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VOLUME 39, NUMBER 05 September 2021
RED MARKERS Newsletter of the Central New York Division of the Northeastern Region,
National Model Railroad Association, Inc. SERVING MODEL RAILROADERS IN AND AROUND CENTRAL NEW YORK STATE
NEXT MEETING . . . Sunday September 19, 2021 2 – 4 PM
Central NY Model Railroad Club and Museum
Harlot Station, Elbridge, NY
PAGE 1
At this Meeting and in this Issue . . .
Our Hosts: It has been quite some time since the Division has paid a visit to the CNYMRR Club in Hartlot. Much has changed in that time, including renovations to the station building and scrapping the circa 1972 layout. New members have joined the club, including some from the Syracuse MRR Club, which has been forced to dismantle its layout due to the sale of the American Legion Building. They have had some setbacks, particularly with the pandemic, but a new layout is being built followed the path of some of the old layout, starting in Rochester’s Goodman Yard, passing through Pittsford, Fairport, Lyons, Geneva, Auburn, Skaneateles Junction, Camillus, and ending in the eastern Syracuse Industrial Park. We look forward to seeing the progress that has been made.
Division Business: The station building is mostly taken up with the layout, so we will have our meeting in the parking lot, under the tent if the weather is “iffy.” (When is it not in CNY?) Plan to bring your own seating. One item of business will be to welcome a new Chief Clerk. With his election as Region President, Ed O’Rourke is stepping aside and Tom Lynch has graciously agree to fill the remainder of Ed’s term. Ed will continue as co-editor of Red Markers.
Raffle: Thanks to the generosity of CNY Division Life Member David Bates we have a number of items to raffle, plus some we will make available for sale to members. Bring your cash money and don’t forget you get an extra raffle ticket if you have your Division Name Badge, available from Jim Heidt (see page 2).
COVID Restrictions: The COVID situation is always in flux. Please keep informed of the latest requirements, and it is a good idea to be prepared to wear a mask in any indoor spaces. Stay Safe!
VOLUME 39, NUMBER 05 September 2021
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Division Name Badges are available from Jim Heidt for $10.00. Badges are only available to CNY Division Members. Price includes postage to mail your badge to you by First Class Mail. The $10.00 covers all costs. REMEMBER - Contact our Chief Clerk if you ever have trouble receiving your “Red Markers”. Also, if you need to change your e-mail address or post office address drop the Clerk a line. The Division Chief Clerk’s contact information is listed in “The Brass Hats” sidebar to the left. Please have your articles and any items for “Loose Spikes” to us by the date listed below. Remember, EARLIER IS ALWAYS BETTER! Thanks for your support,
Ed & Ed. 10/15
PAYMASTER’S REPORT
“Loose Spikes”… (Notes from the “Ashpit”)
Don’t Get Left at the Station . . . To stay onboard and keep receiving Red Markers e-mail notices, you need to be an NMRA member in good standing. Email notification is sent to all NMRA/NER Members residing in the geographic area of the CNY Division, and to any other members who identify as CNY Division members. If you do not have email or online capacity you may receive a US Mail edition of Red Markers.by contacting the Chief Clerk, who's name and address appear in The Brass Hats sidebar on this page.
Respectfully submitted, Charles Albee, Paymaster
The “Brass Hats” Central New York Division - ELECTED - Superintendent Drew James4262 Lynville WayClay, NY 13041([email protected]. Superintendent Rick Mniece6291 Wooderton PathCicero, NY 13039(315) [email protected] Clerk Tom Lynch1031 Wheatfield Way Camillus, NY 13031 315-762-2777 [email protected] Charlie Albee 215 Falls Blvd Chittenango, NY 13037 315-687-3282 [email protected] - APPOINTED - NMRA Achievement Program Representative Dave Martini 6943 Shannon Way Liverpool, NY 13088 (315) 457-7437 [email protected] NMRA Member Aid Chairman Jim Heidt, P.O. Box 25 Clockville, NY 13043 (315) 697-6227 [email protected] Division Clinic Coordinator Bill Brown, MMR6002 Singletree Lane Jamesville, NY 13078 (315) 454-2516 [email protected] Train Show Coordinator Roger Beiswenger16 Canterbury Road New Hartford, NY 13413(315) [email protected] Storekeeper Ed Olszewski (315) 488-4193 [email protected] Red Markers Co-Editors Ed Olszewski and Ed O’Rourke, MMR36 Nursery Lane Syracuse, NY 13210(315) 488-4193 [email protected]@twcny.rr.com Distributed through our web site at www.cnynmra.org, domestic US Mail Delivery available, © 2021 CNY Division, NMRA, All Rights Reserved. Printed in USA.
(Loose Spikes continued on page 4)
Nothing new to report since the previous Red Markers. Look for an update in the next Red Markers
VOLUME 39, NUMBER 05 September 2021
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From the Freight ShedDrew James, Superintendent
Drew
Prior to being becoming superintendent of the division, I was aware that one of our editors, Ed O’Rourke, wore a lot of hats. In addition to editing Red Markers, Ed was also our Chief Clerk and the NER Western Division Director and was one of the co- chairs for our 2019 convention. After becoming superintendent, it became obvious to me that Ed could be relied on to always volunteer for whatever needed to be done in the division – whether it was picking up the supplies for the picnic or reviewing redlines for our bylaws. I’m not sure how he found the time to also become an MMR this year! As you all know by now, Ed was recently elected President of the NER and will be taking office at the Mill City convention. Congratulations, Ed, on your new position and thank you for everything you do for the division! We know you will do a great job leading the NER forward. Also, congratulations to our other editor, Ed
Olszewski, on his election to replace (the other) Ed as the Western Director of the region. We are lucky to be so well represented in the region.
Bob Verkuyl told me when I agreed to run for superintendent that we have a great division where folks are willing to step up when needed. I have found that to be true in my first months in the job and I am grateful to our members for their help. Given Ed’s new responsibilities with the NER, he has resigned his position as Chief Clerk and Tom Lynch has agreed to take on the position until our next elections. Thank you, Tom!
I hope you will join as for our next meeting at the Central New York Model Railroad Club. The club is celebrating their 50th year and has embarked on building a brand-new multi-deck layout that represents Central New York. They are located in an historical NYC station on the Finger Lakes main line. A couple of us stopped by the station a couple of months ago and heard about their exciting plans. You are sure to enjoy hearing what is next for the club as well. You might even want to consider joining.
A CTC Machine for the CS&POver the years I’ve seen or read about replica CTC machines being used for dispatching on model railroads, but knew very little about them. At the 2018 Kansas City national convention I was enthralled watching the crew operate the CTC machine on Jim Eudaly’s magnificent O scale C&O layout. Also, at the convention I sat through a lengthy two-part clinic about the machines and for the first time had an understanding about how they worked. Since coming back from the convention, building an operating CTC machine had been on my “to do” list for the Canada Spokane & Pacific.
Centralized Traffic Control machines were used to control train movements from about 1930s to the
(Continued on Page 8)
VOLUME 39, NUMBER 05 September 2021
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Loose Spikes, (Cont. from pg. 2)
Like us on FaceBook!Northeastern Region, NMRA
Follow us on Twitter!@cnynmra
Future Conventions:
The Northeastern Region Facebook Page is a great place to post layout photos, ask questions, or seek information about the hobby and events in the NER.There is also a National Model Railroad Association page. See what is happening all over the world in model railroading.
Check out the Homebound Blog on the CNY Division website www.cnynmra.org
October 8 – 11, 2021, hosted by the HUB Division. www.millcity21.org
2021 NER ConventionRegistration Now Open!
Western New York Layout ToursOctober 23 & 24, 2021Contact Frank Pastore [email protected] or https://buffalorailroad.wixsite.com/wny-layout-tours
NER ElectionsCongratulations to Ed Olszewski, elected Western Director, and Ed O’Rourke, elected Region President.
Ops ‘til You DropPlans are in the works to hold our Annual Ops event in association with the
Great NYS Train Fairthe weekend of November 5 – 7. More information about both events will be forthcoming in a future Red Markers.Details on page 5!
Albany Great Train ExtravaganzaHudson Berkshire division is making plans for its Annual Train Show December 4 – 5. The recent announcement of the state lifting restrictions means this is a go.
RIT Tiger Tracks Train show and SaleDecember 11 and 12, 2021
2022 NMRA National Convention is in St. Louis August 7 – 15, 2022https://www.eventsquid.com/event.cfm?preview&event_id=13724
GSME Great Batavia Train ShowGenesee Community CollegeOctober 17, 2021 – 9:30 -3:30 PM
Rochester Model RR Club Open HouseSaturday October 2 10:00 AM – 5:00 PMSunday October 3 1:00 – 5:00 PMCancelled!
VOLUME 39, NUMBER 05 September 2021
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From The Dispatcher's Desk
Ed and Ed
I (Ed Olszewski) am in Boston, MA for a few weeks and took a walk over to the yard throat for North Station. Turns out there is a very nice park and walking path next to the hotel I am in. The park is divided in two by the MBTA Commuter Rails and a walking bridge has been built over the rails. This bridge provides a great vantage point for photos of the commuter trains leaving and pulling into the station. The Bascule bridges donʻt hurt the view either.On page 6 are a few of the photos I took on this outing. Nothing out of the ordinary but perhaps a different view of North Station than what you are used to seeing.
Full information on the Division website www.cnynmra.orgOr email Bill Brown at [email protected]
Hudson Berkshire Division Event
OPEN HOUSEDiane and Tony Steele
8 Packetboat CourtWaterford NY 12188
We have been invited to tour one of the HB Division’s premier layouts. Saturday September 25, from 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM. Full details in the September “Form 19”http://www.hudson-berkshire.org/form19.htmlIf you plan to attend, email Drew James [email protected] so we can let the HB guys know how many to expect.
Division Trip on the Adirondack Scenic RailroadSome members of the Division expressed interest in a trip on the Adirondack Scenic Railroad. If any one is interested, the proposed date is October 2 on the 9:30am train from Utica to Thendara with the layover in Thendara. The railroad is not willing to reserve blocks of tickets for groups, therefore each individual must call or reserve their tickets online themselves. The plan is that all should do coach class in order to be together. We did this a few years ago and several people took advantage. While in Thendara free busses run to take people to various sites such as restaurants, the famous old Forge Hardware Store, the waterfront, and the McCauley Mountain Ski Area to ride the chair lift to the top. The train returns to Utica by 6:30pm. Check with friends to see who might be going and about possible car-pooling to Utica.
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MBTA Commuter trains. These are former Boston and Maine tracks out of North Station. Note the view of the Charles River Esplanade in the background, and the “Duck” tour in the middle right photo. The beautiful suspension bridge in the background is the replacement for the infamous Tobin Bridge. Most of us wouldn’t think of having the station throat pass over a river with a drawbridge, but here you are. A lot of railroading could be modeled in a compact space with a big city backdrop. (All photos by Ed Olszewski)
Amtrak
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When Ed sent these photos to me (the other Ed) I remarked that when I was in grad school in the mid-70’s we lived near here, also close to Lechmere Station on the MBTA Green Line, my regular stop going to school in Boston. Ed tells me Lechmere Station has been torn down to make way for an extension of the Green Line and that cars currently end at North Station until the extension is finished. Normally they would cross the Charles River dam just upstream from the B&M bridge to go to the Science Museum and Lechmere. (Lechmere was a discount department store back then.) He also sent links to some photos which are below. You could hear the flanges on the cars (at that time PCC trolleys) squealing when they went around the loop 4 blocks away at our apartment.The T kept the PCC cars on this line because the original articulated replacement cars, Boeing Vertol LRV’s, derailed on the very tight curve on the loop track.
Here we have a couple of views of Lechmere station and the demolition and rebuilding of the Green Line viaduct. In the view above, the tracks Ed was photoing are top right, beyond the building that looks like the City Classics Smallman Street warehouse. In the view at right, the original station would be out of the picture to the left. You can make out T commuter trains in the right rear. You could model this in a fairly small space with trolleys and trains going to and from staging or a fiddle yard. It could be done in any era from the 1900’s on. For vintage PCC fans, T is going to renovate 6 for Arborway service.
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Back to the Future on Roger Beiswenger’s layout:“MA&N Alco 425 4256 was spotted leaving Remsen today. Yeah, it is an anachronism on my layout. But it was built for EL in 1964 and could have run through Utica. I have seen pictures of it pulling Adirondack Scenic trains (still in BC Rail livery.) When Phil Edwards announced he had them at JR Junction, I just had to get it. It runs and sounds great. We will have fun running it. Probably most appropriate for the Boonville and Remsen turns, with a guy named Marty at the throttle. It does have a (non flux) capacitor.”
Modeling and photo by Roger Beiswenger.
1980s when they began to be replaced by computerized systems. There were two main builders of CTC machines –Union Switch & Signal (US&S) and General Railway Signal (GRS). US&S built the majority of the machines and had a standardized approach which caused most of their machines to look very similar. GRS machines tended to be more custom. My desire was to build a facsimile of a US&S machine for the CS&P.
Over the past few years, Ken Cameron had implemented a “virtual” US&S machine using JMRI for the CS&P. The goal of the new machine was to replace the virtual computer display with a hardware implementation. Given that we had utilized the new NMRA LCC standard to implement the signaling system and liked how it worked, we decided to drive the panel with the same LCC hardware supplied by RR CirKits since it had all the capability we needed.
Dave Martini did the mechanical design for the machine and developed engineering drawings which he then sourced to a machine shop to be fabricated. The switch lever hardware parts were purchased from CTC Components and the LEDs from Rail Logic. Dave did a fantastic job getting everything to fit together correctly and designing an approach for mounting the LCC boards and running all the wires. The most challenging part turned out to be the top “model board” with the track schematic. This part had to be silk screened after the holes were already drilled for all the LEDs. It took several months to finally get this part printed, but in exchange for a layout tour for him and his daughter, the owner of the shop gave me a great price!
I spent many of my pandemic at home days wiring all the switches and levers – I calculated that there were over 400 connections. Ken would come over every so often to work on the JMRI interface and test out what I had wired. There were certainly several hiccups along the way, but it came together surprisingly well. The machine
A CTC Machine for the CS&P (continued from page 3)
is not as complicated as it might look as it only has two simple circuits which are repeated over and over. Rigorous documentation had to be maintained which Ken then used to configure the JMRI program.
The machine is now up and running and fully functional. It certainly is a lot more fun to throw levers and watch LEDs light up than clicking a mouse on a computer. I need a lot more training from Ken before I fully understand the operation of the machine, but I look forward to that learning and hopefully teaching others as well.
VOLUME 39, NUMBER 05 September 2021
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Area Model Railroad Groups:
The Central New York Model Railroad Club and Historical Society: 4986 Jordan Rd. Elbridge NY 13060. Fri., 7:30PM. New members and visitors always welcome, $5 donation requested over 18. Visit our blog. Building a new layout. www.cnymrrc.com The Syracuse Model Railroad Club: The Club has been forced to dismantle its layout and move out of the Eastwood Post building. Info: [email protected] City N-Trak, Ltd.: Meeting schedule / location TBA. N-TRAK modular layout which often tours. Info: www.facebook.com/saltcityntrak or email [email protected] FUNTRAK: The Frankfort United N-Trak Model Railroad Club, Inc. meets at members homes, meetings are scheduled and posted in FUNTRAK's newsletter each month about two months ahead of the actual meeting date. Info: Brian King at 315-292-7066. http://funtrak.net Cayuga Valley Model Railroaders: Thur. 7:00PM and on most Saturdays at 9:00AM at the club at 3 East Genesee Street, Auburn, over Speno Music Store. Info: Call Mark A. Fritz at 315-730-8727. www.facebook.com/cayugavalleymodelrailroader www.cayugavalley.weeby.com [email protected] Oswego Valley Railroad Association: The group sponsors several train shows in Oswego County. Contact Izzy Vosseller at 315-532-8691. On FaceBook: Oswego Valley Railroad Assoc. Central New York Modelers: The CNYMOD group is located in the Museum of Science & Technology (The MOST) in Downtown Syracuse. Info: at www.cnymod.com or by contacting President Andy Rezsnyak at 440-4511 or e-mail [email protected]. Central New York Large-Scale Railway Society: Meets at Driver’s Village, where they have an extensive layout. http://cnylsrs.net. Info: John McCumber at [email protected]. The Bullthistle Model Railroad Society: Third Wed. of the month, 7:00PM at their headquarters at 33 Rexford Street, Norwich, NY, and open Saturdays from 1:00 to 4:00PM and on special events... all in creating visual and operable multi-scale displays of historic railroading in Chenango County. Info: Club President, Philip Fairchild at (607) 847-8551, [email protected] CNYNRHS Model Railroad Group This group maintains a O Gauge high-rail scale modular layout in wareroom behind JR Junction Train & Hobby, 2716 Erie Blvd. E., Syracuse New York 13224. Currently meeting 7:00-9:00pm most Thursday evenings. It is recommended to call ahead at 315-451-6551. More information: www.cnynrhs.org or E-Mail [email protected] European Train Enthusiasts, CNY Chapter Round robin meetings. 'N' scale modular layout, Info: Tom Lynch at 315-762-2777, [email protected] or @UpstateNYETE on FaceBook
2021 CNY Division ScheduleMeetings 2-4 PM unless otherwise noted!
Saturday January 24Virtual Meeting – Model Train Technology clinic
Sunday February 28Annual Meeting – ElectionsVirtual Meeting
Saturday/SundayApril 10 – 11 2:00 – 11:00 pm NERX
Sunday May 16Train WatchingTractor Supply, East Syracuse
Sunday June 27Train WatchingUtica Union Station
Saturday July 17, 12-4 PMDivision PicnicFinger Lakes Live Steamers
Saturday August 21Lakeshores Division Picnic
Sunday September 19CNY MRRC – Hartlot Station ElbridgeDetails in this issue!
October 8 – 11Mill City 2021Convention
November 6 - 7Great NYS Train FairOps ‘Til You Drop
Sunday November 14 or 21TBD - Email Drew to volunteer to host.
Saturday Jan. 8 or 15, 2022 12:00 – 4:00 PMDivision Banquet
VOLUME 39, NUMBER 05 September 2021
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Central New York Division, NMRA Red Markers News Letter 36 Nursery LaneSyracuse, NY 13210
Central NY Model Railroad Club and Museum4986 Jordan Rd. Elbridge NY 13060
The station is south off Rt. 5 in Elbridge. Depending on where you are coming from, either South Street in the Village, which turns into Jordan Road, (County Rt. 122) or Hamilton Road west of the Village (Crt. 271) will get you there. If you cross the Fingerlakes Railroad tracks you went too far.
As always, don’t take our word for it. We strongly recommend you rely on GPS to get you there.
