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!At The Throttle!
I was the conductor of the Underground Railroad for eight years, and I can say what most conductors can’t say; I never ran my train off the track and I never lost a passen-ger. - Harriet Tubman The confusion at our meeting this past Sunday evening wasn’t anywhere as bad as at the Oscars, but it was almost as irritating. Some words of explanation might help. This past summer, unbeknownst to us, the Holiday Inn in Itasca came under new management. At that time, there was no noticeable change in the relationship that we had been sharing for the last ten years. When it came time to renew our contract with them in December of 2016, the situation had changed considerably. We were now expected to pay more for our meals, pay additional for a conference room and its setup, pay additional for the A/V equipment, and ensure a minimum number of diners for the meal. These changes would be a large increase to what we would be charged for each meeting. These unexpected changes came as a surprise. The first surprise was when we failed to meet the number of “mandatory” diners and were obligated to pay for the shortfall. The next one was the loss of the conference room. After additional discussions with the new management, we would be allowed to use the dining room for our meeting and presenta-tions with a projection screen at no additional charge. As you can imagine, we had some
reservations - and I’m not talking about din-ner reservations! At the February meeting we had to dine in the general restaurant area as the private room had been used for another group and was not ready for us. Since the private room was not ready, we got a conference room at no additional charge. That’s what the confu-sion was about. Now . . . What are we doing about the situation? We are still talking with the man-agement. We have negotiated a lower num-ber of expected diners, which means we will have a lower risk of having to “forfeit” for those who don’t attend the dinner. Dinner and meetings will be held in the private din-ing area, but that makes for a crowded room shared with dining tables. We are correcting the membership list with updated e-mail ad-dresses so that you will be requested to RSVP for dinner so we can get an accurate count of how many to expect. This has not been so critical in years past, but it is now. This is where you can help us. Do you know of any potential alternate sites? If so, we would like to hear from you. We are looking at something in the general area of the Holiday Inn as it is centrally located to our membership. Send your suggestions to [email protected]. We will be reviewing recommendations at the next CAGRS board meeting, April 15. As usual, you are invited to attend. As they say,
Volume 20, Number 3 March 2017
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CHCAGO AREA GARDEN RAILWAY SOCIETY
http://cagrs.com
Officers President, Madison Parker
630-851-4056 [email protected]
Vice President, Lorrie Rockey 630-709-6957
Treasurer, Wayne Clauss [email protected]
Secretary, Dora Mecko [email protected]
Chairpersons Membership, Jim FioRito
1204 Sunnybrook Drive Naperville, IL 60540
630-219-4567 [email protected]
Open Houses, Beth and Steve March
847-367-5175 [email protected]
WebMaster, Ray Sargent 630-766-5738
[email protected] lantern
Newsletter Editor, John Peart
773-973-0217 [email protected]
Caring and Sharing, Carol Veldhuizen
817-437-2978 [email protected]
Newsletter PRINTER,
The Ink Well (847) 923-8060
“Details to Follow”. Keep ‘em running, Madison
A word about CAGRS membership Our 2017 membership renewal period has ended. You should have your 2017 name badges by now. If you have not received your 2017 name badge it is prob-ably because you have not yet sent in your renewal form and annual dues. If you find a renewal notice with this newsletter, please fill it in and send it with your 2017 dues. Do it today. If you have any questions about the renewal process, please contact me at [email protected]. I will try to an-swer your questions. Also a reminder: please notify me when your email chang-es. We will keep one, only one, email address per mem-bership on file. Thanks much, Jim FioRito, Membership Chair.
February has gone and we were lucky to miss all the snow again. This year’s election is for the offices of Vice-President and Treasurer.
CLUB MEMBERSHIP
by Jim FioRito
Membership Chair
2017 Spring Election
Fred Haberkamp Penny Haberkamp
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The board has decided that the election will NOT be held at the Banquet, but at the regular monthly meeting on April 23. If anyone is interested in volunteering please contact either Penny or myself. Fred Haberkamp Penny Haberkamp Home # 847-913-0096 [email protected]
Present Paul Allodi, Gayle Althardt, Ed Biesadecki, Wayne & Jan Clauss, Joe Diorio, Jim Fiorito, Joe Genc, Dietrich Gruchot, Fred & Penny Haberkamp, Karen & Ray Holich, Paul Hough, Butch Huevaere, Kevin Kell, Joe & Mary Lou Lienau, Steven & Beth March, Mike McTague, Dora & Don Mecko, Ron & Martha Messner, Karen & Gabi Morelli, Madison & Gayle Parker, John Peart, Bill Rustemeyer & Shirley Rustemeyer, Don Rustemeyer, Robert Rustemeyer, Pat & Bill Schwartz, David Silverton, Jill & Jonathan Treubig, Brian Valleau, Terry Veldhuizen, Gene Weisbecker, Wayne Zoeteman (43) Announcements Dietrich Gruchot thanked everyone who
went to his wife’s Celebration of Life service. Gaby passed away last month. He also thanked Lorrie Rockey for no-tifying everyone in a timely manner on attending.
2017 Elections for the Vice-President and Treasurer will be held during the April 23rd meeting. Wayne Clauss has vol-unteered to run for Treasurer again. Karen Morelli has advised she’d like to run for VP. Contact Fred & Penny Haberkamp ([email protected]) if you would also like to throw your hat in the ring.
Gayle Althardt…. GOLDEN OLDIES
PARTY…Saturday, April 1st at Chan-dler’s Chop House in Schaumburg. So far, we have 16 reservations. RSVP by March 15th… Come dressed in cos-tume and join in the fun and camarade-rie! Choose the era you loved best… 50’s, 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, 90’s
Word of the Day (Madison Parker)
“Catoptric” …those who design the headlights for our locomotives. Using a mirror to focus light.
RAFFLE… Butch Huvaere brought in a
rerailer that was raffled off. The proud winner was: Gene Weisbecker.
Old Business - None New Business – None
Reports & Updates Secretary’s Report, Dora Mecko: A “big thank you” to Judy Rustemeyer for
taking the January minutes in my ab-sence
Treasurer’s Report, Wayne Clauss: The checking account balance as of Febru-
ary 25, 2017, was $25,711.94. The CD balance was $10,220.75
Membership Report, Jim FioRito: There are 115 members that have renewed
their membership. There are 24 that have not responded.
CAGRS
Meeting Minutes February 26, 2017
by Dora Mecko Secretary
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Editor’s Report, John Peart: None Caring and Sharing, Carol Veldhuizen: Email info to Carol Veldhuizen [email protected] 817-437-2978 Open Houses, Contact Steve & Beth
March, if you plan to have an open house this year.
Contact Ron Messner for club shirts
(long & short sleeve available). Contact Judy Rustemeyer for the new
CAGRS wind breakers which are available for purchase in different siz-es.
Contact Ron Althardt for club pins.
Comments For the last ten (10) years, the Holiday Inn never charged the club if we did not meet the minimum of 40 for dinner. The situation has now changed, due to new management and Holiday Inn’s financial circumstances. The club was charged in January because our attendance was less than the stipulated amount. They were also going to start charg-ing for the use of the AV equipment. Up until last year, the meeting room, dining room and AV were all included as long as we met the minimum of 40 for dinner. Madison Parker, Gayle & Ron Althardt met with the new management to re-negotiate the contract. Holiday Inn lowered the require-ment to 30. In return for that, the meeting will be held after dinner in the same dining room. They will include the use of the screen, AV cart but no podium as long as we meet the new minimum of 30. Again, the club will be charged for each dinner until we meet 30. We also will continue to look for other op-tions. If anyone has recommendations for oth-er venues, please email Madison at [email protected]. As a reminder, the
cost of dinner ($20) allows us a nice meal along with the use of the facilities for our meeting. Please make sure you advise the Membership Chair, Jim Fiorito, if your email address changes in ANY way. Madison Parker is then advised who in turn sends out the monthly meeting announcement. It is even more im-portant now that members RSVP to club meetings. The Holiday Inn is requesting a head count prior to the actual meeting. The next meeting will be Sunday, March 26, 2017 at the Holiday Inn in Itasca. Our presenter will be Ed Biesiadecki … “Clang, Clang, Clang Goes the Trolley” (Laser cut trolleys and his railroad) April 23rd …Presenter Bruce Moffat May 7th…. CAGRS Board Meeting 3:00pm (Althardt residence)
Presentation: Bill Schwartz spoke about German steam. He brought in pictures of beautiful engines, dating back to the 1800’s. Among those was a 110-year-old replica that was still operational. They were from the Deutsches Museum in Munich; Deutsches Technikmuseum in Berlin, Deutsche Bahn Museum in Nuremberg with a branch in Halle. (http://www.dbmuseum.de/museum_de/home/Videos/)
Madison adjourned the meeting. Contact Madison Parker if you have any com-ments, recommendations or ideas for presenta-tion topics for future meetings. Phone: 630-851-4056 630-542-9062 Email: [email protected] Respectfully submitted, Dora Mecko, Secretary
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Publicizing Your Open House One of the advantages of being a member of the Chicago Area Garden Railway Society is to visit other member’s layouts to see how they do things and to invite others to see your exceptional layout. The key to exploiting this membership advantage is the schedule of member open houses in the Society monthly newsletter. Three members are involved in maintaining the open-house schedule; the newsletter editor, the schedule editor and you. And it all begins with you. Look over your summertime activi-ties and choose a Sunday, between now and the first of October, when you wish to invite members to view your layout. In choosing your date think about how many other layouts will be open on that date. Fewer open layouts means more people coming to your layout. Another consideration is the amount of driving members must do to get to your house. Our membership lives between Antioch in the north and somewhere in northwest Indiana. If it would be convenient for you, pick a date that other members living in your county have al-ready picked. The advantage being that others have only to drive around in one county to see all the layouts on a Sunday. Next send me an e-mail including your name and open-house date. Within one week I will reply sending you the description you used when last you had an open house. If I don’t have a file copy of your description, I’ll ask you to create one using those in the current newsletters as a guide. Return the corrected description to me, preferably as an electronic file attached to your e-mail. If I have ques-tions or suggestions about your description, we may have a short discussion over the tele-phone.
Finally, I send the description, your home ad-dress, GPS coordinates and e-mail address to the newsletter editor who has final say over what goes into the newsletter. The editor has a deadline, one week after the monthly meeting, so please start your part of the process well in advance of that deadline. If you have any questions please call me, Ste-ve March (1.847.367.5175), and I be glad to explain further. I hope to see your submission soon.
March Birthdays Gayle Althardt Alvin Benson Gary Bruch Kathleen Ebert Nick Jacob Tom Kellner Joe Vavra Joe Waytula Celebrating Anniversaries in March Donna and Michael Lawrence Donna and Jim Snorek
Caring & Sharing Corner
Carol Veldhuizen [email protected]
817-437-2978
2017 Summer Layout Tours
Steve March
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For over 20 years I have been involved with a group of individuals who play with RE-AL, full size Steam Engines. This association has allowed me access to the back shops and cabs of engines in muse-ums, round houses, tourist railroads and pri-vate yards from California to New York. During one of these visits an opportunity arose that there were pieces of a Forney Engine that might be available for sale. Most of you know how shy I am around people so I kept hesitat-ing but this opportunity just kept forcing itself on me. I had to think about this. I’ve spent many years helping Dave Kloke (from Elgin) build his steam engine---the Leviathan, helped Dave with building the York (running on tourist rail-road in New Freedom, Pa.), build the Boiler for Stan Gentry’s V.T. Lyon, helped with building the Lincoln Funeral car, Part of Dave’s crew when the Leviathan goes out on the road (I became the Fireman), and part of his crew moving the Funeral car and/or engine from location to location. Just where would I
get the time to ‘Restore’ a Baldwin 1908, full size Forney steam engine? I told myself you still are running 2 companies, President of the Board of a school for children with disabilities, have a back yard G-scale layout and a family at home. Well after some long deliberations (maybe 10 seconds) the decision was made to jump into it. I’ve spent all these years helping build other people’s Steam Engines, it’s time to build my own. ☺ Besides, I was spending too much time at home with Penny. (she told me to go for it---more time away from her ☺) . As you can see (page 7), after almost a year of negotiations, a truck load of parts showed up at my door. During this waiting time an oppor-tunity came up for additional parts from a sec-ond Forney Engine, The Elk River Mill & Lumber Company #3 from Baldwin in 1902. Of course no gift is ever left on the table so it was added to the truck. My first thought seeing the truck load of parts was ‘what did I get my-self into?
THE BUILDING OF THE BOCK LUMBER COMPANY FORNEY Part 1
By Fred Haberkamp
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CAGRS GOLDEN OLDIES PARTY!!!! SATURDAY, APRIL 1ST, 2017
Dress for Your Favorite Decade and Get Ready to
Party!!!!
The place to be: Chandler’s Chop House
401 N. Roselle Road Schaumburg, IL 60194
The date:
Saturday, April 1, 2017
The plan: Cocktails 6pm (cash Bar)
Dinner (Family Style) 7 pm Dancing to DJ Following Dinner
The cost: $33. per person
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*Dinner includes Fresh Baked Rolls and Butter, Fresh Garden Salad, Herb Roasted Potatoes Wedges, Chefs, Fresh Vegetable Medley, Mostaccioli with Marinara Sauce, Roast Sirloin of Beef with Mushroom Bordelaise Sauce, and Orange Roughly with Champagne Dill Sauce. Dessert includes: Apple Cobbler Ala Mode and Ice Cream Sundae Buffet. Coffee, Hot Tea or milk.
RSVP BY March 15, 2017
Return this form and your check Payable to CAGRS
to Gayle Althardt
15902 Woodbine Circle Vernon Hills, IL 60061
**************************************************************
“CAGRS Golden Oldies” Saturday, April 1st, 2017
Chandlers Chop House Name_______________________________________________ Address_____________________________________________ Home Phone_______________ Cell Phone___________________ Check enclosed for: $__________ (@ $33.00 per person) **************************************************************
Coming Up this Month
March 26 March Meeting, Holiday Inn, Itasca, 5:30
Coming Up Later April 1 Saturday, CAGRS “Golden Oldies Reunion” April 9 Great Midwest Train Show, Wheaton, 9 am April 23 Meeting and Annual Elections (Vice-President and Treasurer) May 7 CAGRS Spring Board Meeting (Althardt Residence) May 7 Great Midwest Train Show, Wheaton, 9 am July 10-15 2017 National Garden Railway Convention, Tulsa, OK
Chicago Area Garden Railway Society 1204 Sunnybrook Drive Naperville, IL 60540
