Elvis footage is genuine, but short and silent

Have you looked in your attics or garages recently?

(OK, not specifically about trains, but interesting)

From Journal Gazette.net: Elvis footage is genuine, but short and silent
He had his gold leaf suit coat.

He whirled his arms like a windmill.

He danced with the microphone stand.

Indeed, a film purported to be of Elvis Presley performing in a 1957 concert at Memorial Coliseum is what the label on the can claims: Elvis live, 54 years ago.

The film surfaced about two weeks ago when a woman who was planning to auction off her late husband’s huge collection of model trains pulled the old Elvis film out of the attic and suggested tossing it into the mix.

The auctioneer, Glen Ellenberger of Ellenberger Brothers Auctions in Bluffton, didn’t think that was a good idea. Toy train buffs aren’t necessarily Elvis fans, and vice versa.

So Ellenberger pulled the film out of the auction with plans to have an auction for the film alone, and he went on the hunt to figure out exactly what his client had.

The problem was that the half-century-old 16 mm film could be brittle. Viewing it on a projector could tear it to shreds in seconds, so Ellenberger contacted Indiana University’s film archives to have it properly evaluated – and finally get a look at exactly what was on the film.

IU’s film archives contain nearly 100,000 old films, about 1,000 made by Indiana University and the rest made by moviemakers and educational filmmakers.

Remember those corny movies you used to see in junior high school where you were lectured on how to behave on a date and the importance of cleaning your fingernails? Almost everybody eventually threw the old movies away – except, it seems, IU, giving the university one of the biggest hoards of old film around.

But we digress.

Rachael Stoeltje, the film archivist with the IU library, gave the old Elvis film a quick inspection and pronounced it in pretty good shape. It had shrunk by only 0.5 percent and it didn’t smell of vinegar, which means the film isn’t deteriorating.

It could stand to be cleaned, and an expert could treat it to increase its flexibility and reduce any brittleness, but its overall condition is good.

But there are some disappointments. The film has no sound. It is just a silent film of the King doing his act before a huge Coliseum crowd, most of them armed with cameras with flashes.

The film was also shot far from the stage where Elvis swiveled his hips. When run at 16 frames per second, which is the normal speed, there is about 4 minutes of Elvis strutting on the stage, singing, dancing and posing for the fans.

That’s not as much as Ellenberger hoped, but it’s a pretty good chunk of footage from Elvis’s early concert days. It never occurred to any of his managers or promoters to record any of his concerts themselves.

Meanwhile, IU is excited the film at least passed through its hands, if only for a few minutes. On Oct. 15, the university will have a home movie day at the IU Cinema, where it will show home movies by Hollywood director John Ford. The school hopes it will also be able to show the Elvis footage during that event, bringing a little attention to itself.

Meanwhile, Ellenberger hopes the showing will bring a little additional attention to his client’s 4 minutes of footage.

In reviewing the film, one of the school’s librarians speculated that the film might actually be a copy, which means there could be another film lurking out there somewhere, perhaps in a stack of additional film reels belonging to the deceased railroad collector.

For now, plans are for an auction, maybe in late October.

UK: Norwich toy shop marks 25 years in business

From Evening News 24: Norwich toy shop marks 25 years in business
A quarter of a century on, and one of Norwich’s best-loved family run toy stores is full steam ahead and well on track for the future.

Great Eastern Toys and Models, on Plumstead Road, marked 25 years of keeping model railway enthusiasts happy yesterday with a birthday bonanza involving balloons, goodie bags and 25pc off the thousands of goods on offer.

Helen Hockey, 35, runs the store with her brother Robert, 29, and sister Anne, 37, and said that they were overwhlemed by the turnout for their celebrations.

“We’re really excited by it and there was a queue at the door when we opened. The atmosphere has been electric today and really busy, but it’s not all about spending money, it’s also a case of come in and celebrate with us, grab some tea and some cake and just enjoy the occasion.”

The store, which also sells toys including Playmobil, was launched as a hobby by the trio’s father Robert, who had is own road haulage business.

A life-long model railway enthusiast, his family got used to seeing yards and yards of track snaking their way through the house, and his children quickly caught the bug themselves.

Helen, who lives in Saxlingham Nethergate, recalled: “He had a room dedicated to it and we all used to play with the models and come in and help him in the shop on Saturdays. He always said it was a novelty to have girls in a model railway store.”

Soon the business expanded, with an extension increasing the size of the store from one floor to three, and when their father died in 2006, there was no question in the minds of his family about who was going to run the business.

Since taking over, the three of them welcome in enthusiasts ranging from five to 95-years- old, with many having been customers since the very beginning. And after being flooded two years ago due to a broken pipe, they turned what could have been disaster into triumph by redecorating and bringing the store up to date.

“It’s lovely to work with and for your family,” said the mother-of-three, who deals with the accounts and paperwork. “Of course we’ve had a few cross words over the years, but we all get on and we’ve never wanted to do anything else. We hope to be here for the next 25 years, when we’re old and grey.”

Those dropping into the store will find everything from 99p Lego figures through to a £500 Hornby steam powered train set. Elsewhere in the store, those who like things high-tech should be kept happy by model trains with sound chips that allow them to make realistic noises.

Helen’s brother Robert, of Lingwood, added that he was “really pleased” with how everything was going and said that although they had all moved apart and were living their own lives “working in the shop together lets us meet up and have a good chat.

“We just want to keep on going and make sure everyone gets the same good service,” he said. “We’re not here to be millionaires and we’re friends with many of our customers.”

Helen added that she hoped the store had provided some comfort in an uncertain world.

“We’ve been going through some difficult times as a country, but I like to think that even with all the gloom, people’s hobbies give them a bit of joy in the dark times,” she said.

Model trains roll into Kensington

From Gazette.net Maryland Community News Online: Model trains roll into Kensington
At the center of Kensington lies one of its oldest running traditions, the train station, a fixture there since the 19th century.

This Saturday and Sunday, members of the National Capital Trackers will celebrate that tradition, and the 120th anniversary of the Kensington train station, with an exhibition of model trains at Town Hall.

This will be the first time the National Capital Trackers, a Washington, D.C.-area model train club, will host a show in Kensington. Organizers say it will be one of the biggest they put together all year, with 30 members of the group building five main lines complete with train yards.

“This is a new show for us, we want to do it right,” said Rich Myers, the track master, or organizer, of the show.

Admission for this event is $5 for adults and $2 for children. Family admission is $10.

Town Hall is at 3710 Mitchell St.

Proceeds will go to benefit the Kensington Historical Society, as well as the Noyes Children’s Library Foundation, an organization that aims to help keep open the Noyes Library for Young Children in Kensington

Couple sharing sprawling model train layout

From Newark Advocate.com: Couple sharing sprawling model train layout
GRANVILLE -- Model train lovers -- all aboard!

On Sunday, like every year, Granville residents Jerry and Gail Klink will welcome the public to see their Runaway Railroad, a G scale outdoor layout at their home on Goose Lane, southwest of Granville.

Sunday's event is sponsored by the Columbus Garden Railway Society. The Runaway Railroad is one of about 15 on the organization's 2011 Open Garden Tour. The Klinks will have maps to the other locations on the tour.

The Klinks' layout covers about a quarter acre with 10 distinctly different settings in addition to villages and bridges. One of the latest additions is a Disney World exhibit complete with monorail. A Thomas the Tank Engine also has been added in another setting.

"The little kids, in particular, like Thomas," Jerry said.

There's also an 1860s town, a 1950s town, an Indian village, Deadwood with adjoining ghost town, German Village (Columbus style), Jeffersonville with a statue of Thomas Jefferson, Route 66, a village that looks remarkably like downtown Granville, "and, of course, the working carnival and zoo," Gail said.

The trains are equipped with tiny speakers that carry the sound of actual locomotive engines, controlled digitally, Jerry said.

The scenery includes several items the couple has picked up during trips abroad.

The layout is a labor of love for the train enthusiasts. Jerry, 73, a mostly retired mechanical engineer, admits he gets up by 6:30 a.m. and if it's a nice day he'll be out working on the layout by 7:30 a.m. -- and he'll spend the entire day on it if he can. Throughout the years he figures he's invested about $50,000 to $60,000 in the layout and too many hours to count.

Gail, a retired Spanish and English teacher from Newark High School, is only slightly less passionate than her husband.

"I'm not as excited about the rolling stock and the engines as he is," Gail conceded. "I'm more excited about the layout and the scenes."

The two established the Runaway Railroad in 2000 upon their return to Granville from Saudi Arabia, where Jerry did engineering work.

"It's hard to believe adults do this," Gail admitted.

She said the trains have actually strengthened their marriage.

"If my husband played golf, I would play golf," Gail said. "Why do I want to sit by myself? Actually, in the Columbus Garden Railway Society, it's almost all couples. It's very interesting. There's longevity in the marriages maybe because they do things together instead of going off separately."

Gamercast interview Team Train Frontier on Train Frontier Express

From Gamercast: Gamercast interview Team Train Frontier on Train Frontier Express

We've been playing the new Xbox Live Indie games title Train Frontier Express, an innovative new simulator-cum-creator available now on the Xbox Indie Marketplace, for a bit of insight on the creators behind the game, and their inspirations and thoughts behind it, read below;

Gamercast: So for those that don’t know, what is Train Frontier Express?

Eric: Train Frontier Express is a landscape building and rail riding simulator, taking inspiration from model railroading. We feature a what-you-see-is-what-you-get editor, online map sharing and train riding, along with a few other surprises. We launched August 31st on Xbox Live Indie Games, as part of the Indie Games Summer Uprising for a deal at only 240 Microsoft points (around $3 USD).

GC: Who is Team Train Frontier?

Emoks: I'm the artist--I make pictures in the computer. (That's how I explain it to my mother).

Eric: I'm Eric "expartend", the coder.

GC: What background do the two of you come from?

Eric: We have some prior experience working for traditional game studios. This is our first indie title and a large departure from our previous work.

GC: So you aren’t train nerds?

Emoks: Not by default--ending up learning (and still learning) a lot during the experience. I did have a Lionel set my father bought from a garage sale, but I mostly just played with the locomotives by themselves. We tried hooking it up to the tracks once and sparks flew everywhere--I'm thinking that particular set was made before safety standards existed.

Eric: Does making Train Frontier Express qualify me as one? I am a passenger rail supporter, so my love for trains is more practical. I played the Sim City series as a kid and the first thing I'd always do is attempt to make an efficient city with only rail as transport.

GC: When did you decide, “We’re going to make a train game”?

Eric: The idea came up right before the end of last year as a joke almost. We were interested in testing out the Xbox Live Indie Games marketplace for a small game. The game has grown quite a lot since then.

Emoks: Yeah, it seemed like it would be a small project at the time. We ended up needing a bigger boat...

GC: Which came first the editor or the train driving?

Eric: The editor, definitely. We work remotely, so Emoks needs to be able to see his props in game. The editor doubles as his prop viewer. The engine's been built from the ground up, so there's a lot of hidden tech going into it. I left the rail driving mode to the very end -- let me tell you, hooking up multiple connected cars to a player made rail is a lot harder than programming a flying or driving game.

GC: After working on the game, have you become a bit of a train nerd?

Eric: A lot more than when I started. Since the game has a model train inspiration, one of the first things we did was visit a model rail museum for research. We're not trying to be a hyper-accurate simulator, so we can look at many different areas and pick and choose how deep we want to go. We've even used the film Unstoppable as a reference.

Emoks: A few aspects have definitely grown on me. I love a lot of mid century railroad art--especially old rail line posters. I've picked up a couple old Hiawatha and GE ads at flea markets when I find them in nice condition. Oh! I also just discovered Tom Fawell--his work is awesome; so much style in tackling those locomotives!

GC: Do you have a favourite train (in real life)?

Emoks: I don't have a particular one; I'm a sucker for the streamlined engines--any of the Hiawatha locomotives. EMD E4/E5 are some other favorites.

Eric: I'm really jealous of the Japanese Shnikansen lines. The 500 series looks like a rocket and jet fighter combined.

GC: For a 3D Xbox Live Indie game, Train Frontier Express looks very polished, just how long have you been working on it for?

Eric: Thank you, we've been working on it since the start of the year, off and on. We've actually been handicapped in what we can do visually due to the XNA Framework on PC, but our next update will contain some visual enhancements.

GC: Your colour palette is bright and colourful and your UI is very stylish, where did you pull your visual inspiration from?

Emoks: We wanted something fun and visually appealing; from media, movies like Open Season and games like Team Fortress 2 were a starting point for the kind of familiar visual feel we wanted to go with (if you see some of our early UI screens, it might have been a little too TF2...) A lot of our UI has been influenced by WPA posters and other advertising art from mid to mid-late century. Builder mode uses a flat graphic look with mostly monochromatic colors for the different toolsets.

Eric: People recognize a Team Fortress 2 vibe from Train Frontier Express, which is actually great. The creators of TF2 spent a lot of time honing their 3D art direction, and they threw out what didn't work -- trying to avoid everything Valve learned would be a bit foolish.

GC: You’ve got Bullet Trains, Steam Locomotives and Diesels, how many different train setups are there?

Emoks: Setups are numerous; there are currently 10 engines (six locomotive engines with a few paint variations) and 20 train cars of different styles and colors. You can have up to nine train cars hooked up to your locomotive. Updates will include some new locomotives, so the possibilities will grow even more.

Eric: Not accounting for taste and common sense, there's billions of mix and match combinations, but those are numbers only a marketer person would come up with.

GC: The towns made in the trailers look fantastic, and contain more variety than most retail Train Simulators, just how many props have you got in your inventory?

Emoks: I believe around a 140 including variations, but there were a lot of things that didn't make it into the initial release that we want to include in updates. We also get (and encourage) suggestions on our facebook page. Certain railroad signal types that went into the initial release were based on user suggestions (before they'd even played it!)

GC: What can we expect from the team now? Do you have anything in the works?

Eric: Aside from an update to Train Frontier, we don't have any concrete plans. A lot rests on how well Train Frontier Express does sales wise. Without fan support, Team Train Frontier will hang up its conductor hat after this one. Though, I'll continue to work on my own indie projects.

Emoks: For the immediate future supporting TFE as it takes its first steps out amongst the zombie games and dating sims. Long term: sleep.

GC: Thank you for making trains fun with explosions and true derailments!

Eric: Making explosions is also fun, so it's a win-win. Thank you for the interview!

Emoks: Thank you!

Late Fort Worth man's model train layout finds a home at East Texas museum

From the Star Telegram: Late Fort Worth man's model train layout finds a home at East Texas museum

FORT WORTH -- For 25 years, R.D. Moses retreated to his backyard shed, laying the railroad tracks, piece by piece, that sliced through the 1950s West Texas landscape conjured in his mind.

From plaster, wood and wire, Moses built the town of Cochina, where the model locomotive departs from the station. The Texas and Pacific Railway engine roars by hundreds of handmade trees and shoots east to the town of Broken Promises, where locals head to Al's Tavern.

Even as Parkinson's disease caused Moses' hands to shake and his body to tremble, he spent nights tinkering with the model train layout.

When he died, Moses had one request: that the train be donated to a museum or park where people could enjoy it.

After searching for nearly two years, Moses' son, Arthur Moses, has fulfilled the wish. The train layout will be given to the Jefferson Historical Museum in East Texas. This week, employees from the museum and members of the Jefferson Model Railroad Club began dismantling the train and preparing to move it.

"This is what my father would have wanted," Arthur Moses said. "We all have our quirky little passions. This was his."

That passion grew from a health scare in the 1970s when R.D. Moses, in his mid-40s, suffered a mild stroke. A doctor sternly warned him to relax and find a hobby.

Moses had built model trains earlier in his life, but the pastime fell to the wayside as the responsibilities of raising five children and building a family business weighed heavily.

He picked it back up in his spare time, finding solace in tiny details as he worked to capture life in a small West Texas railroad town. But after 10 years of tedious work, he decided to start over.

"He wanted it to be bigger, better," his son said. "He wasn't ready to be finished."

So Moses began working on the town that would be called Cochina, although no one can remember how it got that name. With a deliberate hand, he created detailed small-town scenes, a Fourth of July parade, a child flying a kite, a fireworks stand. A computerized system allows visitors to start or stop a train, make cattle moo or turn a business' lights on.

Broken Promises

Moses often worked until midnight in the backyard shed, which he outfitted with an intercom so his wife could buzz him from the house.

As Cochina neared completion, Moses knew he was not ready to finish and began working on a new town to the east, with a pool hall, pawnshop, library and dentist office. The town became known as Broken Promises because the family joked that he broke his promise to his wife, Beverley, that he would not build on to the train.

"My mother was very tolerant," Arthur Moses said. "It took a special person to put up with this hobby."

People began noticing the layout, which measures 10 by 40 feet. R.D. Moses' home in the Westcliff neighborhood near TCU became a regular stop during statewide conventions of the National Model Railroad Association.

In 2002, Model Railroader Magazine published a feature on him. Moses reveled in showing the train to his grandchildren, who were delighted by the old-fashioned locomotive.

After Moses died of Parkinson's in 2009, Arthur Moses ran an advertisement in Model Railroader Magazine in search of a museum, eventually narrowing it to one in Schenectady, N.Y., and one in Jefferson.

'His life's work'

The Jefferson Historical Museum proved the best fit, Arthur Moses said. Museum workers plan to build a 1950s-style train depot to house the layout and are accepting donations, director Anita Nowell said.

"This is a very exciting part of our state's history," she said. "Texas & Pacific Railway played a major role here."

This week, members of the Jefferson Model Railroad Club, who will be in charge of operating the train, took 122 photographs of the layout to help reconstruct it. They then removed small parts before sawing it into two pieces to make it easier to move.

Professional museum moving crews will arrive next month to lift the layout by crane, load it into a flatbed trailer and transport it to Jefferson.

Norman Buell, a club member, said model train hobbyists find satisfaction in creating landscapes as close to real life as possible. In Cochina and Broken Promises, a dog chases a cat. A repairman fixes a broken window. A sign advertises the upcoming circus.

"The first thing you notice is the attention to detail," Buell said. "That takes a great amount of skill and is unusual for a home layout."

R.D. Moses never tired of tweaking and tinkering with his train, his son said. After he died at age 80, Arthur Moses found a locomotive and tools on his father's workbench.

"This was his life's work," Arthur said. "He was never finished."

Train News: China’s Tech Industry Takes a Bullet

From MoneyShow: China’s Tech Industry Takes a Bullet

It has now become the bullet train wreck with a bullet.

The July 23 collision of two bullet trains on the Beijing-to-Shanghai line killed at least 40 people. That’s disaster enough.

But the wreck has turned into a huge setback in China’s drive to become an exporter of complex technology products. It has raised major doubts about China’s ability to innovate, and exposed connections between official corruption and the questionable safety of China’s technology.

The wreck couldn’t have come at a worse time in China’s campaign to be seen as a technology innovator and not just a technology imitator.

The country had filed for more than a dozen international patents for its high-speed train technology. The European and Japanese companies that had joint-ventured with China when the country began building its high-speed rail network cried foul. China had simply slapped some new paint on their technology, they said.

Not so, China countered, our high-speed trains are based on major Chinese innovations. And as proof, China pointed to the increased speed of its trains. Instead of the 200 kilometers-per-hour (124 mph) top speeds of the European and Japanese trains, China’s trains could run at speeds of up to 300 kph.

Nonsense, European and Japanese manufacturers countered. China had just taken existing technology and increased the speed of its trains by cutting safety.

The wreck on the Beijing to Shanghai line certainly gives weight to those European and Japanese claims. But the continuing investigation into the causes of the wreck is turning up even more troubling questions about whether China’s economic system and its flagship companies can deliver world-class technology.

On August 9, for example, train maker China CNR said it had suspended production of one bullet-train model to address technical glitches in the automatic protection system that’s supposed to alert a train and its operators to problems.

Glitches? Not when a wreck resulted when a train slammed into the rear of a stopped train.

In a filing with China’s security regulators, the company said it had reported the problem to the Ministry of Railways. That certainly suggests that the company discovered and reported the problem itself.

But 21st Century Business Herald is reporting that the company had been ordered to improve the train by the ministry. And ministry sources are saying that China CNR was responsible for 19 of the 20 train-related malfunctions on the line since it opened in June.

And then there’s the problem with the axles. A July 15 inspection in Jinan, in Shandong province, discovered a 7 millimeter by 2.4 millimeter crack in a train axel.

The axel was switched out and that train—and a train of a similar model from the same supplier—continued to operate at speeds of up to 300 kilometers an hour on the Beijing to Shanghai line.

Now, as the investigation into the accident has found, the July 15 inspection wasn’t the first indication of axle problems. Equipment supplier Beijing Sheening reported similar defects in June.

Technicians at the Ministry of Railways have told investigators, Caixan reports, that their testing found similar problems in other axles. Three of them were scrapped and four others swapped out.

The treatment of the axle problem would seem to violate Ministry of Railways standards that require any power shaft with a crack of two millimeters of more to be scrapped.

A total of 54 trains were recalled by China CNR on August 11. The company listed the reason for the recall as “sensor false positives.” At this point, it’s not clear if anything is being done about the axel problems.

But it’s the connection between these equipment problems and corruption that may ultimately be most damaging to China’s technology strategy.

The wheels for the CRH380BL models of high-speed trains were supplied by Zhibo Lucchini Railway Equipment, a company formerly headed by Ding Shumiao. Ding currently faces bribery charges in the corruption case of former Minister of Railways Liu Zhijun.

A four-year old joint venture, Zhibo Lucchini had secured contracts to manufacture more than 60% of the wheel sets for China’s high-speed trains.

Domestically, the impact of all of this will be to undermine customer confidence in a high-speed rail network already facing financial problems due to high ticket prices and huge cost overruns. Internationally, the effect will be to cut the market for Chinese high-speed train equipment—and to require the government to offer even more favorable financing to customers.

But the effects won’t be limited to that one technology. China’s wind-turbine industry, for example, was already facing questions about the reliability of its equipment, and the country’s telecommunications-equipment makers have been facing an uphill battle to increase sales outside of China.

Different companies and different technologies. But you can be sure potential customers are asking, "If I wouldn’t buy a high-speed train from China, why would I buy…."