The Elkhart Model Railroad Club had its monthly business meeting on the 13th due to scheduling conflicts. Some of the items covered included; Members Ken Prager and Will Babcoke are researching 3D printers along with Ben Brubaker. EMRRC is buying 10 additional radios to go along with the 10 we use for operations. Our next EMRRC Clinic is with Paul Ewing on June 3rd who will cover working with scenery on the EMRRC layout. There will be no clinic in July due to the July 4th holiday. Jeff Lepird was voted in as a Regular Club Member and Michael Wenzelmaier was voted in as a new probation member. Congratulations fellows.

After the business meeting, we had our open running session for the members and the public. A couple of the visitors were from the Great Falls Model Railroad Club in Auburn, Maine They were in town working on a job and found the club through our website. Thanks for coming by fellows. Since we had some visitors from Maine CLICK HERE to check out The Trackside Photographer for some stories from the Grand Trunk in Maine  Next week on Friday the 20th we will have our regular setup for EMRRC's Operation Session on May 27th. The era will be "Run What You Brung Modern". The club is open to the public After the meeting, the club will be open to the public.

 CLICK HERE for the latest "Friday Night Running at the Club" video. CLICK HERE If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains. CLICK HERE to see the latest regional train show listing. Have some fun with Model Railroading.

May 13, 2022

Friday, May 6th was EMRRC's Clinic for the month of May. Don't forget our clinics are always open to the public. John Banicki was our presenter and the topic was "Tuning Rolling Stock for Operation at EMRRC". All of the rolling stock at the Elkhart Model Railroad Club needs to meet the standards set in our by-laws, to run at EMRRC.

This gives everyone the best possible scenario when running several trains with a lot of operators. John did a great job and everyone should be watching for this clinic to show up on our Tech Files page here at www.emrrc.com as it will help you have a consistent fleet of rolling stock. One important piece of business was mentioned after the clinic. It was announced we will have the May business meeting on Friday, May 13th due to a scheduling problem. We will be open to the public at 8:00 pm on Friday. After the clinic, the club was open to the public for open running. As always we had a lot of members and guests running multiple trains at EMRRC.

Some interesting trains running were a Wabash passenger train from BLI, a diesel Rock Island consist, a modern NS, lots of steam, and lots of NYC just to name a few of the trains running.

Thanks to all the folks showing up on Tuesday nights for maintenance. With a layout this size and now we are also dealing with maintenance on a second layout, our new N-Scale layout it takes some dedicated people to keep up with it.  CLICK HERE for the latest "Friday Night Running at the Club" video. CLICK HERE If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains. CLICK HERE to see the latest regional train show listing. Have some fun with Model Railroading.

We start out with EMRRC's monthly Business Meeting which was held on April 15th. Highlights included a recap of our successful 2022 Train Show. The show had over 500 attendees and was one of our smoothest running shows. Robert Smith one of our show vendors has donated a copy of all his depot drawings to the club. These are pencil sketches of depots throughout Indiana. The volume is in the library for members to take a look at. EMRRC has decided to buy a 3D printer. We have a member who is very experienced in their use and the club feels it will be an asset to members.

EMRRC's website and YouTube channel are doing very well for the club. We have more visitors each month to both mediums and the Elkhart Model Railroad Club's Facebook has become a great tool for the members and visitors. Operations will be on April 22nd. The era will be 1975. Operations was a great time this past Friday. Several trains running on EMRRC trackage with 2 dispatchers and 2 yardmasters. We added a yardmaster at Schult yard for this run session as the volume keeps stacking up at the yard.

We also added a helper engine for the long hill coming out of Elkhart.   Be sure to check out this week's "Friday Night Running at the Club" for a look at this week's operations. You will see a Doodlebug making a stop at Wood Creek in the video. For a look at EMC's first Doodlebug CLICK HERE. The first clinic for operating EMRRC's N-Scale layout was put up last week. Now the second part N-Scale Operation Part 2 is up. Check it out on the website and YouTube by CLICKING HERE. The videos give members a comprehensive look at running the new N-Scale layout.  CLICK HERE for the latest "Friday Night Running at the Club" video. CLICK HERE If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains. CLICK HERE to see the latest regional train show listing. Have some fun with Model Railroading.

The second week of April brings EMRRC a night of open running with over 20 members and several visitors in attendance. We had several unique passenger and freight trains running so be sure to check out this week's "Friday Night Running at the Club for highlights. Along with running, we had members working on layout maintenance, testing & programming their own engines, rolling stock, and socializing with good fellowship.

The latest clinic for EMRRC is up and running, N-Scale Operation Part 1. The video gives members a comprehensive look at running the new N-Scale layout. If you are not a member and want to learn about interfacing a Raspberry Pi to a model railroad layout the video gives a comprehensive look at how to hook up and install the Raspberry Pi to a layout. CLICK HERE to take a look at the EMRRC Clinic.

Member Matt Glassman brought in a new engine he is building. It is a Lima LS-1000. The LS-1000 came about due to the mishmash of mergers, the end of steam, and the need for Lima to get into the diesel/electric locomotive field in the late 1940s. A merger between Lima and Hamilton Diesel brought a former ALCO engineer F. J. Geittman to develop a new prime mover, as the current Hamilton diesel engine was not suited for locomotive applications. Hamilton engineers proved to be worthy counterparts to their Lima brethren. They realized from the start that high power-to-weight ratios yield no advantages for locomotives since locomotives are traditionally weighted with ballast to obtain optimal adhesion. This allowed them to incorporate heavier crankshafts, bearings, connecting rods, and other parts. The competition was experiencing road failures with their engines because they followed traditional design methods and used lightweight components. On May 13, 1949, Lima-Hamilton unveiled its first diesel, A-3080 #1000, which had a similar look to the Alco S4 switcher. After demos 38 of the LS-1000s were sold to various railroads including New York Central, Wabash, and the Nickle Plate. In September 1951, Lima-Hamilton merged with Baldwin Locomotive Works forming Baldwin-Lima-Hamilton. Baldwin's primary interest was Lima's shovel and crane business which was expected to do well with the upcoming highway building boom. That move was pretty much the end of  Lima-Hamilton's locomotive business. Baldwin-Lima-Hamilton's locomotive fortunes declined as the rush by railroads to replace steam power subsided. B-L-H exited the new locomotive market in May 1956.

But at EMRRC thanks to creative members we get to look at locomotives and trains from the past. The LS-1000 Matt is building has a resin body from Pacific Northwest Resins and a chassis from a Bowser BO-1000. The finished unit will be equipped with DCC and carry NYC colors.

Friday, April 15th will be EMRRCs monthly Business Meeting. There will be a lot of items on the agenda so be sure to take a look at the agenda when it is posted on EMRRCs groups.io page. Also check out EMRRCs groups.io page for some performance numbers for the website. Have you ever wrongly inserted a battery into a model railroad device? Microsoft solved this problem years ago with a simple invention but you can't have it. CLICK HERE for this simple solution to a nagging problem that no one can have. 

CLICK HERE for the latest "Friday Night Running at the Club" video. CLICK HERE If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains. CLICK HERE to see the latest regional train show listing. Have some fun with Model Railroading.

April 1, 2022

 No April Fooling at the Elkhart Model Railroad Club. We started the month of April with lots of members and visitors watching President Chuck Hart deliver a comprehensive look at operating our new N-Scale layout for our latest EMRRC Clinic.  Chuck has done the majority of work on the N-Scale up to this point and deserves a major thank you from the club for bringing the layout to fruition while dealing with the Pandemic, club president duties, and a major role in our annual train show.

The layout is an L-shaped around-the-wall layout open underneath with a skyboard constructed of a single piece of aluminum and a technically designed front facia board that will make operation a breeze.

The layout runs on a Raspberry Pi which controls the layout separately from our HO-Scale Layout. The Raspberry Pi allows us to control the N-Scale layout with either Digitrax throttles, smartphones, or tablets all with its built-in computer capabilities. The furthest layout turnouts can be thrown from either the controls on the facia board or from your smartphone.  The N-Scale layout has turned out to be a bulletproof running system that will give the club many years of enjoyment. We are in the process of starting scenery on the layout so if you have an interest in N-Scale stop by on a Friday night and we will put you to work.  Be sure to check out the upcoming N-Scale Operating Clinic that will be appearing soon on our Tech Files page along with the many other EMRRC Clinics on the page.

Our next EMRRC Clinic will be Friday May 6th at 7:00 pm with John Banicki discussing EMRRC Regulations for Rolling Stock. John and Ben Brubaker are charged with making sure all of the club cars and engines meet the requirements for running on the layout and John will discuss what it takes to get the equipment running at EMRRC.

After the clinic of course it was time to run some trains. We had a lot of passenger trains running along with a night run enjoyed by all.

While trains are running maintenance is always happening. From programming engines to a quick teardown of an engine with problems it is ongoing when operating a large layout with lots of people running and testing trains. Members get the benefit of some very talented people taking a look at their trains and making them run better than ever. 

CLICK HERE for the latest "Friday Night Running at the Club" video. CLICK HERE If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains. CLICK HERE to see the latest regional train show listing. Have some fun with Model Railroading.

 The last Friday in March 2022 was the Elkhart Model Railroad Club's Operations Night. We had over 20 members and 5 guests show up on a cold night in March for running over 12 trains on the EMRRC trackage. Watched over by 2 dispatchers everything ran smoothly and a great time was had by all. We are getting enough members and guests coming in that we are very close to opening up another day for open running. Check back for more information on this new development for EMRRC.

All of the members are still recovering from our successful 17th Annual Nappanee Train Show last weekend. It's official we had over 500 paid visitors and that doesn't count all of the kids who are welcomed in for free.

I ran an unofficial count at over 200 kids who enjoyed the show, especially the operating layouts and a special thanks to the Kalamazoo Model Railroad Historical Society who brought their 4 by 8 foot children's layout. Two children may each run a train independently using the controllers supplied.

A couple of interesting things to check out. John Prophet III was a prolific railroad film shooter starting in the 1930s through the 1970s. You see a lot of his footage on Herron Rail Video Productions.  Prophet set down with Aaron Heverin in the 90s and narrated over an hour of his 16mm films. It's mostly PRR but there are several shots of NYC and other railroads. There's a really long look at and discussion of water pans or scoops. Also, Prophet shot a tremendous amount of footage and slides of Horseshoe Curve and the film devotes an entire section to this. CLICK HERE to enjoy this film. Members don't forget the new electronic lock is on the door at the club. If you want access to the club you must email Chuck your 6 digit passcode. Friday, April 1st Chuck Hart will present a clinic on operating the N-Scale layout. Make sure you are there before 7 pm. If you are a visitor or guest you are welcome to the clinic. We will not be open for running trains until 8:00 pm. 

Click Here for the latest "Friday Night Running at the Club" video. Click Here If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains. Have some fun with Model Railroading.

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 The Elkhart Model Railroad Club held its 17th Annual Nappanee Train Show over the weekend. Even though the weather outside was rainy, windy, and cold, inside there was warmth, good food., and great deals. We had a tremendous show with lots of attendees (I estimate over 500), loads of vendors selling lots of merchandise, and lots of fun for all.

It was a pretty nasty day in northern Indiana but inside the Claywood Event Center, we had over 14000 square feet of railroad memorabilia, locomotives, cars, accessories, scenery, and electronics, most of it moving out the doors.

I saw several people make 3 or 4 trips to carry all their bounty out. Thanks to all the vendors, attendees, and club members who worked to make this a successful show. Our next show is already booked for Saturday, March 18, 2023, at that same great venue, The Claywood Event Center in Nappanee, Indiana.

 Here is the show from set up to tear down in under a minute using stop motion.

 Click Here for the latest "Friday Night Running at the Club" video. Click Here If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains. Have some fun with Model Railroading.

EMRRC moved our regularly scheduled Business Meeting for March to the 11th due to our upcoming 17th Annual Nappanee Train Show on March 19th. Items covered during the meeting included; Vendor tables at the Train Show are sold out.

We start out on the 1st Friday of March 2022 at the Elkhart Model Railroad Club with a clinic on 3D Printing by member Ben Brubaker. Ben brought in his personal 3D printer and spoke about several topics based on his experience teaching an engineering class at a local high school which includes 3D printing and his own personal experience learning 3D printing over several months. While he led the discussion Ben had a  printer set to print out lumber pallets for the members & guests who attended. Ben covered several areas from what type of printers and their accessories are available to software & computer requirements & safety requirements when working with a 3D printer.  It was a great clinic, be sure to watch for EMRRC's upcoming video on 3D Printers. Because of the clinic, we had a full house of members and several guests at the club Friday night.

Other items discussed Friday night; The 2022 Nappanee Train Show on March 19th is sold out of vendor tables. If you are a vendor and we receive your application after 3/04/2022 you will be added to a waiting list for the show. Tuesday night maintenance & cleaning continues at the club. We have several members showing up on Tuesdays but we can always use more.

The Hammes Yard Car Barn has Lights. We are conducting a poll for members to decide if adding another afternoon or night for running would be viable. So far Saturday &  Sunday are leading. Be sure to vote on EMRRC's groupsio page. EMRRC members are invited to an offsite operations session. Check our groupsio site for more information. EMRRC's MONTHLY BUSINESS MEETING WILL BE FRIDAY MARCH 11th DUE TO THE TRAIN SHOW THE FOLLOWING WEEKEND. Be sure to sign up for jobs at the Train Show either at the club or on groupsio.

After the clinic, several trains were running on the layout including member Matt Glassman's new ScaleTrains Museum Quality HO Scale EMD SDL39, with Wisconsin Central colors. The locomotive has 30 LEDs; frog clank and curve squeal sounds; and too many details to mention here that you would expect from the Museum Quality line. We did some night running at the beginning of "Friday Night Running at the Club" to let you see some of the lighting available on this locomotive. Click Here for the latest "Friday Night Running at the Club" video. Click Here If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains. Click Here to see the Train Show List courtesy of Ken Scoop. Have some fun with Model Railroading.

We're going to catch up this week by covering 2 weeks of meetings. On March 18th EMRRC had its monthly business meeting. Items covered included the March 19th Train Show. The show is nearly sold out of vendor tables. We have less than 15 tables left at this point. If you are a vendor and interested please mail your registration form in ASAP.  CLICK HERE for a link to the form if you don't have one. We are going to add an electronic lock to the front door. If you are a member please check our Groupsio area to watch the video on how the lock will work. While you're at Groupsio please vote on what day to consider opening the clubhouse for another day of running during the week. 

 Our next 2 clinics will be; On March 4th, Ben Brubaker, 3D Printer. And on April 1st, Chuck Hart, Running the New N-Scale Layout with a RaspberryPI.

After the meeting members started setup for Operations 

On February 25th EMRRC had our monthly Formal "Operations" session. The era is 1956 and "Friday Night Running at the Club" followed member Jeff Rogers as he worked the Budweiser Brewery Complex along with the grain mill at Liberty.

Jeff's job was to take all the empties called for to Schult Yard where he would meet with HS41 the Hammes/Schult shuttle run by member Gary Pressnell. and exchange cars.

One of the operators running a road locomotive during the session was student member Nick. Nick has worked hard with his father Rich in order to master the intricacies of this role at the club. Nick is an individual with autism who has a love of trains and has a great time at the club. He is one of the regulars who show up on Tuesday nights for work and maintenance at the club.

We have a good group of members who are coming in on Tuesday and end up with a lot of the grunt work at the club. Everything from general cleaning to track maintenance is performed Tuesday nights. We can start to see the results more and more on Friday nights as everything runs smoother. Don't forget this Tuesday, March 1st we are stuffing and mailing vendor information for the upcoming train show. We can use the help if you are available.  Click Here for the latest "Friday Night Running at the Club" video. Click Here If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains. Click Here to see the Train Show List courtesy of Ken Scoop. Have some fun with Model Railroading.

 February 11, 2022

The second Friday in February was Open Running at the Elkhart Model Railroad Club. Several members brought in projects they are working on. Member Ben Brubaker brought in several 3D items. You're looking at roof vents, air handlers, AC units, and side vents, all printed with a 3D printer. EMRRC will have a 3D Clinic on March 4th to further explore this technology.

Ben has also been working on more interior items for the switch tower at Hammes Yard. You can see the switch levers setting in the middle of the room. They have yet to be set in place. A lot of detail in this small room. If you are interested in researching 3D printing for model railroads there are a ton of Facebook Groups dedicated to it. CLICK HERE to see one of them.

Also here are some more pics of Member Matt Glassman's Car House with lights added and cranes lifting.

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Our clinic schedule keeps evolving. Here is the latest schedule. March 4th, Ben Brubaker, 3D Printing. April 1st, Chuck Hart, Raspberry PI on the New N-Scale Layout. May 6th OPEN. June 3rd Ken Prager Freight Car Tuning. July  1st No Clinic, this is the July 4th weekend. August 5th, Steve Storey, Building a Realistic Tree.

Don't forget we are getting close to the 2022 Elkhart Model Railroad Club's 17th Annual Nappanee Train Show which is Saturday, March 19, 2022. We are down to under 30 tables available, so vendors get your application in. This coming Friday, February 18 2022 is EMRRC's monthly business meeting. We will not be open to the public until 8:30 pm. During Open Running last week, we saw a lot of steam, everything from a T1 to a UP Big Boy. Click Here for the latest "Friday Night Running at the Club" video. Click Here If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains. Click Here to see the Train Show List courtesy of Ken Scoop. Have some fun with Model Railroading.

Here we are at the beginning of February in a warm Elkhart Model Railroad Clubhouse and it's a mixed bag night. We started with maintenance, moved on to a clinic, and then finished off the night with open running. Member

Gary Pressnell did a nice clinic detailing freight cars simply by using flat black paint. Be sure to check out this clinic coming in the next couple of weeks along with several other clinics we have posted here at EMRRC. Just CLICK HERE. Several members were working on scenery, track work, operations, and cleaning. 

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Matt Glassman set in place the new Car House at Hammes Yard. The Car House features inside cranes along with an outside crane jib. The floor is showing some weathering and up above there is plenty of light from the green-tinted windows and LED light throughout including lights on the overhead cranes.  There is not enough room here to cover this intricate model. You will have to come by EMRRC to take a look at it. Our next meeting is Friday, February 11th and we will have open running. The public is welcome starting at 7:00 pm.

Member Nathan Overmeyer spent some time during open running working on a locomotive for his personal railroad the Blackhawk Eagle River & Eastern. Nate is taking a BLI ex Erie 2-8-2 and adding a new feedwater heater, trailing truck, pilot, and sand dome.

During Open Running we saw a couple of nice Fairbanks Morse, NYC trains, a South Shore car making a station stop, and lots of British and American steam. Click Here for the latest "Friday Night Running at the Club" video. Click Here If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains. Click Here to see the latest Train Show List courtesy of Ken Scoop. Have some fun with Model Railroading.

January 28, 2022

The last Friday of January 2022 is of course Operations Night at the Elkhart Model Railroad Club. Chief Dispatcher Ron Breniser got everyone together, reminded them it was 1947 so steam and early diesel were the only things allowed on the track, and then Ron assigned who was running what train. 20 members were in attendance and we had 2 guests for the evening, Gregg a conductor for NS, and Brandon a fireman from Michigan. After assignments were distributed everyone mounted up and got down to business.  

We had a great night of operations with 10 or more trains running at EMRRC. After formal operations ended the track was opened up for run what you brung.

During the night we took a look at the new old switch tower at Hammes Yard. Member Ben Brubaker has weathered the tower and printed several 3D printed items for the interior.

Also, we took a look at the Grand Trunk Interchange on the North Wall which Member Ken Prager is ballasting.

Have you ever heard of an Alco C415? It was a failed Alco center cab switcher that never made it past the demonstrator stage. Click Here for a ClassicTrains magazine article on the 415. The Track Photographer had an interesting analysis of a taconite pellet train that had a brake failure on a downhill pass. Click Here for an interesting read about what brought about the brake failure.

Member Jeff Cain brought in an interesting train set from the 1980s. It is a Rivarossi model of the 1926 Cardinal's Train. "The Peace of Christ in the Reign of Christ" was the theme of the 28th International Eucharistic Congress, and for the first time ever the Congress was being held in the United States in Chicago, Illinois. Papal Legate Cardinal Bonzano, the Pope's personal representative, (this was before any Pope traveled internationally) was to travel from Italy to Chicago to address the faithful. In order to transport Cardinals, Bishops and Clergy from New York to Chicago the New York Central Railroad and the Pullman Company teamed up to operate a special train along most of the route of New York Central's 20th Century Limited from New York's Grand Central Terminal to Chicago's Park Row Station (a special detour onto the Illinois Central Railroad). Seven Pullman cars were repainted in cardinal red and gold for the special train -- pulled by a repainted in red New York Central Hudson. The train after its special appearance was disbanded, repainted, and put back into regular service. Rivarossi decided to bring out an HO model in the late 1970s. Jeff bought the model in 1980 from Dave's Hobby Shop in Pierre Moran Mall both of which are long gone. We put the train on the track and behold, maybe because it was nicknamed the Pope's Train it ran after 20 years in the box. We will have some footage of the train and more information about the HO-Scale set in the future.

Here's the latest Clinic Schedule. Note there have been changes. February 4 – Gary Pressnell, Freight Car Detailing. March 4 – Chuck Hart, Rasberry Pi operations on the new N-Scale Layout. April 1st– Ben Brubaker, 3D Printer Demo. May 6 - Steve Storey, Building Realistic Trees. June 3 - Ken Prager, Tuning Freight & Passenger Cars. Also, we will be taping Will Babcoke's clinic on British Locomotives and Trains during March on the layout. 

 "Friday Night Running at the Club" features operations on the North Wall. Click Here for the latest "Friday Night Running at the Club" video. Click Here If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains. Unfortunately, our friend Ken Scoop has resigned as Train Show Coordinator for the Grand River Valley Railroad Club. He will no longer be updating and publishing the Train Show List. Ken did a great job of keeping the list updated for over 8 years. I am going to leave the link to the Train Show List until we find an alternative or it becomes totally outdated. Click Here to see the latest Train Show List courtesy of Ken Scoop. Have some fun with Model Railroading.

Friday night was our January business meeting for EMRRC. Lots of members, lots to discuss. Some of the items covered included; The 2022 Train Show is under 60 days away. Marketing efforts continue by all members. The new (old) club officers were welcomed for 19 2 more years. A new club work area with a 3D printer and paint spray booth was discussed intently. The image below is a 3D-printed stack of pallets by Ben Brubaker.

We are trying to schedule Ben for a clinic with his 3D printer in April. The proposal was tabled until April, after the train show. Outdoor security lighting was discussed. More info was needed and the proposal was tabled until the February meeting. An electronic lock was voted on and approved. Matt Miller is acquiring the lock. 

The  Rolling Stock Standards Committee reported that they are inspecting and changing all club rolling stock to metal wheels and entering them in a database. the new N-Scale layout turnouts are all powered and working. Jeff Leppard has volunteered to work on the buildings.

Randy Robbins has volunteered to take over the Wood Creek area. The Hammas Roundhouse area upgrades continue with track and turnout replacements. The GT interchange is being ballasted. Ben is going to go ahead and make a memorial plaque for past members who are deceased. A formal welcome to new probation member Bryan Good.

Our next meeting will be EMRRC's "Operations Session and the era will be 1947. After the meeting, several members set up for operations next Friday the 28th. 

Future EMRRC Clinics include; February 4 – Gary Pressnell Freight Car Detailing. March 4 – Chuck Hart Rasberry Pi operations on the new N-Scale Layout. - April 1st– Steve Storey on the pending sale of the club to the NYC Museum. ( It's April Fool Steve's clinic is actually on trees). Also, we will be taping Will Babcoke's clinic on British Locomotives and Trains during March on the layout. The clinic schedule may change as we are trying to schedule a 3D printer clinic during this time period.

And then? We did get to running trains. Be sure to check out Nathan Overmyers beautiful Broadway Limited Northern Pacific A-3 4-8-4 Brass Hybrid in "Friday Night Running at the Club"  Click Here for the latest "Friday Night Running at the Club" video. Click Here If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains. Click Here to see the latest Train Show List courtesy of Ken Scoop. Have some fun with Model Railroading.

Over 20 members and one guest came out in the cold to the warmth of the Elkhart Model Railroad Club Friday night. As you can see from the picture we were hard at it running trains. Our club solves a lot of the world problems besides running trains and with the hot air being generated it saves on utilities during the winter. Seriously a club environment is not only trains, but there is also a lot of social interaction and you can see from the picture it includes young and old. The club is big enough to allow both interactions with people and trains. We did end up running classic diesel and steam for most of the night.

We took a look at several of member Ben Brubaker's creations. He is working on a switch tower for the Hammes Yard and Roundhouse area.  When done it will feature a finished interior including 3D printed interlocking levers.

Also, we took a look at some of Ben's 3D printed shelving and crates inside the new warehouse in the Elkhart Industrial area.

I also ran into a neat 3D-printed item on Thingiverse. They are simply addons to Digitrax signals to dress them up.

Member Matt Glassman is also working on a car house for the Hammes Roundhouse area. Take a look at the detail in this thing.

Do you want to buy a caboose? I do. Read this article at Trains magazine to see what you're getting into.

Members, please visit EMRRC's groupsio page for articles on track cleaning and more than you'll ever want to know about glue. 

Friday, January 21 will be EMRRC's first Business Meeting of the new year. Matt Glassman VP will chair the meeting as President Chuck Hart will be away. The public will be welcome after 8:00 pm for open running. A shout out to member Joseph Cipolla who is under the weather. Get well soon Joesph. 

Click Here for the "Friday Night Running at the Club" video. Click Here If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains. Click Here to see the latest Train Show List courtesy of Ken Scoop. Have some fun with Model Railroading.

Our first gathering for the year was Friday, January 7th. We usually start the month with a clinic but we made some moves to the schedule. Gary Pressnell will present the February clinic on  "Highlighting Details on Rolling Stock".

EMRRC will also produce a clinic on "British Locomotives" in the upcoming weeks. All of our clinics are available on this website at our Tech Files page or on the Elkhart Model Railroad Club Youtube channel. 

Some changes to the Flushing area as member Ben Brubaker and new member Bryan Good are working on cleaning up the area and their first project was the installation of new shelving on the walls to hold rolling stock. Tuesday nights have included Ben & Bryan cleaning track and Chuck Hart and Ron Breiniser making scenery progress on the new N-Scale Layout.

Take a look at this interior photo. It's a great example of what can be accomplished easily as everything in it was 3D printed. Ben is starting to populate some of the layout with accessories being printed on his personal 3D printer. We'll follow up in the coming weeks with more benefits and examples of 3D printing.

The Trackside Photographer highlights a new anthology on railroading.  The book from the Center for Railroad Photography & Art is a collection of photographs by contemporary and historical photographers along with essays by Kevin P. Keefe, former editor of Trains, noted transportation historian Alexander B. Craghead, industrial historian Matt Kierstead, and the late author Michael Flanagan, the book takes a look at the influence of railroads and the changes railroads make to the many areas it touches.

After all of this, yes we did run trains on Friday night. Click Here for the "Friday Night Running at the Club" video. Click Here If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains. Click Here to see the latest Train Show List courtesy of Ken Scoop. Have some fun with Model Railroading.

Pizza, trains, and good fellowship. What could be a better way to spend a Friday night for a bunch of train nuts. Friday the 17th of December EMRRC had our annual Christmas Party.

Lots of pizza, 3 24" pizzas, and not a slice was left. Free soft drinks and desserts were provided.  Lots of talk and socializing and a good time was had by all. Thanks to President, Chuck Hart for setting up the party and all the hard work he put into it to make a fun time for everyone.

After the party, everyone waddled over to the layout for running trains. Several Christmas trains were running including Gary Pressnell's NYC Boxcab with holiday decorations and Ken Prager's holiday train with Santa and his reindeer including Rudolph.  Matt Glassman had his Big Boy and UP diesel running along with members  Milwaukee Road passenger, NS and SP freight, Norfolk and Western Steam, and Will's British steam trains. All in all several members and a few guests had a great time. Click Here for the "Friday Night Running at the Club" video. Click Here If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains. Click Here to see the latest Train Show List courtesy of Ken Scoop.

  Next Friday is Christmas Eve. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone. We won't be back till 2022. (that sounds weird). Have some fun with model railroading.

Friday Night we had a lot of members show up and one very interesting guest. Dr. Jeff Cain brought his friend and fellow SFS operating crew member Ron Stallman. Ron owns the Sante Fe Shortline (SFS) a shortline made for operations. Ron wrote an article about the SFS which was featured in the October 2021 Model Railroader. Ron built the 7'x8'  island layout after retiring. It's nice to have a little bit of Texas in Indiana.

Although we are a few months away from the Elkhart Model Railroad Club's 2022 Train Show the work is ongoing. Tuesday night members stuffed envelopes going out to all the vendors. Thanks to the 5 members who were there for maintenance and Train Show work.

Member Ken Prager is getting close to finishing the North Wall interchange with the Grand Elk.  The trackwork is wired and finished and Thomas decided to try out the bridge.

A track cleaning train ran on the mainline while other members were working on switches and general cleaning.

Friday, December 17, EMRRC will have its annual Christmas Party for the members until 8:30 pm. The public is welcome after 8:30 pm. Click Here for the "Friday Night Running at the Club" video. Click Here If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains. Click Here to see the latest Train Show List courtesy of Ken Scoop. Have some fun with model railroading.

Here we are steaming towards the holidays and the end of 2021. Friday Night started with maintenance including the stand we use for our membership, guests, and visitors' attendance book. Thanks to member Ken Prager for fixing it.

We then joined Ken for a clinic on how to apply Grafitti to freight cars, buildings and structures. . It may not be something everyone likes but if you are modeling a modern era tagging and graffiti are a part of it. The clinic will be coming up soon on the Elkhart Model Railroad's website and our YouTube channel,

Several files have been uploaded on groupsio highlighting the proposed work area and 3D printer. If you are a member check out the messages and files area. We hope to bring this proposal to a vote at our January Business Meeting. Take a look at Lance Minheim's latest newsletter. He covers several areas including the use of bump/outs on layouts to increase space. We had a proposal at the November Business Meeting to take a look at adding LED lights to the exterior of the building. Kevin Pisani of KP Electric will be coming by Tuesday to take a look at the outside lighting. Last Tuesday evening we had 4 people show up for work night. Quite a bit got accomplished including tack maintenance, scenery painting, and general clean up.

After the Grafitti Clinic, we got down to the main business of the evening running trains. We had some really long trains running including a 47 tank car train pulled by 4 Great Northern E units. Switching at Giuseppe's Salvage was busy as new loads of scrap were rolling in. Also, Indiana trains Indiana Harbor Belt, Monon, and Indiana Rail were making run-throughs on the EMRRC layout.  Click Here for the "Friday Night Running at the Club" video. Click Here If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains. Click Here to see the latest Train Show List courtesy of Ken Scoop. Have some fun with model railroading.

On the Thanksgiving Holiday Weekend, we had Operations Night for Black Friday at the Elkhart Model Railroad Club. First, a big thank you to Members Paul Ewing and Matt Glassman who came in early and spent a lot of time sorting out our layout problems. The Loconet had a short in the wiring and the JMRI system had communications problems. After the problems were sorted out Operations proceeded full steam ahead. (Sorry no steam, it was the modern era for Operations Night). Everybody had a great time. Lots of joking around, problems to solve and Ron Breniser Chief Dispatcher had to come out in the van several times to get things moving.

The club is looking for ideas to promote our Tuesday Night work sessions to the members. If you have an idea to get more members out on Tuesday Nights post it on our Groupsio page. We need to start the New Year with a better handle on maintenance for the facility and the layouts so let's end the year with more folks coming in to work on Tuesday Nights. There is one last Tuesday in November for maintenance let's get a good turnout. Some items we need to attend to include;

• General Cleaning
• Ballasting
• Track Cleaning
• Scenery
• Work on the Area You Started Rebuilding
• General Maintenance

The board has been looking at ideas but you may have the idea that moves things along. POST IT. We also took a look at Member Ben Brubakers latest 3D printing of HO-scale appliances and shelving units. EMRRC is looking at a proposal to buy a 3D printer and add space for a work area.

Coming up in December the 1st meeting on the 3rd will include; General Maintenace and then a clinic by member Ken Prager at 7 pm on "Using Decals for Grafitti". Afterward will be open running. Tuesday the 7th (National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day 80 Years ago the raid on Pearl Harbor) will be a maintenance day.  Friday, December 10th will be Open Running. Tuesday, December 14th Maintenance Day. Friday, December 17th will be the Club's Annual Christmas Dinner for the members. Tuesday, December 21st Maintenance Day. Friday, December 24th Christmas Eve we will be open for informal running. Tuesday, December 28th General Maintenance. Friday, December 31st New Year's Eve we are open for informal running. Click Here for the "Friday Night Running at the Club" video. Click Here If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains. Click Here to see the latest Train Show List courtesy of Ken Scoop. Have some fun with model railroading.

Friday was EMRRC's November Business Meeting. Items covered included; Project Reports.

The N-Scale layout is progressing. The facia is 95% complete along with a see-through plastic guard on top. The final phases of wiring switches are underway.

The club is looking for a project manager to take over the Wood Creek area and finish the remaining projects in the Chateau Paper Products area. Gary Pressnell has procured several items for the Hammes Roundhouse area and is installing them. The most important item on the agenda was the reelection of the current board for another 2 years. Board Members are Chuck Hart President, Matt Glassman Vice President, Steve Storey Treasurer, and last but not least John Banicki, Secretary.

Members  Chuck Hart, Jim Ford, and Ben Brubaker discussed adding a new work area to the club along with a paint booth and 3D printer. Ben who uses 3D printers at work and owns one did a great presentation on buying and using a 3D printer. I feel a clinic coming up for 3D Printing. A lot of information and questions were left for the members to digest.

We will not have another Business Meeting until January as December's Business Meeting date the 17th will be our annual Christmas Party. Also in December, our clinic will be Ken Prager and how he adds graffiti to freight cars. on December 3rd. Next week on Friday, November 26th will be EMRRC's Formal Operations Night. The era will be modern 1997. This week's Trackside Photographer this week looks takes a look back at the Bloomington Illinois Union Depot. The Depot started life at the junction of a multitude of railroads in 1873 and ended life as an AMTRAK station. Click Here to take a look. After the meeting, it was locomotive, train, freight car passenger car running time. NOT. We had problems with the DCS 200s working and JMRI didn't like the logic it was seeing from the system. So no trains were running Friday night at EMRRC. Of course, we had enough unseen footage from prior weeks to produce a "Friday Night Running at the Club". Click Here for the "Friday Night Running at the Club" video. Click Here If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains. Click Here to see the latest Train Show List courtesy of Ken Scoop. Have some fun with model railroading.

Don't forget Friday, November 19, 2021, will be EMRRC's November Business Meeting and we will not be open to the public until 8:00 pm.  November 12th was the Elkhart Model Railroad Club's open running night. We had about 20 members and several visitors on a cold, rainy, snowy November night running trains and having a good time.

Here's a look at a BLI 2-6-0 Paragon 2 chassis that member Matt Gassman had stripped down trying to figure out why it was noisy,

Several modern diesels were moving over EMRRC trackage but the main show was PRR diesel and steam passenger trains, along with NYC, Norfolk and Western, and Virginian, and Southern Coal Trains were just a few of the classic engines running.

Speaking of classic types of diesel Bachmann announced the release of their new Alco RS-3 in 5 different road names with or without TCS DCC Sound Valuer decoder and keep alive. Each model features user-controlled horn options, directional LED lights, bell, and prime mover effects. 

Christmas will be here before you know it and Member Ken Prager is getting ready by weathering his Christmas Train part of an old Bachmann Christmas Train from years ago. It still runs and he is planning on running it at the club and around his Christmas tree at home. 

The Trackside Photographer this week looks at "Steel Echos", expressing the spirit of photographs looking at areas in the West Virginia area. Click Here to take a look.  Click Here for the "Friday Night Running at the Club" video. Click Here. If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains. Click Here to see the latest Train Show List courtesy of Ken Scoop. Have some fun with model railroading.

 On September 10 at the Elkhart Model Railroad Club, we had several members and visitors in for our informal running session. We started with a clinic on freight carloads with Ben Brubaker.

Ben showed several inexpensive options to add loads to flatcars. Ben did a great job and, you can see this clinic soon on this web page or on the Elkhart Model Railroad Club's YouTube channel. We had another great month on YouTube. We gained 51 new subscribers and had over 340 hours of watch time with nearly 7000 views.

President Chuck Hart informally spoke about EMRRC's new N-Scale layout. The layout is operational and, a train was run with a phone throttle through a Raspberry Pi totally separate from the EMRRC system controlling the HO-Scale layout.

There are still a few electronics to sort out, turnouts that are out of reach will be controlled on the operator's phone through JMRI. The electronics should be finished up by next week and then on to scenery. The Elkhart Model Railroad Club is always looking for new members. If you are an N-Scaler there is now a new layout for you.

We are interested in members with an interest or expertise in computers, apps, artwork, construction, electrical, model buildering, or just want to see and work on a piece of history in the Elkhart area. We ran onto one interesting statistic. The Elkhart Model Railroad Club has around 30 members. Of those members, only 3 are from Elkhart. All of the rest live in an area from Southwest Michigan to Warsaw and Marshall County. It may be the Elkhart Model Railroad Club but we serve and draw from a large area.

We are just over 30 days from The 2021 Elkhart Model Railroad Club's 16th Annual Nappanee Train Show. The 2021 Train Show will be at the Claywood Event Center on October 16, 2021, from 10:00, am to 3:00 pm EDT. This is the same excellent event center we held the tremendous 2019 show at. It's approximately 3 miles southwest of Nappanee, Indiana at 13924 N. 1100 W (County Line Road). The building has all the amenities and we will take up about 14,000 sq. ft with 150 vendor tables. There will be plenty of direction signs to find your way there. If you are a hobbyist don't miss this show. All scales will be well represented with plenty of used and new items. If you want to bring the family, kids under 12 are free and it's just $5 for adults.  There will be a restaurant on-site with hot Amish sandwiches, desserts, sides, and soft drinks. Be sure to join us on Saturday, October 16th at the Claywood Event Center. You won't be disappointed. The Elkhart Model Railroad Club and Claywood Event Center will be following all Corona Virus protocols in effect for the month of  October 2021 provided by the City of Nappanee, Indiana, Kosciusko County, and the state of Indiana.

Members don't forget we are in the final days to order a club shirt. Sign up now if you are interested. Click Here to see our latest "Friday Night Running at the Club" video. Click Here. If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains. Click Here to see the latest Train Show List courtesy of Ken Scoop. Have some fun with model railroading.

 EMRRC had open running Friday night at the clubhouse. We had several members and visitors enjoy socializing, operating, and just taking a look at the many trains running on our 30' x 50' HO-Scale layout.

Member Matt Glassman brought out his beautiful Norfolk & Western Class J  locomotive. Only one class J locomotive, No. 611, survives. Its survival was in part due to its excellent condition after its 1956 derailment and subsequent repair, and also in part to the efforts of attorney and railfan, W. Graham Claytor Jr. who offered to preserve the 611 rather than seeing it scrapped. The locomotive was donated to the Roanoke Transportation Museum in 1962, where it sat dormant for two decades. Since then, it has had two excursion careers: from 1982 to 1994, after Norfolk Southern Railway restored the locomotive, and in 2015 (by Norfolk Southern) and afterward by the VMT.

Also, Friday night Wood Creek's locomotive was running along with an Elkhart & Western making a caboose transfer, lots of NS, NKP, and NYC.

Be sure to take a look at the UP caboose in the "Friday Night Running at the Club" video. It is a Hallmark Brass custom-painted unit. The Elkhart Model Railroad Club is fortunate to be surrounded by railroad treasures. The club has been around for 71 years and is a great place to visit. Also in Elkhart is The National New York Central Railroad Museum. Across the tracks is the current Amtrak station constructed in 1900 by the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad. Later it became part of the New York Central System. Of course, the tracks are Norfolk Southern's mainline running to Chicago and NS's 2nd largest classification yard Elkhart Yard. Each day, more than 100 trains pass through Elkhart Yard. Also the Grand Elk Railroad and the Elkhart and Western Railroad interchange with NS in Elkhart. You can still see an NS engine with a caboose interchanging with the E&W. Just to the west of Elkhart is South Bend and there you will see NS, CN, and The South Shore an electric commuter railroad that runs to Chicago. 

The third Friday of every month is our business meeting. This Friday, June 18th is our business meeting night. Visitors are welcome after 8:00 pm. Don't forget our 16th Annual Train Show in Nappanee. We are receiving reservations for tables weekly. Please check our Train Show page for more information and set the date October 16, 2021, on your calendar.  Click Here to see our latest "Friday Night Running at the Club" video.  Click Here. If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains. Click Here to see the latest Train Show List courtesy of Ken Scoop. Have some fun with model railroading. 

June 4, 2021

Friday night was the monthly business meeting for EMRRC and several members were at the Elkhart Model Railroad Club. Items covered included; the club is open to visitors again from 7:00 pm till 9:00 pm Fridays except when there is a business meeting. The Elkhart County Mask Mandate ended May 14.

We have sold over 100 vendor tables for the October 16, 2021, 16th Annual Train Show in Nappanee, Indiana. We are trying out a few new rules on Friday nights to relieve congestion on the mainline at EMRRC. Train lengths are limited, and don't leave your train are a couple of the rules. Members can access the entire list on EMRRC's groups.io file area.

EMRRC is looking into club shirts for the members. Joe Cipalla is checking into the shirt project for us. The Elkhart Model Railroad Club formed a committee to look into electronic CTC signaling. Matt Glassman, Ron Benheiser, and Jim Ford will look into electronic signaling and report back to the club. EMRRC is going to start formal operations again. Friday, June 25th will be our first operations session in 14 months. It will be the year 1943 so pretty much all steam will be running.   

Speaking of steam after the meeting a nice-looking MTH Pere Marquette just back from rehab made an appearance Friday night at EMRRC along with several NS trains, the Rio Grande Zephyr, and a long oil train.

Did you know the Southern Railway extended into Indiana? The Southern operated through Louisville via the Kentucky & Indiana Terminal, which connected with the LE&StL to St. Louis. From 1900 until 1981, K&IT was owned equally by Southern, B&O, and the Monon; SR bought the whole thing in 1981 as B&O and Monon moved into the CSX camp. Here's an article  http://cs.trains.com/ctr/b/mileposts/archive/2021/05/11/southern-where-i-least-expected-it.aspx. Southern’s St. Louis line had at least one other notable feature: Duncan Tunnel, a surprisingly long (4,295 feet) bore that pierces what is known as the Knobstone Escarpment, a formation of limestone spread out across southern Indiana. Located just six miles west of New Albany near Edwardsville, the tunnel is fairly well hidden, barely visible to motorists passing right over it on Interstate 64.

Click Here to see our latest "Friday Night Running at the Club" video.  Click Here. If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains. Click Here to see the latest Train Show List courtesy of Ken Scoop. Have some fun with model railroading.