The Elkhart Model Railroad Club is sad to announce the passing of our good friend and long-time member Charlie Yoakam. Charlie was involved in model railroading nearly all of his life and had a great knowledge of railroading in Northern Indiana and Ohio where Charle was from. Charlie retired from Miles Labs several years ago and luckily for EMRRC, this left Charlie with the time to work on every aspect of our HO layout including, the scenery in the pond area under our 2 major trestles, the North Wall area, downtown Elkhart and a complete rebuild of the quarry area. There is probably no area of the layout Charlie has not had a hand in working on. Charlie had been a member since the 1980s and had some great memories and knowledge of the club and prior members. Charlie is survived by his wife Linda, his daughter Kathy Yoakam Mangona and husband Rick, of Goshen, Indiana, as well as granddaughter Sophia and grandson Nicholas who is a student member of EMRRC. RIP Charlie. The Elkhart Model Railroad Club extends its condolences to Charlie's family and friends and will always miss Charlie. 
NEWS for October 2020News for October 23, 2020
The Elkhart Model Railroad Club met for our monthly business meeting on ZOOM Saturday 10/24/2020. Topics covered included: Guests and non-members visiting the club. Unfortunately, we decided to hold off on visitors until the beginning of 2021. The Elkhart area is still trending upwards with COVID cases and the liability with our older members is too great. Decisions for our 2021 Train Show will be made at our November meeting. Some preliminary work has started but we start making main decisions in November. For Friday Night Running we had about 13 members running all steam with a couple of diesels passing through. 
An update to last week's story on the AMTRAK RTG Turboliner. Member Gary Pressnell shot 2 pictures of the prototype in Niles, Michigan 6 years apart. 
The one in the rain is from July 1975 and the one in the snow is from February 1981. 
Not only did we have a lot of steam running Friday night but Member Will Babcoke had some help from his dad Gary and Steve Story remotoring a Hornby locomotive. It was successful and we'll see some footage next week. 
Member Matt Glassman brought in a Broadway Limited 2-10-4 with a new Loksound decoder and newly decaled with Kentucky Steam decals. Also, Matt added a wheel light and firebox lights. 
To see the 2-10-4 and several other steam locomotives including a brass B&O. 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. Have some fun with model railroading. News for October 16, 2020
The Elkhart Model Railroad Club usually has our monthly business meeting on the 3rd Friday of every month but we had to postpone the meeting till Friday, October 23rd. So we still have not made a decision on when the club will open to visitors. Over the past few meetings, we had an impromptu clinic on weathering with Gary Pressnell. Members weathered the side frames, couplers, fronts, and backs, using airbrushes, and powders.
Also, members have been busy on various personal projects, (fixing and programming engines) and a couple of members have been busy realigning track around the roundhouse area. We have always had problems with the main running around the roundhouse. The curve is too sharp and to enter the yard you are running through a complex switch The curve is going to have a larger radius and a double slip switch is being replaced. A
fterwards we had several members running trains including an AMTRAK RTG Turboliner. The RTG Turboliner trainsets were based on the French ANF gas-turbine T 2000 RTG "Turbotrain" trainsets. Capable of reaching speeds up to 125 mph, they were initially introduced on the Chicago-St. Louis route in late 1973. Over the next few years, they spread to other routes emanating from the Chicago hub including Michigan. Rapido is now accepting orders for a new HO Scale version of the RTG. Gary Pressnell bought this RTG in the 1980s. He has remotored it and it is running on DC but he has plans for changing it to DCC. Do you want to see more pictures and videos of happenings at EMRRC? 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. Have some fun with model railroading. NEWS for September 2020News for September 18, 2020
The Elkhart Model Railroad Club had its September business meeting outside, enjoying the weather while social distancing. At the meeting we welcomed 2 new mwmbers to the club after their probation period, Ryan Hernandez and Eden Marshall. Congratulations guys. 
Other items discussed included sending some our club cars to John Hall True Value Hardware Store in Goshen, Indiana. If you are interested in obtaining an Elkhart Model Railroad Club car be sure to check at Halls in the near future. Also a reminder for members to keep following our Covid-19 policies. The club has done very well following these policies and so far everyone is staying away from anv covid problems. Unfortunately we are still not having visitors come to visit us. We are still of the opinion there is too much liability and we operate in a small areas that do not allow for social distancing with large groups of people. Speaking of operations, our monthly operations session was brought up but Chief Dsipatcher Ron Breniser still feels we need to wait to 
begin operations due to the close quarters involved in operations. Some day the club will be back to normal and welcome guests and have our monthly operations sessions. The members miss having guests in to see the historic layout that has been operating in the City of Elkhart since 1950. On other note member Charlie Yoakam is at home not feeling well. It's not Covid related. We wish Charlie the best and hope he returns soon. Also thanks to member Gabe Smith for continuing to work on crossing signals at highway crossings. Right now he is working on minor crossings around the layout. 
A new project came up for discussion in as members Matt Glassman and Jim Ford discussed installing a Magnorail™ invisible chain system with magnets to move anything down the street from a bicycle to a car. We have the system it's just a matter of getting it installed. Here's a link to the system on our Facebook page and on Youtube. CLICK HERE. We'll see how it goes and try to give as much information as possible. Some of the members were discussing our Youtube page. Every video that has been produced is on the page. Last month we had 9 new subscribers, 1106 views, and 3800 minutes watched. Tne small box with a triagle in it at the very top of our page takes you to the Youtube channel or CLICK HERE to go instantly to the Elkhart Model Railroad Club's Youtube channell. Of course after the meeting we got down to the business of running trains. 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. Have some fun with model railroading. News for September 4, 2020
EMRRC had several members show up for "Friday Night Running at the Club" as we moved into September and the Labor Day weekend. www.emrrc.com has several areas that you may not be aware of. There's the Tech Files area which contains several files with tips, tricks, and general information about model railroading gathered by the members of EMRRC. The latest files include a video of Jay Freet discussing painting backgrounds.This video is probably over 10 years old but if you are not an artist. Jay makes it easy for you to paint trees and clouds on backdrops. Also, there is a link to an article on Trussrod End Boxcars. If you are modeling the beginning of the 20th century this is valuable information on the freight cars you need. There is an area on the site that delves into the history of the Elkhart Model Railroad Club. We received a letter from former member Martin Biemer. Martin was a member in the 60s & 70s before moving out of state. Martin had fond memories of the club and members Paul Withers (who ran the hobby department at Berman's sporting goods department store downtown). Merritt "Mike" Miller, Charlie Hammes, Porter Bechtel, Bob Mangum, Carl Schult, Warren Van Ness, and Dick Hess. In September 1964 the club hosted the North Central and Midwest Region National Model Railroad Association Convention and Martin was at the club for this event. 
William K. Walthers and Linn Westcott were both at the club for the convention. The big attraction was the club's "progressive block system." 
There were nervous moments as the system did not cooperate weeks befoe the convention. but after many hours of troubleshooting the system was back to working perfectly the day before the convention opened. Another highlight of the convention was member Mike Millers Fall River Logging Company home layout. Linn Westcott was so impressed by the layout, pictures and an article about the layout were featured in the October 1964 Model Railroader. Martin had many more memories of the club and we'll get a file up with those memories soon. Explore the other areas of the EMRRC webpages. You might find something unexpected. 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. Have some fun with model railroading. NEWS for August 2020News for August 21, 2020
As we approach the Indy 500 weekend in August (only time I'll get to write that) the Elkhart Model Railroad Club held its August business meeting outside on the lawn. It was a nice evening in the shade as the board and members discussed the club's operations. The top topic was allowing guests into the club. All the members agreed to table the request. Member Dr. Jeff Cain spoke about the problems opening could bring about. At this point, the Friday night members in attendance have the system down for our Covid-19 policies and members showing up on other nights or alone are all handling the policies as well. 
After the meeting members went in to run some trains. We had plenty of consists pulling long trains along with steam and classic diesel. 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. Have some fun with model railroading. News for August 7, 2020
The Elkhart Model Railroad Club was open for members on the first Friday of August 2020. All members who attended wore masks and followed all protocols for the club's COVID-19 protocols. Click here for a copy of the current Covid-19 Policy. Unfortunately, we are still closed to the public until further notice. 
Chuck Hart did some remodeling during the week. All of the Digitrax throttles and the radios for operations are now conveniently mounted on the wall under the bulletin board in the computer room. The throttles are in their own charger/holders while the batteries and accessories are in the red bins. 
We had a good mix of diesels and steam running Friday night. 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. Have some fun with model railroading. NEWS for July 2020News for July 24, 2020
EMRRC's AC was fixed during the week. Thanks to member Steve Storey and Greg Longbrake from Advanced Heating for coming out and getting the AC going again. Also member Charlie Yoakam came by for a few minutes and is doing well after his hospital stay. We had several trains show for "Friday Night Running at the Club". A couple of the more interesting ones were a Kansas City Southern GE ES44AC Southern Bell. The Southern Belle was a named passenger train service offered by Kansas City Southern Railway (KCS) from the 1940s through the 1960s, running between Kansas City, Missouri, and New Orleans, Louisiana. 
A New York Ontario & Western F3-A which has appeared in our videos before was also running Friday night. One of the interesting stories about the NYO&W is pieced together from a Trains magazine story about the "Flying Diesel Corps." 
Photo courtesy Hamilton Public Library On September 27, 1955, a 50-car O&W train in Hamilton, New York, traveling on a mainline approached a switch set for a siding which led to a coal trestle. Although the engineer fully applied the brakes, the train continued up the siding at more than 30 miles per hour (48 km/h) and through the trestle. It was learned that the 213-ton EMD FT diesel locomotive at the head of the train "flew" a distance of 150 feet (46 m) beyond the coal trestle from an elevation of 15 feet (4.6 m); total time of "flight" was later estimated to be between six and seven seconds. Two of the crew were seriously injured, but no crewmen were killed in the wreck. An investigation by New York state police as to why the switch had been thrown resulted in no arrests. A dinner was later given in honor of the crew who each received a plaque proclaiming them to be members of the O&W's new "Flying Diesel Corps." Each plaque was topped with a cast presentation model of their F-unit locomotive; the castings were provided by EMD.
Another engine making its debut new out of the box was 2-6-0 #46521. The London, Midland and Scottish Railway (LMS) Ivatt Class 2 2-6-0 is a class of steam locomotive designed for light mixed traffic. A total of 128 were built between 1946 and 1953, The 38 members of the Darlington-built batch (46465 to 46502) were allocated to the Eastern and North Eastern Regions of British Railways. The final 25 (46503 to 46527) were built at Swindon Works and, being allocated to the Western Region. Seven of the class have been preserved but only six engines have run in preservation. #46521 was one of the lucky 7 and operated on the mainline in the 1990s. #46521 also appeared in the movie "The-Seven-Percent-Solution." Well, enough history 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. Have some fun with model railroading. News for July 17, 2020,
Friday evening the members of EMRRC were greeted by a lot of hot air (well more than usual) in the clubhouse. Our air conditioning unit had failed and in Northern Indiana, we are having some of the most humid and hot days of the year. Several of the members are pretty handy and took s look st the unit but it's something that will take a pro so we have to wait till Monday for a professional to come out and take a look. Meanwhile, several members decided to tough it out and run some trains. 
Member Matt Glassman brought his new NS GE C44-9W from ScaleTrains. With nearly 1,000 units built since 2012, the GE Tier 4 GEVo is owned by nearly every Class I railroad in the U.S. and Canada. Take a look at the picture. Is it N-scale or HO-Scale? ScaleTrains did there usual quality job with this Rivet Counter N-scale locomotive. Thanks to members Paul Ewing, Gabe Smith, and Jerry Piatt for trimming and cleaning up outside earlier in the week. Also a hello to member Charlie Yoakam who is home from the hospital. 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. Have some fun with model railroading. NEWS for June 2020News for June 26, 2020,b 
Members of EMRRC met on Friday, June 26th for our weekly open run session. Plenty of hand sanitizers, social distancing, and masks were in use. Unfortunately due to the recent uptick in virus cases in Elkhart County the club has decided to hold off on opening the club to visitors. Hopefully, things will turn around in the near future and we will revisit opening the club at that point. We have to make sure that members and guests are in a safe environment . 
Several locomotives and trains were on hand Friday for "Friday Night Running at the club. Member Matt Glassman brought a couple of locomotives he is working on. They include CSX #3256 which is basically a Frankenstein locomotive that Matt is putting together out of spare parts. But I gotta admit it is a good looking engine. 
The other engine is a GE BQ23-7. The Q stands for crew quarters. Mechanically it's identical to B23-7 but was equipped with a larger cab for up to 4 crew members. This was produced during the era railroads were stopping the use of cabooses. Since they were eliminating the job in the caboose the crewman rode in the cab. As of 2001 all of these engines were scrapped. Matt got the body from Pacific Northwest Resins and fit it to an Atlas chassis. He plans to paint it in the Seaboard Coastline colors. 
On the layout, we had the usual suspects running NYC. NS, CN and the Rock. Keep an eye out for a OO Scale tank engine on loan from London North Eastern Railway. It goes through fast. Also watch for Gary Pressnell's NYC caboose #21500, a newly built kit. 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. Have some fun with model railroading. News for June 19, 2020,
Several members of EMRRC attended our first in person club meeting since March of 2020. The meeting was held outside comfortably in the shade under a large oak tree. A limited amount of items were covered. Member Ben Brubaker presented a list of safety guidelines that will be posted inside the clubhouse. The club is planning to open to the public on Friday, July 10, 2020. Please follow this webpage or our Facebook page as we move closer to this date for changes or updates. Also, congratulations to Ben as he has completed his probationary period and is now a full member. 
While we were still outside Matt Glassman lei us take a look at his new drone as he took a couple of shots of the club from the air. Afterward, several members went inside for the AC and to run trains. 
We had a lot of modern diesel running along with a B&O passenger train pulled by steam. 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 Member, Gary Pressnell has been working hard on his new NYC caboose. He just finished painting and is moving on to adding decals. Gary posts his project on our Facebook page so be sure to look at this great project he is meticulously building. Have some fun with model railroading.
News for June 5, 2020, Members showed up for some running for the first Friday in June 2020. EMRRC. The Elkhart Model Railroad Club is still closed to all but members. Member Gary Babcoke ran a Zoom Clinic on the ESU Programmer and Sound Customization. We probably will repeat this clinic in the fall to give members more hands-on experience with the programmer. member Gary Pressnell has been working on his new club cars and they are looking good. The cars are all numbered 1950 but Accurail supplied alternate decal numbers with a background that matches the car's color. Here's Gary's process for attaching the decals." I left the decal to soak pretty well. Then lift it out with an artist brush. And move it around with an artist brush. Sometimes you have to bump the bristles against the edge to move the decal. And after that use Solvaset by Walters,. When you apply the Solvaset it should be just a tiny bit to not cause the decal to float. Just to tack it down. Like at one corner. Let it dry. And apply more at another location. And finally, do the whole thing. You can have it dry more quickly if you siphon away some of the decal setting solution at the edge with a napkin or paper towel. 
Trains running Friday night included Wabash, Union Pacific, New York Central, Pennsylvania Rail Road, and The Rock. The Rock Island started in 1847 and since then has had many names starting with the Rock Island and La Salle Railroad Company, and shortly after the familiar Chicago and Rock Island Railroad. After several acquisitions and name changes including ownership by Union Pacific and Maytag Appliances, the railroad in 2017 became a new startup company that owns the rights to the Rock Island name has been operating in the southern United States. The new Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad LLC is primarily a shortline holding company, while also providing numerous other railroad services, such as switching, railroad management, railcar fleet management, railcar storage, and locomotive maintenance. The company acquired its first railroad in early 2019 with the acquisition of the Mississippi Delta Railroad. The company rosters 8 locomotives. On April 18, 2020, work completed on painting one of their GP38 locomotives, RILX 4310, into the famous "The Rock" paint scheme. On May 23, 2020
, (Here's where the locomotive that ran on our EMRRC trackage shows up) another of their GP38 locomotives, RILX 4373, completed being painted in the same scheme. In late May 2020, the company acquired Canadian National 2127 a GE Dash 8-40C, and repainted it into the same Rock Island livery, to become RILX 2127. 2127 was modified and painted by member Matt Glassman. As a quick side note, a spur of the Rock Island Railroad that ran beside a small hotel in Eldon, Missouri owned by the grandmother of Mrs. Paul (Ruth) Henning also inspired the popular television show "Petticoat Junction" in the early 1960s. Ruth Henning is listed as a co-creator of the show, along with her husband Paul, who also created "The Beverly Hillbillies" and "Green Acres." 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 Have some fun with model railroading. NEWS for May 2020News for May 29, 2020,
The Elkhart Model Railroad Club is slowly moving back towards a normal presence after being closed for about 70 days due to the pandemic. We started on Thursday, May 14th with a Zoom meeting in which 19 members participated. On Saturday, May 23rd the club had a get together outside the clubhouse for members to catch up on dues and buy club cars. 
Then on Friday, the 29th members showed up for our main business, running trains. We had several trains show up including Penn Central, New York Central, Norfolk Southern, B&O, and Union Pacific. 
We had a Norfolk Southern coal train run through (looks like the cars have never been used). A Penn Central with a New York Central pulling a long freight. A couple of steamers pulling passenger cars, and a Union Pacific pulling an unusual car that none of the members had ever seen before, except one. We have so many members with years of experience stretching back into their teens and some of these guys are in their seventies now with pretty good memories. Don't get on the wrong side of them.
One unusual car that showed caught member Gary Pressnell's eye is member Eden Marshall's Alturas and Lone Pine boxcar that promoted Whit Tower's iconic railroad "The Lonesome Pine Route". Mr. Towers was the longtime editor of the NMRA Bulletin and died in 1999. Parts of his layout are supposedly in storage at the NMRA Museum. We are opening slowly and will be open June 2nd for members only for cleanup and maintenance. On Thursday, June 4th at 7:00 pm we will have a Zoom meeting with a clinic by Gary Babcook on the ESU Programmer and Sound Customization. When will the club open for members and guests? I'm guessing after the July 4th holiday. More information on this will be on the website as that decision is made. In the meantime 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 Have some fun with model railroading. 
As a PS I had a run-in with an old friend, NS caboose 555005 running on the Grand Elk line I see this caboose about once a week in The Elkhart area. 
News for May 22, 2020
It's been a crazy year for the club so far but there are some constants that will never change. One of those is the Memorial Day weekend, a time to remember those who've given their lives for our country. Also this year please remember the front line people who held things together. On Memorial Day you hear a tune.that is dear to the heart of many service members and Americans in general. Captain John C. Tidball, West Point Class of 1848, started the custom of playing "Taps" at military funerals. In early July 1862 at Harrison's Landing, a corporal of Tidball's Battery A, 2nd U.S. Artillery, died. He was, Tidball recalled later, "a most excellent man". Tidball wished to bury him with full military honors, but, for military reasons, he was refused permission to fire 7 rifles three times (21-shot salute) over the grave. Tidball later wrote, "The thought suggested itself to me to sound taps instead, which I did. The idea was taken up by others until it was adopted by the entire army and is now looked upon as the most appropriate and touching part of a military funeral." As Tidball proudly proclaimed, "Battery A has the honor of having introduced this custom into the service, and it is worthy of historical note."It became a standard component to U.S. military funerals in 1891. "Taps" is sounded during each of the military wreath ceremonies conducted at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier every year, including the ones held on Memorial Day. News for May 14, 2020 
The Elkhart Model Railroad Club had its first monthly meeting since February. We are still closed and held the meeting over ZOOM and had 19 members in attendance. Items discussed at the meeting included: EMRRC will not be open to the public until at least after July 4th. The liability risk to a small organization like ours is too great. We will have a clinic on the ESU programmer on Thursday, June 4, 2020, at 7 pm. Gary Babcoke will handle the clinic and discussion using ZOOM. Our treasurer Steve Storey will be at the club on a future date to accept money to cover dues and for purchase of the EMRRC club car. Steve will decide on a date and time and post that on our groups.io page for the members. Ben Brubaker is going to come up with procedures for the cleaning and maintenance inside the club before our next meeting. We will have our June meeting at the clubhouse outside (weather permitting) on June 19, 2020. More information will be coming from Chuck and the board on when the members will gather for cleaning and maintenance. The Babcoke family has been providing lawn maintenance outside and the lawn is looking good. Now that the club members are getting back together information will start flowing again on the web page. EMRRC wants to thank everyone for their patience and understanding during this trying time for the country as a whole and our club. The Elkhart Model Railroad Club has been in business for 70 years. We will welcome back guests every Friday night starting this summer and look forward to the time when we are fully operational again. 3/23/2020Governor Eric J. Holcomb delivered a statewide address Monday 3/Ben Brubaker 23/2020 to order that Hoosiers remain in their homes except when they are at work or for permitted activities, such as taking care of others, obtaining necessary supplies, and for health and safety. The Stay-At-Home Order takes effect Tuesday, March 24 at 11:59 p.m. ET.The order ends on Thursday, April 30, at 11:59 p.m. ET, but could be extended if the outbreak warrants it. This order is mandatory. For the safety of all Hoosiers, people must stay home and prevent the spread of COVID-19. EFFECTIVE 3/16/2020 THE ELKHART MODEL RAILROAD CLUB WILL NOT BE OPEN FOR VISITORS UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE. PLEASE WATCH THE FACEBOOK GROUP OR THIS WEBSITE FOR FURTHER INFORMATION. NEWS for March 2020News for March 13, 2020
News for March 6, 2020
We are only 2 weeks away from the 2020 Elkhart Model Railroad Club's 15th Annual Nappanee Train Show. The 2020 EMRRC Train Show will be at the Claywood Event Center on March 21, 2020, from 10:00, am to 3:00 pm est. This is the same great 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). CLICK HERE for more information and a map. The building has all the amenities and we will take up about 14,000 sq. ft. 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. Several operating layouts will be running to keep the kids' attention. There will be a restaurant on-site with hot Amish sandwiches, desserts, sides, and soft drinks. Be sure to join us on Saturday afternoon March 21st. You won't be disappointed.
EMRRC had a full house for the first meeting in March. Member Paul Ewing presented an interesting clinic using the Cricut for model railroading. He showed several examples of buildings he had constructed using card stock and cutting them out on the Cricut.
There is a learning curve to the Cricut but for the cost and precision, it's hard to beat. Paul estimates it costs about $2 or less in materials to construct a medium-size building HO-Scale.
Also, the club car arrived from Accurail and several members were able to get a look at it. Later in the evening, we had several trains running on the layout including the SP cab-forward, C&O steam, a long Peabody coal train plus GN, and BN. Upcoming clinics include; Friday, April 4, 7:00 pm till 8:00 pm – Weathering Buildings – Ken Prager- Friday, May 2, 7:00 pm till 8:00 pm – Circus Trains - David Menges- Friday, June 6, 7:00 pm till 8:00 pm – Raspberry PI and Arduino on the N-Scale - Chuck Hart. 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. For a schedule of train shows and swap meets in the area. This is the latest list courtesy of the Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. For 2018 Past Announcements at EMRRC Click Here For information on the 2020 Train Show click here. Have some fun with model railroading.
Operations were on the schedule for the last Friday in February 2020. We had 20 members and 10 guests show up to run or watch formal operations with dispatcher Nathan Overmyer and chief dispatcher Ron Breniser. The session was the first with the dispatchers moved to their own area and it worked well. 
The new dispatcher's board hanging above the dispatcher and a lot less noise and chaos all contributed to a successful evening. 
The front room area reverted to its normal crew lounge area where visitors and crews waiting on their trains could enjoy refreshments and talk about trains and railroading.
Some announcements during the evening include. EMRRC's club car is being finished up at Accurail and delivery is expected this month. As noted earlier the EMRRC Nappanee Train Show on Saturday, March 21st is sold out of vendor tables. Tuesday night was spent sending out information packs to all the vendors.
Thanks to the envelope stuffing, data input, and letter folding members who 
showed up for the job. Upcoming clinics include; Friday, March 7, 7:00 pm till 8:00 pm – Using the Cricut Machine - Paul Ewing - Friday, April 4, 7:00 pm till 8:00 pm – Weathering Buildings – Ken Prager- Friday, May 2, 7:00 pm till 8:00 pm – Circus Trains - David Menges- Friday, June 6, 7:00 pm till 8:00 pm – Raspberry PI and Arduino on the N-Scale - Chuck Hart. Friday, March 6th starts with maintenance and work night and continues with open running starting around 7:30 pm. 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. For a schedule of train shows and swap meets in the area. This is the latest list courtesy of the Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. For 2018 Past Announcements at EMRRC Click Here For information on the 2020 Train Show click here. Have some fun with model railroading.
Friday, February 21st was the EMRRC monthly business meeting. Two new probationary members were voted into the club, Ryan and Aaron. Congratulations to both and we're sure they will be valuable club members. Final preparations were discussed for the March 21st Nappanee Train Show and as mentioned before vendor tables are sold out. Chuck Hart has been working on a Raspberry PI interface for the N-Scale layout and has it working along with automating the switches from members' phones.
Chief Dispatcher Ron Breniser is moving the dispatchers' office to the computer room which will be more convenient for everyone involved. Ron and helpers put up the dispatcher's board and it's looking good.
Jerry Piatt has added 2 new buildings to the Chateau Wood Products area and is busily rebuilding bridges and highways. Other areas under construction include the Hammes Yard Roundhouse area and the new interchange with the Grand Elk railroad. Gary Pressnell is adjusting the track leading to the turntable, alignment is critical, and has laid the track for the new interchange. Ken Prager is starting to lay track in the North Wall and the interchange with the Grand Trunk.
Paul Ewing & Jim Ford are working on the EMRRC brochure and we should have delivery before the March 21st Train Show. Also, Paul is working on the EMRRC Club Car and is expecting delivery on March 10th. The Elkhart Model Railroad Open House and 70th Anniversary Celebration will be May 16th and more information will be coming on that event. Also, the Anniversary will be promoted at the Nappanee Train Show. The West Wall area backdrop is finished and looks great.
Upcoming clinics include; Friday, March 7, 7:00 pm till 8:00 pm – Using the Cricut Machine - Paul Ewing - Friday, April 4, 7:00 pm till 8:00 pm – Weathering Buildings – Ken Prager- Friday, May 2, 7:00 pm till 8:00 pm – Circus Trains - David Menges- Friday, June 6, 7:00 pm till 8:00 pm – Raspberry PI and Arduino on the N-Scale - Chuck Hart. And finally, Formal Operations will be next Friday, February, 28th at 7:00 pm. The era will be modern, sorry no steam. Please be on time and if you are new to operations we will put you with an experienced operator.
After all of that, it was time to run a few trains. Plenty of members, plenty of guests all were either watching or running trains. Some of the unique trains showing up were a beautiful SP Cab Forward. In the 1920s, the Southern Pacific needed powerful locomotives but found that the newly articulated 2-8-8-2's did not work well for them. They were a hazard to the crews when traveling through the long tunnels and snow sheds on their system. The exhaust fumes were capable of blinding and suffocating crew members, m, the Southern Pacific decided to run in reverse to resolve this problem. The next articulated engines from Baldwin were built with the cabs in the forward position. The SP went on to build many classes of these "Cab-Forwards". The first 9 AC-4 class engines were built in 1928 and the last one in 1929 by Baldwin. These had a boiler pressure of 235lbs, a weight of 614,600lbs, and a tractive effort of 116,900lbs. According to a note on the SP lettering drawing dated 12/30/49 all AC class engines assigned to Sacramento, Shasta, Portland, and San Joaquin Divisions shall omit the large SOUTHERN PACIFIC on the tender sides, also F class engines on Shasta Division. Photo evidence shows that this was often but not always the case. Unfortunately, they were all scrapped by 1955.
Other engines making an appearance included an NS Virginian Heritage Unit, another beautiful locomotive that performed flawlessly.
Also an interesting Penn Central C636. The ALCO Century 636 was the most powerful single-engine diesel-electric locomotive constructed by the American Locomotive Company (ALCO). It used the ALCO 251 prime mover. The locomotive had a C-C wheel arrangement and 3,600 horsepower (2,700 kW). The locomotive rested on a pair of trucks of all-new design, known as the Hi-Ad, standing for 'high adhesion'. Numbers 6330–6344
were ordered by Pennsylvania Railroad before the Penn Central merger and were delivered in PC black. You can still find these locomotives hard at work in regular service on shortlines Delaware-Lackawanna and Livonia, Avon & Lakeville. To see more locomotives and trains join us Friday night February 28th at 7 pm at EMRRC's clubhouse on Hawthorne Street in Elkhart, Indiana for formal operations. 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. For a schedule of train shows and swap meets in the area. This is the latest list courtesy of the Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. For 2018 Past Announcements at EMRRC Click Here For information on the 2020 Train Show click here. Some announcements to cover from the meeting. As mentioned vendors tables are sold out for our 2020 Nappanee Train Show on March 21st. Have some fun with model railroading.
News for February 14, 2020
For Valentine's Day 2020 members & guests bribed their significant others with chocolates, flowers, money, and wine to make it to the Elkhart Model Railroad Club to run trains Friday night. One member brought his wife after she told him to take her where they have expensive things for Valentine's night. The funeral is next week.
Several unique trains showed up including the Scale Trains GTEL 8500 HP Turbine locomotives. Often called “Big Blows” because of their deafening noise, a 40 car tank car train, a lot of CN, NS, and some leased locomotives. All of them were running Friday night at EMRRC and if you would like to see more locomotives and trains join us Friday night February 21st starting at 8 pm at EMRRC's clubhouse on Hawthorne Street in Elkhart, Indiana. 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. For a schedule of train shows and swap meets in the area. This is the latest list courtesy of the Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. For 2018 Past Announcements at EMRRC Click Here For information on the 2020 Train Show click here. Some announcements to cover from the meeting. Vendors tables are sold out for our 2020 Nappanee Train Show on March 21st. That means we will have at least 150 vendors plus many operating layouts at our show. Member, Chuck Hart has got a Raspberry Pi operating and running the N Scale layout with JMRI. More info to come. Operations on February 28th will be interesting as Chief Dispatcher Ron Breniser announced the dispatchers are moving to the back room. That means the front area will be used as a crew longe giving the dispatchers and crew members some room and opening up an area for crews to wait between stops. Don't forget members-only till 8 pm due to our monthly business meeting. Have some fun with model railroading.
The Elkhart Model Railroad Club started a cool evening at the club with a clinic by member Paul Ewing. We had plenty of members and guests watch a slide presentation that covered TrainFest Milwaukee, The Eiteljorg Museum in Indianapolis, and several clubs around the Milwaukee Wisconsin area.
Paul, Chuck Hart, Gary, and Will Babcoke usually attend the TrainFest every year. TrainFest is billed as "Americas Largest Operating Model Railroad Show" and with 200,000 sq. ft. (nearly four football fields) of exhibit space featuring more than 70 railroads, it is worth a visit.
TheEiteljorg Museum is an eclectic collection of Native American art. Every year the "Jingle Rails" exhibit is opened for the holiday season. A G-Scale car on the layout was put together by Paul in memory of Charlie Hammes a notable member of EMRRC for years.
One of the clubs Paul & Chuck visited in Milwaukee was the Model Railroad Club of Milwaukee. The club is located in a concrete building at 215 E. National Ave. They have been in the same building since 1936 and that makes the club the oldest club running out of a single location in the United States, the building is a former train station. Built in 1916 underneath the Milwaukee Road mainline, the station was known as Allis Station for the nearby employer that was a source of many passengers. Allis-Chalmers Corp. had a substantial operation in today’s Harbor District before moving west to its new home in today’s West Allis. The Milwaukee Road shuttered the station by 1926 and an upstart model railroad club founded by future mayor Frank Zeidler, Al Kalmbach, and William Walthers moved in. Much of the train station’s architectural detailing remains, including subway tiles that frame the ticket counter and waiting room.
That was the beginning of our meeting. An announcement was made that we have sold 145 tables for the EMRRC 2020 Train Show in Nappanee. That means only 5 vendor tables remain for the show on March 21, 2020. After the meeting, it was time to run some trains. Everything from AMTRAK to the Freedom Train passenger train was running Friday night. 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. For a schedule of train shows and swap meets in the area. This is the latest list courtesy of the Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. For 2018 Past Announcements at EMRRC Click Here For information on the 2020 Train Show click here. One item from Model Train Stuff. They are having a 10% off sale on wheelsets, couplers, and trucks. Use the promo code 10COUPLER at checkout. This ends on 2/16. Have some fun with model railroading.
News for January 31, 2020
EMRRC had over 25 people running trains during our end of the month open running on Friday, January 31st, 2020.
We had several steam engines running including a UP Challenger pulling a beautiful UP passenger train.
Of course, we had plenty of NS running as we are just south of Norfolk Southern's second-largest yard. One of the NS units was the GoRail locomotive that commemorates the 10th anniversary of GoRail, an organization that promotes the benefits of moving more freight by rail. 
Make sure you take a look at NS 1625. Built by Matt Glassman it's an SD40-2 built from a Scale Trains CSX SD40-3 parts kit and it has a rattle can paint job. The kit was featured a few weeks ago on our video from 12/20/2019.
Member Randy Robbins found a Model Die Casting/ Roundhouse metal caboose kit. MDC was bought by Horizon Hobby and integrated into Athearn years ago. We'll get some more pictures as Randy completes this kit.
Member Paul Ewing brought in some digital mockups of our new club car and it looks great. It's a 3 bay coal hopper by Accurail in E&W reporting marks. The 2020 Train Show is coming up in under 60 days and we only have 10 tables out of 150 left. So if you're interested in a vendor table, be sure to go to the 2020 Train Show page for more information on March 21, 202the show is 0, from 1000, am till 3:00 pm at the Claywood Event Center in Napanee, Indiana. 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. For a schedule of train shows and swap meets in the area. This is the latest list courtesy of the Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. For 2018 Past Announcements at EMRRC Click Here For information on the 2020 Train Show click here. Have some fun with model railroading.
News for January 24, 2020
It was 1975 at the Elkhart Model Railroad Club for operations night. The Freedom Train ran along with a lot of escapees from the 60s who were destined to be repainted into their new colors.
Nathan Overmyer was the dispatcher for the night and did a smooth job with the chief dis
patcher only jumping in the van once to go find an errant engineer. We had plenty of members and guests show up. If you would like to come out and take a look 
at EMRRC we are open Friday, January 31st for open running from 7:00 pm till 10:00 pm. The 2020 Train Show is shaping up for another great run. Be sure to join us on March 21, 2020, from 10:00 am till 3:00 Pm at the Claywood Event Center in Napanee, Indiana. Click Here to see our latest video. Click Here. If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains Click Here. For a schedule of train shows and swap meets in the area. This is the latest list courtesy of the Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. For 2018 Past Announcements at EMRRC Click Here For information on the 2020 Train Show click here. Have some fun with model railroading.
News for January 17, 2020
Friday night was our monthly meeting at EMRRC. Items discussed included the upcoming Elkhart Model Railroad Club 15th Annual Train Show on March 21st. 130 vendor tables have been sold and the final few marketing items were settled. Other items discussed at the meeting were the possibility of another night of running, open to the public. A committee was formed to look into this. Also, EMRRC's 70th Anniversary is this year. A date of May 16th was set for our open house. Member Jim Ford was given a gift certificate for his contributions to the club in 2019. Also, the current board was re-upped to a life sentence.
Several projects were discussed, including updating to the North Wall, Elkhart & Western trackage spearheaded by member Ken Prager. The continuation of the Chateau Wood Products area was headed up by member Jerry Piatt after the original builder Stan Shatto passed away. And the addition of a backdrop along the West Wall headed by member Charlie Yoakam with help from Jeff Rogers & Jim Ford. The progress of our club car was reported on by member Paul Ewing, which will be ready to sell at the Train Show and open house.
Afterward, several members set up for next Friday's operation session, and trains were brought out to run. Click Here to see our latest video. Click Here. If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains Click Here. For a schedule of train shows and swap meets in the area. This is the latest list courtesy of the Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. For 2018 Past Announcements at EMRRC Click Here For information on the 2020 Train Show click here. Have some fun with model railroading.
News for January 10, 2020
Menard's has its 15% off all train stuff you can fit inside an in-store bag through Saturday, January 18th. The south store in South Bend has a good selection right now.
It was a lively open running session at the Elkhart Model Railroad Club on Friday the 10th. Plenty of members and guests were on hand as several large and small unique trains were running over E&W, EMRRC, and Grand Elk trackage. Looking for something to do on Friday nights? Come by and check out a model railroad that has been running since the 1950s. Guests are free, parking is free and soft drinks and candy are inexpensive. Take a look at the About Us page for more information. Don't forget EMRRC will not open to the public till 8:00 pm on January 17, 2020, as we have our monthly business meeting until 8:00 pm for members only.
Member Matt Glassman was busy programming a New York Central RS-2 with a LokSound decoder in it. Matt has his personal test track setup which includes a LokSound ESU programmer and a Digitrax Zepher tied to sections of N-Scale and HO-Scale track all on a portable cabinet. Matt's well-used laptop has all of the software to program just about any kind of decoder. Matt also belongs to an N-Scale modular group, Michiana T-Trakers, and uses his portable setup to run the modules when they are on location.
Plenty of diesel running this week but I promise next week there will be a lot of steam. Click Here to see our latest video. Click Here. If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains Click Here. For a schedule of train shows and swap meets in the area/ This is the latest list) courtesy of the Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. For 2018 Past Announcements at EMRRC Click Here For information on the 2020 Train Show click here. Vendors we are selling tables quickly for the 2020 Train Show (we have more than 115 tables sold out of 150) so make sure you check as there are applications and information for vendors on the page. Have some fun with model railroading.
News for January 2020
The Elkhart Model Railroad Club starts a new year with lots of maintenance and course many trains running on our HO Scale layout. We started 2020 with a massive track cleaning session involving members and guests. We covered just about the entire layout in about an hour. There was an interesting article in Model Railroad Hobbyist about the differ
ent methods of cleaning track and the chemistry behind it. From their research, you can see kerosene, WD-40 Contact Cleaner, CRC Contact Cleaner, and Protectorate, Deoxit D5, Neverstall, and mineral spirits are all excellent solvents to use for cleaning track and wheels. Solvents to avoid include isopropyl, alcohol, MEK, acetone, and lacquer thinner. We used Bight Boys along with WD40 Contact Cleaner based on our experience and the article.
Also during cleaning, there was a track crew working on the Flushing branch cutoff and reverse loop. They rewired the reverse loop to lengthened it and worked on finessing the track to increase reliability in that area. After extensive testing with passenger cars running through this area, everything ran much better. We'll give it the acid test during our next scheduled operations session on January 24th. Do you enjoy solving problems and working as a team? Be sure to join us on the 24th for our operations session where it will be 1968 on the layout. Never run with us before? We'll put you with an experienced operator on the EMRRC layout. The session starts at 7:00 pm sharp so don't be late.
Plenty of diesel running this week including IHB so Click Here to see our latest video. Click Here. If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains Click Here. For a schedule of train shows and swap meets in the area/ This is the latest list) courtesy of the Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. For 2018 Past Announcements at EMRRC Click Here For information on the 2020 Train Show click here. Vendors we are selling tables quickly for the 2020 Train Show so make sure you check as there are applications and information for vendors on the page. Have some fun with model railroading.
NEWS for December 2019News for December 27, 2019
Our last running session for 2019 had plenty of trains, plenty of action and plenty of members and guests all enjoying running trains on the last Friday of 2019.
We had the NS 1070 Wabash Heritage Locomotive.
Along with the 4141 PresidentGeorge H. W. Bush Commemorative Locomotive and UP No. 1943 The Spirit locomotive and the American Freedom Train all running on the EMRRC layout. There was some pizza leftover in the fridge from the Christmas Party that several members enjoyed. I haven't heard of any hospital trips so I guess it was okay. Click Here to see our latest video. Click Here. If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains Click Here. For a schedule of train shows and swap meets in the area/ This is the latest list) courtesy of the Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. For 2018 Past Announcements at EMRRC Click Here For information on the 2020 Train Show click here. Vendors we are selling tables quickly for the 2020 Train Show so make sure you check as there are applications and information for vendors on the page. Have some fun with model railroading.
News for December 20, 2019
We are close to the end of 2019 and EMRRC's annual Christmas party was Friday night with over 25 members and guests enjoying free pizza. free soft drinks, free desserts, and free old fart advice. A great time was had by everyone.
Tables are going fast for the upcoming 15th Annual EMRRC Nappanee Train Show for 2020. We have over 100 vendor tables sold with three months left till we open the door.
It was decided to have a club car for the 70th anniversary of the club and it will be a boxcar with the Elkhart and Western road name. We will have the car available for sale at the train show. After Christmas,
After Christmas, we will be open Friday, December 27. 2019 for open running. Plenty of trains running at EMMRC.
Among them was a Schnabel car. Follow its progress around the layout with our Friday Night Running at the Club video Click Here. If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains Click Here. For a schedule of train shows and swap meets in the video. Click Here (this is the latest list) courtesy of the Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. For 2018 Past Announcements at EMRRC Click Here. For information on the 2020 Train Show click. Vendors make sure you check as there are applications and information for vendors on the page.Have some fun with model railroading.
News for December 13, 2019
Over 20 members and guests were at EMRRC to socialize and run trains Friday night. It was announced that we have over 90 tables sold for the upcoming 15th Annual EMRRC Nappanee Train Show for 2020. The show is coming together quickly and we expect another great EMRRC train show in 2020. Click here for more information on the show.
Member Matt Glassman brought in his new Scale Trains CSX SD 40-3. Matt and member Nathan Overmyer bought three of these units in kit form. These units were bought as is with some missing small parts but all came with ESU Loksound DCC decoders with sound at a great price. More info on these kits as they progress will be coming.
Several members including Paul Ewing are working on and learning about the Cricut. The machine is great for precise cuts in heavy card stock and light vinyl. Paul did an interesting clinic on the Cricut in June of 2019 and there are several Facebook groups and websites including "Modeling with the Cricut Explore" and here is a link to the main Cricut website. 
https://cricut.com/en_us?gclid=CjwKCAjw0ZfoBRB4EiwASUMdYcYtyRjh-dr7iNfcqRhVC0X_GBW6IwVkZmBf_XA1mrI4kq65kFjvuBoCI78QAvD_BwE
The Elkhart Model Railroad Club's 70th Anniversary is coming up in 2020 and we are close to a decision on producing a club car to celebrate our 70th. More information to come as we get closer. EMRRC will be closed on Friday, December 20, 2019, for our annual Christmas Party. We will be open again Friday, December 27. 2019. So many trains running we couldn't include them all in this week's video so Click Here. for the latest Friday Night Running at the Club video. If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains Click Here. For a schedule of train shows and swap meets in the area Click Here (this is the latest list) courtesy of the Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. For 2018 Past Announcements at EMRRC Click Here. For information on the 2020 Train Show click. Vendors make sure you check as there are applications and information for vendors on the page. The NMRA Michiana Division will have its December meeting on the 21st from noon till 2:00 pm at the Western Branch Public Library, 6115 Lombardy Dr., South Bend, Indiana. This meeting will be a continued discussion of "LCL Operations" and "Where is That Car Going?" Have some fun with model railroading.
News for December 06, 2019
The beginning of December started with plenty of members and guests running trains.
Last week we mentioned the Eiteljorg Museum's "Jingle Rails" exhibit for the holiday season. Here is a shot of the G-Scale car put together by member Paul Ewing in memory of Charlie Hammes a notable member of EMRRC for years. The car runs every year at the "Jingle Rails" exhibit in Indianapolis.
Also, take a look at member Ron Breniser's latest creation. The building is a freight house with an open side towards the aisle and is completely scratch built by Ron. As we said earlier there were plenty of people at EMRRC running lots of trains so Click Here. for the latest Friday Night Running at the Club video. If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains Click Here. For a schedule of train shows and swap meets in the area Click Here (this is the latest list) courtesy of the Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. For 2018 Past Announcements at EMRRC Click Here. The 2020 Train Show information has been added to the site Vendors make sure you check as there are applications and information for vendors on the page. The NMRA Michiana Division will have its December meeting on the 21st from noon till 2:00 pm at the Western Branch Public Library, 6115 Lombardy Dr., South Bend, Indiana. This meeting will be a continued discussion of "LCL Operations" and "Where is That Car Going?" Have some fun with model railroading.
It's the start of the holiday season and in that spirit click here for a video of the CP Holiday Train making its way through our area shot by member Matt Glassman near Osceola, Indiana Sunday morning. EMRRC also has a holiday connection to the Eiteljorg Museum in White River State Park in Indianapolis. Every year from late November till mid-January the Eiteljorg presents"Jingle Rails" A beautiful exhibit of model trains winding through beautifully recreated landscapes and landmarks of the American West and downtown Indianapolis. EMRRC's connection is through Gloria Griesinger a patron of the Eiteljorg Museum and daughter of Charlie Hammes an early member of the club who was instrumental in molding the club into what it is today. 
Member Paul Ewing presented Ms. Griesinger in 2011 a G-Scale E&W freight car marked with "Return to Hammes Yard Elkhart, Indiana. The car runs to this day on the"Jingle Rails" exhibit. Here's a picture of the car in HO-Scale running on the EMRRC layout.
Friday night at the club 
we had several members trying to catch up on projects while out on the layout lots of trains were running. One new engine coming through the door is a Rapido B36-7
The four-axle GE B36-7 was a high-horsepower speed racer built to appeal to railroads in the early 1980s looking to turbocharge their growing intermodal business. Southern’s six B36-7s were all delivered with both baffles, but these were quickly reduced to one each side, possibly for visibility reasons (the radiator is at the front of the locomotive of course).
A couple of more buildings have shown up on the layout courtesy of member Ken Prager. The Kamms building in Mishawaka and Kwik Key in the Hammes Roundhouse area. There were plenty of other locos on the layout. Click Here. for the latest Friday Night Running at the Club video. If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains Click Here. For a schedule of train shows and swap meets in the area Click Here (this is the latest list) courtesy of the Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. For 2018 Past Announcements at EMRRC Click Here. The 2020 Train Show information has been added to the site Vendors make sure you check as there are applications and information for vendors on the page.Have some fun with model railroading.
News for November 15, 2019
November 15th was EMRRC's monthly business meeting. We welcomed Ken Prager as a full member. Congratulations Ken. Also, we welcomed a new probationary member Ben Brubaker.
Jeff Roberts and Chuck Hart represented EMRRC at the National New York Central Museum's Event "Life On The Rails" an event celebrating what it's like working on the railroad.
All current board officers were voted back into their current offices for the upcoming 2020 year. 
Planning is well underway for the 2020 Elkhart Model Railroad Club's 15th Annual Nappanee Train Show occurring on March 21st, 2020 with nearly 30 vendor tables already sold. Also, the initial planning for our 70th-anniversary open house is underway as it was decided to celebrate in May. Further information will be coming. 
After the meeting, we set up for our upcoming operations session on Friday, November 22nd. If you're interested in operations to be sure to show up at 7:00 pm sharp Friday and we'll get you involved. 
Elkhart & Western's 1115 was running Friday night. It's a beautiful model painted and decaled by member Steve Storey. Want to see more of 1115? Click Here. for the latest Friday Night Running at the Club video. If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains Click Here. For a schedule of train shows and swap meets in the area Click Here (this is the latest list) courtesy of the Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. For 2018 Past Announcements at EMRRC Click Here. The 2020 Train Show information has been added to the site Vendors make sure you check as there are applications and information for vendors on the page.
News for November 8, 2019
Veterans Day is a time for us to pay our respects to those who have served. We have several veterans at EMRRC including Jeri Cardella U. S. Army, Chuck Hart U.S. Navy, Paul Ewing U.S. Army, Nathan Overmyer U.S. Air Force, Randy Robbins Armor, U.S. Army. Gary Pressnell, U.S. Coast Guard, Jeff Cain U.S. Air Force and Ken Prager U.S. Air Force. We celebrate and honor EMRRCs vets for their patriotism, love of country and willingness to serve and sacrifice for the common good.
We had a large turnout Friday night with a lot of nice locomotives and trains running at EMRRC.
Ken Prager brought along some newly weathered buildings including an abandoned tower on E&W trackage. A cabin in the mountains complete with an outdoor privy and a fellow running into problems trying to use it. 
There have also been some (depending on how you look at it ) disturbing rumors of flashing along the tracks which have led to a loss of concentration with some engineers. 
Also with help from Jim Ford, a new passenger platform has been completed at Wood Creek. The platform is based on a mock-up left by the late Stan Shatto, the original builder of the Wood Creek paper processing complex.
We had large steam show up Friday including a UP Challenger, a massive beast that pulled 
both passenger and freight for the UP. The locomotive was capable of exceeding 60 mph and with the technical breakthroughs achieved with the Challenger enabled the carrier to develop the Big Boy with the same speed expectations.
A couple of other big steam engines that showed up were an NYC Hudson and an NYC Niagara S1b 4-8-4, #6002.
A Rivet Counter HO Scale Union Pacific GTEL 8500 Horsepower “Big Blow” Turbine #23 made its first appearance at EMRRC. Often called “Big Blows” because of their deafening noise, they roamed the less populated landscape between Council Bluffs, IA, and Ogden, UT. 30 three-unit sets were built between 1958 and 1961 and all were retired by the early 1970s. Here's a list of goodies with the Rivet Counter Series.
Tri-color LED class lights
Printed and LED lighted number boards
Nose grab irons
“Union Pacific” nose lettering
H – I dynamic brake housing configuration
Air intake scoops
Modified radiator with all-weather shutters
As delivered fuel tank
Detailed cab interior with separate control stand, floor, a rear wall with a water cooler, and seats
Photo-etched metal side grilles
Rubber water hoses between the “A” and “B” unit
Radiator mounted lost wax brass Leslie S-5T-R air horn
Square base whip antenna
SKF and Timken bearings
Wheel slip detectors
Speed recorder
Motor with 5-pole skew wound armature
Dual flywheels
All-wheel drive
All-wheel electrical pickup
Directional LED headlight
“B” Turbine Unit
Dynavane intake housing
I – I dynamic brake housing configuration
Offset air intake scoops
Blanked door panels
With rear MU connections
SKF and Timken bearings
Wheel slip detectors
Motor with 5-pole skew wound armature
Dual flywheels
All-wheel drive
All-wheel electrical pickup
24C Fuel Tender
24,000-gallon capacity
Welded seams
Insulated
Commonwealth 6-axle trucks
Factory-applied air tank, brake cylinder, and control valve
Factory-applied multiple unit (MU) hoses
Photo-etched metal tender deck walkway
Operating rear tender LED light
Truck chains available separately (SXT80111)
Sound*
“A” unit prime mover sound
“B” unit turbine sound
These units have a lot of detail and ran flawlessly the entire night. Want to see more? Click Here. for the latest Friday Night Running at the Club video. If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains Click Here. For a schedule of train shows and swap meets in the area Click Here (this is the latest list) courtesy of the Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. For 2018 Past Announcements at EMRRC Click Here. The 2020 Train Show information has been added to the site Vendors make sure you check as there are applications and information for vendors on the page.
The Michiana NMRA will have their next meeting at the North Liberty Library Branch, November 16th from 12 noon till 1:00 pm, 105 E. Market St., North Liberty, IN 46553. The topic will be, "Less Than Carload (LCL) Operations and What Does Your Layout Do? - Begining Discussion of Layout Operations, Prototype, Fantasy, or Somewhat Prototypical. Have some fun with model railroading.
News for November 1, 2019
Lots of folks gathered at the Elkhart Model Railroad Club for the 1st day of November 2019. One of our student members Larson was running his NS E9. That's Larson in the picture dressed in his Halloween costume. He must like trains huh?
One of our guests was Mogan Davis from the Naptown & White River Club in Indianapolis. Morgan brought along his steam excursion unit with cars lettered for the club.
He also had a Viessmann 09-3X Plasser & Theurer Stopfexpress Tamping Machine. In our "Friday Night Running at the Club" video you can see the model being put through its paces as it has full DCC control with sound including a working tamping mechanism.
Member Ken Prager is at it again. Here is his latest weathering project, the Roda Tower. To take a look at all the action last Friday night Click Here. for the latest Friday Night Running at the Club video. If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains Click Here. For a schedule of train shows and swap meets in the area Click Here (this is the latest list) courtesy of the Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. For 2018 Past Announcements at EMRRC Click Here. The 2020 Train Show information has been added to the site Vendors make sure you check as there are applications and information for vendors on the page.
but the Chief Dispatcher ended up in the van a couple of times to get everything sorted out. 
One engine that showed up was an Erie Lackawanna E8/9. This engine was bought at a local train shop, Jerry's Trains for $30. The owner added in a sound decoder and replaced the lights with LEDs. But if you want to add in DCC without sound a decoder can be found for $20/$25. So for $55 or less you can have a good looking engine with DCC. 
One of our members Ken Prager is weathering buildings on the layout. One of his first buildings is the Whistle Stop Cafe along the E&W trackage. President Chuck Hart bought this building at a swap meet for a buck years ago and donated it to the club. It set on the layout for years waiting for Ken to come along and bring out its personality. To take a look at all the action last Friday night Click Here. for the latest Friday Night Running at the Club video. If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains Click Here. For a schedule of train shows and swap meets in the area Click Here (this is the latest list) courtesy of the Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. For 2018 Past Announcements at EMRRC Click Here. The 2020 Train Show information has been added to the site Vendors make sure you check as there are applications and information for vendors on the page. Longtime member Charlie Yoakam is under the weather and all of us at the club want to extend best wishes and a speedy recovery to him. The Michiana NMRA will have their next meeting at the North Liberty Library Branch, November 16th from 12 noon till 1:00 pm, 105 E. Market St., North Liberty, IN 46553. The topic will be, "Less Than Carload (LCL) Operations and What Does Your Layout Do? - Begining Discussion of Layout Operations, Prototype, Fantasy, or Somewhat Prototypical. Have some fun with model railroading.
News for October 18, 2019
Afterward, lots of members and a guest (who signed up to join the club) all enjoyed running trains and setting up for operations on Friday, October 26, at 7:00 pm.
The year will be 1953 and that means only steam and early diesel will be running on the track. If you enjoy puzzles join us for the largest live interactive puzzle in Northern Indiana. Solve problems, hone your logic and planning skills, and run model trains all at once. Join us for operations on the last day of October 2019. To take a look at all the action last Friday night Click Here. for the latest Friday Night Running at the Club video. If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains Click Here. For a schedule of train shows and swap meets in the area Click Here (this is the latest list) courtesy of the Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. For 2018 Past Announcements at EMRRC Click Here. The 2020 Train Show information has been added to the site Vendors make sure you check as there are applications and information for vendors on the page. Have some fun with model railroading.
News for October 11, 2019
The Elkhart Model Railroad Club met for open running on Friday. We had several members and 2 guests show up to socialize and run trains. There were several large diesels pulling long trains
along with one of our student members, Larson running his Norfolk Southern restored F9A.
Member Ken Prager brought a large group of weathered freight cars including a MOW work train that ran great but looked like it had a hard life. Ken is an award-winning military modeler who is using his painting and modeling skills to buy inexpensive engines and cars and turn them into interesting pieces of equipment.
We did some ground view video which gives a perspective of scenery we don't get to see too often.
To see all the action including wildlife on and off the track and a small accident Click Here. for the latest Friday Night Running at the Club video. If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains Click Here. For a schedule of train shows and swap meets in the area Click Here (this is the latest list) courtesy of the Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. For 2018 Past Announcements at EMRRC Click Here. The 2020 Train Show information has been added to the site Vendors make sure you check as there are applications and information for vendors on the page. Have some fun with model railroading.
News for October 4, 2019
The first week of October was a busy week for the Elkhart Model Railroad Club. On Tuesday it was clean out the shed day. We own a large storage shed on our property and over the last couple of years it had collected a lot of junk. Here is our stalwart shed clean-out crew who battled oppressive heat and humidity to get the shed cleaned out and looking great.
Friday night started with a discussion of changing our operations sessions to a car card system. The club ran car cards years ago but moved away from it as it is a complicated system for a club environment. Now years laters we have a thriving membership with a lot of members interested in operations.
From this discussion, the idea will move to a business meeting night where the entire membership will be appraised of the idea.
Also Friday night as part of the rebuilding of the roundhouse area the new Grand Elk Railroad connection to the Elkhart Model Railroad Club was opened. The track has been laid along with a diamond and the first train ran into Elkhart on the new track.
We decided to have some night running on the layout and several engines were running with all lights blazing. It's amazing the different look the layout takes on when the lights are out. Several Buildings and areas are well lite but we still have a lot of lighting to add to the layout. Due to forethought on the part of original members, there is a 12V and a 6V bus running under the entire layout which makes adding accessories and lights to the layout much easier. To see our night running and much more Click Here. for the latest Friday Night Running at the Club video. If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains Click Here. For a schedule of train shows and swap meets in the area Click Here (this is the latest list) courtesy of the Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. For 2018 Past Announcements at EMRRC Click Here. The 2020 Train Show information has been added to the site Vendors make sure you check as there are applications and information for vendors on the page. Have some fun with model railroading.
News for September 27, 2019
Operations was the name of the game for the last Friday in September at the Elkhart Model Railroad Club. Several members were at the club with one guest ready to run all modern diesels as it was the 1990s on the layout.
Lots of trains running with several near derailments and one passenger train derailment which the emergency crew took care of. The dispatchers took it all in stride, it was a tough session but they pulled through and it was a fun night for everyone.
The roundhouse area reconstruction is moving on. Member Matt Glassman displayed some of his NS and CSX big power at the roundhouse.
The IRS & FBI Bar Elkhart area near the roundhouse is coming to life 
and the Grand Elk Railroad is making its long-awaited connection to EMRRC trackage. To see all of the trains running at the club Click Here. for Friday Night Running at the Club video. If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains Click Here. For a schedule of train shows and swap meets in the area Click Here (this is the latest list) courtesy of the Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. For 2018 Past Announcements at EMRRC Click Here. The 2020 Train Show information has been added to the site Vendors make sure you check as there are applications and information for vendors on the page. Have some fun with model railroading.
News for September 20, 2019
The 20th of September was the Elkhart Model Railroad Club's monthly business meeting. Several items and reports on various projects were discussed. If you are a member or just interested in model railroading we have a Tuesday Night maintenance and work session from 7:00 pm till 9:00 pm and a lot of projects that need some creativity and TLC. One thing that came up is the tremendous amount of scenery material that we keep on a roll around cart. The cart is not large enough anymore and is overflowing and we need to purchase another cart. So if you have an interest in building small detailed scenery come by, we have a lot of material to work with and we would love to talk to you about using it.
Our next meeting on September 27th is an operations night featuring modern equipment. If you have an interest in railroad oprations come by at 7:00 pm sharp and we'll put you to work at the oldest railroad club in Indiana, the Elkhart Model Railroad Club.
Several members ran trains after setting up and one of the interesting engines running was a Scale Train Tier 4 Demo ET44AC 2015. Be sure to watch for it and the duck in our latest video. To see all of the trains running at the club Click Here. for our latest Friday Night Running at the Club video. If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains Click Here. For a schedule of train shows and swap meets in the area Click Here (this is the latest list) courtesy of the Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. For 2018 Past Announcements at EMRRC Click Here. The 2020 Train Show information has been added to the site Vendors make sure you check as there are applications and information for vendors on the page. Have some fun with model railroading.
News for September 13, 2019
Friday the 13th was open running for EMRRC. Several members including Charlie Yoakam, Matt Glassman, Will Babcoke. Jeff Roberts, Gary Pressnell, Jerry Piatt, Randy Robbins, Nathan Overmyer, Gary Babcoke, David Menges, Steve Storey, and Ron Breneiser all enjoyed open running at the club. Several long trains were running with lot's of heavy diesel power and one lonely steamer at the end of our Friday Night Running at the Club video. To see all of the trains running at the club Click Here. for Friday Night Running at the Club video. If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains Click Here. For a schedule of train shows and swap meets in the area Click Here (this is the latest list) courtesy of the Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. For 2018 Past Announcements at EMRRC Click Here. The 2020 Train Show information has been added to the site Vendors make sure you check as there are applications and information for vendors on the page. Have some fun with model railroading.
News for September 6, 2019
We're well on our way to Fall at EMRRC and several members took time out from summer activities and watching football to come out to the club and run some trains.
The evening started with cleanup and maintenance. One of the major jobs being tackled is the integration of turnout controls in the fascia. As we have added turnouts the controls have been hooked up electrically but the switches that control the turnouts have just been hung at the bottom of the fascia on a piece of masonite. Member Paul Ewing has tackled this job and made good progress on Friday evening. 
Also a couple of minor additions to the website. On our Tech Files page, David Menges' interesting journey continues as he builds a huge circus train. Also added is an interesting article on using flex track for bridges. CLICK HERE or go to the menu at the top of the page to find these articles. A Purdue club car was sitting on a siding at EMRRC. The car celebrates the club's 85th anniversary. 
Our club is a few years behind but our 70th-anniversary is next year so be sure to look for information coming up. To see all of the trains running at the club Click Here. for Friday Night Running at the Club video. If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains Click Here. For a schedule of train shows and swap meets in the area Click Here (this is the latest list) courtesy of the Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. For 2018 Past Announcements at EMRRC Click Here. The 2020 Train Show information has been added to the site Vendors make sure you check as there are applications and information for vendors on the page. Have some fun with model railroading. NEWS for August 2019News for August 30, 2019
For the last Friday of August 2019, at the start of the Labor Day weekend holiday, several members showed up for running at EMRRC.
A couple of BNSF units pulling a long train had a near miss on a pass-by with an NYC freight drag. The NYC F units barely fit into Schult Yard so a BNSF priority train could slide by.
We also had an On30 small steamer run by the NYC train a little later. The 0-4-2’s larger fuel bunker and trailing truck allowed it to travel longer distances than its “little brother,” the Porter 0-4-0. They were put to work on plantation, logging, and construction roads. The tank cars were rebuilt from AC Gilbert S-guage tank cars by member Paul Ewing.
A Virginian USRA 2-8-8-2 made the run down to the EMRRC yards to drop off several cars. 
The track in this area is lightweight and the 2-8-8-2 had all it could handle with tight clearances but the engine is a great runner and made all the way down and back with no problems. Everyone had a good start to their holiday and thoroughly enjoyed the comradery.To see all of the trains running at the club Click Here. for Friday Night Running at the Club video. If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains Click Here. For a schedule of train shows and swap meets in the area Click Here (this is the latest list) courtesy of the Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. For 2018 Past Announcements at EMRRC Click Here. The 2020 Train Show information has been added to the site Vendors make sure you check as there are applications and information for vendors on the page. Have some fun with model railroading.
Operations took center stage at the Elkhart Model Railroad Club on Friday the 23rd. We had several members show up and had a great session with very few problems.
It was 1976 on the layout and member Charlie Yoakam brought in his Athearn 1776 he actually bought in 1976 for about $20. He also had a 1776 Tyco caboose to bring up the backend.
We had 
several other units operating including Wood Creek Paper, some through freights and passenger trains, along with an NYC switcher working the Elkhart industrial yard. If you are an experienced operator or a novice come by EMRRC, we run operations every 4th Friday of the month. 
It's a great time and you will enjoy yourself. To see all of the trains running at the club Click Here. for Friday Night Running at the Club video. If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains Click Here. For a schedule of train shows and swap meets in the area Click Here (this is the latest list) courtesy of the Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. For 2018 Past Announcements at EMRRC Click Here. The 2020 Train Show information has been added to the site Vendors make sure you check as there are applications and information for vendors on the page. We will be open Labor Day Weekend on Friday, August 30, 2019, from 7:00 pm till ??? Have some fun with model railroading.
News for August 16, 2019
August 16. 2019 was our monthly meeting. Several items were taken care of including the welcoming of 2 new probationary members and a new student member. Congratulations to all the new members. 
On the layout a new backdrop will be installed on the west wall while Gary Presnell helped out with Matt Glassman's switch panel installs fixing one of the Tortise machines near Flushing.
Thanks, to Paul Ewing and Jerry Piatt for cleaning the landscaped area near the front entrance and also kudos to Paul for refurbing our entrance sign. After the meeting, we welcomed a couple of guests from Kalamazoo, MI and started running trains and setting up for our operations session which is next Friday, August 23, 2019.
Here's Matt Setting cars for next Friday. If you enjoy puzzles we run the biggest electronically interfaced 3D puzzle in the area when we run operations every 4th Friday of the month. If you have never run operations we will pair you up with an experienced operator until you understand the basics of operations at EMRRC.
Matt Glassman brought in a couple of BSC F68AH Bulkhead Flatcars he has been working on. Introduced in 1969, the Bethlehem Steel Co. (BSC) F68-series of 100-ton, 68’ foot long (over end sills) flats represented a new generation of high-capacity flat cars. Extremely versatile, the basic design could be equipped from the factory with a variety of appliances to handle different loadings. These units are Rivet Counters from Scale Trains and have a lot of features including a laser-cut deck to be applied by the modeler.
To see all of the trains running at the club Click Here. for Friday Night Running at the Club video. If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains Click Here. For a schedule of train shows and swap meets in the area Click Here (this is the latest list) courtesy of the Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. For 2018 Past Announcements at EMRRC Click Here. The 2020 Train Show information has been added to the site Vendors make sure you check as there are applications and information for vendors on the page. Have some fun with model railroading.
News for August 9, 2019
A lot of Southern locomotives showing up in Northern Indiana. We had several engines show up from the Southern Railway on Friday, August 9, 2019 all of them running long hood forward. Did you ever wonder why some railroads ran their units long hood forward? Here's the answer from TRAINS Magazine. It’s a common misconception that both Norfolk & Western and Southern Railway (and for a while, successor Norfolk Southern) operated many of their hood units long hood forward for better crew safety in the event of a collision.
While that might have been a secondary benefit, the real reason was bidirectional operation capability. The Southern’s approach to bidirectional operation was simpler: Make the short end of the unit the rear, delete the optional low nose, and have the engineer on the right-hand side with the long hood leading. In the event the unit was running in “reverse,” the engineer would be on the left side, but with a short hood, so his forward vision to the right side of the track wasn’t impaired all that much.
While new power in this configuration didn’t arrive until the SD45s of 1967, earlier units (SD24s, GP30s, and GP35s) all came with high short hoods, but set up as the short hood end as the “front.” In both cases, the carriers hoped to eliminate terminal expense and delay from turning units on turntables or wyes. In truth, crews on both roads never received the practice warmly. The last road units N&W purchased came with conventional low-nose short hoods set up as the “front,” and without dual controls. For a time after the NS merger, new units were purchased under the Southern philosophy of long hood forward, but with low-nose short hoods. The advent of “comfort cab” units made such operating practices impractical, so it’s now rare to find a vintage N&W or Southern unit running long hood forward.
We had a trio of Fairbanks-Morse H10-44s on the layout. Two of these were Proto 2000 (Walthers). These engines are great little switchers and can be had as low as $65 with DCC and sound.
As the end of World War II approached, Fairbanks-Morse debuted a new 1,000-hp switcher for the Milwaukee Road in 1944: the H-10-44. (H stood for hood unit, 10 for 1,000-hp, and 44 for its B-B wheel arrangement.) Click Here to see our latest Friday Night Running at the Club video. If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains Click Here. For a schedule of train shows and swap meets in the area Click Here (this is the latest list) courtesy of the Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. For 2018 Past Announcements at EMRRC Click Here. The 2020 Train Show information has been added to the site Vendors make sure you check as there are applications and information for vendors on the page. Have some fun with model railroading.
News for August 2, 2019
Where the heck did summer go? As we move through August we lose about an hour of sunlight by the end of the month. But, at the Elkhart Model Railroad Club, it is always sunny unless we forget to pay the electric bill or we decide to run a night session. Come by and think about joining and help us pay the electric bill.
We are always looking for new members who have an interest in computers, apps, artwork, construction, electrical, model buildering, or just want to see and work on a piece of history in the Elkhart area. Do you like Arduino? We would love to talk to you about various projects upcoming. If you enjoy puzzles we run the biggest electronically interfaced 3D puzzle in the area when we run operations every 4th Friday of the month. 
Every Friday we are meeting at the club and have a great time socially and running trains. Speaking of running trains we had several trains running Friday the 2nd at the club. Some trains of note running were the Alaska Railroad, the Virginian, CSX, SOO Line, and NS. Be sure to check out the caboose on the end of the SOO Line train a Milwaukee caboose weathered by David Menges with Pan Pastel weathering powders. Click Here to see our latest Friday Night Running at the Club video. If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains Click Here. 
For a schedule of train shows and swap meets in the area Click Here (this is the latest list) courtesy of the Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. For 2018 Past Announcements at EMRRC Click Here. The 2020 Train Show information has been added to the site Vendors make sure you check as there are applications and information for vendors on the page.Have some fun with model railroading. For a schedule of train shows and swap meets in the area Click Here (this is the latest list) courtesy of the Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. For 2018 Past Announcements at EMRRC Click Here. The 2020 Train Show information has been added to the site Vendors make sure you check as there are applications and information for vendors on the page.Have some fun with model railroading.
NEWS for July 2019News for July 26, 2019
A lot of members were in the Chicago area for the arrival of Union Pacific's 4014 Big Boy. Everyone had a great time and got lots of pictures to share. At the club we had a couple of new members apply for membership. Welcome, Jeff and Bill. Member Charlie Yoakam ordered a new backdrop for the west wall near Oceola. It is 14x72 and depicts an industrial area. The new computer and Digitrax PR4 interface keep humming along with no problems during programming. If you would like to see member David Menges' Facebook posts on his continuing project building a circus train check out our Tech Files menu item for a compilation of the series. Click Here to see more our Friday Night Running at the Club video. If you want to see more pictures of the 4014 and more from Friday Click Here. 
For a schedule of train shows and swap meets in the area Click Here (this is the latest list) courtesy of the Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. For 2018 Past Announcements at EMRRC Click Here. The 2020 Train Show information has been added to the site Vendors make sure you check as there are applications and information for vendors on the page. Also, 2020 is the Elkhart Model Railroad Club's 70th anniversary. An open house and other events are being planned to celebrate this occasion. Watch for future news on this. Have some fun with model railroading.
Friday evening at the club started with a dinner and a celebration for the life of Stan Shatto. Stan joined the club in 1972. He was instrumental in designing and constructing the scenery in several areas of the layout. 
Stan's pride and joy was the Chateau Paper's Wood Creek Kraft and Pulp Mill at 7512 Needmore Road. The area includes everything from raw material storage to a number of buildings to finish the process. 
This part of the layout was about 85% finished when Stan passed. Stan spent several years on this section and the club looks forward to finishing the small areas left that will make this into a lasting legacy for Stan for many years to come.
Several family members and friends of Stan's came in from as far away as California to pay tribute and celebrate Stan's life. Rest in Peace Stan. 
Other areas on the layout are having scenery updated or changed. Near the new dam area, lily pads are showing up in the Elkhart River. The road crew has been working on road improvements near Liberty on a crossing that has always been rough.
During the evening a large circus train came through with elephant and animal cars along with several flat cars for equipment and wagons. Bringing up the rear were several cars for crew and performers. A lot of steam was on the layout tonight including a triple-header Monon train, the freedom train, A Virginian Y-3 2-8-8-2, and several other steam engines.
Click Here to see more circus train and steamers at Friday Night Running at the Club. If you want to see more pictures of circus trains, Monon triple-headers and more from Friday Click Here. 
For a schedule of train shows and swap meets in the area Click Here (this is the latest list) courtesy of the Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. For 2018 Past Announcements at EMRRC Click Here. The 2020 Train Show information has been added to the site Vendors make sure you check as there are applications and information for vendors on the page. Also, 2020 is the Elkhart Model Railroad Club's 70th anniversary. An open house and other events are being planned to celebrate this occasion. Watch for future news on this. Have some fun with model railroading.
Union Pacific Big Boy Schedule for the end of July 2019.
The UP Big Boy 4014 will be in Chicago at the end of July 2019. Here is some information.
| Friday, July 26 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Depart | 8:00 a.m. CT | Butler, Wis. No Public Access |
| Arrival | 2:30 p.m. CT | West Chicago, Ill. Union Pacific Larry S. Provo Training Center 335 Spencer St. |
| Saturday, July 27 | ||
| On Display: | 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. CT | West Chicago, Ill. Union Pacific Larry S. Provo Training Center 335 Spencer St. Experience the Union Pacific Rail Car |
| Sunday, July 28 – Monday, July 29 | ||
| On Display: | 9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. CT | West Chicago, Ill. Union Pacific Larry S. Provo Training Center 335 Spencer St. Experience the Union Pacific Rail Car |
| Tuesday, July 30 | ||
| Depart | 8:00 a.m. CT | West Chicago, Ill. Union Pacific Larry S. Provo Training Center 335 Spencer St. |
| Arrival Depart |
9:45 a.m. CT 10:30 a.m. CT |
Rochelle, Ill. Rochelle Railroad Park 124 N. 9th St. |
If we want to go over the guys at The Ridge Model Railroad Club said the Rochelle Railroad Park is a good spot if we don't want to fight Chicago traffic.
News for July 12, 2019
A lot of happenings at EMRRC as we coast through the middle of July. Installation of the new computer is completed. We have some small items to clean up but JMRI is residing happily atop a blistering fast computer running phone throttles and programming with no problems. We coupled it with a Digitrax PR4 to handle the programming track and the first new roster member is Jeff Cain with his BLI switcher. Just to forewarn everyone you will have to enter your engine back into the roster if you want to program on our system We still have a copy of the old roster but after 5 years it was disorganized and we decided to go with a clean start.
A new dam is taking shape on the Elkhart River thanks to Ron, Jerry, and Charlie. It's a small area but with a lot of detail. Still to come, a walkway, fishermen, and more detail items.
Member David Menges got his hands on a set of Walther's Great Circus Train releases a rare HO Scale 1:87 kit series offered in twelve very limited individual monthly releases beginning in 1989. David has been kind enough to let members of EMRRC follow along on FaceBook as he puts together this set. I am planning on showing all of his work in our Tech Files area but here is a sampling from David.
"John E. Strates immigrated to the United States in 1909 from Greece. He had many odd jobs until he joined a carnival in 1919 as a wrestler taking on any challenger. He acquired the Southern tier shows in 1923 and changed the name to John E. Strates Shows in 1932. He built and managed the carnival up until his death in 1959. His son E. James Strates assumed responsibility of the carnival that still operates today.
This car was the 6th release in The Great Circus train made by Walters. Stock and elephant cars were 72' in length and unloading ramps were carried on the underside of the car. Stock and elephant cars were coupled directly behind the locomotive to minimize jolting and possibly injuring the animals. Elephant cars are very similar to stock cars but were built to accommodate the weight of the elephants. Also, a larger door, solid walls, and smaller windows or ventilators because elephants are susceptible to pneumonia and must be protected from the cold and drafts. One elephant car could carry up to 13 adult elephants or "bulls" in circus slang regardless of gender. A show with a smaller herd would outfit the extra space with bunks for the handlers. 1/4 of early circus trains would be stock cars. As technology advanced tractors became available and elephant and stock cars became surplus and converted to flat cars".
Of course, after all of this, we had to run some trains I mean we have this huge layout just made for running multiple trains with lots of cars so why not? 
One engine that showed up was a Scale Trains GE TIER 4 GEVO, ET44C4. Originally a GE demonstrator it was modified and repainted in Erie, PA. Here's a shot of the engine on our layout and the real thing passing through Goshen, Indiana.
One interesting note the Navajo Mine is a private railroad and ordered 2 of the engines. The mine has no connection to the national rail network so the engines had to be trucked the last few miles to the mine's tracks. Click Here for all the action for Friday Night Running at the Club. If you want to see more pictures of trains and members from Friday Click Here. 
For a schedule of train shows and swap meets in the area Click Here (this is the latest list) courtesy of the Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. For 2018 Past Announcements at EMRRC Click Here. The 2020 Train Show information has been added to the site Vendors make sure you check as there are applications and information for vendors on the page. Also, 2020 is the Elkhart Model Railroad Club's 70th anniversary. An open house and other events are being planned to celebrate this occasion. Watch for future news on this. Have some fun with model railroading.
News for July 05, 2019
The day after Independence Day 2019 and it was a maintenance night at EMRRC. The main job was to install our new computer. Matt Glassman spent a couple of hours removing our old computer and installing our new, fast computer. With 8 gigs of ram, a 250gb solid state hard drive along with a one terabyte drive and we're up and running from startup to JMRI in 30 seconds. We also are installing a new monitor, Digitrax PR4 and a Raspberry. 
Afterward, the trains were running at EMRRC. We put together some footage of patriotic trains which have run at the club in the last few months. Click Here for all the action for Friday Night Running at the Club. If you want to see more pictures of trains and members from Friday Click Here.
For a schedule on train shows and swap meets in the area Click Here (this is the latest list) courtesy of the Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. For 2018 Past Announcements at EMRRC Click Here. The 2020 Train Show information has been added to the site Vendors make sure you check as there are applications and information for vendors on the page. Also, 2020 is the Elkhart Model Railroad Club's 70th anniversary. An open house and other events are being planned to celebrate this occasion. Watch for future news on this. Have some fun with model railroading.
News for June 28, 2019
A lot of happenings at the club for a summer month. Friday the 28th was operations night at the club. It was one of our better operations night with few mistakes. The Chief Dispatcher did not get in the van once to go out and take care of problems.
On Saturday several members made the trip over to Griffth in Northwest Indiana to attend the Ridge Model Railroaders Open House.
A large 30' x 40' with impressive scenery and Digitrax DCC control. The club has been in their current location for over 35 years and in that time has built an HO scale layout with multiple layers with changes ongoing.
Behind the backdrops are a large staging yard and an elevated platform with routing control which gives operators a birdseye view of the layout.
Thanks to the Ridge Model Railroaders for their hospitality.
Back at EMRRC Matt Glassman has finished the build of our new computer and he'll be installing it soon. The computer has an AMD RYZEN 3 2200G Quad-Core 3.5 GHz (3.7 GHz Max Boost). For all computer novices, it means lots of speed. For the old guys like me, it has the 426 HEMI in it. We're looking forward to the install and use of our new system. Click Here for all the action for Friday Night Running at the Club. If you want to see more pictures of trains and members from Friday Click Here. For a schedule on train shows and swap meets in the area Click Here (this is the latest list) courtesy of the Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. For 2018 Past Announcements at EMRRC Click Here. "A New Vision for 2020" ( I'm laying claim to the slogan). 2020 will be an exciting year for the club. Our 15th Annual Train Show will be held in Nappanee, Indiana at the Claywood Event Center. This is the same large modern facility where we held the show in the Spring of 2019. A menu item has been added to www.emrrc with some basic information about the show. Vendors make sure you check as there are applications and information for vendors on the page. Also, 2020 is the Elkhart Model Railroad Club's 70th anniversary. An open house and other events are being planned to celebrate this occasion. Watch for future news on this. Have some fun with model railroading.
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News for June 21, 2019
As we approach the end of June Friday was our monthly business meeting. Several general business items were taken care of for the month including the decision to buy a new computer system for the club. Our old system is over 15 years old and is starting to suffer from old age. I know how it feels. 
After the meeting, several members set up for the operations session for next Friday which will cover the early 1970s. If you are interested in how railroads operate or have an interest in solving puzzles stop by and we'll be glad to spend some time with you showing the layout and explaining operations. 
We had so many trains operating last week, we continue to show trains from then in our Friday Night Running at the Club video.
Click Here for all the action for Friday Night Running at the Club. If you want to see more pictures of trains and members from Friday Click Here. For a schedule on train shows and swap meets in the area Click Here (this is the latest list) courtesy of the Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. For 2018 Past Announcements at EMRRC Click Here. Also one last announcement this week, on Saturday, June 29, 2019, from 10am-4pm, the Ridge Model Railroaders will have an open house. – Southeast corner of Ridge and Colfax, Griffith Indiana. Click Here for a map to Ridge Model Railroaders. Have some fun with model railroading.
News for June 14, 2019
Believe it or not, it's time to let you know about the Elkhart Model Railroad Club's 15th Annual Train Show which will be held on Saturday, March 21, 2020, at the Claywood Event Center in Nappanee, IN. This is the same great facility we held the 2019 show at. A menu item has been created for the 2020 show. There you will find a couple of downloadable files, a flyer for the show and a vendor's table application. One change this year Randy Robbins after many years of service as the show coordinator is taking a well-deserved break and the coordinator is Nathan Overmyer.
Our last two Fridays have been very busy at the club. Paul Ewing did a great clinic on building structures out of cardstock and using the Cricut an inexpensive software based cutting machine to cut structure components with. Paul uses Railroad Board which he gets from Amazon as a base for gluing downloadable designs on or to cut on the Cricut. 
This machine will cut building sides, roofs, just about anything you can design or download in HO or any scale you want to work in.
Go and take a look at it at https://cricut.com/en_us?gclid=CjwKCAjw0ZfoBRB4EiwASUMdYcYtyRjh-dr7iNfcqRhVC0X_GBW6IwVkZmBf_XA1mrI4kq65kFjvuBoCI78QAvD_BwE. This linked page is mainly for crafts but it will give you an idea of what the machine is capable of. 
There are several Facebook and websites devoted to using the Cricut in model railroading. Paul showed several examples of cardstock and Cricut buildings at the clinic and everyone ended up making an ice machine from a downloaded design that looked realistic. 
EMRRC has monthly clinics and if you have an interest in getting some hands-on experience in building a model railroad stop by. 
As always there were plenty of trains running at EMRRC. Click Here for all the action for Friday Night Running at the Club. If you want to see more pictures of trains and members from Friday Click Here. For a schedule on train shows and swap meets in the area Click Here (this is the latest list) courtesy of the Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. For 2018 Past Announcements at EMRRC Click Here. Have some fun with model railroading.
NEWS for May 2019
News for May 31, 2019
Friday, May 31st was open running at the Elkhart Model Railroad Club. We had several members and guests show up to watch and run the many trains running over EMRRC trackage
A couple of unique NS locomotives showed up painted in special yellow, gray, black, and white scheme to highlight the conversion from DC to AC traction. The prototype Norfolk Southern is a SD70ACC with 4500 horsepower. 
NS is taking older units and replacing the original cab with new safety cabs and converter units. AAR-style control stand, electrical cabinet with Mitsubishi electronics, a new main alternator, and additional weight were all added to increase the maximum weight to 432,000 pounds when fully loaded with supplies. This is to add more safety and pulling power to NS units. 
Existing trucks were rebuilt and new AC traction motors installed. All units are equipped with PTC (Positive Train Control) system. The units running at EMRRC were built and painted by member Matt Glassman. They are Athearn SD70MAX donar units rebuilt with Pacific Northwest Resin cabs. Loksound 5 decoders were mated with TCS motherboards in order to acess all the lighting functions and add keep alive.and keep alive. The units were painted with rattle cans and decals were added by Matt. Click Here for all the action for Friday Night Running at the Club. If you want to see more pictures of trains and members from Friday Click Here. For a schedule on train shows and swap meets in the area Click Here (this is the latest list) courtesy of the Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. For 2018 Past Announcements at EMRRC Click Here. Have some fun with model railroading.
News for May 24, 2019
Memorial Day 2019 as thoughts of the brave people who gave their all for our freedom are with us. The Elkhart Model Railroad Club was open Friday, May 24th for operations. 
Several trains made their way over EMRRC trackage as Chief Dispatcher Ron Breniser decided to change things up and assign everyone different locations. Local and through freights all made their way through EMRRC trackage along with passenger trains and extras. Everyone enjoyed their new assignments and there weren't too many snafus. A new tower operator showed up at Schult Tower to help traffic clear the yard. 
Another building to take a look at on the layout is the quarry area. The quarry was built over the last 2 years by Charlie Yoakam and Jerry Piatt. The walls are sheet styrofoam and the building is a Walthers Cornerstone Glacier Gravel Co.
Click Here for all the action for Friday Night Running at the Club. If you want to see more pictures of trains and members from Friday Click Here. For a schedule on train shows and swap meets in the area Click Here (this is the latest list) courtesy of the Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. For 2018 Past Announcements at EMRRC Click Here. Have some fun with model railroading.
News for May 17, 2019
May is heading out the door quickly as the 103rd Indianapolis 500 is next weekend and that means an extra day off or Memorial Day weekend. Don't forget to think of the many persons who have died while serving in the United States Armed Forces on the day that honors them. The Elkhart Model Railroad Club will be open Friday evening from 7:00 pm till 10:00 pm for operations. If you're looking for something unusual to start your Memorial Day weekend stop by and take a look.
Friday, May 12th was our monthly business meeting. We had several members in attendance and several items to take a look at. EMRRC is looking to replace our computer system and interface to the Digitrax DCC system. A committee had been formed last month and a report was submitted with recommendations. Also, we are working on getting everyone organized on run nights. With members and guests approaching 25 people that means a lot of trains and engines are showing up with the necessary boxes and cases to transport them. We are looking at members supplying roll-around cases which will fit under the layout and hold all of the cases and boxes while the trains run on the layout. 
We had several trains show up Friday night including Clinchfield, Virginian, and a beautiful Wabash Blue Bird passenger train. The Wabash introduced a heavyweight Blue Bird on the Chicago–St. Louis run in 1938. 
The train was painted blue-gold, previously reserved for the Wabash's Banner Blue. The Wabash relaunched the Blue Bird as a streamlined train on February 26, 1950, with all-new Budd Company "Vista-Dome" dome cars and E-unit diesel locomotives from Electro-Motive Division. The new train carried Wabash's standard blue-gray-white livery. The Wabash referred to the Blue Bird as a "Domeliner" in contemporary advertising. Amenities on the new train included radio and "recorded musical programs"; coach passengers had access to the "Coffee Shop Club". The Blue Bird running on the layout 
has Intermountain engines and BLI passenger cars.
Looking at another area on the layout we take a look at the coal mine area. Originally built in the 1980s it was rebuilt by Charlie Yoakam and Jerry Pyatt in the last 5 years. If you make it by the club and look closely at this area you can find black bears roaming the hills near the abandoned mine at the top of the hill. Click Here for all the action for Friday Night Running at the Club. If you want to see more pictures of trains and members from Friday Click Here. For a schedule on train shows and swap meets in the area Click Here (this is the latest list) courtesy of the Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. For 2018 Past Announcements at EMRRC Click Here. Have some fun with model railroading.
News for May 10, 2019
The Elkhart Model Railroad Club had 17 members and 3 guests show up for an open running session Friday night. What is open running at our club? Trains are run with no dispatcher and at EMRRC a large majority of the layout is double tracked with mandatory right-hand running but there are areas where the main is single tracked to make it interesting and that means you have to arrange meets and move over for passenger trains. 
We fit in guests if they want to run their own trains or a club train. We had several steam locomotives show up along with diesels. We had so many trains running there wasn't room to show all of them in this weeks video. 
There was a 4 engine lashup of South Shore Freight GP38s running and we got to see BNSF, UP diesel and steam and a Chicago Burlington & Quincy Railroad Baldwin VO-1000 #9379. 
This weeks building that we're taking a look at on the railroad is the Bates Mansion and motel. Built and scenic by Randy Robbins with detail painting by David Menges 
over the last year. Due to tight budgets, the "movie" Bates Mansion was partly constructed from backlot facades already built on the Universal Studio lot. The Bates Mansion was built as a two-walled exterior facade, only to be filmed from the front. The set has been rebuilt still stands on the Universal backlot. The original Bates Motel set no longer exists, but a reconstructed version of the motel was rebuilt for the studio tours. Randy built the mansion from a Polar Lights Kit and scratch built the motel from a variety of kits. Click Here for all the action for Friday Night Running at the Club. If you want to see more pictures of trains and members from Friday Click Here. For a schedule on train shows and swap meets in the area Click Here (this is the latest list) courtesy of the Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. For 2018 Past Announcements at EMRRC Click Here. Have some fun with model railroading.
News for May 3, 2019
Several members showed up for cleaning & maintenance night and of course running trains afterward. One of the areas being worked on is the Elkhart River. Ironically the City of Elkhart is removing the dam on the river while the Elkhart Model Railroad Club is installing one. 
Looking at another one of the areas in town to the north is the Miles Laboratories complex. Makers of Alka-Seltzer, 
Miles started in 1884.
By 1890, the sales success of his patent medicine tonic, "Dr. Miles Restorative Nervine", in treating "nervous" ailments (including "nervousness or nervous exhaustion, sleeplessness, hysteria, headache, neuralgia, backache, pain, epilepsy, spasms, fits, and St. Vitus' dance") led him to develop a mail-order medicine business. 
In 1932, the company became Dr. Miles Laboratories, then, in 1935, the name was again changed, to Miles Laboratories. In 1979, Bayer AG purchased Miles Laboratories and its subsidiary Miles Canada to reestablish a presence in North America. In the process, Bayer also acquired products such as Alka-Seltzer, Flintstones Vitamins, One-A-Day Vitamins, Bactine, S.O.S Soap Pads, and Worthington Foods. Bayer AG bought Miles in 1979 and by 1992, Bayer AG moved the United States headquarters of Miles to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from Elkhart, Indiana. On April 1, 1995, Bayer eliminated the Miles brand name from all products and facilities. 
At the Elkhart Model Railroad Club, Miles Laboratories still exists just north of the downtown area. Two club members Charlie Yoakam and Jerry Piatt are retired employees of Miles. No one is sure who originally built the Miles complex as it has been on the layout for years but Charlie and Jerry keep an eye on it adding updates and performing general maintenance.
Click Here for all the action for Friday Night Running at the Club. We had lots of steam, side-swipes and young and old operators. If you want to see more pictures of trains and members from Friday Click Here. For a schedule on train shows and swap meets in the area Click Here (this is the latest list) courtesy of the Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. For 2018 Past Announcements at EMRRC Click Here. Have some fun with model railroading.
NEWS for April 2019
News for April 26, 2019
A dozen members of EMRRC headed over to Duneland Model Railroad Club in Michigan City, Indiana for their annual Hobo Dinner. Duneland was formed in 1986 and in 1996 moved to their current location at 915 Franklin Street.
Several years ago they decided to host a dinner every spring to invite the public in to take a look at the layout, meet the club members and enjoy some great food. Everyone from EMRRC had a great time enjoying the fellowship, food, and trains running. 
Several members brought their own engines and pulled Duneland cars. Several large and scenic areas make the Duneland layout an interesting run. There are many tunnels, lower levels, and the entire layout is DCC along with a Digitrax LNWI system that allowed many members to run with their cell phones as throttles. 
EMRRC would like to thank Duneland for their hospitality and hosting the event.
This week I thought we would take a look at one of Dunelands buildings on their layout. Union Station is a huge structure with upper and lower levels dominating one room of the layout. This impressive structure was kitbashed by Don Nagdeman in the 1990s. This weeks video takes a look at Duneland and their great layout in Michigan City. And if you visit don't forget the South Shore's main facility is very close by. Click Here for the Duneland video. If you want to see more pictures of trains and members from Friday Click Here. For a schedule on train shows and swap meets in the area Click Here (this is the latest list) courtesy of the Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. For 2018 Past Announcements at EMRRC Click Here. Have some fun with model railroading.
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News for April 19, 2019
The April 19th meeting opened up with a business meeting with a large group of members in attendance. Several items were discussed, among them the success of our March 2019 Train Show and some starting plans for the EMRRC 2020 Train Show on March 21st, 2020 at the Claywood Event Center. One member was welcomed back. Jeff Cain went through an extensive hospital stay and rehabilitation after slipping on the ice in early January. Thank goodness Jeff put up a hard fight to come all the way back. We also welcomed 2 new members. Ken Prager was voted in as a probationary member and Nathan Overmyer was voted in as a regular member. Congratulations Ken & Nathan. 
After the meeting, several members were checking out Matt Glassman's build of an NS SD 70ACC. The Norfolk Southern 70ACC is a rebuild of an original SE70. Some of the prototype changes are DC to AC, a safer comfort cab and better electric system. Matt's model has a Pacific Northwest Resin cab, with a shortened nose and an ESU decoder with a TSU motherboard.
This is 1 of 2 builds for Matt, 1800 and 1801.
A couple of club projects were also discussed. 
A new dam is being added to the Elkhart River
and a new building has been added to the roundhouse area which is the start of the new interchange for Grand Elk access to our yards and mainlines. To do this there will be a diamond added to the mainline near Hammes Yard and several switches will be taken out or moved. More information to come on this as it develops.
Taking a look at another one of the buildings on the layout and this one is huge, the Budweizer Brewery complex. The complex was built over 15 years ago by Jay Freet and lit by Bob Wilson. There is a modified Walthers Power House hidden in the complex along with a lot of additions and modifications. Also, one last note, don't forget the annual Hobo Dinner will be Friday, April 26th at Duneland Model Railroad Club. The club hosts a great dinner with lots of trains running. We finally got to running trains late Friday night so for all the late night action Click Here. If you want to see more pictures of trains and members from the weekend Click Here. For a schedule on train shows and swap meets in the area Click Here (this is the latest list) courtesy of the Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. For 2018 Past Announcements at EMRRC Click Here. Have some fun with model railroading.
News for April 12, 2019
Several members were on hand Friday for open running.
A couple of members made the trip to Cass County Rail in Dowagiac, MI for a visit.
It's a large nice layout in a modern building which the club owns. 
We are fortunate at EMRRC to have several clubs in driving distance. On April 26th many members will make the trip to Michigan City, IN for the annual Hobo Dinner at Duneland Model Railroad Club. The club hosts a great dinner with lots of trains running.
Meanwhile back at the club a thank you to Matt Glassman whom if you want to see you have to crawl under the layout as Matt is going to be working on wiring switch panels for quite a while along with several other electronic projects on his list.
We had several modern diesels running along with a couple of nice steam engines.
Randy Robbins had his NYC Niagra out pulling Virginian coal cars and Jerry Piatt was testing a new BLI T1.
The Pennsylvania Railroad T1 4-4-4-4 may look and sound like an articulated steam locomotive, but it really was a rigid frame locomotive with a second pair of cylinders dividing the drivers, making it a duplex drive locomotive. The design was a successful one and after a trial of two locomotives, the PRR ordered 50 more. Click Here to see all the action at EMRRC. If you want to see more pictures of trains and members from the weekend Click Here. For a schedule on train shows and swap meets in the area Click Here (this is the latest list) courtesy of the Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. For 2018 Past Announcements at EMRRC Click Here. Have some fun with model railroading.
News for April 5, 2019
A dozen members showed up for a work night and open running for our first meeting in April 2019. Gary Pressnell has been working diligently on the roundhouse area while member Gabe Smith has been installing flashing crossing signals on the layout. Matt Glassman is working on wiring switch panels which involves a tremendous amount of wiring work under the layout. 
Member Paul Ewing brought in a HO scale brakeman with a lantern in his hand he scored at our March train show. Afterward, trains were running on the EMRRC layout. 
The Algoma Central passenger consist made another appearance pulling a full complement of 8 passenger cars with FP9 A&B engines.
BNSF units made several appearances with doubles and singles. Also, the South Houston and Indian Territories Hybrid unit ran through pulling several cars.
Continuing with a tour of structures on the EMRRC layout here is one structure that prominently shows in a lot of photos and videos of our layout, the trestle that runs over Berkey Canyon and Ponds. The trestle was built by member Bob Mangum in the 1970s on his kitchen table at home and then moved to the layout prebuilt in 1974. Bob built the trestle to last as it has been in continuous use for over 45 years. For more on the history of the club Click Here. Click Here to see all the action at EMRRC. If you want to see more pictures of trains and members from the weekend Click Here. For a schedule on train shows and swap meets in the area Click Here (this is the latest list) courtesy of the Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. For 2018 Past Announcements at EMRRC Click Here. Have some fun with model railroading.
News for March 29, 2019
Our last meeting for March 2019 and a lot of members and guests showed up for open running at EMRRC. We had several modern diesel locomotives running along with some older NYC and B&O. We had a Chesapeake & Ohio H-8 Allegany running tonight pulling a ton of cars and running over signs placed too close to the track.With four fewer drivers than a Union Pacific Big Boy, an Allegheny could deliver nearly a thousand more horsepower to the rails. Its massive firebox was big 
enough to host a board meeting — so big it required a unique 6-wheel trailing truck to support it. Its drivers carried the highest axle load of any steam engine, ever. To make the Allegheny fit the C&O’s existing 115-foot turntables, its tender was made taller at the rear, to accommodate 25 tons of coal and 25,000 gallons of water. This required a unique 4-wheel rear truck on the tender. When the final H-8s were retired in 1956, No. 1601 steamed under its own power to Dearborn, Michigan, to become a permanent exhibit in the Henry Ford Museum. The one other surviving Allegheny, No. 1604, resides today in the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore, Maryland.
We also made some significant progress on the roundhouse area as member Gary Pressnell delivered the rebuilt bridge for the turntable and new ash hoist and coaling tower. Gary built and added the power arch, doghouse, and the handrails.
Here is a shot of the coaling tower and hoist set in place for a look. They're probably not in their final resting place but look great on the layout.
Click Here to see all the action at EMRRC. If you want to see more pictures of trains and members from the weekend Click Here. For a schedule on train shows and swap meets in the area Click Here (this is the latest list) courtesy of the Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. For 2018 Past Announcements at EMRRC Click Here. Have some fun with model railroading.
News for March 22, 2019
We had over 15 members and guests show up for Friday Night Running at the Club on March 22nd. Several members were talking about our 2019 train show which just finished up on Saturday, March 16th.
We had an estimated 650 paid attendees to the show and we believe there were over 100 kids under 12 who came and had a great time with the operating layouts. One layout from the Kalamazoo Model Railroad Historical Society is set up especially for kids. "The Red and Black" layout is a 4x8 foot layout that they take to many functions, for children to run. The children's layout has 2 main lines. The layout is wired for Digital Command Control and 2 children may each run a train independently using the supplied controllers. The layout has scenery, the engines are wired for sound and there are stations to stop at to give the children a feel of actual railroading. Kalamazoo Model Railroad Historical Society members are always thereto assist the children and answer any questions. There were no empty seats around the layout. Thanks to the vendors, exhibitors and the staff of the Claywood Event Center who made our 2019 show a success.
The UP Turbine X74 along with its tender made another showing on the EMRRC layout. In late 1955, UP extended the range of the gas turbines by adding a 22,000-gallon fuel tender. The original assignment for the gas turbines was Ogden, Utah to Green River, Wyoming. 
When the second order was delivered, the gas turbines began operating further east to Cheyenne, Wyoming. With the addition of the tenders, they could run between Ogden and Council Bluffs, Iowa without refueling and that remained their normal operating range for the rest of their careers.
A new BNSF ET44C4 also was moving through EMRRC trackage Friday night. Introduced in 2012, General Electric's Tier 4 GEVo Series represents the latest in diesel-electric locomotive technology. The GE Tier 4 GEVo is designed to meet the increasingly stringent Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) emissions regulations. The EPA “Tier” emissions standards are a series, or Tiers, of allowable emissions levels based upon a locomotives’ date of manufacture. The highest and most stringent tier level, Tier 4, sets maximum allowable NOx and hydrocarbon emissions levels for locomotives built for domestic use 2015 onward. While similar in appearance to previous GE GEVo designs, the Tier 4 models featured a longer frame compared to their predecessors. 
This allows for a larger radiator “cab” (GE refers to the various sections of the long hood as “cabs”), and a "hump" over the engine cab for advanced exhaust treatment equipment. Initially, a boxy housing filled the entire roofline on the blue-painted field test/demonstrator units. Due to changes in treatment equipment and clearance issues, the "hump" would decrease in size and shape into a boxy compartment around the exhaust on initial production units. This culminated in an angled compartment surrounding the exhaust manifold on the latest production versions (2016+). Despite boxier engine cab rooflines and a radically styled radiator cab, the basic Tier 4 design shares a family appearance with GE safety cab-equipped units going back to the DASH-9s of the 1990s. It even includes the same 12-cylinder GEVo-12 series prime mover and 4,400hp as its predecessor model. The Tier 4 units have proven to be popular with the major railroads including BNSF Railway, Canadian National, CSX Transportation, Norfolk Southern, and Union Pacific. While GE has settled on a basic carbody design to keep production costs down, there are notable variations and detail differences due to customer specifications. With many units built for railroads across the US and in Canada, the Tier 4 GEVo can be seen operating nationwide in a variety of assignments.
Click Here to see these engines and many more at EMRRC. If you want to see more pictures of trains and members from the weekend Click Here. We've already scheduled our 2020 show for March 21st so check back here for upcoming info. For a schedule on train shows and swap meets in the area Click Here (this is the latest list) courtesy of the Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. For 2018 Past Announcements at EMRRC Click Here. Have some fun with model railroading.
News for March 15, 2019
Members of EMRRC spent Friday the 15th setting up for our annual train show. 
We had one valiant group meet Friday afternoon at Claywood Event Center to help with table and chair setup and solve all the little last-minute problems.
A
few members gathered Friday evening at the club to relax and run trains. On Saturday, March 16th EMRRC had our 14th annual train show in Nappanee Indiana. We had 150 vendors and several operating layouts.
People were lined up out the door doublewide starting at 10 am and we had a steady stream of people all day. 
I ate at the restaurant and the food was top notch. Many vendors commented on the
great facility and the many people in attendance. Everyone I spoke with had a great time and there were lots of young kids and teens in attendance which gives me hope for the hobby. A little bit of bad news this week. There is a post on NWSL's Facebook page about closing the business. If there is anything you want you'd better order it before August.
https://www.facebook.com/1470545813221465/posts/2315577498718288/
This week we didn't have as many trains running so the video is a combination of trains from the club and the train show with overall scenes from the show. To see our video Click Here to see all the action. If you want to see more pictures of trains and members from the weekend Click Here. We've already scheduled our 2020 show for March 21st so check back here for upcoming info. For a schedule on train shows and swap meets in the area Click Here (this is the latest list) courtesy of the Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. For 2018 Past Announcements at EMRRC Click Here. Have some fun with model railroading.
News for March 8, 2019
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Friday the 8th started with a business meeting covering our upcoming March 16th Nappanee Train Show. All of the vendor tables have been sold, the assignments for club members working the show have been made and EMRRC is ready for a great 2019 train show. After the meeting members ran trains and socialized for the rest of the evening.
We had some interesting trains show up for the evening, among them was CSX 3440. CSX created the locomotive decal to honor the Kentucky Steam Heritage Corporation, which is based in Ravenna, Kentucky. GE ET44AH locomotive No. 3440 has received a Spirit of Ravenna decal along with a Kentucky Steam Heritage logo and a special Louisville & Nashville decal. The ScaleTrains.com Tier 4 GEVo diesel locomotive is the first model in HO scale and is officially licensed by GE.
We also had an Algoma Central passenger train make a run through. The engine is Rapido and the cars are IHC. In the 1960s, the railway began to promote the natural beauty of the District of Algoma to tourists, especially the Agawa Canyon, a canyon carved by the Agawa River, located 114 rail miles (183 km) north of Sault Ste. Marie, and not accessible by road. The Algoma Central developed a tourist stopover here and it proved to be a great success for the railway. Owing to the popularity of the Agawa Canyon excursions, the Algoma Central would run the longest passenger trains in North America, often up to 20 to 24 cars long. During the 1970s and 1980s, around 100,000 people per year would tour Agawa Canyon.
Member Paul Ewing will be conducting a clinic on cardstock modeling, He brought several examples with him Friday night. The Ewing Cafe is based on an actual building in South Bend, Indiana and the walls, roof and floor were cut with a Cricut machine. The 2 story building was downloaded from the internet and made with cardstock. 
Continuing with our look at buildings at EMRRC here is a look at Chateau Paper built by Stan Shatto. For more pictures of trains and members from Friday night Click Here. This is the final notice for our 2019 Train Show. We are sold out of vendor tables but CLICK HERE for general information. For a schedule on train shows and swap meets in the area Click Here (this is the latest list) courtesy of the Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. For 2018 Past Announcements at EMRRC Click Here. Have some fun with model railroading.
News For March 1, 2019
March has come in like a cold lion with some snow and record low temperatures coming. We had a good turnout for Friday with several members showing up for show prep and running trains.
Getting ready for our large train show on March 16th takes a lot of work on all the members part. Just about all 150 vendor tables and operating areas have been spoken for. As you walk into the 14,000 sq. ft. Claywood Event Center we will have folks up front to get you quickly checked in and there will be a video running that will give you some insights into how the club operates showing several trains running on our large HO layout and some looks at our new N-Scale layout that is just getting underway.
One of our great creative friends Jay Freet, look for him shooting racing at the South Bend Motor Speedway this summer, posted a great idea on Facebook for building interiors.
Jay uses old electronics boards inside his N-Scale buildings and from the exterior, it looks like the building is full of equipment.
Member Paul Ewing does the same thing at our club. Here is Jacobson Wood Products and you can see how this great idea brings interesting looks to a couple of buildings both N-Scale and HO-Scale.
We have a ton of buildings on the layout so I thought we would take a look at some of the buildings around the layout that get overshadowed by the trains but add ambiance to the total scene. Here are a few of the buildings in downtown Elkhart to take a look at. We'll try to come up with some history on the buildings but many have been built over the life of the club which extends back to 1950.
Ed's Built by Jay Freet
Sweet Corn Charlies a summer stable in Elkhart and surrounding counties. This guy has perfected the formula for sweet corn
As always we had lots of trains running Friday night Click Here to see all the action for our latest video in 2019. If you want to see more pictures of trains and members from Friday night Click Here. Vendor Tables are going fast for the EMRRC 2019 Train Show, we are close to selling out 150 tables. CLICK HERE for general and vendor information. For a schedule on train shows and swap meets in the area Click Here (this is the latest list) courtesy of the Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. For 2018 Past Announcements at EMRRC Click Here. Have some fun with model railroading
NEWS for February 2019
News for February 22, 2019
The shortest month of the year is moving out fast and good riddance after the weather we have experienced. Friday was our operations session for February and we had a lot of folks trying to solve the puzzle of operations at EMRRC. If you enjoy puzzles we run the biggest electronically interfaced 3D puzzle in the area every fourth Friday of the month.
Operations is a fun and interesting role-playing game where the players (operators) use model trains
to simulate the movements of real trains. Our dispatchers and yardmasters work closely with the members out on the layout to make it an enjoyable and fun experience.
The 14th Annual EMRRC Train Show is fast approaching. If you are a hobbyist this is one of the best shows around to come to and get deals. If you're looking for a family venue that all of the family can enjoy there will be several operating layouts and demos. Food is available on site and kids under 12 can get in free. Over 14,000 sq.ft. of trains and 150 vendors eager to sell.
To check out our operations Click Here to see all the action for our latest video in 2019. If you want to see more pictures of trains and members from Friday night Click Here. Vendor Tables are going fast for the EMRRC 2019 Train Show, we are close to selling out 150 tables. CLICK HERE for general and vendor information. For a schedule on train shows and swap meets in the area Click Here (this is the latest list) courtesy of the Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. For 2018 Past Announcements at EMRRC Click Here. Have some fun with model railroading.
News for February 15, 2019
A quick move into mid-February and we're into our second business meeting of the year. 
Several projects were reported on including a new switch panel installed by member Matt Glassman. This will give approaching and departing trains from Chicago and Toledo running through the Flushing division an easier path through the EMRRC system. Members Charlie Yoakam and Jerry Piatt charged with upgrading the waterways on the layout are building a dam along the Elkhart River with help from Ron Breniser. Probationary member Jerri Cardella was voted into full membership after her probationary period ended. Also, next week is operations at the club and Chief Dispatcher Ron Breniser was making plans for that. On a sad note, it was announced Charlie Yoakum's brother Raymond Yoakum passed away in Texas. Raymond was a member of the club till he moved to Texas where he was a member of the Plano Texas Model Railroad Club. Thoughts and prayers from all the club members for Charlie and his family. 
We had several interesting engines show up for running after the business meeting. A UP Gas Turbine made its initial run at the club. In late 1948 Alco-Ge built a 4500 h.p gas turbine electric locomotive. The dual cab, 84-foot long locomotive burned cheap Bunker C fuel that usually powered oil-burning steam locomotives. The 2019 Spring Issue of Classic Trains has a great article on Gas Turbine Electrics. To see this engine and many more just Click Here to see all the action for our latest video in 2019. If you want to see more pictures of trains and members from Friday night Click Here. Vendor Tables are going fast for the EMRRC 2019 Train Show, we have over 110 tables spoken for so far. CLICK HERE for general and vendor information. For a schedule on train shows and swap meets in the area Click Here (this is the latest list) courtesy of the Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. For 2018 Past Announcements at EMRRC Click Here. Have some fun with model railroading.
News for February 8, 2019
January ran into February with record-breaking cold in the midwest. Actual temperatures were in the -20° range with wind chills in the -50° range. By the first week of February, temperatures were in the plus 50s settling to 8° by February 8th. Several members and visitors had cabin fever and made our February 8th meeting. But before we get to our meeting a couple of items on members. We lost our lifetime model craftsman Stan Shatto on December 31, 2018. The club and all our members will miss Stan. Please see the remembrance below. Also, member Jeffrey Cain slipped and fell on the ice at the end of January ending up in the hospital for several weeks with some serious injuries. Get well soon Jeff the members miss seeing those beautiful passenger engines of yours on the layout.
As you can see from the picture people were bundled up from the cold Friday Night but the coats came off as people started running trains. We had several interesting trains running through Elkhart on EMRRC trackage including 
Nickel Plate, P&LE, Peabody, Clinchfield, NYC, and Virginian. Just Click Here to see all the action for our latest video in 2019. If you want to see more pictures of trains and members from Friday night Click Here. Vendor Tables are going fast for the EMRRC 2019 Train Show, we have over a 100 tables spoken for so far. CLICK HERE for general and vendor information. For a schedule on train shows and swap meets in the area Click Here (this is the latest list) courtesy of the Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. For 2018 Past Announcements at EMRRC Click Here. Have some fun with model railroading.
Stan Shatto September 18, 1951/December 31, 2018
Stanley “Butch” Stephen Shatto, 67, of Elkhart and formerly of LaGrange, passed away on December 31, 2018, at the Lutheran Life Villages Nursing Home in Kendallville, Indiana.
He was born on September 18, 1951, in LaGrange County to Clyde and Lillian (Runion) Shatto.
Stan grew up in LaGrange and graduated from Lakeland High School. In his younger days, his parents ran what was previously known as the Brick House Restaurant on Detroit Street in LaGrange. He also worked as a truck driver and a cab driver. He had a lifetime love of anything Mopar, Race Cars and especially Model Trains. He was a long time member and master model designer at the Elkhart Model Railroad Club. He is survived by his children, Stephanie Shatto-Dennis of Maxwell CA., Tonya Shatto of Aurora Co., Michael Shatto of Long Beach CA. and Michelle Shatto of West Sacramento, CA., step-children; Chad Stahl and Toni Stahl-Brigman, both of Kendallville, IN., 7 grandchildren; Cassandra, Vanessa, Nickolas , Matthew, Amber, Avanelle (Ellie) and Trevor. He is also survived by his previous wives, Betty (Ritzer) Shatto, Pamela (Coney) Newsome and Patricia (Wolfe) Shatto. Stan was preceded in death by his parents, Clyde Shatto and Lillian (Runion) Shatto, half-brothers; Robert, William & James Shatto and half-sister; Anita Jean (Shatto) McNeal.
Graveside services will be private and a Celebration of Life will be planned for a later date.
Any memorial donations may be made in his memory to the Elkhart Model Railroad Club, 230 Hawthorne Street, Elkhart, IN 46517.
Stan was a lifetime member of the Elkhart Model Railroad Club. Older Club members remember Stan joining the club in the 1970s. Stan was an excellent modeler. Many of the areas on the club layout had Stan’s touch and this made for a better more scenic layout. One of the premier areas on the club is the Chateau Paper factory complex serviced by the Wood Creek railroad.
This complex encompasses a 3’ x 8’ area that includes many lighted buildings and an industrial complex with detail that is hard to believe.
Yes, it’s a model and its 1/87th scale by Stan Shatto.
Several of the water towers and tanks on the layout were built by Stan along with a multitude of buildings scattered all over the layout.
Stan was a joker and liked to subtlety show his humor through playing with words. Chateau Papers is a play on his own name and who can forget famous engines like; Sano Flush, Utterly Pathetic and the infamous Norfolk & Weigh. Some members like to show how precise their modeling is by letting a car roll down a grade on the layout and brag about how smooth it was and how far it would go. One night Stan ran of his cars down the grade and it went further than anyone's. Members watched the freight roll uphill over the next grade. Stan had hidden a small motor in the freight car and had everyone going till he ran it up the hill.
Stan was a valuable member of the club and will be missed by all the club members. Keep Stan and his family members in your prayers. RIP Stan.
NEWS for January 2019End of January 2019 NewsNEWS for January 2019 weeks of January and I thought I would put up some interesting links till regular news from the meetings begins again. From Trains MagazineAn interesting article about the last piece of rolling stock that is left from the May 10, 1869 ceremony at Promontory Summit, Utah, that appeared in a Clint Eastwood movie.http://cs.trains.com/trn/b/sta
Double Header Souther Railway Steam for Ron.http://trn.trains.com/photos-v
The United States Railroad Administration (USRA) was the government agency that operated U.S. railroads during the First World War. During its tenure, the agency developed a dozen USRA standard steam locomotive designs for service nationwide. This massive 2-8-8-2 Mallet articulated was the largest of these USRA locomotives. It was 105'-2" long, stood 15'-9" tall, and weighed 531,000 pounds. Mallets were compound engines that used their steam twice: first in the rear high-pressure cylinders and then in the front low-pressure cylinders. American Locomotive Co. (Alco) and the Baldwin Locomotive Works built 80 USRA 2-8-8-2s in 1919 that were allocated to Appalachian coal-haulers. The USRA sent 50 to Norfolk & Western, 20 to the Virginian, and 10 to the Clinchfield. All three companies, plus the Denver & Rio Grande Western and the Northern Pacific purchased additional copies of these locomotives after the war. Many of these big 2-8-8-2s were used until the mid-1950s. 
Another train running through EMRRC trackage was the Empire Builder. The Great Northern Railway inaugurated the Empire Builder on June 10, 1929. It was named in honor of the company's founder, James J. Hill, who had reorganized several failing railroads into the only successful attempt at a privately-funded transcontinental railroad. It reached the Pacific Northwest in the late 19th century, and for this feat, he was nicknamed "The Empire Builder." Following World War II, Great Northern placed new streamlined and diesel-powered trains in service that cut the scheduled 2,211-mile-trip between Chicago and Seattle from 58.5 hours to 45 hours. The schedule allowed riders views of the Cascade Mountains and Glacier National Park, a park established through the lobbying efforts of the Great Northern. Re-equipped with domes in 1955, the Empire Builder offered passengers sweeping views of the route through three dome coaches and one full-length Great Dome car for first class passengers. Just Click Here to see all the action for our latest video in 2019. If you want to see more pictures of trains and members from Friday night Click Here. Vendor Tables are going fast for the EMRRC 2019 Train Show, we have over 85 tables spoken for so far. CLICK HERE for general and vendor information. For a schedule on train shows and swap meets in the area Click Here (this is the latest list) courtesy of the Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. For 2018 Past Announcements at EMRRC Click Here. Have some fun with model railroading.
January 4, 2019
Afterward, we had some interesting trains show up. Paul Ewing brought 2 Indiana Hi-Rail RSD15s. #443, was built by Alco in June 1960, #83579, as AT&SF 843, Class 800. It was renumbered 9843, Class 9800, in 1970, and sold to Precision National in 1975. They sold it to SCCCo as 9843 in 1975. It later became Peabody 9843 and then was sold to IHR as 9843 in 1988. It was soon renumbered 443. It became A&TC 443 in 2000 but is leased from a private owner. It was leased to Arkansas Railroad Museum and restored as ATSF 843. I have the engine painted as Squaw Valley 9843 when it was running for Peabody Coal. 
Another RSD-15, the high hood version Bessemer & Lake Erie 883 made a run through pulling a string of ore cars. As we saw all the final moves for 2018 just Click Here to see all the first moves for 2019. If you want to see more pictures of trains and members from Friday night Click Here. Vendor Tables are going fast for the EMRRC 2019 Train Show, we have over 85 tables spoken for so far. CLICK HERE for general and vendor information. For a schedule on train shows and swap meets in the area Click Here (this is the latest list) courtesy of the Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. For 2018 Past Announcements at EMRRC Click Here. Have some fun with model railroading. NEWS for January 2019End of January 2019 NewsNEWS for January 2019 weeks of January and I thought I would put up some interesting links till regular news from the meetings begins again. From Trains MagazineAn interesting article about the last piece of rolling stock that is left from the May 10, 1869 ceremony at Promontory Summit, Utah, that appeared in a Clint Eastwood movie.http://cs.trains.com/trn/b/staDouble Header Souther Railway Steam for Ron.http://trn.trains.com/photos-v
The United States Railroad Administration (USRA) was the government agency that operated U.S. railroads during the First World War. During its tenure, the agency developed a dozen USRA standard steam locomotive designs for service nationwide. This massive 2-8-8-2 Mallet articulated was the largest of these USRA locomotives. It was 105'-2" long, stood 15'-9" tall, and weighed 531,000 pounds. Mallets were compound engines that used their steam twice: first in the rear high-pressure cylinders and then in the front low-pressure cylinders. American Locomotive Co. (Alco) and the Baldwin Locomotive Works built 80 USRA 2-8-8-2s in 1919 that were allocated to Appalachian coal-haulers. The USRA sent 50 to Norfolk & Western, 20 to the Virginian, and 10 to the Clinchfield. All three companies, plus the Denver & Rio Grande Western and the Northern Pacific purchased additional copies of these locomotives after the war. Many of these big 2-8-8-2s were used until the mid-1950s. Another train running through EMRRC trackage was the Empire Builder. The Great Northern Railway inaugurated the Empire Builder on June 10, 1929. It was named in honor of the company's founder, James J. Hill, who had reorganized several failing railroads into the only successful attempt at a privately-funded transcontinental railroad. It reached the Pacific Northwest in the late 19th century, and for this feat, he was nicknamed "The Empire Builder." Following World War II, Great Northern placed new streamlined and diesel-powered trains in service that cut the scheduled 2,211-mile-trip between Chicago and Seattle from 58.5 hours to 45 hours. The schedule allowed riders views of the Cascade Mountains and Glacier National Park, a park established through the lobbying efforts of the Great Northern. Re-equipped with domes in 1955, the Empire Builder offered passengers sweeping views of the route through three dome coaches and one full-length Great Dome car for first class passengers. Just Click Here to see all the action for our latest video in 2019. If you want to see more pictures of trains and members from Friday night Click Here. Vendor Tables are going fast for the EMRRC 2019 Train Show, we have over 85 tables spoken for so far. CLICK HERE for general and vendor information. For a schedule on train shows and swap meets in the area Click Here (this is the latest list) courtesy of the Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. For 2018 Past Announcements at EMRRC Click Here. Have some fun with model railroading.
January 4, 2019
Afterward, we had some interesting trains show up. Paul Ewing brought 2 Indiana Hi-Rail RSD15s. #443, was built by Alco in June 1960, #83579, as AT&SF 843, Class 800. It was renumbered 9843, Class 9800, in 1970, and sold to Precision National in 1975. They sold it to SCCCo as 9843 in 1975. It later became Peabody 9843 and then was sold to IHR as 9843 in 1988. It was soon renumbered 443. It became A&TC 443 in 2000 but is leased from a private owner. It was leased to Arkansas Railroad Museum and restored as ATSF 843. I have the engine painted as Squaw Valley 9843 when it was running for Peabody Coal. Another RSD-15, the high hood version Bessemer & Lake Erie 883 made a run through pulling a string of ore cars. As we saw all the final moves for 2018 just Click Here to see all the first moves for 2019. If you want to see more pictures of trains and members from Friday night Click Here. Vendor Tables are going fast for the EMRRC 2019 Train Show, we have over 85 tables spoken for so far. CLICK HERE for general and vendor information. For a schedule on train shows and swap meets in the area Click Here (this is the latest list) courtesy of the Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. For 2018 Past Announcements at EMRRC Click Here. Have some fun with model railroading. NEWS for December 2018December 21, 2018
Before we brought out trains for runningMatt brought his LokSound programmer in and N Scale engines and HO engines with Loksound decoders were checked out.
Several interesting trains were on the layout including one of our Student Members, Larson, who brought in his new Bachmann EMD F7A for a run. Lot's of Norfolk Western diesel and steam, B&O, Southern and well let's just say we thought it would be a good idea to turn the lights out and run some night moves. To see all the final moves for 2018 just Click Here. If you want to see more pictures of trains and members from Friday night Click Here. Vendor Tables are going fast for the EMRRC 2019 Train Show, I believe we have over 80 tables spoken for so far. CLICK HERE for general and vendor information. For a schedule on train shows and swap meets in the area Click Here (this is the latest list) courtesy of the Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. For 2018 Past Announcements at EMRRC Click Here. Happy New Year to everyone. Have some fun with model railroading. See you next year.
December 21, 2018
December 21st was the Elkhart Model Railroad Club's annual Christmas Party. We had nearly a full house of members and family members attend the party. 5 20 inch pizzas, a table of desserts, free soft drinks made for good fellowship, lots of train talk and making sure everyone was in a food coma before trying to run trains. 
As always we had some unique trains running through Elkhart on Friday night. The new Norfolk Southern 6920 made a run through the club's trackage. No. 6920 is an SD60E model that will operate primarily in general freight service. Its red, white, and blue paint scheme, and yellow ribbon with the message “Honoring our Veterans,” was selected by a group of 18 NS employees representing all branches of the armed forces. A be
autiful Wabash A-B-A trio pulled the Wabash Blue Bird through Elkhart Friday night. The Wabash launched the Blue Bird as a streamlined train on February 26, 1950, with all-new Budd Company "Vista-Dome" dome cars and E-unit diesel locomotives from Electro-Motive Division. 
The new train carried Wabash's standard blue-gray-white livery. The Wabash referred to the Blue Bird as a "Domeliner" in contemporary advertising. Amenities on the new train included radio and "recorded musical programs" and coach passengers had access to the "Coffee Shop Club". The engines are Walthers Protos and the cars are Broadway Limited. After dinner Matt Glassman was helping members out with his Loksound programmer setup. Also Randy Robbins was working on an interior for one of his passenger cars. Out on the layout we had more than 12 trains running controlled by youngsters on sugar highs and oldsters fueled by caffeine. We had some close calls but no major disasters. So to see all of the action just Click Here. If you want to see more pictures of trains and members from Friday night Click Here. Vendor Tables are going fast for the EMRRC 2019 Train Show, I believe we have over 70 tables spoken for so far. CLICK HERE for general and vendor information. For a schedule on train shows and swap meets in the area Click Here (this is the latest list) courtesy of Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. For 2018 Past Announcements at EMRRC Click Here. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone. Next week is our last meeting of 2018 and the word is we are going to operations. Have some fun with model railroading. See you next week. December 14, 2018
Also member Matt Glassman has installed the 1st of several modifications to the electronics of the layout. We have several areas where it is difficult to tell quickly which way the switch is thrown. Matt installed a panel that tells the operator which way the switch is thrown through the creative use of leds. Thanks to both members for their hard work and creativity. We had several interesting locomotives show up for open running. 
A beautiful pair of Great Northern F7As from Walthers Proto 2000 showed up to take a run around the layout. They will be back soon pulling the flagship passenger train of the Great Northern, "The Empire Builder". Also a NYC Hudson Dryfuss was pulling the 20th Century Limited through Elkhart at the EMRRC layout
. Here's the real thing pictured on the left from June 15, 1938. The 20th Century Limited is in Elkhart on the first eastbound run with new streamlined equipment. Francis Herrmann, a student at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, traveled to Elkhart to take in the event. Three black-and white slides from that day were the only train photographs he ever took. Photo courtesy of; Francis Herrmann. Collection of Darwin Simonaitis. Courtesy of NYC Dreyfuss J3a Hudson 4-6-4 Facebook page.The New York Central commissioned famed industrial designer Henry Dreyfuss to sculpt the streamlined shape for the ten J3 Hudson locomotives slated to pull the 20th Century Limited train. June 15, 1938 marked the inaugural run from New York to Chicago in just 16 hours. A lot of trains running so to see all of the action just Click Here. If you want to see more pictures of trains and members from Friday night Click Here. Vendor Tables are going fast for the EMRRC 2019 Train Show, I believe we have over 70 tables spoken for so far. CLICK HERE for general and vendor information. For a schedule on train shows and swap meets in the area Click Here (this is the latest list) courtesy of Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. For 2018 Past Announcements at EMRRC Click Here. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone. Next week is our annual club Christmas Party. Have some fun with model railroading. See you next week.
December 7, 2018
Plate markings indicate whether a car's extreme outside dimensions falls within a standard cross-section - a plate. If you have restricted clearances on a track you have to know car clearances or problems are going to be overwhelming. Standard car cross-section drawings, or plates, are designated Plates B, C, E, and F. If a car's dimensions are entirely within Plate B (the smallest), no marking is shown. For cars fitting within Plate C, E, or F, a square with the appropriate marking is shown. A car whose dimensions exceed a given plate will display a circle marked, to use a common example, EXCEEDS PLATE C. Chuck presents this clinic at NMRA meetings and it can be lengthy as everything from tunnels to loading docks can fall under "Plate C". Lifetime member Stan Shatto is back in the hospital. We hope Stan does well . Stan has been instrumental in many of the scenes you see around the layout including Chateau Woods, just about every water tower or tank and many of the buildings that on the layout. Get Well Soon Stan.
After our monthly clinic it was all hands on deck for track maintenance a chore everyone hates but one that has to be kept up with on a large layout. Lot's of track was cleaned and switches tuned up as we had a good turnout of members for working on the track crews. 
Afterwards members got some trains running to testout some of the cleaned track. To see all of the action just Click Here. If you want to see more pictures of trains and members from Friday night Click Here. Vendor Tables are going fast for the EMRRC 2019 Train Show, I believe we have over 55 tables spoken for so far. CLICK HERE for general and vendor information. For a schedule on train shows and swap meets in the area Click Here (this is the latest list) courtesy of Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. For 2018 Past Announcements at EMRRC Click Here. Have some fun with model railroading. See you next week NEWS for November 2018November 30, 2018
The Holiday Train is back for it's 20th year to raise food, money and awareness for food banks. They simply ask people along the route and at designated stops to donate money or food to their community food banks. There are two Holiday Trains running, one that leaves Montreal and makes its way south ending up on NS tracks and than makes it way to southern Saskatchewan. The second Holiday Train stays in Canada leaving Montreal and finishing in British Columbia. Member Gabe Smith has started decorating the interior of the clubhouse for Christmas and we'll have pictures next week. In the meantime we had plenty of trains running Friday night at the club (hey we could name our videos that) so be sure to check all the action on our Facebook or YouTube channels. You can easily reach those by hitting the icons at the upper right of the web page. Easier yet just Click Here. If you want to see more pictures of trains and members from Friday night Click Here. Vendor Tables are going fast for the EMRRC 2019 Train Show, I believe we have over 55 tables spoken for so far. CLICK HERE for general and vendor information. For a schedule on train shows and swap meets in the area Click Here (this is the latest list) courtesy of Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. For 2018 Past Announcements at EMRRC Click Here. Have some fun with model railroading. See you next week. November 23, 2018
I am sure everyone had a nice Thanksgiving and enjoyed a few days off eating turkey, watching football and seeing family and friends. Members of EMRRC and a visitor from Dallas took an evening off from football and family Friday to enjoy the last evening of operations for November 2018. This was probably our best operations session of the year. The Chief Dispatcher was out a few times in the yellow van but everything went smoothly for the evening. 
There were several engines pulling passenger and freight through our trackage. The year was mid to late 1970s so steam had been gone for 15 to 20 years and only diesel was running on the layout. 
Gary Babcoke our student member from Penn State showed up with a beautiful Wabash PROTO 2000 Diesel EMD F7A-A Set Powered w/Sound & DCC #s1147 & 1147A in blue, aluminum . We're fortunate to have one of these units in driving distance to the club. 
The Monticello Railway Museum has #1189 showing Wabash colors. Originally delivered in 1953, the A-unit formerly served as Norfolk & Western 3725. The museum is located in Monticello, Illinois. For more trains check out our latest Friday Night Running at the Club video on Facebook or YouTube. Easier yet just Click Here. If you want to see more pictures of trains and members from Friday night Click Here. Vendor Tables are going fast for the EMRRC 2019 Train Show, I believe we have over 40 tables spoken for so far. CLICK HERE for general and vendor information. For a schedule on train shows and swap meets in the area Click Here (this is the latest list) courtesy of Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. For 2018 Past Announcements at EMRRC Click Here. Have some fun with model railroading. See you next week. November 16, 2018
We're getting close to the holidays and the end of the year. Our last business meeting of the year was Friday. The business meeting date for December will be the annual club Christmas party. Several items were on the agenda and discussed at the meeting. President Chuck Hart and several members attended Trainfest in Milwaukee last weekend. With over 70 layouts, over a hundred dealers and manufacturers, plus dozens of clinics there was plenty to do. Club officers were elected for 2019. The current officers Chuck Hart President, Jerry Piatt Vice President, Steve Storey Treasurer and John Banicki Secretary were all re-elected. Projects are all moving along. The Twin Branch Creek upgrade has been finished by Charlie and Jerry. The roundhouse area is moving along and big changes will be noticed in the next couple of weeks. Matt is upgrading mainline signals and the first panel to show switch alignment in areas that are tough to see is in place. 
The December 7th Clinic was announced "What's a Plate C?" 
Afterwards Ron was helped by several members to set up for next Friday's "Operations Session" which will concentrate on operations in 1975. Several members ran trains after setup and one of the interesting trains to show up was Matt Glassman's Kato Union Pacific #1943 "The Spirit." Here's a refresher on the locomotive courtesy of Kato. The SD70ACe is the latest in the line of EMD's "70" locomotives, an evolution of the SD70MAC, although its radiator design harkens more to
that of the SD80/90 body. The SD70ACe has been designed to fit the latest EPA standards and regulations, and sports 4300 horsepower. The Union Pacific has currently put in the largest purchase order for these units, and as a display of respect for the railroads it has incorporated, has produced six "Heritage" style painted locomotives with road numbers designated by the year they were merged into the UP.Union Pacific #1943 "The Spirit" 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. 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. The model has the following features. Prototype-accurate bolsterless non-radial HTSC truck and five chime airhorn. Exceptional and crisp molding to accentuate the distinct angular lines of the nose and high dynamic brake.Powerful five-pole KATO motor with dual brass flywheels. Directional Headlight and illuminated, preprinted numberboards. Illuminated ditch lights. Kato magnetic knuckle coupler. Matt likes the paint job on the locomotive. He owns the HO scale version also but believes Kato did a better jobe shading the paints on the N scale version. Matt ordered the DCC friendly version of the locomotive and is going to drop in a Loksound decoder. Several other trains ran during the evening. For more trains check out our latest Friday Night Running at the Club video on Facebook or YouTube. Easier yet just Click Here. If you want to see more pictures of trains and members from Friday night Click Here. Vendor Tables are going fast for the EMRRC 2019 Train Show, I believe we have over 40 tables spoken for so far. CLICK HERE for general and vendor information. For a schedule on train shows and swap meets in the area Click Here (this is the latest list) courtesy of Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. For 2018 Past Announcements at EMRRC Click Here. Have some fun with model railroading. See you next week. November 9, 2018
A cold beginning to "Open Running at the Club" on a Friday night in early November 2018. Some maintenance items to talk about first. The track and bridge crew, Charlie and Jerry have finished working on the double bridge area on the E&W trackage. They poured new water and put in new scenery around the bridges. Charlie & Jerry used Woodland Scenics water to complete the scene.
Also new trees made in last weeks clinic were planted on the layout.
Some interesting locomotives, cars and trains appeared on EMRRC trackage during the evening. The 911 commemorative locomotive, a SD60E honoring emergency first responder
s with insignia recognizing police, fire, and emergency services made a run along with NS 5642 part of the NS hazmat safety train including two of the four styles of tank cars, NS #362785 and NS #49001 to illustrate a variety of car valves and fittings.
Another interesting car to show up was PRR X31F Turtle Roof car designed to haul automobiles and during WWII jeeps. Also an express passenger train pulled by CN F7 A
& B units, numbers 9030 and 9037 in the olive green paint scheme made a run through our trackage Friday night. For more trains check out our latest Friday Night Running at the Club video on Facebook or YouTube. Easier yet just Click Here. If you want to see more pictures of trains and members from Friday night Click Here. Vendor Tables are going fast for the EMRRC 2019 Train Show so CLICK HERE for general and vendor information. For a schedule on train shows and swap meets in the area Click Here (this is the latest list) courtesy of Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. For 2018 Past Announcements at EMRRC Click Here. Have some fun with model railroading. See you next week. November 2, 2018
The first meeting of November 2018 occurred with warm nice weather but changes are coming. The meeting started with our normal monthly clinic this time on building trees. We had a clinic earlier this year on building trees conducted by Steve Storey. Steve did a quick recap of how to build trees and than we got into the real reason for the clinic, having all the members build trees for the layout. We just a combination of Super Trees and Hydrangeas for armatures and Super Trees foliage. Everybody did a great job and we ended up with many trees for the layout. Be sure to check out our Tech Files page for our original clinic on building trees. Also there are several more pictures on tree building on our Friday Night Pictures at the Club page. After the clinic trees were planted in several areas and maintenance was done in the roundhouse area, twin branch bridge and signal electronics were rewired.
Several locomotives showed up among them NS 8520 roaming across NS trackwork. Originally built by General Electric in 1996 as Dash 9-40CW number 8946, the unit was recently rebuilt and converted to AC traction at Norfolk Southern's Roanoke Locomotive Shop in Virginia, and painted in a red variation of the "mane" scheme at Juniata Locomotive Shop in Altoona, Pennsylvania. The red color was chosen for the corporate colors of CAF (Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles) of Spain, NS's partner in the design of the updated equipment and electronics. 8520 will venture across Norfolk Southern's network in revenue service, testing the new #technology in advance of additional locomotive rebuilds. Th unit Introduces the latest in Norfolk Southern's DC to AC conversion technology. Member Matt Glassman built. painted and decaled the unit. 
Also running along with 8520 was AVR 1206. For some reason it kept trying to slow down 8520. Check out the movie "Unstoppable" for further information. To see more trains check out our latest Friday Night Running at the Club video on Facebook or YouTube. Easier yet just Click Here. Vendor Tables are going fast for the EMRRC 2019 Train Show so CLICK HERE for general and vendor information. As mentioned above if you want to see more pictures of trees, trains and members from Friday night Click Here. For a schedule on train shows and swap meets in the area Click Here (this is the latest list) courtesy of Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. For 2018 Past Announcements at EMRRC Click Here. have some fun with model railroading. See you next week. NEWS for October 2018October 26, 2018
The operations scenario was for late 1940s and early 1950s so there was plenty of steam running along with Alcos, Nickel Plate and GP7s. 
One of the areas changing on the layout is a former intermodal facility that is being rebuilt into a new industrial area. Thanks to member Ron Breniser for all the hard work. Several new tenants including Precision Technology and Rupp Cement are in new buildings or have new buildings under construction in the area. 
Also a fence crew working with member Matt Glassman has been constructing industrial chain link for installation on the layout. 
Lots of switching , locals, over the road and passenger express were running during operations so for a video of Friday's running Click Here. Vendor Tables are going fast for the EMRRC 2019 Train Show so CLICK HERE for general and vendor information. For current pictures from the club taken in 2018 Click Here. For a schedule on train shows and swap meets in the area Click Here (this is the latest list) courtesy of Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. For 2018 Past Announcements at EMRRC Click Here. NEWS for October 2018October 19, 2018
and in various areas around the roundhouse. Studebaker Parts and Conn Selmer have both moved into warehouses near the yard. Rumours are PRR and NYC are both looking for building space nearby as are several other corporations and suppliers. 
We are looking at giving the Grand Elk access to our yards and mainlines. To do this there will be a diamond added to the mainline near Hammes Yard and several switches will be taken out or moved. More information to come on this as it develops. The track gang was out working on switches and trackage coming out of Elkhart. 
Also several members were setting trains for next week's operation session. Members were running trains as open running took place after the meeting. As mentioned Vendor Tables are going fast for the EMRRC 2019 Train Show so CLICK HERE for general and vendor information. As always for a video of Friday's running Click Here. For current pictures from the club taken in 2018 Click Here. For a schedule on train shows and swap meets in the area Click Here (this is the latest list) courtesy of Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. The Kalamazoo Swap Meet, is October 28th at the Expo Center at the Kalamazoo Fairgrounds 10:00am-3:00pm. For 2018 Past Announcements at EMRRC Click Here. October 12, 2018
Also Friday night member Gary Pressnell brought in the new roundhouse for the roundhouse area near Hammes Yard. The roundhouse looks great with complete lighting and an auxiliary building with an overhead crane. The area is starting to come together with background buildings outlying buildings cropping up. Gary was going to line up tracks in the roundhouse with the turntable bridge but parts of the bridge came apart so Gary is also working on the bridge for the pit doing repairs, adding handrails, light and electrical tower and a control shack. After checking out cabeese and roundhouse several trains ran through EMRRC. 
A couple of unusual engines showed up including Allegheny and West Virginia Railroad (AWVR) train #1206 the chase train from the movie "Unstoppable". Behind it is the ultimate graffiti train C&O #4834.
4834 is the former CSX Transportation blue-and-gold SD70ACe No. 4834 with Progress Rail reporting marks is on lease to Norfolk Southern. The locomotive’s CSX lettering had been overwritten with PRLX’s reporting marks only to have those efforts re-patched with C&O logos. No one has any idea who patched the locomotive with C&O logos. Vendor Tables are going fast for the EMRRC 2019 Train Show so CLICK HERE for general and vendor information. As always for a video of Friday's running Click Here. For current pictures from the club taken in 2018 Click Here. For a schedule on train shows and swap meets in the area Click Here (this is the latest list) courtesy of Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. For 2018 Past Announcements Click Here.
Afterwards several members worked on the layout. Member Matt Glassman worked on signaling. 
David Menges finished up the and delivered the new tower for Shultz yard, and several members teamed up on the roundhouse service terminal area. Afterwards members brought out several trains. 
One interesting loco owned by Jim Ford (me) is a GP40 ran on the The Belt Railway of Chicago. The Belt Railway is the largest intermediate switching terminal railroad in the United States. With Chicago being the largest hub of the railroad industry, very few rail cars travel transcontinentally without coming through Chicago. Owner lines, as well as several other railroads, bring trains to the Belt Railway to be efficiently separated, classified, and re-blocked for cross-country departure. The GP40 is an Atlas Gold series with a Loksound decoder. Here are all the links of interest this week. For a video of Friday's running Click Here. For current pictures from the club taken in 2018 Click Here. For a schedule on train shows and swap meets in the area Click Here (this is the latest list) courtesy of Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. For 2018 Past Announcements Click Here. And for the EMRRC 2019 Train Show information Click Here. Dealers can download a PDF for Vendor Registration and Table Leases. NEWS for September 2018
September 28, 2018
A PRR E7A & E7B units showed up pulling a passenger train through. 
Also a couple of EMD SD40-2s were working Schult Yard and running road duty during operations. 4313 is a Rivet Counter patched Milwaukee Road orange & black “Bandit” from Scale Trains and 3657 is an Operator version of the EMD SD40-2 Union 
Pacific. Here's some interesting information on the two versions. The Rivet Counter™ line strives to create the most accurately detailed models imaginable. The real-world counterpart is meticulously researched to ensure prototype fidelity. Each model features numerous factory applied parts including road name and road number specific details. Operator™ trains are built for modelers who enjoy running high-quality, realistic trains at an affordable price. 
Designed from builder’s drawings and photographs, Operator models have fewer factory-applied parts and simplified printing. For added versatility, super-detail parts are available separately. whenever possible.
Check out the front end picture and you'll see some of the differences. As always for a video of Friday's running Click Here. For current pictures from the club taken in 2018 Click Here. For a schedule on train shows and swap meets in the area Click Here (this is the latest list) courtesy of Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. For 2018 Past Announcements Click Here. And for the EMRRC 2019 Train Show information Click Here. Dealers can download a PDF for Vendor Registration and Table Leases.
September 21, 2018
We canceled our regularly scheduled business meeting for September and hosted NMRA Michiana Division members at the clubhouse for an open house in conjunction with the NMRA conference "MODELING LIKE A PROtotype" held Friday and Saturday in South Bend. Thanks to VP Jerry Piatt and his wife for the delicious chocolate chip butterscotch cookies and brownies. 
During the open house we ran several trains and the "Old Woman" a New York Ontario & Western F3A #501 made a return trip. Another interesting locomotive that showed up was a UP Challenger. 
This unit was built by Broadway Limited and owner David Menges bought it from Jerry's Trains. The Union Pacific Challengers were a type of simple articulated 4-6-6-4 steam locomotive built by American Locomotive Company for the Union Pacific. 105 of these locomotives were built between 1936 and 1943. The Challengers were about 122 ft (37 m) long and weighed 284,800 kg.Primarily in freight service, they operated over most of the Union Pacific system. A few were assigned to passenger trains operating through mountain territory to California and Oregon. The locomotives were built specifically for UP and much of the experience gained later went into the design of the famous Big Boy. The name Challenger was given to steam locomotives with a 4-6-6-4 wheel arrangement. This means that they have four wheels in the leading pilot truck, which helps guide the locomotive into curves, two sets of six driving wheels, and finally four trailing wheels, which support the rear of the engine and its massive firebox. Each set of six driving wheels is driven by two steam cylinders. In essence, the result is two engines under one boiler. The Union Pacific Railroad sponsored development of this type to meet the need for higher speeds in main-line service. Historically, articulated locomotives had been limited to slow speeds by factors inherent in their design. The technical breakthroughs achieved with the Challenger enabled the carrier to develop the Big Boy with the same speed expectations. Speeds in excess of 60 M.P.H., while unheard-of on other railroads using articulated steam locomotives, became commonplace on the Union Pacific. We had several locomotives running Friday night and for a video of Friday's running Click Here. For current pictures from the club taken in 2018 Click Here. For a schedule on train shows and swap meets in the area Click Here (this is the latest list) courtesy of Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. For 2018 Past Announcements Click Here. And for the EMRRC 2019 Train Show information Click Here. We recently put the 2019 Train Show Pamphlet on the page which includes a Vendor Registration and Table Lease downloadable PDF form.
September 14, 2018
Even though Conrail and Norfolk Southern were the only two railroads to purchase C39-8 locomotives from GE, both railroads routinely operated C39-8s as run-through power on CSX, Union Pacific, and Southern Pacific. In fact, SP leased Conrail C39-8s in the early 1990s.
The only two C39-8 locomotives in operation today are owned by the Pennsylvania Northeastern Railroad. 
Another locomotive that showed up was New York Ontario & Western F3A #501 pulling a local over E&W trackage. The railroad was more commonly known as the O&W nicknamed by locals as the "Old & Weary", "Old & Wobbly" or "Old Woman." The O&W ceased operations in 1957. Of course we have all of the latest information on events at the club. On September 21st we will not have a business meeting. Instead we will host NMRA Michiana Division members at the clubhouse for an open house from 6pm till 9pm. For current pictures from the club taken in 2018 on the Friday Night Pictures page Click Here. For a video of Friday's running Click Here. For a schedule on train shows and swap meets in the area Click Here (this is the latest list) courtesy of Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. Click Here for a link to the NMRA conference which is right around the corner. For 2018 Past Announcements Click Here. And for the EMRRC 2019 Train Show information Click Here. We recently put the 2019 Train Show Pamphlet on the page which includes a Vendor Registration and Table Lease downloadable PDF form.
September 7, 2018
Other members were working on other areas of the layout. If you have an interest in technology, networking, computers, economics, operations, planning, modeling, safety, soldering, design, electrical, carpentry, blueprints, planning, decaling, woodworking, business, negotiations and a great social environment come by and see us we are always looking for members with talent. Here's all of our weekly links of items of interest. 
We had several locomotives running Friday night including the NS #911 which was supposed to be a birthday present but somehow ended up on track ahead pf time. 911 is a 2,000-horsepower, 273-ton locomotive painted in honor of emergency responders with insignia recognizing police, fire, and emergency services. For current pictures from the club taken in 2018 on the Friday Night Pictures page Click Here. For a video of Friday's running Click Here. For a schedule on train shows and swap meets in the area Click Here (this is the latest list) courtesy of Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. Click Here for a link to the NMRA conference which is right around the corner. For 2018 Past Announcements Click Here. And for the EMRRC 2019 Train Show information Click Here. We recently put the 2019 Train Show Pamphlet on the page which includes a Vendor Registration and Table Lease downloadable PDF form. NEWS for August 2018
August 31, 2018
Member Gabe Smith power washed the outside of the building, performed maintenance on the fence and the entrance making the outside of the building look much better. 
Inside the building member David Menges added smoke stains to a lot of the track tunnels and portals. 
Member Ron Breneiser is adding more buildings to the new industrial area as he and David have moved the construction of the new area to the point that it's getting close to being completed. Well as complete as any model railroad project ever is. We received a donation of N-Scale freight cars from Charles in New York. 
Charles is a bit shy and didn't want his named used but here's a picture of one of the cars setting in an area of the new N-Scale layout. 
We had a surprise as Stan Shatto paid us a visit. Stan had been in the hospital and rehab for heart problems and has recovered enough to run some Wood Creek locals. Glad you're back Stan. Here's all of our weekly links of items of interest. Current pictures from the club taken in June, July and August on the Friday Night Pictures Click Here. For a video of Friday's running Click Here. For a schedule on train shows and swap meets in the area Click Here (this is the latest list) courtesy of Grand River Valley Railroad Club in Wyoming, MI. Click Here for a link to the NMRA conference which is right around the corner. For 2018 Past Announcements Click Here. And for the EMRRC 2019 Train Show information Click Here. NEWS for August 2018
August 24, 2018
Bill Byer who was a member of EMRRC during the 70s brought by his NYC caboose which hadn't run on EMRRC trackage since the early 1970s. The caboose was built from a wood Ambrod kit right before Bill left for the army. Notice the yellow handrails and grabs, those are made from phone wire. The roof is cardboard and it does have lighting. Needless to say many railroad stories were told that night. 
On Friday we had our monthly operations session and several trains were making the trip from Hammes Yard to outlying businesses and yards. Also there are over the road trains running from Chicago and Toledo to deal with. Lot's of Monon and Nickel Plate making the run through Elkhart. 
We have current pictures from the club taken in June, July and August on the Friday Night Pictures page. Click here to take a look. Look for the latest action in our Friday Night Running at the Club section. Also 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. If you have missed any of our previous months we store those under 2018 Past Announcements. Here's a link to that archive. And of course Here's a link to our page on the upcoming 2019 train show. NEWS for August 2018
August 17, 2018
Several items were discussed at the meetings including; Secretary and treasurer's report. EMRRC's private area for members only has moved from Yahoo Groups to groups.io. If you are a member of EMRRC, files, pictures messages and club documents are in an area club members can access. 
Chuck Hart President of EMRRC spent the last 8 days in Kansas City at the NMRA 2018 Convention and gave a quick report on all the great Barbecue joints in KC. After that he filled us in on the great convention the NMRA had in KC. There were nearly a hundred clinics covering everything from operations to weathering. Kansas City has a large and historical railroad presence that stretches back into the colorful cattle drive and cowboy days. There were railfanning trips that cover everything from the huge BNSF presence to historic Union Station. At Union Station there is a pedestrian walkway constructed from an actual single-track railroad bridge that was moved from the north side of Downtown Kansas City to its current location connecting Union Station with the "Freight House District". It's a great spot for a railfan.
The show itself at the Bartle Hall had over 180,000 square feet of exhibit space, hands-on demonstrations and 44,000 sq. feet of modular layouts. Had that railroad treasure for years that grandpa left you? There was even a "Ask The Collectibles Appraiser" area. All in all too much to cover here. For more information CLICK HERE. The 2019 Train Show Committee has been working hard on putting the show together. Be sure to hit the menu item above for more information. As mentioned last week longtime member Stan Shatto had been in the hospital. He is now in rehab doing well and looking forward to going home soon. 
After the meeting it was time for running trains and setting up for next week's operation session. As that great philosopher and sage Ron Breniser says "if you brought em run em" and there are plenty pictures and videos to take a look at. We have current pictures from the club taken in June, July and August on the Friday Night Pictures page.Click here to take a look. Look for the latest action in our Friday Night Running at the Club section. Also 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. If you have missed any of our previous months we store those under 2018 Past Announcements. Here's a link to that archive. The most important link of all I saved for last. Here's a link to our page on the upcoming 2019 train show.
August 10, 2018
Here's a link for a download of the brochure. The facility we are going to be in the Claywood Event Center, a new building just southeast of Nappanee, Indiana. The building has all the amenities and we will take up about 14,000 sq.ft. for the show with operating layouts and 150 vendor tables. There is an onsite restaurant. Longtime member Stan Shatto has ended up in the hospital. He is recovering nicely and should be back at the club soon. Stan has been instrumental in many of the scenes you see around the layout including Chateau Woods, just about every water tower or tank and many of the buildings that on the layout. Get Well Soon Stan. 
We have current pictures from the club taken in June, July and August on the Friday Night Pictures page. Click here to take a look.Look for the latest action in our Friday Night Running at the Club section. Also 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. If you have missed any of our previous months we store those under 2018 Past Announcements. Here's a link to that archive. Very soon there will be a seperate area for the "Elkhart Model Railroad Club 2014 Nappanee Train Show". Look for it soon. The show committee will meet this coming Friday at the club and we'll have more information posted from that meeting.
August 3, 2018
Also this evening we had a slideshow of 70 and 80s railroading in the Indiana, Michigan and Ohio areas. Some interesting slides including one of the Sample and Olive Street area before the railroad overpass was put in. Many members remember sitting there waiting for trains to go by. Also we delved back into our problem connecting phones or tablets and recognizing them as throttles to the system through JMRI. Matt Glassman brought his computer setup in with Windows 10 and the latest version of JMRI . Also Paul Ewing had cleared out the memory on the DigiTrax system. No problems were encountered. We are going to continue to test at our next meeting. 
As always we had several members and guests show up for open running with a variety of trains locmotives and cars. 
One of the more interesting units running Friday night was a Burlington Northern Fuel Tender. Member Gabe Smith owns these BN units. The BN started using fuel tenders on main line freight trains in 1987. They had MU connectors and fuel lines so they could run between units and supply both units with extra fuel. They were configured to work with BN’s GP50s, B30-7As, and LMX B39-8 lease units. Fuel prices were dropping in the early 1990s and the fuel tenders were too lightweight to keep up with wear and tear typical heavy locomotives endure. The fuel tender program ended by 1991. As always we have a variety of locomotives and trains to show. We have current pictures from the club taken in June, July and August on the Friday Night Pictures page.Click here to take a look. For the latest video Click here to check out all the action from this week. Also 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. 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. If you have missed any of our previous months we store those under 2018 Past Announcements. Here's a link to that archive. Very soon there will be a seperate area for the "Elkhart Model Railroad Club 2014 Nappanee Train Show". Look for it soon. The 14th annual Elkhart Model Railroad Show will take place on March 16, 2019 in Nappanee, Indiana. NEWS for July 2018
July 27, 2018
On to other news at the club. Gabe Smith and Charlie Yoakam did a great job trimming the bushes in front of the club. Owning your own building entails ongoing maintenance and several members are knowledgeable and hard workers when it comes to maintenance. Members persevered over our throttle problems and we managed to run some operations during the evening. Here's some shots of a few of the trains that ran that evening. More pictures are shown at the Friday Night Pictures at the Club section. 
Look for the latest action in our Friday Night Running at the Club section. Click here to check out the operations action from this week. Also 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. If you have missed any of our previous months we store those under 2018 Past Announcements. Here's a link to that archive. Very soon there will be a seperate area for the "Elkhart Model Railroad Club 2014 Nappanee Train Show". Look for it soon. The show committee will meet this coming Friday at the club and we'll have more information posted from that meeting.
July 20, 2018
The members of the show committee are already hard at work on the show and more information will be coming out as we move to August. It's the Claywood Event Center a large new facility just south of US 6 in Nappanee and everyone in the club is glad to get the 14th annual show back on track. 
Rain hit the area for most of the day so we had a good turnout of members for open running. Members brought some unique trains to the club and we had several trains NYC, NS, CSX and BN that made their weekly run over EMRRC trackage. 
Also setup for next week's operations was ongoing during open running. We have a large HO 25' x 49' HO-Scale layout and a new N-Scale layout so there is plenty of room for everyone. If you are into operations the 4th Friday of every month is our operations night. Operations begin promptly at 7:00 pm this Friday July 27th. 
Do you like to work on a model railroad layout or learn about model railroad construction? With a large HO layout and a new N-Scale layout we need all kinds of folks. Computer, app Programmers, artists, construction, electrical, model builders, or just have an interest to see and work on a piece of history in the Elkhart area we can use you. We have male and female members, young and old. Constructing a model railroad is a hobby that transcends generations and encourages people to nurture a wide range of skills as problem solvers.We have a variety of locomotives and trains to show this week. On the Friday Night Pictures at the Club section. We have current pictures from the club taken in June and July in a slideshow format. Some are on this page but several we didn't have room for are included in the Friday Night Pictures.Click here to take a look. As always for the latest video Click here to check out all the action from this week. Also 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. If you have missed any of our previous months we store those under 2018 Past Announcements. Here's a link to that archive. Very soon there will be a seperate area for the "Elkhart Model Railroad Club 2014 Nappanee Train Show". Look for it soon.July 13, 2018
Also the south end facia is completed thanks to members Paul Ewing, Gabe Smith and Charlie Yoakam. We also found out we have a contract with a Nappanee Indiana area 20,000 sq.ft. banquet hall for the 2019 Nappanee Train Show. After July's business meeting there will be much more information to come on the show. Also look for an update on the new N-Scale layout next week. President Chuck Hart has been diligently working on the layout and is in the middle of installing Tortoise switch machines in the areas that can't be easily reached. Other news includes the Indiana Transportation Museum's move out of Noblesville, Indiana. 
ITM Director of Assets, Josh Spencer and Chris Campbell of Kentucky Steam announced the two entities signed an agreement that rescues the 587 by taking her out of Noblesville and places her under the protection of the Kentucky restoration group until she's restored. Once she's all shined up, she will be back in Indiana , proudly remaining ITM's crown jewel. 
EMRRC had an a donor give us several boxes of HO equipment. Joseph Cipalla admires one of the many cars that was donated. We had a good turnout of members show up for open running Friday night. 
One of the interesting locomotives that showed up was a General Electric Tier 4 GEVo Series demonstrator The EPA “Tier” emissions standards are a series, or Tiers, of allowable emissions levels based upon a locomotives’ date of manufacture. The highest and most stringent tier level, Tier 4, sets maximum allowable NOx and hydrocarbon emissions levels for locomotives built for domestic use 2015 onward. While similar in appearance to previous GE GEVo designs, the Tier 4 models featured a longer frame compared to their predecessors. This allows for a larger radiator “cab” (GE refers to the various sections of the long hood as “cabs”), and a "hump" over the engine cab for advanced exhaust treatment equipment. Initially, a boxy housing filled the entire roofline on the blue-painted field test/demonstrator units. Due to changes in treatment equipment and clearance issues, the "hump" would decrease in size and shape into a boxy compartment around the exhaust on initial production units. 
This culminated in an angled compartment surrounding the exhaust manifold on the latest production versions (2016+). Despite boxier engine cab rooflines and a radically styled radiator cab, the basic Tier 4 design shares a family appearance with GE safety cab-equipped units going back to the DASH-9s of the 1990s. It even includes the same 12-cylinder GEVo-12 series prime mover and 4,400hp as its predecessor model. The unit shown is a GECX Pre-Production/Field Test Demonstrator ET44AC by ScaleTrains.com. It is the first model in HO scale and is officially licensed by GE. The demonstrator units traveled extensively across the US and were built in 2013. 
Besides the 2024 we have lots of locomotives and trains to show you this week. Take a look at the Friday Night Pictures at the Club section. We changed it up to show current pictures from the club. Some are on this page but several we didn't have room for are included in the Friday Night Pictures. Click here to take a look. As always for the latest video Click here to check out all the action from this week. Also 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. If you have missed any of our previous months we store those under 2018 Past Announcements. Here's a link to that archive. Hopefully next week we will have a seperate section on the 2019 Train Show be sure to look for it.
July 6, 2018
Some major decisions made were to replace the roundhouses and machinery building with a new roundhouse and open concrete pad area with an overhead crane. The turntable will remain in place and the roundhouse area will be based on and extend from the turntable. Lifetime member Stan Shatto told us the area the roundhouse sets in used to be a mountain. The track ran through the wall to the roundhouse facility set in our kitchen area in the 1970s. Also a new switch will be added to the single track mainline connecting it to the drill track for the yard so the drill track can also be used as a run around track into the yard off of the main. 
In other news the Indiana Transportation Museum in Noblesville, Indiana has been given until July 12 to vacate its longtime home at Forest Park in Noblesville. The museum is about 120 miles from us. In an order issued Friday, a Hamilton Circuit Court Judge denied a request by the transportation museum, which has occupied about 10 acres in Forest Park since the 1970s, for a preliminary injunction to delay its eviction. The museum has a memorandum of understanding to move to Logansport, about 60 miles from Noblesville, but museum officials say it will take time to safely move and preserve 78 historic train cars and engines, several buildings including the historic Hobbs Station, and more than three miles of track and switches. They also asked the court to require the Hoosier Heritage Port Authority to give the museum access to the rail line to move equipment. The judge denied those requests and ordered the transportation museum to immediately vacate the site. On July 13, the city will be granted possession of the property to clean up whatever property remains, if it chooses to do so. An army of volunteers, heavy equipment movers, cranes and many other pieces of heavy equipment and operators have descended on the museum for the last 2 weeks to save as many pieces of history as possible. Several of these volunteers are from the Hesston Steam Museum in our area. Hesston is involved in the emergency removal of Indianapolis Power and Light 0-4-0F #1. #1 was built by the H.K. Porter Company in 1950. The engine is a non-combustible design known as the fireless locomotive. It essentially used a pressurized cylinder of steam and hot water to power the pistons and rods. Click Here for a Facebook video on the removal by Hesston volunteers. Several EMRRC members are also volunteers at Hesston. Kentucky Steam Heritage has rescued NKP 587. Nickel Plate Road 587 is a USRA Light 2–8–2 steam locomotive built in August 1918 by the Baldwin Locomotive Works for the Lake Erie and Western Railroad as its number 5541. In 1923, the LE&W was merged into the New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad, ("Nickel Plate Road"), and allocated 587 as its new number in 1924. NKP No. 587 was built by Baldwin Locomotive Works. However, its cylinders were replaced with Lima Locomotive Works (LLW) castings during its December, 1943 overhaul. The Indiana Transportation Museum was in the midst of a restoration of 587 when the bad news broke. ITM will retain ownership of NKP 587 Kentucky Steam Heritage will continue the restoration to bring it back to operating condition.
The Fort Wayne Historical Society owners of several Nickel Plate engines including Berkshire #765 also sent several volunteers and experts to help in the move. After some sobering news on the fate of the Indiana Transportation Museum we moved on to running trains on the first meeting of July 2018. By joneau261 - Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11820471
We had fewer trains running this session but enough to put together a video of highlights. You can watch the video on our Friday Night Running at the Club page. Click here to check out all the action from this week. Also 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.To see the pictures that didn't make it to the home page click here for our Friday Night Pictures at the Club. NEWS for June 2018
June 29, 2018
Enough of the morbid fun, sorry I was watching Svengoolie while I was putting this together. We had several interesting trains show up among them a High Capacity Railroad Tank Car for Cryogenic Fluids, or Cryogenic Tank Cars for short. They are used for the transportation of super-cold fluids such as liquid oxygen, nitrogen and argon. These tank cars solved the problem of maintaining extremely low temperatures while transporting large quantities of these materials over long distances. Curious as to how cold these cars could keep liquid oxygen? How about -297 degrees F. Liquid nitrogen kept at -320 F. And liquid argon at -302 degrees F. Now, that's cold! These high
We have lots of locomotives and trains to show you this week. Take a look at the Friday Night Pictures at the Club section. We changed it up to show current pictures from the club. Some are on this page but several we didn't have room for are included in the Friday Night Pictures. Click here to take a look. As always for the latest video Click here to check out all the action from this week. Also 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 22, 2018
While the weather remained humid and rainy outside, running trains was hot and heavy inside the Elkhart Model Railroad Club Friday night. We usually run operations the 4th Friday of the month but our chief dispatcher had to work overtime. Some of us have real jobs that get in the way of the important things in life like operating trains. Since we didn't have our main dispatcher and we had 4 visitors show up we decided to have an open run night. As always lots of trains running 
and some runaways and missing trains that had followed members home knowing they would get a good home with plenty of running on a great model railroad layout. 
One discussion I had was on the only steam turbine engine version built in the US for the PRR. Here's a Youtube link that will give you and idea of what this beast would have sounded like. This steam turbine is still running in Sweden Steam Turbine Sweden. and there's definitly no chuffing sound sound to this loco.The Pennsylvania Railroad's class S2 was a steam turbine locomotive designed and built in a collaborative effort by Baldwin Locomotive Works and Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company, as an attempt to prolong the dominance of the steam locomotive by adapting technology that had been widely accepted in the marine industry. One was built, #6200, delivered in September 1944. The S2 was the sole example of the 6-8-6 wheel arrangement in the Whyte notation, with a six-wheel leading truck, eight driving wheels, and a six-wheel trailing truck. The S2 used a direct-drive steam turbine provided by the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company, geared to the center pair of axles with the outer two axles connected by side rods; the fixed gear ratio was 18.5:1. Such design was to prevent energy loss and S2 achieved a mechanical efficiency of 97% which means only 3% of steam energy was lost within the propulsion equipment. The disadvantage of direct-drive steam turbine was that the turbine could not operate at optimal speeds over the locomotive's entire speed range. The S2 was the largest, heaviest and
fastest direct-drive turbine locomotive ever designed or built. It was easily capable of maintaining 100 mph constantly over the miles. The S2 was assigned to the Fort Wayne Division and based at the Crestline engine-house. I'm sure it made it through the Warsaw, Indiana and Plymouth, Indiana areas several times. It hauled various prestigious passenger trains serving the New York to Chicago corridor such as The Broadway Limited, The Liberty Limited, The Trail Blazer, The General, The Manhattan Limited and The Golden Arrow on the route between Chicago and Crestline, Ohio. Unfortunately the S2 was short-lived. It was built in 1944, stored in 1949 and scrapped in 1952. There were a lot of the reasons for it's short life, chief among them the steam era was drawing to a close and even though the S2 was efficient at high speeds, it wasn't at low speeds. There's a ton of information online and Broadway Limited built a brass hybyrd HO-Scale model of the engine. Every week we try to bring you all the latest action with our video and some info on swap meets and train shows. 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 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.
NEWS for April 2018April 27, 2018
&O 4834 and no one knows how. So be sure to go to our Friday Night Running at the Club page and check out 4834. 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.
April 20, 2018
After the business meeting it was time for our main business at EMRRC running trains. EMRRC has had an ongoing problem with JMRI connecting to phones or tablets and recognizing them as throttles. If we have several phones and tablets online as throttles we lose connections and control of the trains. After going back to version 3.10 of JMRI we are in our second week of being problem free. We are still researching and testing this problem and will keep everyone updated here. At this point we are awaiting version 4.11.5 to reach it's production stage so we can try it. 
CLICK HERE to check our Friday Night Running at the Club page for all the action. Also CLICK HERE for the weekly link to shows and swap meets in the area courtesy of Grand River Valley Railroad Club - Wyoming, MI. One last announcement;NMRA MICHIANA DIVISION EVENT
May 19, 2018 - Francis Branch of St. Joe County Public Library - 52655 N Ironwood Rd, South Bend, IN 46635
4 hour Weathering Day from 10:30AM to 2:30 PM!
Attend all or some of the time allotted!
Well known weathering expert Dave Schroedle will be leading this event! On Friday April 27th starting at 7:00 pm we will have a training session for operating on the HO layout. If you are interested in operations come by and learn how to operate at the Elkhart Model Railroad Club. We run an operations session the 3rd Friday of every month.
April 13, 2018 Meeting
Open running Friday night at EMRRC and of course Friday the 13th gremlins showed up and tried to spoil the fun. As mentioned last week EMRRC has had an ongoing problem with JMRI connecting to phones or tablets and recognizing them as throttles. If we have several phones and tablets online as throttles we lose connections and control of the trains. We tried a different computer and a different router and the same problems showed up. EMRRC has been using the latest version of JMRI 4.10. We decided to go back to version 3.10.1 and the problem was solved. We'll keep everyone updated as we investigated this further.
An interesting item that showed up concerning the Nautilus aquarium car owned by the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. The Nautilus was a custom built car built in 1929 by the Pullman Car Works in Chicago for about $30,000, the Nautilus was custom fitted with cypress and metal containers for animals and a life-support system of pumps, air compressors, electric refrigeration coils and steam heat for another $10,000 to transport freshwater and marine fishes and invertebrates from cold, temperate and tropical waters. Fully loaded, the car carried 4,500 gallons. It also had modest living quarters for the six-person collecting crew. The Nautilus was so specialized that the manufacturer stated that it was doubtful anything like it had ever been built before. It was retired in 1957. Here is the story of one of it's adventures between the Keys and Chicago. Click here for a link to the Story.Marooned! The Labor Day Hurricane and Shedd’s “Lost Car Crew” | Shedd Aquarium
This hurricane season marks the 75th anniversary of the Labor Day Hurricane, a category 5 storm that is still the most intense ever to strike the United States. It certainly made some memories for the Shedd collecting crew that weathered it in the Florida Keys.
SHEDDAQUARIUM.Org
Several members and visitors showed up to talk and run trains. As always interesting trains ran through the layout. Be sure to check out all the action at our Friday Night Running at the Club page and on our You Tube channel and Facbook page. All of these can be reached by hitting the icons at the top of the page.. Also here is the weekly link to shows and swap meets in the area courtesy of Grand River Valley Railroad Club - Wyoming, MI
April 6, 2018 Meeting
Steve uses dried
NEWS for March 2018
March 30, 2018 Meeting
layout. While a lot of train running going on there was also ballast being laid down in the new industrial area. Check out all the action on our Friday Night Running at the Club page. Also click here for a link to upcoming shows and swap meets in the area. A big one the Kalamazoo Model Railroad Historical Society Spring Swap Meet is April 7, 2018 at the Kalamazoo, MI Fairgrounds.
March 23, 2018 Meeting
It's always interesting to take a look in the tunnels most of the construction goes back to the 1960s. Paul Ewing has been working on refreshing the areas around Mt. Hammes. New rock construction and painting is taking place this week. The Kalamazoo Model Railroad Historical Society Spring Swap Meet will be Saturday, April 7th, 2018 at the Kalamazoo County Fairgrounds. The next weekend the Grand River Valley Spring Train Show in Wyoming, MI will be coming up on Saturday 4/14/2018. So be sure to mark your calendars and head for Michigan in April. Click here for a list of shows and swaps meets in the midwest area.
March 16, 2018 Meeting
Several new locos and cars made a showing at the Friday meeting but the first order of the day was our monthly business meeting.
A new member, Steve Randolph was welcomed and several probationary members were voted in as full members. Congrats to all. With their new membership members gain several new benefits including; 24/7 access to the club, use of our private area in Yahoo Groups, a private locker and use of the inside restroom (just kidding on the restroom). Reports on projects show that most are moving along at a good pace and VP Jerry Piatt emphasized the need to keep projects moving and not let projects lay dormant for months.
Some of the projects underway include; the bridge at the river wye, (sounds like a movie title), backdrop buildings in
Schult Yard and general update of the roundhouse area, New industrial area and Twin Branch area maintenance. The clubs library has been databased and will be open for business by next month’s business meeting.
One new item of interest, EMRRC finally has our listing verified on Google Maps and we have a label and listing on Maps now. After the business meeting of course it was time to run trains. Nathan Overmyer had a beautiful Proto 2000 Heritage Virginian 2-8-8-2 follow him home so of course he had to keep it. Check out all the action on our Friday Night at Club page. Also here’s a link to upcoming train shows and swap meets.
March 9, 2018 Meeting
Friday night was running trains night. You could run the club's trains or bring your own and run them.
A number of trains both diesel and steam were running tonight operated by both male and female engineers. One special freight load moved through the system and got a lot of comments; take a look at our Friday Night Running at the Club page for all the action.
Some other announcements includes
the NMRA looking forward to seeing all NMRA members and visitors at our March 17, 2018 noon-2pm meeting at the Western Branch of the St. Joe County Public Library, 611 S Lombardy Dr, South Bend, IN 46619. Don Cope will get everyone involved in creating roof details and signs on buildings. At our February 17 meeting Don brought 3 detailed items that he had built for show-and-tell. Please bring something that you are working on to our next meeting. We're looking forward to seeing you there.
Also a reminder that the Elkhart Model RR Club will not be hosting our annual train show in Nappanee, Indiana on March 17th, 2018. The building was sold and will not be hosting events such as our train show. We looked for an alternate site to have the show and were unable to locate one for the March 17th 2018 date. We are very optimistic that we will have another site for the 3rd Saturday in March of 2019.
On Tuesday nights we had a good turnout for our weekly maintenance session. Work is progressing on the new N-Scale layout as wiring the feeders to the track continues. It looks like we will be running N-Scale again by the end of the month. So if you're into HO or N-Scale come on by on a Friday night. Trestle and bridge work continues as Charlie and Jerry our bridge maintenance crew continues to upgrade trestle and bridges around the layout. The track and ballast crew was hard at work ballasting in the industrial areas and relaying track on the north wall area.
The track and ballast crew was hard at work ballasting in the industrial areas and relaying track on the north wall area.
March 2, 2018 Meeting
One of the benefits of being a member of EMRRC is a private Yahoo channel. We use the channel for private messages, passing club files to members, and as a general repository for any information for the club. Some of our members weren't sure how to use this tool so our clinic for the March 2nd meeting was on how to use the EMRRC Yahoo account. Chuck Hart, President did a presentation on the use and benefits of our private Yahoo account.
The track guards in the tunnels are close to being done. Here's Nathan the guy working hard and crawling around under the layout to install these. Also here's a shot of the guards. To finish up the meeting it was train running time. Lots of big steam and some unusual diesels all made an appearance on the mainlines, be sure to check out all the action on our Friday Night Running at the Club page.
February 23, 2018 Meeting
Operations was the name of the game at our February 23rd meeting. Only 1980s and early 1990s motive power was allowed so make sure you make it by our Friday Night Running at the Club page and check out some oldies but goldies.
One of the more unusual units to show up Friday night was this Chicago North Shore & Milwaukee Electroliner. The Electroliners were a pair of streamlined four-coach electric multiple unit interurban passenger train sets operated between Chicago and Milwaukee. They were built by St. Louis Car Company in 1941.
Each set carried two numbers, 801-802 and 803-804. There 
were only 2 of these prototype units built and both are still in exsistance.
801-802 is currently being restored to its early 1960s operating condition at the Illinois Railway Museum (IRM) in Union, Illinois. Updates on the restoration can be found on the liners Facebook page "Campaign For The Electroliner". 803-804 is preserved at the Rockhill Trolley Museum in Orbisonia, Pennsylvania. It is a running liner though it has not been restored.
This week we need to inform everyone about The Nappanee Train Show for 2018. We are sorry to inform you that the Elkhart Model RR Club will not be hosting our annual train show in Nappanee,Indiana at the Dutch Village Market on March 17th, 2018. The building was sold in May of 2017 and will not be hosting events such as our train show.
We looked for a alternate site to have the show and were unable to locate one for the March 17th 2018 date.We are very optimistic that we will have another site for the 3rd Saturday in March of 2019. We are sorry for any inconvenience that may cause you.
As a final note here is a link to the list of swap meets and train shows in the area.
And now as always on to running trains. Again make sure to check out our Friday Night Running at the Club Page for all the action.
February 16, 2018 Meeting
February 16th was a business meeting night. Several members were in attendance and heard updates on several projects including; all of the trackwork is finished for the new N scale layout. The tunnel guards to prevent derailments and valuable equipment falling to the floor in the tunnels are 75 % finished. Also after over a foot of snow the club lot was plowed
thanks to Matt Glassman and his contacts at Bradford‘s lawn care.
One of the assets of the club is a large library going back several decades. With over a 100 railroad related items in the library we have created a database that covers the entire library for easier access for the members. Some of the more valuable items in the library include bound volumes of Model Railroad from the 1st issue in 1934 to 1967. I thought you would like to see the 1st issue. As far as I can tell this is the cover of the very first issue of Model Railroader.
Here's an interior page with an ad and a letter from Linn Westcott.
This next is from issue 5 and is the first with a color on the front page.
After the meeting of course it was time to run some trains and get set up for an operations session at next meeting February 23, 2018.
Be sure to check our Friday Night Running at the Club page for all the action and look for the car running across the trestle near the end of the video.
February 9, 2018 Meeting
I thought we would take a look at maintenance since there was no running at the club.Nathan Overmyer has been the fellow crawling the tunnels at EMRRC to install guards in the tunnels to prevent equipment falling to the floor in case of a derailment. We have few derailments in the tunnels as Paul Ewing went in several years ago and upgraded and replaced the entire track in the tunnels.
Here's a quick video to show running through the tunnels and a look at the track work.
Some other maintenance taking place includes freshening up the mountain areas. How do you freshen up a mountain? Well you add new foliage, trees. rocks and ground cover.
Also Paul who is an avid bicyclist and hiker is adding walking and bike trails to our largest mountain Mt. Hammes. Mt. Hammes has an extremely long tunnel running through it along with a shorter tunnel. This trackage is the main access to the Budweiser Brewery and of course if the Bud isn’t getting delivered the citizens of Elkhart and several other small towns and cities, get out of sorts.
Speaking of Elkhart David Menges has been going through the entire layout adding people, automobiles and updating scenes in general. One of the small but necessary items in Elkhart is dumpsters. David has added several in the city.
There is always a Friday Night Running at the Club video even if we didn't run on a particular Friday. We went back in the archives and pulled some of our favorite old footage from years ago so be sure to check out our Friday Night Running at the Club page for a Blast From the Past.
February 2, 2018 Meeting
January 2018 has passed and in Northern Indiana that means snowy and cold days. But at the Elkhart Model Railroad club the heat was on and the camaraderie and friendships (plus a lot of hot air) added to an enjoyable night. The first meeting of a new month is taken up by maintenance and cleaning. It's amazing how much background work needs to happen in order to keep a large club layout up and running.
Tunnel guards are being installed along the roadbed inside of the tunnels. We don't have a lot of derailments but if there ever is one in the tunnels it can be a long way to the bottom with an expensive engine or car. We bought some inexpensive clear plastic sheets at a craft store. It's thin but durable and only needs to be scored to get a clean cut. We are screwing the 2 1/2 inch high by 36 inch long sheets into the side of the roadbed after pre-drilling holes in the sheets. We are allowing enough room to reach over the guard to access derailments. Gabe Smith, Nathan Overmyer, Steve Storey and Jim Ford are contributing to this project. 
Also while we're under the layout Randy Robbins joined us working on electrical wiring for signals. Meanwhile up top work continues by the bridge and trestle crew on finishing Berkey Trestle upgrades and the new project shoring up the trestle for the bypass to Flushing/Toledo and Chicago. The layout has dozens of bridges and trestles many of which are labor intensive. The bridge and trestle crew has a year round job trying to keep up with the maintenance on all of these structures.
The track crew was out working on the mainline taking out weather related bumps and dips in the high speed mainline area.
Also the ballast crews were out finishing out the mainline and putting new ballast in the new industrial area still under construction.
On any railroad there are always bad order cars and engines.
John Banicki and Joseph Cipalla were busy the entire night working on cars and engines so they would perform flawlessly on the layout when needed.
After cleaning and maintenance there was still plenty of time to run some trains and there were lots of airplanes moving across the layout tonight, be sure to check out all the action on our Friday Night Running at the Club page.
NEWS for January 2018January 26, 2018 Meeting
This Friday meet was an operations night and we had a several folks show up including one visitor to try their hand at operating on the EMRRC layout. The large layout makes operating a challenge for both the experienced and novice operator as there are plenty of trains to move across the line. Our Dispatcher Ron Breniser, Yard Masters David Menges and Charlie Yoakam kept things moving along smoothly and a lot fun. 
EMRRC has installed the latest update to JMRI 4.10. For some reason we had problems communicating with smart phones and tablets, especially when running consists. After a quick reinstall the system worked perfectly. Smart phones, tablets and Digitrax throttles all got along without another hiccup. Must have been operator error on the install..Lots of trains, not too many mishaps and the blue smoke was kept to a minimum coming out of dispatch. Be sure to check out our Friday Night Running at the Club page for all the action.
January 19, 2018 Meeting
A good showing of members for the Friday night meeting turned out. The third Friday of every month is our business meeting. Here's a synopsis of our latest business meeting. I had neglected to put on the EMRRC website that we have visitors come in an hour later the third Friday of every month due to the business meeting. That has been corrected on the site. Sorry if anyone was inconvinced by this. A new board took over for the 2018 season. The officers are: President: Chuck Hart, Vice President: Jerry Piatt, Treasurer: Steve Storey and Secretary: John Banicki
Gary Pressnell after a stint with the Coast Guard and over 30 years as a toolmaker is still with the club. In other business Nathan Overmyer was welcomed to the club as a probationary member. Announcements included the NMRA Michiana Division Meeting in New Carlisle, Indiana and the latest posting of train shows and swap meets in Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Illinois. Here's a link.
After the meeting the setup was accomplished for next weeks operation session. The guy in the hat is our dispatcher. He looks happy does't he?
Of course trains were running on the main line.
Percy actually came to visit Thomas. Be sure to visit our Friday Night running at the Club page for all the action.
January 12, 2018 Meeting
Lots of members here for running HO and working on the new N scale layout. 
More trackwork, including many right and left hand switches being put down for N scale.
EMRRC is always looking for new members. There are many advantages to belonging to EMRRC. Come by and visit us any Friday night for more information and run some trains with us.
Here are some of the benefits available to members;
EMRRC has been here since 1950.
Over 300 years of accumulated experience with the members.
24/7 access to clubhouse for members.
The Club owns the land and the clubhouse.
Large HO scale layout with over 1000' of mainline.
New N scale layout.
Digitrax DCC control and JMRI programming for both HO scale and N scale.
Monthly clinics on everything from DCC to scenery making.
Be sure to check out this week's action at our Friday Night Running at the Club page.
January 5, 2018 Meeting
A very cold and snowy Friday Meeting at EMRRC. The temperature was hovering around 9 degrees and there was anywhere from 8 to 12 inches of snow on the ground depending on where you were coming from. Lots of brave members using 4 wheel drives, front wheel drive and just regular transportation came from Northern Indiana and Southwestern Michigan to run trains. It was supposed to be a cleaning night but Gary Pressnell got stuck in the parking lot and everyone was worn out from watching him shovel out so we decided to run trains in order to thaw Gary out. Plenty of action as always, be sure to check out our Friday Night Running at the Club video.
