Local group receives grant to continue work on model railroad

From White Mountain Independent:  Local group receives grant to continue work on model railroad

SHOW LOW — The Silver Creek Railroaders, who built and maintain a model railroad at the Show Low Museum, have received a grant so they can continue to develop the railroad.
The group learned from the Show Low Historical Society Oct. 4 they had received the grant from the Arizona Historical Society in the amount of $1,500. Silver Creek Railroaders Superintendent Dean Cramblit said the grant funds will allow the group to add a display depicting the railroad along Route 66 and mining and related industries in northern Arizona.
Planning for changes to the existing display are already in progress, such as additional track, new scenery, buildings, background paintings and locomotives and rail cars relevant to mining. The group will also make improvements to the electrical system running the display.
This is the second year in a row the Silver Creek Railroaders have received a grant from the Arizona Historical Society. In 2011, the group received a $1,250 grant for the development, construction and operation of the Last Train to Maverick display. A portion of the club room now contains representations of the town of McNary, its lumber mill and tracks to the lumber town of Maverick.
Much of the display is handmade by club members, including scenery, buildings and rail cars. Members continue to add details to the display, such as the sound of a lumber mill. The Apache Railway is a main point of the Last Train to Maverick display, assisted with a donation from the railway that still runs trains from Snowflake to Holbrook.
The display can be seen at the Show Low Museum, located at 561 E. Deuce of Clubs, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday. Club members are on hand every Wednesday and Saturday working on the model railroad. The group also frequently hosts large groups of school children throughout the region to show off their work.

iHobby Expo has trains, cars, models at IX Center

Old news, but make a note to check this out next year. THey'll doubtless repeat it.

From iHobby.com: iHobby Expo has trains, cars, models at IX Center

The iHobby Expo at the IX Center is a full-color celebration of the hobby industry, with radio-control vehicles of every description, trains, trains and more trains, tools, paints, die-cast cars, and all manner of plastic scale models.
Then there is Ken Foran of Wooster.
In this ocean of mass-produced hobby materials of all types and sizes, he is an island of hand-craftsmanship that rises to fine art. His booth features, among other things, a 1911 Ford Model T racer.
Most of it is brass. It is 1/8th scale, which means an eighth of an inch equals one inch.
Foran, the former vice president of research and development at Rubbermaid, spent 1,800 hours building it and said he would let it go for $22,000. To show how fully functional it is, he turns the starter crank that pokes out of the mostly exposed chassis.
A mirror beneath the car reveals that he is turning over a crankshaft (the oil pan is not in place) and the rear wheels turn.
The wooden spokes are wood, and so are the floor boards. The seats are covered in goatskin from a pair of women’s high-fashion gloves.
And that’s not even the most complex thing he’s ever undertaken.
He points to an engine in front of him that’s about the size of a deck of cards. It is a 1/8th-scale 3.8 liter dual overhead cam six-cylinder engine for a 1962 Jaguar XKE.
“I have 60 hours into it,” he said. “But it’s not done.”
It is, however, done enough to reveal a crankshaft attached to six pistons that are visible when he turns it upside down.
There’s also the metal cowl for one of the aircraft. His wife, Gretchen, an accomplished silver- and coppersmith, hand hammered it out of aluminum.
Both learned their skills at the Cleveland Institute of Art, where he studied industrial design after mustering out of the Marines.
The expo was only for retailers and distributors Thursday and Friday, but it is open to the public today from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. For details, see http://www.ihobbyexpo.com.

 

Wilmington, NC: Model railroad show is fun for everyone

From WWAY.TV:  Model railroad show is fun for everyone

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY)-- The Wilmington Railroad Museum hosts a Model Railroad Extravaganza this weekend. Miniature trains and landscapes fill an entire room of the museum. Guests can watch the model trains chug by, or even conduct these engines themselves. The museum promotes a remote control that allows children and adults to tell the train to go forward, back up, or just stay put.
Executive Director of the Wilmington Railroad Museum, Mark Koenig, says this is an event for all ages. He says children have the chance to engage with the trains, while adults have the opportunity to participate in the craft of model railroads. He also says this is a great way to share the heritage and history of railroads in our country.

 

Enjoying the trains

From the NEAgle:  Enjoying the trains

PA_Hawley --  Managing Editor
Although Stourbridge Line train excursions are on hold this year in Wayne and Pike counties, Hawley Fire Department had model trains in action again, Oct. 7. Twice a year they hold a model train show and sale at the Fire Hall, benefiting the fire company. The S-gauge layout was set up by Tim Callaghan, of Harrisburg and Tom Keegan of Greeley. Their train layout has become a regular attraction at the show in Hawley. They make it interactive, letting the kids operate a crane to put cargo on the train, or some other function. They very the layout each year. In keeping with the election season, this time they set up a model of the White House, with a dual parade of tiny elephants and donkeys, both heading for the front doors. Keegan says he hopes to inspire the younger generation to love model trains. He lamented that in recent years, locomotives and other accessories have become so costly, it’s hard to make it accessible for kids. Modern model railroads are all computerized, he noted. Their layout at the show uses traditional hand levers to regulate the speed or switch tracks. They also like to use vintage American Flyer cars, made by the A.C. Gilbert Company. The trains used in the show date from the 1950’s. The next model train show and sale at the Hawley Fire Hall is planned Sunday, April 14, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. For more information, contact Bill Delling at (570)226-3206.

Regina, Canada: Show cancelled

From the Leaderpost:  Show cancelled

What would have been the 10th annual Regina Model Railroad Show has been cancelled because renovations to the venue are behind schedule and won't be completed in time for the Oct. 13 and 14 show.
"They didn't quite make it," said Gordon Down, referring to renovations to Cochrane High School, which has housed the model railway show for the past nine years. "So we had to cancel the show."
The last-minute notice made it impossible for event organizers to relocate, he said. "You've got to get permits and licences, and all that. So there just isn't time," a clearly disappointed Down explained.
In past years, the Regina Model Railway Show - jointly hosted by the Echo Valley Railroad Guild and Regina Model Railroad Club - set up portable model trains in about 13,000 square feet (1,210 square metres) of space, which included the school's large entrance area, cafetorium and gym. Between 35 and 40 participants were expected this year, Down said.
"We will probably have to look for a new venue (for future shows)," he said.
Despite the show being cancelled, event organizers said they still plan to make their annual charitable donation.
"The board decided we still want to give (the Leader-Post Christmas Cheer Fund) $500," Down said.
In past years, a portion of the event's proceeds supported the charity, which supports four Regina shelters for women and children fleeing domestic abuse.

 

The Great Train Expo

From CBS 4 News:  The Great Train Expo

Train Enthusiasts from all over the QCA took part in the Great Train Expo in Rock Island in Saturday.
Train vendors from California to Kentucky came showed off their train collections at the Model Railroad Show. Thousands of toy trains, miniatures and train memorabilia are on display and on sale at the QCCA Expo Center.
The show even has a ride-on train and a play area for kids.
"I just think that they have such a history in the country, that you can't go anywhere without seeing them. Pretty much everything you buy is moved by them. A lot of people as kids had trains themselves and now they're parents, so they like to get their kids into that hobby,"  said Bill Grove, Train Expo Show Manager.
More than 2,000 people are expected to take part in the 2 day railroad show. The event continues through Sunday from 10:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M.

 

Yankee Stadium and Beyond: A Brookfield Doctor's World of Model Trains

From  Housatonic TImes:  Yankee Stadium and Beyond: A Brookfield Doctor's World of Model Trains

BROOKFIELD—A New York Central Railroad train pushes past Yankee Stadium, and outside the park anticipation of upcoming postseason play is pal­pably felt from fans milling around streets in the Bronx.

The train then wraps around the rest of the upper borough, where it contributes another layer to the cacophony of urban sounds such as construction work and traffic and another train elevated on a track overhead.

Then the nine-car loco­motive sets its lamps on the island of Manhattan, and the world’s most recognizable cityscape towers above a train full of passengers.

After that, the train turns northbound, and travels to upstate New York, where country landscapes flash past the windows. People can be seen hanging out by watering holes, frolicking about, and one young couple under a tree shares their first kiss. And from there, it heads along the southern ridgeline of the Adirondack Mountains toward New Eng­­land.

But there’s something curious about these scenes and everything that makes them up—it’s not contemporary but looks to be straight out of the late 1960s.

This is merely the first half of a fantastic American journey, one designed by a local resident, Dr. Kenneth Pellegrino of Brookfield Family Medicine, in a single room of his basement. What is described above is the path of his scale model railroad, an elaborate setup crafted with MTH Electric Trains. It’s so intricate and functional that it took him the better part of a decade to complete.

“Well, I started planning this when we decided to move into this house in 2002, and it took me a year to plan,” Dr. Pellegrino said of a design that seems to compress much of the Northeast into a 25-by-15-foot space. “Then it took me eight years to build, from 2003 to 2011.”

The rigging is fantastic on this O-scale (48:1) model layout that features 25 cars and six engines (it includes the Union Pacific and New Haven lines). Made to scale, there are at least 50 automobiles, and seemingly all of them, from the Volkswagen Microbus to the classic Ford Crown Victoria, fit the era. In addition to all of that, there is something like 200 little people contributing something to the show, ranging from rock climbing or barbecuing to running across busy city streets.

The train cars have advertisements for such things as Monarch Foods and Puritan Hams. There are tunnels and railroad yards and ponds and delis and garages and municipal service buildings—even an Elephant Car Wash and an OK Used Car Dealership. Dr. Pellegrino has a mural of the Adirondack Mountains that his daughter painted displayed against the back wall.

The details are pain­staking. Considering that he assembled this all, probably 300 feet of track and maybe $10,000 worth of materials, in only eight years, the feat is impressive—especially because he also works as a general practitioner.

The steam engines emit tiny trails of harmless smoke, and an infrared sensor ensures that whenever the train crosses a street the red lights flash and the bells go ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding. The jarring sounds of jackhammering in the Bronx, the friendly voice of a car wash servant somewhere upstate and the alarming wail of a fire engine in suburban New England all add to the amalgamation.

“I’ll turn this on and then (a model house) will start to smoke,” said Dr. Pellegrino, who controls the figurative/literal bells and whistles by switches he’s installed underneath the tracks. “I’ll call the kids in and they’ll get nervous when they see it, and so I’ll say, ‘Gosh, we better call the fire department.”

He also controls the fire engine that exits the nearby fire station. When the house goes up in flames (red lights flicker inside) and a fire company comes to the rescue. In similar fashion, other homes and buildings have stories to tell.

As the soon-to-be grand­father toys around with the set, a framed picture of him above his shoulder shows him playing with a model train as a teenager back in 1960s Long Island. His enjoyment is a lifelong one, but even in his previous Brookfield home the layout he set up in the attic couldn’t nearly compare to this current one.

Its size isn’t the only notable quality. It’s those human touches that make the layout of this married father of three so extraordinary. That young couple smooching under the tree—that’s his son and daughter-in-law. Those baseball fans outside Yankees Stadium, that’s his family.

There’s something about the overall scenery that pertains to his upbringing, which took him from Long Island to Syracuse University to Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx to Brookfield, where he has raised a family and in 1981 helped found Brookfield Family Medicine.

He said injecting pieces of one’s past adds significance to the setting, and gives it a more human feel. But there are three details that cannot be overlooked: people, automobiles and trees. The first two he has not skimped on, but even with about 200 trees on location he still wants to add more.

“To give it realism,” he said, “it can’t just be trains going around.”