2023-02-11 General Membership Meeting

Start Date & Time: 

Saturday, February 11, 2023 - 9:15am

Meeting Location: 

Community Room of the Wethersfield Police Station 250 Silas Deane Highway Wethersfield, CT 06109

Handicapped accessible: 

YES

MEETING INFORMATION: 

General Membership Meeting Announcement

There will be an in-person and virtual general membership meeting of the NMRA Nutmeg Division on the Second Saturday of the month, February 11, 2023.
 
This facility is wheelchair accessible.
Non-members, family, and friends are welcome to attend.
 
The capacity of the room is 50 people with the tables and chairs set up. There is limited parking in front of the police department.
 
Currently there are no requirements to wear face masks in the Community Room, of course, if you feel more comfortable wearing a mask then please do what you feel comfortable with.
 
Click on the following link to access the virtual meeting https://join.freeconferencecall.com/nutmegdivnmra

 

Waybill

Ticket Booth Opens 9:15 AM 9:45 AM Socialize, have refreshments and review the white elephant table and member’s latest modeling efforts and memorabilia.
    Passengers wishing to sell excess equipment, structures, etc. are invited to bring these items to the meeting for the white elephant table. A donation to the division of 10% of the selling price will be greatly appreciated.
    Passengers are also invited to bring in their latest modeling efforts and memorabilia for everyone to see and appreciate.
  9:45 AM 10:00 AM General Announcements
  10:00 AM 10:50 AM Clinic #1 - JMRI Operations, let the technology do it
      Presented by George Adamo
     
There will be a quick re-cap of the principles of prototype car forwarding as presented by Jeff Hanke in the previous clinic.
 
I will also discuss:
  • Layout design for JMRI operations
  • Why you may want to automate your operations.
  • What hardware and software will you need?
  • What are the sources of information on the software?
  • How do we learn to use the software?
  • Now that we have the basics, how do we get the software to do what we want?
  • What are the payoffs for all this trouble?
  • Can you operate without paper and without reading car numbers?
  • Intriguing, advanced possibilities.
  11:00 AM 11:50 AM Clinic #2 - 5 Flavors of Snow Removal
      Presented by Mike Wheeler
      We will cover 5 types of snow removal equipment used by railroads, how and where each is operated, and modeling cues for each type.
Departure Time ~12:00 PM -- The actual address of the layouts will be available at the meeting.
  1:00 PM 4:00 PM Randy Hammill’s New Britain Station Railroad
      Randy Hammill's New Britain Station railroad is an HO model of the New Haven in New Britain, CT during the 1946 to 1954 era. There were two yards and numerous industrial sidings serving the area, all in a two and a half mile area within the town limits. Randy's railroad includes both yards and some industrial sidings, with minimal compression. There is some scenery, and a few structures and mockups of others Randy will be scratchbuilding. The railroad is in a 10 x 20-foot basement room and 4 x 12-foot alcove. Staging tracks below are connected by helices to the modeled portion of the railroad. It is not handicapped accessible.
  1:00 PM 4:00 PM Don Weigt’s Denver, Arizona, and Western
     
The DA&W is a fictitious standard gauge railroad set in Colorado, west of Denver, in about 1955. Town names are those up Clear Creek Canyon: Golden, Idaho Springs, Empire, Georgetown, and Silver Plume. This is the proposed basic route of the never built Denver, Apex and Western. The DA&W operates larger steam locos that it obtained at low cost from main line railroads that were changing to diesel power. It was intended to cross the Rockies and run all the way to the Pacific Coast, but never made it over the continental divide. It is a steam short line in the twilight of steam, struggling financially, but picturesque. Fan trips are sometimes seen on a chartered SP Daylight pulled by an SP GS-4 steam loco and others on Pennsylvania streamline era cars.
 
The HO railroad measures about 11 x 21-foot, with an aisle around the perimeter for easy viewing. Trains climb 14 inches from Golden Yard to Silver Plume along the 140 foot mainline between reversing loops at each end. There is no scenery at this time, just plywood and L girder benchwork. The main line and reverse loops are operational, but there are no other usable tracks yet. The completed railroad will have mining and logging branches, along with trackside industries. Scenery will have very steep slopes in places, more reminiscent of the Moffat route than Clear Creek.
 
Trains run from Golden to Silver Plume, reverse, and run back to Golden, where they reverse again to be ready for their next run. The concealed Golden reverse loop serves as staging for trains coming from Denver and other distant places. There is room for six or eight trains in it. Eventually, the railroad will be operated as a point to loop, with trains terminating in the Golden yard. Union Pacific trains from Denver will enter the yard, exchange cars with the DA&W, and return to the staging tracks.
 
Train control is by EasyDCC with wired cabs and wireless option via JMRI. Special features are homemade switch machines, light pen control of turnouts, and one of a kind computer interface.
 
The railroad is not handicap accessible: it is in the basement. Access is via stairs. Parking is also a bit limited, and the nearest parking is about 200-feet from the condominium front door.

 

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