Pikes Peak "N" Gineers Model Railroad Club

THE RAILHEAD

SEEKING SERIOUS N-SCALE MODEL RAILROAD FUN SINCE OCTOBER 13, 1989

Important Dates
Layout Hours and Address
Just a reminder
NMRA Convention particulars
Comprehending engineers
Check out Rustic Rails!
Silicone can be useful to you!
U.S. "bullet train" tested!
A primer on the Acela
Rail's trail of fires ignites suit!
AT&SF's rail sizes!

The last month or so was pretty active. Thanks to Ron, about 15 PPNG members gathered at the Odd Fellows Hall, joining Ron's car club, the Pikes Peak Chapter, V.M.C.C.A. (that's Veteran Motor Car Club of America), and a number of other groups for a presentation by Robert Krieger, who had driven down from the Union Pacific shops in Cheyenne. Some of those groups had retired Union Pacific employees who added to the flavor of the evening.

After a short, formal meeting of the car club, about 100 of us listened to Robert Krieger make a presentation about different aspects of his employer, the Union Pacific Railroad, with a strong emphasis on the railroad's steam program.

Mr. Krieger's half hour presentation was punctuated with some outstanding color slides of UP power. Then, there was a question and answer period which lasted about 20 minutes more.

It soon became obvious that Union Pacific was very well represented. Mr. Krieger had a degree in psychology and started his railroad career as a brakeman on the Rock Island. Four years later, he was a UP employee. Now, 23 years later, he is a licensed diesel engineer, a licensed steam locomotive engineer, and had been just about everything else at one time or another during his railroad career-including yard master. You have to be smart and have talent and skill to do all of that. [Incidentally, he is also an HO model railroader. Guess what railroad he models? Yup! UP.]

Following the presentation, we charged the snack table to find some scrumptious cookies, cakes, and other delights that made our waistlines expand with pleasure. It was really a great event and everyone learned something.

Then, we prepared for our May 1 and 2 Open House.

We were hampered by what some media talking heads called the Flood of 1999. The rains started Thursday, April 29 and by Friday night, flood watches and warnings were being routinely issued for the Pikes Peak area, even though it was snowing in some spots.

Not all of the PPNG members who signed up to help out with the open house could help as it turned out. The high waters caused all kinds of problems.

But, on Saturday, Mike, Rick, Ann, Paul, Charley and, later, Jack and Greg worked and ran trains under Dispatcher Joe's direction.

Our trains ran almost flawlessly and everyone got to run plenty. It was unfortunate that we didn't have a bigger crowd. The flooding didn't allow for much relaxation. Even Mike was called back to work from the club to help out with the damages that were occurring.

Sundays are usually better open house days than Saturdays. Sunday, May 2, wasn't.

Even though the sun shined for awhile, it also snowed plenty. I guess Mother Nature shocked the public too much. Our attendance was worse than it was on Saturday.

Helping out on Sunday were Craig, Larry, Ann, Rick, Greg, Charley, Joe, Paul, Kirt, Jim, Vicki, and Mike. There were more PPNG members than visitors at any one point in time. Too bad. Again, our trains ran with a minimum of problems.

As a fun raiser, the open house was a disappointment. At least we all seemed to have fun. As Ann pointed out, that's important, too.

This is just a reminder to all members that THE RAILHEAD presents the minutes of club meetings in an edited form for confidentiality and space considerations.

Please see our Stationmaster for an official and complete copy of the minutes of any meeting.

Webmaster's Note:  Meeting minutes will not be published on the website.
PPNG members may obtain minutes from the Stationmaster.

As PPNG members should all know by now that our Traveling Layout was invited to the NMRA regional convention during our appearance at the Great America Train Show last April.

The convention takes place on Saturday, June 12 and Sunday, June 13, 1999.

This year, the convention celebrates the 50th anniversary of the National Model Railroaders Association. The Rocky Mountain Gold Train Show will be held at the Merchandise Mart in Denver, at the I-25 and 58th street exit.

We have to set up our layout on Friday, June 11, sometime after 12:00 noon. Our Dispatcher, Joe, will announce when.

We will operate our layout during the Public Hours of 9 o'clock each morning until 5:00 pm. both days.

According to the latest information that we have received, the convention organizers have purchased more space than they had originally arranged. There will be at least 20 layouts on view.

The sign-up list is in the club room. Sign up now!

In preparation for the NMRA regional convention, Joe, Rick, and Charley have improved our traveling layout a bit. More is planned.

A spur has been installed so that trains can be set up and run on and off the layout. Joe has built a staging yard. At this time, we don't know if we will have enough room to use the staging yard or not.

Ballasting has been improved in places. More scenery improvements would be nice. Adding some trees would be nice.

Get a hold of Joe and ask how you, too, can help.

Three lawyers and three civil engineers are traveling by train to a conference. At the station, the three lawyers each buy tickets and watch as the three engineers buy only a single ticket.

"How are three people going to travel on only one ticket?" asked one of the lawyers.

"Watch and you'll see," answers one of the engineers.

They all board the train. The lawyers take their respective seats but all three engineers cram into a restroom and close the door behind them. Shortly after the train departed, the conductor comes around collecting tickets. He knocks on the restroom door and says, "TIcket, please."

The door opens just a crack and a single arm emerges with a ticket in hand. The conductor takes it and moves on.

The lawyers saw this and agreed it was quite a clever idea. So, after the conference, the lawyers decide to copy the engineers on the return trip and cheat the railroad. When they get to the station, they buy a single ticket for the return trip. To their astonishment, the engineers don't buy a ticket at all.

"How are you going to travel without a ticket," asks one perplexed lawyer.

"Watch and you'll see," says one of the engineers.

When they board the train, the three lawyers cram into a restroom and the three engineers cram into another one nearby. The train departs.

Shortly afterward, one of the engineers leaves his restroom and walks over to the restroom where the lawyers are hiding. He knocks on the door and says, "Ticket, please."

During the 1999 GATS show, I found one product line that was definitely above average. A company called Musket Miniatures produces a line of cast resin buildings in N scale. The buildings are high quality. You can find couple of them on my Sweetgrass module. But that's not what got me excited.

I learned that Musket Miniatures also produces a unique line of finely detailed pewter figures. The line is called Rustic Rails. Not only are the figures really neat, the prices are right, too. Included in the line are early American rural men and women, woodchoppers, cowhands, chickens and other barnyard animals, coyotes, bears, buffalo, as well as four different covered wagons, a coal wagon, a dairy wagon, etc. Of course, the wagons include equipment and cargo, horses and drivers as standard equipment.

Naturally, I bought a few of these items-just to try them out. (Besides Craig, I was probably the only PPNG member at GATS who didn't buy something with wheels on it).

But, I digress. If you haven't checked them out yet, take a look at the fine details on the cowboys on my module. Even their boots have cowboy heels. That's detail!

For a catalog, contact Musket Miniatures, James E. McCarron, General Manager - Designer, P.O. Box 1976, Broomfield, Colorado 80038-1976; telephone/fax: 303-439-9336.

One of the less publicized advantages of belonging to a club like ours is that members have ample opportunity to steal good ideas. All you have to do is watch. Simple.

I watched Scott years ago. He used clear silicone to glue things. This struck me as a handy practice.

I'm on my second 2.8 ounce tube of GE's Silicone II Household Glue and Seal. A small tube of this stuff will last you for years. The silicone is perfectly inert which means that it won't attack plastic.

I have used the silicone to glue loads on flat cars. When I want to change loads, I can easily take the load off and replace it. That's the nice thing about silicone. You can take it off.

The silicone is especially useful to me when installing body mount couplers on cars and engines. Sometimes the screws that hold the Micro Trains body mount couplers won't prevent the coupler housing from rotating. When the housing moves to one side or the other, the coupler is no longer centered as it should be. Coupling to another car doesn't happen.

My mounting practice now includes a final step. After I install the body mount, I take a toothpick and put just a little tiny bit of silicone along side the coupler housing where the housing meets the car bottom. I do this on both sides of the housing.

Again, the silicone keeps the housing from moving.

Since I know that I may have to remove/repair/replace the body mount in the future, I can still easily remove the body mount.

The only drawback to using silicone is the long time it takes for the silicone to cure. I have gotten into the habit of allowing 24 hours.

If you haven't tried silicone, you are missing something that can be very useful to you. Give it shot and see.

PUEBLO-Amtrak's version of a "bullet train" is scheduled to speed around the tracks of a testing site near Pueblo.

The new high-speed train, the Acela, will be tested at a government-owned track 20 miles northeast of Pueblo with trials starting by the end of the month. The train could be carrying passengers between Washington and Boston by December.

"We're excited here because this is really the first U.S. venture into high-speed rail," said Roy Allen, president of Transport Technology Center, Inc., which operates the test track.

The Acela will transport passengers at a top speed of about 150 mph. Each train will have a locomotive at the front and rear with four coaches, a first-class car and a dining car. It will have a maximum occupancy of 304 passengers.

The Acela is designated to tilt around curves so it can run on existing tracks.

3645 Jeannine Drive, Suite 108

Tuesday: 7:00 - 9:00 PM

Fridays: 7:00 - 9:00 PM

Saturday: 1:00 - 4:00 PM

Acela is a name being applied to a high speed train. Soon, the name will spread.

This train is not articulated (two cars sharing the same truck) as are many of the world's high speed trains.

There will be other trains in the Washington/Boston region using the Acela name. These will not be express trains running straight through from Washington to Boston, but will be making many multiple stops along the way.

Thousands of dollars were spent coming up with the Acela name, which apparently was derived from the words acceleration and excellence. Yet, Acela is not pronounced "Aack-cell-ah." The correct pronunciation is "Ah-cell-la." Don't you just love our government officials? It appears that only they like the "Acela" name. One wag said that Acela really meant "All Customers Expect Late Arrival."

Judge tosses many claims

Firing up the historic coal-burning locomotives of the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad is a rite of spring in this town, but the smoky, cinder-belching trains also heighten the risk of forest fires.

The federal government reported that hot cinders from D&SNG antique trains ignited 754 fires in 1990, most of them very small. The railroad installed spark inhibitors in each train in 1991 and reduced the number of fires ignited to 51, [a] federal official said.

The U.S. attorney's office is suing the railroad for more than $800,000, an unpaid firefighting bill and interest accrued since the 1994 Mitchell Lakes fire, which burned 270 acres in the San Juan National Forest about 10 miles north of Durango.

Several weeks ago, a federal judge dismissed several of the U.S. attorney's claims against the railroad. U.S. District Judge William F. Downes found that the U.S. attorney's office didn't file its lawsuit in time to be covered by a state statute that holds every railroad liable for all damages by fire caused by its operation. Downes said that the government waited three years, until 1997, to file, and the statute had a two-year limitation. However, the judge allowed four federal claims for relief to advance, which boil down to the railroad being responsible for damages it causes within a federal right of way.

Roughly 200,000 people a year ride the D&SNG as it nearly parallels the Animas River through green valley, rocky gorge and deep forest. Twenty-one of the 40 miles the railroad travels between Durango and Silverton lie within the national forest. An additional few miles of track cross other federally managed public lands.

Editor: Charles J. Bay

THE RAILHEAD is published monthly by the Pikes Peak 'N' Gineers Model Railroad Club, P.O. Box 594, Monument, CO 80132; Telephone 719-488-9318. Subscription is covered through membership in Pikes Peak 'N' Gineers, a nonprofit corporation. ©1999. All rights reserved. We assume letters, questions, news releases, and club items are contributed gratis.

"The primary attraction for tourists riding (the D&SNG's) railroad is the spectacular scenery that they can enjoy as the train passes through the national forest and other public lands," Assistant U.S. Attorney Lisa Christian wrote in her complaint. "In the absence of the right of way across the national forest and Bureau of Land Management lands, this excursion railroad would have little tourist attraction and no reason to exist."

The federal government alleges that, on July 5, 1994, two sparks from a locomotive ignited two small fires within the railroad's right of way. The two paths of flames quickly spread to private land and national forest, converging to become the Mitchell Lake fire.

The Forest Service and several other agencies fought the fire, bringing it under control on July 9. It had cost more than $555,000, federal officials claim. A year ago the interest had boosted the figure demanded to almost $718,000, according to Forest Service documents. Christian estimated this week that the amount allegedly due had grown to more than $800,000.

Railroad officials have said that they cannot comment on ongoing litigation. But they note that a railroad employee follows each train by motor car during fire season to spot and suppress burning brush.

The patrol car following the train that started the Mitchell Lake fire arrived too late, was understaffed and inadequately equipped to extinguish the fire, Christian alleged in her complaint.

The Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad used many, many sizes of rail throughout its history.

The sizes of rail are distinguished by the number of pounds a three foot length of rail weighs.

The sizes this railroad used during its long history which ended with the formation of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe are 52, 56, 60, 61, 66, 70, 75, 80, 85, 90, 110, 112, 115, 119, 132, 136, 140, and 175 pound rail.

Typically, most railroads increased the sizes of their rails because of the increasing amount of traffic a particular route carried. Heavier rail lasted longer. Railroads also increased the rail size because newer locomotives weighed more.