Located at Cottage (now Yellowstone) and C Streets
Issue 04-98 Bruce S. Lee, Editor From the Throttle This month I am going to devote my editorial to some concerns and observations
that I've made. While I only recently joined the Eagle Rock Railroad Historical Society
I have already noted a strange phenomenon: it is always the same few people
who are participating in the clubs' activities. I find this strange, because
the club now has a huge area in which to build a layout in a location which
should be ours for many years; yet only three or four people are working
to prepare the area for our common enjoyment. Club participation has reached such small numbers that we had to wait
over three months to conduct business at our monthly business meeting because
we lacked the required eight members being present. Now is the time to rededicate ourselves to "The Club". Time
spent now, during the construction phases of our new layout(s) will be time
well spent as in future years we enjoy the fruits of our labors. The time has also come to announce a vacancy in the Board. Lee Calkins
has left to serve a two year mission for the LDS Church thus leaving the
position of Secretary vacant. We would like to extend an invitation for
a volunteer to fill the remaining months of his term. All those interested
should contact Leo Harker. One last comment, on behalf of those who went on our recent layout trip,
I would like to thank Bruce Eckersell of Eckersell Memorial Chapel for the
tour of his father's great O gauge Idaho Eastern layout and I would also
like to thank Larry and Marty Lane for showing us their layout as well as
for the refreshments afterwards. |
These newsgroups might be of interest to follow:
rec.models.railroad alt.railroad.steam alt.models.railroad.ho alt.railroad |
M-O-W Despite our best efforts, room preparation goes slowly at the Idaho Falls
Rec Center. We had scraped the floor to remove all the loose floor paint
and then etched the entire floor. The results were not as expected. The
areas of remaining floor paint now had lifted edges while the surface of
the old paint was now oily and hardly the type of surface that could be
covered over with a new coat of paint. We are now forced to completely strip the old floor surface and are about 60% done with this task. We have tried power floor scrapers, heat guns, hand scraping, harsh language and ignoring it. Of all the above, hand scraping following the heat gun seem to work the best; but it is a very slow process. |
Points of Interest This month I intended to do a highlight on the Colorado Midland Railway;
however, other than an excellent handout provided by Doug Herrmann, I could
find very little about this railroad. However, during my explorations, I
did find some interesting information regarding the Colorado Midland's sister
railroad: The Midland Terminal. Much of what follows has been extracted
from the Colorado City Historical Society home page: www.history.oldcolo.com/history/genhist/railroad/midland.html.
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Our affair with the midland terminal Written by Ira Current. It was near summer bed time, but we were granted our usual reprieve to
run two blocks to the entrance of Red Rock Canyon in time to see the nightly
Midland Terminal Railroad freight train of about 20 to 30 empty ore cars
head off for Cripple Creek. Our perch on the bank of the low cut near the
red rocks permitted an intimate association with the three locomotives and
their engineers and firemen as they shoveled coal to urge a good start up
Ute Pass. The next morning we could take in the loaded cars of gold ore as they
were brought down the pass to the Golden Cycle Mill at what was Colorado
City. Brakemen walked back and forth over the ore filled cars to assist in
the braking during and after descending through Ute Pass. Later in the day
a single switcher locomotive pushed individual cars to dump their loads
at the mill stockpiles. The distant sound of this seemingly interminable
work persisted throughout the day and night. At midmorning the daily passenger train, consisting of locomotive, baggage
car, and passenger car, departed from Colorado Springs, stopped at the station
still labeled "Colorado City," then huffed sprightly over the
track on its run to Cripple Creek. The train returned on schedule in the
early evening of the same day. In the summer time the railroad often ran
a Sunday wild flower excursion to Woodland Park, and in later years a ski
train delivered sportsmen to the slopes. The daytime hours might also find our friend Jim Wood and other members
of what was called the Colorado City Section Crew at work on the railroad
right of way. Jim lived in the home of his parents in Red Rock Canyon. His
father had worked in the red sandstone quarries, which had long since been
closed. The sandstone, some of which was used to construct some early downtown
Colorado Springs buildings, gave way to other building material. Sand from
the canyon was used to make molds for sand castings, and a spur that departed
from the main line at the entrance of the canyon served as a loading point
years after the rails leading to the quarries had been removed from the
canyon. Jim's life evolved around the railroad, where he had held several
positions. He apparently loved his relationship with iron, and had constructed
a model locomotive and rolling stock to run on a 15-inch gauge track on
the canyon slope above his home. He also fabricated a steam tractor, making
wheels out of the ends of round boilers. Discarded engines from Stanley
Steamer automobiles were the actual motive power for all of these projects.
By walking a mile or so east of our Red Rock Canyon viewpoint we would find the round house, where the affable locomotive maintenance mechanics answered questions about steam motive power. A nearby yard held a stock of car wheels that could be drawn on for maintenance. A not-too-distant side trip led us to the Golden Cycle Mill, where the Cripple Creek ore was ground, roasted and treated with sodium cyanide to dissolve the gold. Zinc shavings placed in the solution plated out the gold, which was then recovered by smelting. There seemed to be no limitations on our roaming over the leaching vats. |
We seldom caught sight of the rotary snow plow in action, but on our
trips to the yards we were reminded that it and other equipment such as
cranes were part of the little railroad's makeup. The people of one of the Colorado Springs radio stations made a recording of the last run of a train down Ute Pass before the railroad was abandoned. Some years later, members of the station played the tape through loudspeakers mounted on a sound truck, while driving down Ute Pass. This brought out many telephone calls about a "ghost train" on the loose. For a complete account of the railroad, see The Cripple Creek Road by Edward M. "Mel" McFarland, Pruett Publishing Company, Boulder, Colorado (1984). |
Monthly Quiz What is Quartering? A. Scrapping a locomotive by cutting into 4 or more pieces. B. Method of balancing the connecting rod's weight on a locomotives' drivers. C. Practice of allowing railroad employees to travel on passenger trains for $0.25. D. Breaking up a train into 4 or more segments to get over a steep grade.
Answer in next months newsletter |
President's Soap Box - Leo Harker If any of the membership has followed the business and by-laws of the
Eagle Rock Railroad Historical Society, you will remember that the definition
of a Quorum, as defined for the purpose of conducting Official Business
has changed since the by-laws were originally written. The changes were
made in order to accommodate the changing membership numbers which we have
seen over the recent years. The original requirement, that a simple majority
of the membership be present in order to conduct business, was changed to
eight members necessary to conduct official business because the group included
a number of members who never attended the business meetings and thus the
percentage of attendees did not constitute a majority. At the present time,
our active membership has declined to the point where we seldom see the
eight members necessary to conduct business under the existing by-law. At
the general business meeting that was scheduled to be held on March 5 1998,
we never had the eight members present at one time although some who came
and left did leave a proxy in case any business was eventually conducted.
The ensuing discussions about the dilemma caused by the lack of voting
membership, caused the group the debate the necessity of holding a monthly
business meeting. This issue was further reinforced last year when I was
attempting to hold a monthly board meeting before the business meeting and
heard some resistance on the grounds that we end up covering the same ground
twice. We have not attempted to hold a board meeting since, although the
board has met informally and discussed business pertinent to the acquisition
of the space and other matters relevant to the preparations now under way.
The larger issue remains; that being, if the members want a voice in the
direction and activities of the club, they need to attend and participate
in the decision making process or the Board will be forced to make all the
decisions for them. Our new Editor, Bruce, has made an excellent suggestion wherein we come up with an official name for the newsletter and hold a contest to decide the matter. To date, it has been published under the generic name of newsletter. Here is everyone's chance to put in their two cents worth on this issue. The winner may get something for their prize winning entry. Bruce produced his first edition of the newsletter last month and should be commended for the outstanding job. Thanks Bruce. |
Timetable April 2nd Business Meeting April 9th Room Preparation April 16th Room Preparation April 23rd Room Preparation April 25th Livingston, MT - Visit the Hobby/Swap Meet at the historic
NP Depot April 26th Helena, MT - Visit the Hobby/Railfan Show at the Civic Center
April 30th Operations??? May 7th Business Meeting |
From the Atlas Forum: "True to Life" (via newsgroups): by Alan Winston awinston@scn.org It has been said that HO is great if your pretty much willing to dedicate
a room to your layout; others think N is better for people who don't have
a lot of space. This is certainly a widely held point of view, but there is also a growing
(still minority) of opinion that there is NEVER enough room for HO, and
even N is pretty darn tight. The history of model railroading is one of a gradual and very, very slow
movement from its toy train roots in the direction of scale models of prototype
railroading. During the Depression, and before, hand laid track on wood ties, was
a daily occurrence; but the rail on this hand laid track was frequently
bent sheet metal that looked like Lionel track, and had similarly sharp
curves. Scratch built cars were built to the same proportions as the tinplate
equipment then in use, not to scale. There were a few people moving more
towards scale equipment, but not many. By the fifties scale equipment was considered the norm, albeit often
with long equipment shortened a bit, passenger cars in particular were often
scale 65' instead of correct 80'-85'. Leave out a few windows, compress
what's left a little. Athearn passenger cars and RDCs are still like that
in HO. But starting in the sixties, the movement to have equipment to scale dimensions began to become the "norm," and crowd out "selective
compression" in rolling stock. "Selective compression" is still alive and well in HO structures,
scenery, and especially track curvature. But as long as the tradition of
HO modeling adheres to its traditions of "this is what creative model
railroading is all about," it is very hard for its adherents to see
the problem. Outsiders can still tell. When they see even the most detailed and scenicked
"classic" "model railroad," they know in their hearts
that they are seeing a glorified toy train set. They quickly learn that
the "model railroader" objects to the "toy trains" label,
and if they are nice, they humor him or her. But in their hearts, they know
the truth. Some folks would like to move another step away from the "toy train"
heritage, and eschew "selective compression" in structures and
track radius. Yes, we'll still have to be "selective" in choosing
the types of scenes, that we model. We'll have to trim out some intervening
scenes. We may even have to a LITTLE "selective compression."
But we intend to start by knowing the dimensions of what we are modeling,
and attempting to achieve them, instead of pronouncing them "impossible,"
and giving them little or no further thought. The sharpest curve on the main lines between Seattle and Portland is a 10 degree curve in Tacoma ("Dock Street") -- that's 43" radius in N -- and is within a 10 mph speed restriction. |
In Portland, the East approaches (against a bluff) of the Steel bridge
are 16 deg on the North Leg and 16 deg 24 min on the South leg -- call it
26" radius in N -- 6 mph speed restriction. The sharpest curve outside of a city is on the UP at Sumner, Washington,
at 6 deg 30 min -- 66" radius in N -- the speed restriction in 1984
was 30 mph. Curves between Seattle and Portland are generally 3 deg (143" r
N), with many as broad as 1 deg (430" r in N -- that's almost 36 feet!).
In the Blue Mountains of Eastern Oregon, the rugged country forced the UP to some curves as sharp as 8 deg 45 min (49" r N), many curves on this stretch are 4 deg (107" r N) or broader. |
They are driven by a desire for more prototypical accuracy. They are
willing to give up a little detail level in equipment in exchange for a
great deal more accuracy in overall layout appearance. The quality in appearance and performance of recent N scale releases
from Atlas (and some others) has reduced the "sacrifice" level
to the acceptable. Many of us expect to see N nudging out HO as the leading
choice for large layouts, as well as small, just as once upon a time HO
did the same for O. HO won't disappear, just as the Atlas O line shows that HO didn't "kill" O, but choosing for the future may mean choosing N. |
Please visit our layout and meeting room location
at Idaho Falls Rec Center, 520 Memorial Drive. Enter from Memorial North Entrance, from the entrance hall turn left
towards the office, left again and proceed downstairs. The layout room is
in the Southwest corner of the basement. Head room is restricted for 6 footers,
so watch your head. We are open every Thursday evening except Holidays or when an alternate
event is scheduled. Visitors and new members are always welcome. |