The Express

 

Newsletter of the Tinplate Trackers, Austin, Texas

June 2001 – 29th Edition

A newsletter will be sent out every two months to the current members, past members, and visitors of the club.  Please contact Steve Wise at 512-444-3310 or E-Mail him at swise@aoot.com if you have any information you would like to have included in future newsletters.  All comments/submissions welcome!

New Editor

 

Ron Fiebelkorn and the Club have passed on the gauntlet of editor for The Express, to me, Steve Wise.  I take on this task with enthusiasm due to the great folks I’ve met in the club, as well as the support from many members including Bob Stettner, Ron, Scott Smiley, Adrian Elliot and others in providing content for the newsletter, and such mundane chores as reviewing my bad English. 


Please feel free to provide me any feedback/comments/content that will help provide better newsletters in the future…


Stevo.

PAST CLUB EVENTS

 

Member Meeting – May 9th, 2001

On May 9th we had a member meeting at the Luby’s Cafeteria on Steck and MOPAC.  We had a good turnout and a lot of discussion on several articles.  Steve Wise gave us an update on our new web site, http://www.trainweb.org/ttat.  Joe Maverick gave the latest treasurer’s report and a list of members who have paid dues for 2001.  We currently have $60.00 in the treasury.  We also had a long discussion on our future events, which ones we wanted to attend, and other ways the club could make money.  Several members will follow up on various upcoming events in our area.  Additionally, we discussed someone helping with the publication of the club’s newsletter.  As stated earlier in this newsletter, Steve Wise has volunteered to give it a try and will be working with Ron Fiebelkorn.   A big THANK YOU goes out from Ron to Steve. 

 

Club Work Day – June 16th, 2001

Our last Club Work Day was on June 16th at Scott Smiley’s house.  We had a great turnout and much was accomplished. We made great strides on getting the new sidings completed, including the wiring harnesses, building the second siding, painting, and building the power box for the new siding tracks.  Thanks for everyone's help.

FUTURE CLUB EVENTS

 

2001 CLUB EVENT SCHEDULE

 

DATE                         SHOW                        PLACE                                   STATUS

July/August                   Layout Tour                 Buddy Burk’s Home                 Pending

July 28                         Club Work Day            Scott Smiley’s Home                Confirmed

August 18/19                Austin Railfair Show     Burnet                                      Confirmed

August 18                     Summer Show              New Braunfels              Cancelled

September 15/16          Temple Model RR        Frank Mayborn Center Cancelled

September 29/30          Fall Train Show            Live Oak Center                       Confirmed

October 27, 2001        Austin Jamboree           Round Rock                             *Pending*

October 27/28, 2001   Flatonia Chile Fest        Flatonia                                    Confirmed  

 

Layout Tour – Buddy Burk’s Home

Buddy has not set a date for the home layout as yet because of schedule conflicts and complications at work in July.  He’s still committed to have the tour this summer so we’re leaving it pending for July/August and we’ll send out email and/or call folks when we commit a date.  Hope to see you all there!

 

Another Club Work Day

We have scheduled another club work day at Scott Smiley’s house on Saturday, July 28th   at 9am.  We hope to finish up and test-run the siding modules then.  Come on out and help finish the siding modules!  We need to get this work complete and debugged before our up-coming events in August. 

 

Austin Railfair vs. New Braunfels Show

Background: 

Earlier this year we were trying to get invited to the Railfair Show in Burnet, which is held on August 18th  & 19th.  We were told that they would like for us to attend but they did not have any room for our layout at that time.  Since the news from Burnet didn't sound good we started looking for other shows in this time period and discovered that there was a show in New Braunfels on August 18th.  Ron contacted the person putting on that show and he said he would keep us in mind but could not promise us anything.  Ron contacted the New Braunfels representative last Saturday (June 16th) and he could not give a definite answer as to whether or not we would be invited.  As of Saturday he did not have any room for us but was waiting to hear from one vendor and he was also waiting to hear from a train club in San Antonio.  Ron has the impression that if both refused, he may have room on the Civic Center Stage for us. Ron has not received any commitment on compensation, raffles, or a table to sell items.  New Braunfels is supposed to give us a final answer in early July.


Update:

Recently Bob Stettner received information from the Railfair Group that they have an agreement with a building owner in Burnet to use an empty building on the square during Railfair.  The space is reported as being 24x75 with no obstructions in the middle.  At this time, if we went to this event we may share the building with the HOT G Scale group.  If the 24 foot measurement is correct, our maximum width is two modules plus the corners.
We could probably go at least 5 or 6 modules in length.  The possibility of holding a raffle is still being negotiated but the building is air-conditioned and there is a place to park the trailer.  Participation would include tickets on the Saturday night Bertram Special, which includes a BBQ dinner in Bertram (friends and family of participants will have to purchase dinner tickets, but we think the train ride is free for all participants and friends/family).  More information about the show can be found at the ASTA web page, http://www.atcrr.com.  Click on the Railfair link and go to the bottom of the page for the map link.  The building where we would be is directly across the square from the one that says 'model railroad display’.

 

Decision:

The decision was to commit to the Railfair show in Burnet.  Ron has told the New Braunfels folks to please consider us for next years show.  See ya’ll in Burnet!

 

Fall Train Show – Live Oak Civic Center

We have been invited to run at the 13th Annual Alamo Model Railroad Engineers (AMRE) Fall Train Show.  The show will be held at the Live Oak Civic Center on September 29th and 30th.  We have been asked to setup Friday afternoon (September 28th) if possible.  Right now the space available for us to setup is a 22’ x 26’ rectangle, and they will let us know if they can use a larger display as we get closer to the date.  The AMRE group will make a donation to our club and will also furnish us with a table to sell train items.  They may also allow us to have a raffle if we want to hold one. 


There will be a barbeque picnic for exhibitors/vendors on Saturday 5-8pm at the Texas Transportation Museum, 11731 Wetmore Road.  Written directions will be available at the show.  If you are interested in attending this picnic, please RSVP to Ron Fiebelkorn by September 8th.

 

Exhibitor badges will be handed out Saturday morning (7-9am) before the show opens to the public.  Exhibitors will enter through the large rollup door at the rear of the building.  A club member will be there to check them in.

 

We’ll have more details in future newsletters, but mark this on your calendars today!

 

Flatonia Czhilispiel

At the last work day on June 16th, Bob Stettner told a interesting story of trip he made to see a buddy he knows in Flatonia, Texas by the name of Tommy Shults.  Tommy took Bob to see the old SP #3 interlocking tower that they have in Flatonia.  Bob actually got to go inside and play around with the old levers used to switch the tracks way back when. 


Anyway, Tommy and Bob got to talking, and they came up with the idea of holding a train exhibition at the Flatonia Czhilispiel.  This event is in its 24th year, and includes the state’s 2nd largest chili cook-off, beer gardens, fun runs, music, and myriads of other family-fun events, too many to mention here.  They get on the order of 10 thousand visitors to the event each year!  The dates for the event are October 26th-28th, 2001.  Go see http://www.flatonia-tx.com/czhilispiel.htm for more details about the Czhilispiel.

 

The city wants to build on its train-related history, has given the go-ahead for TTAT to run trains at this show in the city’s downtown civic center (air conditioned!).  We’re approved for a 30x30 layout (isles extra), and we can hold a raffle.   With such a large turnout, we stand to make significant $$ on a raffle.

 

So we have committed to attend this event.  The city will provide secure trailer parking and enough passes to cover our folks.  Stay tuned for more details on the Flatonia Czhilispiel. 

 

  Austin Jamboree Update

Due to the Flatonia event and other reasons (mainly the turnout being small for our layout tour), we decided to limit our presence at the Austin Jamboree.  We did, however, agree that it might be reasonable to setup a small 4x8 layout at the church in Round Rock if possible.  This would allow us to “get the word out” about TTAT, plus get the club to produce a small 4x8 layout that we can use for future events that have limited space.  Adrian Elliot has “volunteered” to drive producing this layout. 

 

The layout will consist of an outer loop with O42 curves and an inner figure 8 using O31 curves similar to the picture here.  We should have some interesting accessories as well.

 

If you are interested in working the 4x8 layout on Saturday, October 27th, let us know.  Bob Stettner has volunteered to participate in the Jamboree, but we’ll still need probably 2 folks to help him run this event, while the rest of us will be in Flatonia.  BTW:  If you do work the Jamboree, you could still hit Flatonia for Saturday afternoon and/or Sunday.

 

On the Horizon - 2002 Calendar

We’ve had some trouble with getting events in 2001, so we’ve started early working on the 2002 calendar.  Jim Smiley has reserved the large club house at Branch Creek Estates for the following dates in 2002:  January 26th, March 15th & 16th, April 26th and 27th, October 25th – 27th, and December 6th & 7th.  We’re also trying to get in shows at New Braunfels, Live Oak, and the GATS Show.  Contact Ron Fiebelkorn if you know of any venues that might be interested in having us set up and run trains for them.

OTHER NEWS

 

Treasury Update – A New Bank

As you have seen from our last treasurer’s report at the Luby’s meeting, our funds are low at this time.  The financial institution where we had our checking account was going to start charging us $5.00 a month to keep an account at their bank.  Since it would not take long before we would be completely broke, Joe Maverick closed our checking account. 

 

We will be opening a new account at the Austin Federal Credit Union, which is located in the Department of Veterans Affairs building at the corner of IH-35 and Woodward Street.  The checking account will be free and it looks like members of the club will be able to open an account at the credit union if they so desire.  We’ll have more information in the next newsletter.

Web Site Update

We were notified that we were going to be charged for using the ttat.intranets.com web site, beginning July 1st, 2001.  Since our funds are low and we now have an excellent second web site at http://www.trainweb.org/ttat, we will no longer be using the intranets site.   We will be transferring all of our club information and documents to our Trainweb site.  Private documents, like membership contact information, will be password protected so that the general public can’t access this information.  Steve Wise will email out password information to members privately.

 

Meta data has been added to the HTML files on our web site to help promote the visibility of the site with various search engines.  We have also registered the site with various search engines (like lycos.com and yahoo.com), as well as adding our site to a few web rings.  Web rings are a way to link web sights of similar topics into a “ring”, so that someone browsing the site can continue onto other sites of the same topic by simply clicking on the web ring “next site” button.  If you look at our main page (http://www.trainweb.org/ttat), you’ll see at the bottom a few banners advertising the various web rings.  Feel free to wander the rings and see what’s out there!    The whole point of the work we’ve done on the web site is to try and drum up some membership by making ourselves more findable on the web.

 

Email Reflectors for the Club

At the request of the club, I have setup email reflectors for our organization.   What’s an email reflector?  It is an email system that allows sending a single email message to the entire group.  The beauty is that all you need to remember is the single group email address.  The reflector automagically forwards the email to each member’s email address.  This allows us to easily exchange email and not have to keep track of everyone’s email address.  The system is automated, and can easily be updated by anyone.

 

To track club-only business vs. club and potential club members, ex-alumni, etc, I’ve created two email reflectors: ttat-members@aoot.com, and ttat-all@aoot.com.  Sending email to address ttat-members@aoot.com will forward your message to all current active members of our club.   Sending email to address ttat-all@aoot.com, will forward your email message to all current active members, plus any potential members, any ex-alumni, and other friends of the organization.   My intent is to forward the newsletter to ttat-all@aoot.com, while club chatter email about work days, layout designs, etc are sent only to ttat-members@aoot.com.

 

If you have an email address on record, I have added you to the reflectors and you have already received a welcome message.  Feel free to post any email pertaining to trains, O-gauge, the club, etc to ttat-members@aoot.com or ttat-all@aoot.com!  Hope to hear from you soon!

 

Siding Modules – A Technical Overview

As most of you know, the club has been busy creating siding modules for our layout.  This involves mainly two transition modules that spin off the siding tracks into standard “slots” on our modular layouts.  In between two of these transitions, we can use standard wide modules that have tracks in all positions (a though h).

 

The transition modules produce 4 siding tracks, as shown here; siding 1 branches off of main track 2, siding 2 off of main track 4, and sidings 3 and 4 branch from main track 3.

 

The following schematic shows how these sidings are aligned with our standard modular “slots” a-h.

 

Now that we have 4 new sidings, what are we doing about distributing power and control to these tracks?  We’ve produced a new power box specifically for the siding tracks.  The power module provides 220 watts of power concurrently to any 1 or 2 of the sidings, and an additional 110 watts for fixed-power switches and accessories.

 

We have three RW transformers (all in phase J) in the power box.  Two of them are routed directly to Lionel PowerMaster Base units.  The PMs provide conventional control over the transformers from our Cab-1 Remotes.  The output of each of the PM units is routed to an IC Controls, Inc BPC3000 block controller.  The BPC3000 allows us to “route” the transformers’ power to any one or two siding tracks via the Cab-1.  So we can have two concurrent siding operations going in conventional mode.   A Lionel TrainMaster Base provides full TMCC control as well.  The output from the box is in the form of a harness that plugs into the transition module, providing variable power for sidings 1-4 (colors yellow, blue, grey, and purple), a fixed voltage output for switches and accessories (green), and a common ground (black of course!).

 

So now you know what the wiring looks like, and the layout of the tracks.  How will we control these sidings using the Cab-1?  Well first let us nail down some naming conventions.  Currently, our 4 main tracks are addressed as TR-1, TR-2, TR-3, and TR-4.  In actuality, these are addressing the transformers to vary power of these 4 tracks.  So what we need to do is extend this to address the 2 new transformers used for the sidings.  We’ll use TR-5 to address the 1st PowerMaster in our siding power box (PM1) and TR-6 to address the 2nd PowerMaster (PM2).  

 

Additionally, we need to be able to route these two transformers to one or two of the 4 sidings.  To do this we address the BPC3000 and “tell it” which track should get which transformer power.  The way this is done is by using the ACC key and the AUX1 and AUX2 keys on the Cab-1.  The BPC3000 “blocks” are addressed as accessories, thus the ACC usage.  We’ll map ACC-1 to block or siding 1, ACC-2, to siding 2, ACC-3 to siding 3, and finally ACC-4 to siding 4.  The AUX1 key is used to toggle power from PM1 to the selected block, and AUX2 toggles power from PM2 to the selected block.  Clear as mud? 

 

Well, let’s try some examples to help clear things up.  Let’s route PowerMaster 1 to Siding 1.  Press ACC-1-AUX1.  This tells the BPC3000 to route the power from its 1st transformer (PM1) to its first block output (siding 1).  So now we have a transformer (PM1) addressed to siding 1.  To vary the power, and control bell/whistle, we use TR-5 and then speed/whistle/bell on the cab-1 will all work on siding 1.  Pressing ACC-1-AUX1 again will turn the power off of that siding (the AUX1 and AUX2 keys toggle power to the selected block).

 

Assuming siding 1 is in use by PM1.  Lets say someone else wants to use siding 4 concurrently.  Since PM1 is already used on siding 1, we need to map PM2 to our desired siding:  ACC-4-AUX2 will turn power on from PM2 to siding 4.  Then TR-6 will allow speed/bell/whistle to be sent to siding 4/PM2. 

 

With TMCC, this all becomes much easier (hah!)…I’ll leave this as an exercise for the reader… J 

RAILFANS

How many of you are railfans?  I, for one, have recently been “turned on” to chasing trains.  I now keep a digital camera in my truck, and frequently drive down the small road over Lamar that goes by the Amtrak station.  I’ve seen some interesting trains along there, not just the Amtrak.  If you are a railfan, email me something for a future newsletter and I’ll print it!  If you’re interested, I have a few pictures on my web site: http://www.aoot.com/trains/railfan.  

 

Train Watching Sites

For this newsletter, I thought I’d post some of the interesting sites around central Texas that I’ve visited for watching trains: 

 

Run-away Train!

Did you read/hear about the CSX runaway train in May?  Here’s a summation of the events.  This is submitted for your reading as-is, and I make no claims as to its accuracy.

 

From an email posting by Eric Landrum of Cincinnati:

 

I was up north chasing the CSX Operation Lifesaver Special today, which operated on the former Conrail Toledo Branch between Columbus and Toledo. After getting my last northbound shot north of Bowling Green, I decided to grab some lunch.  After lunch, I proceeded back north to Trombley to await the return southbound Operation Lifesaver train.  While on I-75, I heard some VERY UNUSUAL radio chatter, culminating in,  "Well where is the engineer?"  "Right there in the crew room!"  A train had somehow gotten out of Stanley Yard in Toledo and was running southbound with no one aboard.  I saw the train at North Trombley running at about 30mph.  It was a solo SD40-2 #8888, an ex-Conrail unit with about 47 cars.  It tripped the detector at North Trombley with dragging equipment, but none of the others further south.  I then heard the CSX "IE" Dispatcher call the maintainers along the road that the train had run through the switches at CP 14 and were likely damaged.  The pursuit by CSX employees, police, and myself began at this point.  Folks, the Good Lord was watching over north central Ohio today!


Thankfully, due to the Operation Lifesaver Special, there was a very high police presence along the railroad.  This was crucial!  Almost every grade crossing was protected when the train passed.  Keep in mind, nobody was aboard to sound the horn and bell.  The headlights were not on either.  I caught up with the train again at Mortimer (North Findlay).  Here, a CSX maintainer had placed a derail on the track to derail the train.  Everyone was out of the way, expecting a horrific wreck.  Amazingly, the train RAN THROUGH the derail, kicking it out of the way!  Now, the city of Findlay lay ahead.  By this time, all police and emergency personnel along the line had been alerted.  NS & other CSX dispatchers had been alerted to prevent any intersecting lines from passing traffic through railroad crossings at grade (Galatea, Mortimer, Findlay, etc.)  They were going to attempt to put the train in the siding at Whirlpool, just north of Findlay, but the fear of the hazardous material cars on the train nixed that move.  It was then decided to put the train in the siding at Blanchard, south of Dunkirk.  However, another idea arose.  There was a northbound Q636 waiting at Dunkirk in the siding.  Dunkirk has probably never seen so much excitement since the big wreck of some years ago.  There was Q636 in the siding and an eastbound local on the PRR, waiting at the diamond with a clear signal.  Thankfully the word had gotten out.  The train accelerated going down the hill from the US 68 crossing to the diamond at Dunkirk.  When the train passed, the great locomotive chase began.


The crew of Q636, in the siding at Dunkirk, had taken their lone SD40-2 off their train and through arrangement with the "IE" train dispatcher, prepared to pull out of the north end of the siding after the runaway had passed and begin a pursuit.  The train got by at about 45 mph, the dispatcher immediately threw the switch and 636's power got out on the main.  After a few tense seconds, the switch lined and the chase began!  The crew on 636 were incredible.  Gung ho, they WANTED to catch that train by the sounds of their voices on the radio.  They caught up with the runaway just south of Blanchard.  The city of Kenton, with its sharp curves laid ahead.  The lone SD40-2, now coupled to the runaway, kicked the dynamic brakes on full and got immediate results, bringing the train down to a curve safe 20mph and less.  The dispatcher then arranged for the Kenton local, with a lone GP38 and a covered hopper, to get in front of the runaway, if necessary, to pace, couple up, and buffer the train to a stop.  The Q636's crew and Kenton local were placed in direct contact.  Q636 gave the train speed every few seconds and the Kenton local got in a tangent where they could get a jump and engage the runaway as safely as possible under the circumstances.


Finally, the runaway was slowed to 12mph.  At State Route 31, a CSX trainmaster heroically, swung aboard and shut the throttle off on the errant locomotive and train.  The Kenton local was just ahead and did not have to couple to the runaway.  The situation in the cab reported by the trainmaster: run 8 throttle, 20lb reduction on the automatic, and full application on the independent.


Amazingly, NOBODY WAS INJURED in this!  The CSX folks deserve a tremendous pat on the back and congratulations for their handling of this extraordinary situation.  I was there for almost the entire pursuit, never being more than 6 miles away and always in radio range.  No one lost their cool and everyone was on the same page.  There was some great crisis railroading being performed by the men out there today!

 

A few THANK GOD things worth mentioning:

1.      The train had its brakes applied and was dragging along, preventing higher speeds from being achieved.

2.      The derail at Mortimer did not work.  A hazmat disaster would have likely resulted in a semi populated area, right next to I-75.

3.      No one was involved in a collision with the train.  Remember, nobody was aboard to sound the horn and bell.

4.      The cities of Findlay and Kenton have some significant curves.  The train did not derail!

5.      There were ample personnel along the line thanks to the OLS special today.


As to how all of this got started, that is up for the investigators and I cannot speculate as I have no idea what happened in Toledo.  What is typed above is my own account and any errors are mine alone.  I have a recording of the radio traffic during the entire locomotive chase.  I will make an mp3 tonight and post it someplace for all to hear.  Will advise when it is complete.
2001 TEXAS TRAIN SHOWS

 

August 18th & 19th, 2001                   

The Austin Steam Train Association will hold its 2nd annual Railfare in Burnet, Texas.  Contact Byran Smith at 460-6586 for more information.

 

August 18th, 2001                              

The New Braunfels Summer Show will be held at the New Braunfels Civic Center, 380 S. Seguin.  Contact Bryan Weidner at 830-935-2517 for more information.

 

August 25th & 26th, 2001                   

The El Paso GATS will be held at the El Paso Convention Center located at 1 Civic Center Plaza.  The show is open to the public from 11am to 5pm each day.

 

September 15th & 16th, 2001            

The 19th annual Temple Model Train Show, sponsored by the Central Texas Area Model Railroaders, will be held at the Frank Mayborn Convention Center.  For additional information contact B. Alson at 254-857-3906.

 

September 29th & 30th, 2001            

The 13th annual Fall Train Show will be held at the Live Oak Civic Center, 1801 Pat Booker Rd.  The show is open to the public from 9:00am to 4:00pm Saturday, and from 11:00am to 4:00pm on Sunday.  Contact Fred Ellis at 210-930-2988 for more information.

 

October 6th & 7th, 2001                     

The Houston GATS show will be held at the Astrodome/Astroarena located at 8400 Kirby Drive.  The show is open to the public from 11:00am to 5:00pm each day.

 

October 27th, 2001

The Austin Jamboree will be held in Round Rock at the First United Methodist Church which is located at 1004 N. Mays St.  For more information call Tom Pearson at 512-388-2918 or Chuck Ellis.

 

November 24th & 25th, 2001

The Forth Worth GATS show will be held at the Convention Center which is located at 1111 Houston St.  The show is open to the public from 11:00am to 5:00pm each day.