing to the technician which locomotive or car it is from and where the lamp is located. Unfortunately, USAT does not have any wiring diagrams nor exploded parts diagrams to help with the removal or installation. Some lamps are plug-ins while others are soldered to circuit boards. It should also be noted that lamps can be either incandescent or LED.
LGB has wiring diagrams as well as exploded parts views which contain detail part numbers. Train-Li has on its website the diagrams. However, finding the diagram(s) appropriate for your equipment is difficult since they are not organized by model number. It should be noted that LGB frequently will use the same fixture for lamps of different voltage so you will need to be careful to match your lamp with the voltage present in the fixture.
Bachmann has exploded parts diagrams available for many of their items, however I do not recall ever seeing a wiring diagram. Presumably from the parts diagram, you will be able to order the appropriate lamp, however if the part is not available you may not have the specifications for ordering a substitute.
Aristocraft had both wiring and exploded parts diagrams available on their web forum. Unfortunately, this site is no longer available. As sources you may look for other Large Scale forums for help. Examples are: George Schreyer http://www.girr.org/girr/tips/tips.html, Greg Elmassian http://elmassian.com/
Good luck!
That's a wrap for our November / December 2023 Newsletter. I hope to see many of our members and guests at our next event, which is the Dallas Area Train Show in Plano in January.
As always, thanks for reading.
|
|
|
|
|
|
