Elkhart Model Railroad Club Announcements
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June 15, 2018
The weather turned hot so of course maintenance continues on the outside of the building I kept looking for Richard Simmons and "Sweatin to the Oldies" as a group of the older members (guys who are experienced in carpentry) tackled the soffits on the outside of the building. A lot of progress was made and one more evening of work should give us a maintenece-free soffit and fascia unless we kill off one these guys in the heat. 
Also member Paul Ewing finished the outside sign with the new web address. 
Inside the building, member David Menges added some new items to the Elkhart Cemetery including new figures, a hearse and an interested bystander to the service. 
June 15th was our meeting night and several items were discussed including the new N-Scale layout with Tortoise Switch Machines installation starting. The clubs private group will be moving from Yahoo Groups to IO and more news on the March 16, 2019 Elkhart Model Railroad Club Train Show. It looks like we have a beautiful building wrapped up with plenty of room in Nappanee, Indiana. More news to come as we get closer to finalizing the deal. Some interesting trains show up at the club. 
Union Pacific’s Locomotive No. 1943, The Spirit, is the 16th commemorative locomotive introduced in the 155-year-old company’s history. The Spirit honors the United States’ armed forces and the men and women filling their ranks. Created in collaboration with Union Pacific veterans, the locomotive illustrates the railroad’s connection to the thousands of veterans who helped build America through the centuries.
The Moniker; A Boeing B-17 was christened the Spirit of the Union Pacific in 1943, recognizing employees who funded it through war bond contributions. The Spirit of the Union Pacific was assigned to the 571st Bomber Squadron and shot down on its fifth mission during a raid on enemy installations in Munster, Germany.
Honoring the Armed Forces; Every detail in The Spirit’s trade dress incorporates a piece of each U.S. armed forces branch. The Spirit’s front is symbolic of Air Force Silver, and the blue stripe is a reflection of the former Strategic Air Command’s “nose sash.” The lettering inside the sash is the original handdrawn font used on the B-17. It is followed by the Coast Guard’s “Racing Stripe” and the Navy’s Battleship Gray, which frames Union Pacific’s traditional American flag. The military camouflage is a nod to the Army and Marines. As the train passes by, the final message on the tail is dedicated to U.S. prisoners of war and those missing in action, featuring the POW/MIA symbol and its motto, You Are Not Forgotten.
We have lots of locomotives and trains to show you so Click here to check out all the action from this week. As always click here for the latest weekly report on train shows and swap meets in the area (this is the latest list) courtesy of Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. Also here's an announcement on a great NMRA conference coming up on September 21st and 22nd in South Bend, IN. The presenters are well known in railroad modeling and include Jim Six who is modeling Sturgis Michigan and has an extensive blog at Railroad Model Hobbiest and Tom Johnson the creator of the Logansport and Indiana Northern Railroad. Registration information is at www.michiana-nmra.org. Here's a link to the flyer.
June 8, 2018
Also some BREAKING NEWS ( I always wanted to do that) a building may be lined up for the 2019 Elkhart Model Railroad Club Train Show. The building is in the Nappanee, Indiana area and has plenty of room for vendors and displays. There will be more news about the show after June's business meeting. As announced earlier the train show had to be cancelled in 2018 after 13 continuous years of shows, when the building we had it in was sold and a new building couldn't be lined up in time. One of the favorite nights of the month for members is open running at the club. The weather had been rainy all day so that chased a lot of members inside to run trains. 
We had some On30 running on the layout with a couple of Bachmann locomotives. It was very tight clearance in several areas for these small engines in On30 but extremely large engines in HO Scale to pass through. On30 uses the American O scale of 1/4" to the foot, (ratio 1:48) to operate trains on HO gauge (16.5 mm/0.65 in) track. In the United States modelling in On30 dates back to the 1950s, using HO gauge wheels and O Guage locomotive bodies. In 1998 Bachmann Industries introduced a model of a 2-6-0 steam locomotive in this scale for the Christmas village market. This model, being very inexpensive, was quickly adopted by modellers. Other manufacturers followed Bachmann into this market, and Bachmann also introduced a number of other models. The Clear Lake Lumber Co. engine is a Bachmann, pulling cars built and modified by member Paul Ewing. 
Also a Algoma Central Railway (ACR) FP9A #1750 locomotive showed up for a run through the layout. The Algoma Central Railway (reporting mark AC) is a railway in Northern Ontario that operates between Sault Ste. Marie and Hearst. It formerly also had a branch line to Michipicoten. The area served by the railway is sparsely populated, with few roads. The railway is well known for its Agawa Canyon tour train and also provides passenger train service along its entire route to canoeists, snowmobilers, cottagers and tourists accessing this wilderness recreation region. The railway has been around since 1899 and faces an uncertain future and operations could cease in July 2018. 
We have lots of footage to show you so Click here to check out all the action from this week. As always click here for the latest weekly report on train shows and swap meets in the area (this is the latest list) courtesy of Grand River Valley Railroad Club - Wyoming, MI. 
Also here's an announcement on a great NMRA conference coming up on September 21st and 22nd in South Bend, IN. The presenters are well known in railroad modeling and include Jim Six who is modeling Sturgis Michigan and has an extensive blog at Railroad Model Hobbiest and Tom Johnson the creator of the Logansport and Indiana Northern Railroad. Registration information is at www.michiana-nmra.org. Here's a link to the flyer. June 1, 2018
One of the more unusual trains that showed up at the club is a circus train pulled by B&O A/B locomotives. 
The train was a Walthers kit and member Charlie Yoakam bought the kit in the 1980's. It was a true 80's kit as the roofs were just pieces of wood. 
A new Amtrak engine made a showing. It’s an AEM-7. Used in the Northeast Corridor, SEPTA also used the unit. The AEM-7 is a twin-cab four-axle 7,000 hp (5.2 MW) B-B electric locomotive built by Electro-Motive Division (EMD) and ASEA between 1978 and 1988. The locomotive was a derivative of the Swedish SJ Rc4 designed for passenger service in the United States. 
The primary customer was Amtrak, which bought 54 for use on the Northeast Corridor and Keystone Corridor. Two commuter operators, MARC and SEPTA, also purchased locomotives, for a total of 65. It was in use from 1978-2016/17 and still remains in use till the new Siemens Chargers arrive. It's 936's maidan voyage so to work it in it's paired with the NS hazmat safety train locomotive. 
Norfolk Southern’s Operation Awareness & Response (OAR) program was launched in 2015 to cultivate and strengthen relationships with local first responders by providing classroom, web-based, and field training on hazardous materials t
ransportation, as well as information about rail operations.
The NS hazmat safety train is comprised of:
A 2,000-horsepower, 273-ton locomotive painted in honor of emergency responders with insignia recognizing police, fire, and emergency services
Two boxcars converted into classrooms, each capable of holding 30 people
Four styles of tank cars, including DOT-105, DOT-111, DOT-112, and DOT-117, to illustrate a variety of car valves and fittings
Two 89-foot flatcars designed to transport intermodal containers
We have lots of footage to show you so Click here to check out all the action from this week. As always click here for the latest weekly report on train shows and swap meets in the area (this is the latest list) courtesy of Grand River Valley Railroad Club - Wyoming, MI. Also here's an announcement on a great NMRA conference coming up on September 21st and 22nd in South Bend, IN. The presenters are well known in railroad modeling and include Jim Six who is modeling Sturgis Michigan and has an extensive blog at Railroad Model Hobbiest and Tom Johnson the creator of the Logansport and Indiana Northern Railroad. Registration information is at www.michiana-nmra.org. Here's a link to the flyer.
NEWS for May 2018
May 25, 2018
Jeff Took the Rocky Island Rocky Mountain Rocket in 1957 from Chicago to Denver. The Rocky Mountain Rocket ran from 1939 to 1966. Members had a great time operating, the dis
patcher didn't pull too much of his hair out and the yard masters moved everything along smoothly. Several maintenance items were also carried out during the week. More work on the new N-Scale as we get closer to full time operations in N-Scale. 
Changes were made to the the outside sign. Thanks to Paul, Jerry and Charlie. We have lots of footage to show you so Click here to check out all the action from this week. As always click here for the latest weekly report on train shows and swap meets in the area (this is the latest list) courtesy of Grand River Valley Railroad Club - Wyoming, MI. Also here's an announcement on a great NMRA conference coming up on September 21st and 22nd in South Bend, IN. The presenters are well known in railroad modeling and include Jim Six who is modeling Sturgis Michigan and has an extensive blog at Railroad Model Hobbiest and Tom Johnson the creator of the Logansport and Indiana Northern Railroad. Registration information is at www.michiana-nmra.org. Here's a link to the flyer.
May 18, 2018
Every 3rd Friday of the month we have our monthly business meeting. After the Secretary's and Treasurer's reports several items of interest were discussed. The street that the club is on was annexed into the city of Elkhart recently, (Yay more taxes) and since we had a county address it has changed to a city address. Our new address is The Elkhart Model Railroad Club, 2703 Hawthorne Street Elkhart, In. 46517. We're in the same location we've been in since 1952 and the club owns the property so The Elkhart Model Railroad Club is here to stay. 
Another important item that came up is the planning for the 2019 Nappanee Train Show presented by the Elkhart Model
Railroad Club. A template and timeline for the upcoming show was put together by Chuck Hart. Jerry Piatt will be the Chairman for 2019 show. Be sure to look here or on Facebook as more information becomes available. The N-Scale layout is up and running trains. We still have several items to build and install on the layout so if you have an interest in N-Scale come on by. 
After the business meeting the real business of the Elkhart Model Railroad Club began...running trains. Click here to check out all the action from this week. As always click here for the latest weekly report on train shows and swap meets in the area (this is the latest list) courtesy of Grand River Valley Railroad Club - Wyoming, MI. Also here's an advance announcement on a great NMRA conference coming up on September 21st and 22nd in South Bend, IN. The presenters are well known in railroad modeling and include Jim Six who is modeling Sturgis Michigan and has an extensive blog at Railroad Model Hobbiest and Tom Johnson the creator of the Logansport and Indiana Northern Railroad. Registration information is at www.michiana-nmra.org. Here's a link to the flyer.
May 11, 2018
A clinic started off the night for Friday the 11th followed by open running for all the members and guests. Jim Ford presented a clinic on the EMRRC library. The library has over 150 volumes of magazines, books and pamphlets. We have every Model Railroader from the 1st year of publication 1934 to 1981 plus a ton of reference books.
We established a database for the library using Easy Model Train Inventory's library module. The library will give members the ability to search for information easily and give us an inventory and lending system for our library assets. Easy Model Train has several inventory modules to it including; Rolling Stock, Locomotives, Library, Tools/Misc. and Electronics. The program is available for free from http://pdc.ca/rr/freebies/ . As always be careful downloading any items from the internet. I've used the program on several computers and have had no problems.
Last week while some members were at Duneland Model Railroad Club there were several members at the club. An anonymous donor came by and gave the club several items. Among them were a narrow gauge brass loco, caboose and passenger cars. We appreciate the donation and will make good use of it. After the clinic members got down to the main business of running trains. So many trains were running some of the video footage will have to be shown next week. We shot some car level footage of The North Wall area which includes the Elkhart and Western Railroad.
Click here to check out all the action from this week. As always click here for the weekly report on train shows and swap meets in the area courtesy of Grand River Valley Railroad Club - Wyoming, MI.
May 4, 2018
Several members of the Elkhart Model Railroad Club visited Duneland Model Railroad Club in Michigan City, Indiana for their annual Hobo Dinner. The Club meets every Tuesday evening from 7:00 to 10:00 PM but had this special event on the first Friday in May.
The club had a good turnout for their dinner and several folks young and old were running trains on their large HO-Scale layout.
The layout runs through several rooms in the club and a new large staging area is under construction. Duneland is a fictional railroad running from near Cincinnati to St. Louis with over 500' of track. The layout is all Digitrax DCC with Tortoise switch machines connected to the signal system. The club has been around since 1986 and been in its present location since 1996.
Michigan City is a great railroad town with Chicago South Shore and South Bend Railroad passenger and SouthShore freight running down the center of many streets. Members John Banicki, Paul Ewing, Jim Ford and Chuck Hart checked out the Michigan City Yard on Carroll Avenue. The Michigan City Yard is used for overnight storage and maintenance of all electric trains, as well as the diesel locomotive shops and the operations center for the SouthShore freight operation. Carroll Avenue also is a railway station serving the South Shore. There are two South Shore stations in Michigan City but the Carroll Avenue station is considered the primary station. The other station on 11th Street has limited parking and is in the middle of a public street. NICD (Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District) the owners of 
the South Shore Line have announced they will close the Carroll Avenue Station in the future and upgrade the 11th Street Station but as of 2018 the Carroll Avenue station is going strong. The South Shore is going to be undergoing several major construction projects. In South Bend relocation of the station at the airport, the West Lake Corridor consisting of nine miles of new tracks, plus four stations, between Hammond and the Dyer-Munster border and a double track project adding a new set of rails between Gary and Michigan City, along with new stations in Gary's Miller area.
Click here to check out all the action from Duneland Model Railroad Club. As always click here for the weekly report on train shows and swap meets in the area courtesy of Grand River Valley Railroad Club - Wyoming, MI.