(Volume 25, No. 11)
Presidents Soapbox
In October we had our annual Railshow, which was reasonably successful, recent world events notwithstanding. The success of this event was especially noticeable since some of our past practices were missing in entirety or handled differently for this event. In addition, this success occurred despite the absence of some previous support and could suggest we need to consider an entirely different approach to the planning for future events. Most noticeable was the number, age and condition of our street signs. Replacement signs have to be considered as an investment in our future. Wider placement of these signs to obtain city-wide exposure should be considered a priority.
We should be well satisfied at the TV coverage this year; note that during our Sunday session there were two local stations filming at the same time and the third had been there the previous day. A local photographer was there on assignment from Model Railroader as well. One of the Ogden Hostlers noted that, "They couldn't get any TV Station Coverage for their event and here we had two at the same time".
Now we are closing fast on the end of the year and several pressing questions continue to face us. I have expounded many times on my perception and resolution of these issues. My regret is that whomever is selected as the next Society President is going to inherit most of these issues since the only one that has been resolved under my watch is that we enjoy the reasonable expectation of having a long term home. It is my observation that our greatest challenge is that of increasing and maintaining membership; there are many, many model railroaders in our area who would benefit by an association with us but for reasons unknown prefer to go their own way. As hard as it may be for us to accept, (in the classic words of Pogo the Possum when he said, "We have found the enemy and it is us") sometimes we are own worst enemy. It behooves each of us to be much more introspective regarding our individual attitudes toward prospective and current members.
Another issue which, in my opinion, we have failed miserably to address sufficiently, is that of our contribution to the community from which we expect our support. Too many times the issue of increasing community interaction has been proposed and been put off because, "We aren't ready" or "We don't have the manpower". This issue may never be put to rest until we are able to resolve the previous matters of both membership and discord and integrate our current membership into a more active participation.
Leo Harker
Local Railfan Opportunities
The current harvest is creating some interesting opportunities for the railfans among us. Last month I was in Aberdeen and noted preparations for the impending sugar beet loading. There are currently at least two beet loading sites on the Aberdeen branch, one in Aberdeen proper and the other at Liberty which is two miles north of Pingree, Idaho. Another smaller stockpile is located just north of town but not along side the rail and would require movement by truck again to a loading site. The beets are hauled by farm trucks to these staging sites and stockpiled before being loading onto railcars. The stockpile at Liberty is nearly one half mile long and about 100 yards deep and growing. There were thirty loaded open hopper (3-4-5 bay) cars there waiting for pickup today, a Wednesday. When I was there on Monday, a string of hoppers was located alongside the pile and two very large front end loaders were scooping and dumping into the cars; the string of 30 cars doesn't even reach a third of the length of the stockpile. In Aberdeen they are loading directly into cars via two elevator loaders working side by side two car lengths apart and stockpiling as well since there are simply not enough cars to handle the flow. Car movements in Aberdeen are handled by a cable winch along the loading track.
Train management appeared to be an interesting challenge since all empties were taken clear into Aberdeen, stored on both yard tracks and the wye before spotting the Aberdeen cars; there is extensive trackage in Aberdeen that serves several large potato warehouses as well as yard tracks and the turning wye. The empties destined for the Liberty yard were then pulled back north behind the loads and left in place. The Liberty loading track is a through siding. There are two potato processing operations in Liberty as well. The locomotives appeared to be the pair of GP38-2s normally assigned to Blackfoot switching duties. My observation was that, in season, there could easily be 100 cars per day originating on the Aberdeen branch alone.
Since the preceding was written, I have had the good fortune to become acquainted with an active trainman working out of Pocatello who gave me the following information:
The beets are taken to a processing center in Nampa, Idaho and this job is a daily run as long as the supply of beets lasts. The Nampa sugar factory is set up to process a set number of tonnage daily and the railroad is the only supplier that can provide the necessary tonnage. When sufficient rail cars are not available, trucks are used to supplement the train from the second stockpile North of Aberdeen. The beets raised in Eastern Idaho are a different variety than those in Western Idaho and do not store as well, so they are used first as long as the supply lasts. The train originates in Nampa and that crew brings the train to Pocatello where local crews take over, the empties are dropped off in Blackfoot, and a local switch crew proceeds to Aberdeen, does the local work, and returns the loads to Collins siding west of Blackfoot. Since the harvest is now complete, loading at both locations is done with 2 large front end loaders working together. It takes 11-12 scoops to fully load a car. The crew working Aberdeen moves the loaded cars out of the siding when they arrive and remains while the last cars are loaded moving the string as needed. They spot and load four cars per move. Another Blackfoot crew picks up the 40 cars at Liberty, brings them to Blackfoot, consolidates them with the Aberdeen cars, which are then taken to Pocatello and Nampa. One of the crew working in Aberdeen said that there was about a 10 day supply at that location and considerably more at Liberty.
Leo Harker
Timetable
Historic Photos
The following photos were taken by Leo Harker with his digital camera. The captions tell what the photos are. We need more photos of this kind to put in the newsletter. If you don't have a digital camera, we can scan your regular photos for inclusion. Somebody besides Leo must by taking photos out there. Remember, the photos you take now will be historic data 50 years from now.
A half mile of sugar beets at Liberty
Loading sugar beets at Aberdeen
The bridge at Hazard Creek
Photos Contributed by Leo Harke
Show Results
It looks like we did fairly well, considering that we didn't have a subsidy for lunch. The list shows we made a profit of $1259.52, which is quite respectable. If you are interested in a comparison of the last three years, see Dave Shaw or I and we can give you that comparison. We will also discuss what went right and wrong at the show when we have the next meeting.