2021 Past Announcements

NEWS for December 2022

December 16, 2022

There was snow falling on the ground but that didn't keep a large crowd from gathering inside a warm clubhouse Friday, for the EMRRC annual Christmas Party. Lots of pizza, drinks and dessert were enjoyed by members and their guests. The pizza didn't last long but the socializing went well into the night while other members moved over to the large HO-Scale layout to run trains.

One interesting item that was brought in was a RailPro system. It was easy to set up and use. It used DCC power from the club's DCC system and uses its own radio system for control. It did not use the club's wireless, JMRI system, or Digitrax system. RailPro was very easy to use for running including consisting of locomotives. The cost was not bad no more than starting up with any new system. The only drawback found so far is the size of the decoder. It is too wide to fit in a lot of engines without extensive reworking of the weights in the engine.

Upcoming clinics include;

- 6 Jan – New York Central – Gary P.

- 3 Feb – Photos of EMRRC Through the Years – Jim F.

- 3 Mar – Freight Yards and Yard Limits – Chuck H.

The clinics begin promptly at 7:00 PM and the public is welcome.

Elkhart Model Railroad Club's Formal Operations Sessions will start on January 27, 2023. Look for more information to come on the website.

CLICK HERE for the latest information on the 2023 Train Show. CLICK HERE for our latest "Friday Running at the Club" video. If you would like to visit the club we are open every Friday from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm to the public. Check out the top of this page for a more concise schedule. CLICK HERE If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains. CLICK HERE to see the latest regional train show listing. Have some fun with Model Railroading.

December 9, 2022

Here we are for December 2022 with the year almost gone but a lot of news at the Elkhart Model Railroad Club. Friday, December 16, the club will have its Annual Christmas Party and will be closed to the public. Members and family are welcome and pizza and drinks will be provided. Members are encouraged to bring dessert.

Also in December, we had a clinic on making cars from budget cars that run flawlessly on your layout. Look for that clinic coming in December on the EMRRC website and YouTube channel.

Upcoming clinics include;

- 6 Jan – New York Central – Gary P.

- 3 Feb – Photos of EMRRC Through the Years – Jim F.

- 3 Mar – Freight Yards and Yard Limits – Chuck H.

The clinics begin promptly at 7:00 PM and the public is welcome.

I bet you don't know we have caves big enough to hold a person at the club. Check out Ken Prager as he squeezes into a tunnel for track maintenance.

The 3D Printer has been busy as always. Here are the latest projects.

3D Printed Cab Mile Marker Speaker Enclosure

Elkhart Model Railroad Club's Formal Operations Sessions will start on January 20, 2023. Look for more information to come on the website.

NEWS for November 2022

November 18, 2022

We run trains at the Elkhart Model Railroad Club but there are always plenty of other things going on. The November Business Meeting reminded everyone that work nights are on Tuesday nights and the first Friday of the month after "Clinic at the Club". We have a good size group of workers showing up on Tuesday nights and there are always things to do. Building and layout maintenance is ongoing with a building that dates from the 1950s and a large HO-Scale and N-Scale layout with lots of trackwork, electronics, and scenery.

Matt started rewiring the command stations and boosters last week. We're hopeful rewiring these areas will help get rid of gremlins in the system.

Ken is working on track maintenance which is a continual job with1400 feet of mainline and over 1500 feet of branches, yards, and sidings.

Rick is turning out the latest 3D printing project a group of Bridgeport Mills and Grinders to populate tool shops and factories on the layout.

Formal Operations are canceled till January due to the holidays. We will be open the Friday after Thanksgiving to the public from 7:00 PM till 10:00 PM or later. We started a tradition of "Black Friday" night running last year so bring your lighted locomotives and cars. Upcoming clinics include;

- 2 Dec – Make Junk Freight Cars into Something That Works – Ken P.

- 6 Jan – New York Central – Gary P.

- 3 Feb – Photo Collage of EMRRC Through the Years – Jim F.

- 3 Mar – Freight Yards and Yard Limits – Chuck H.

The clinics begin promptly at 7:00 PM and the public is welcome.

After the meeting, a variety of classic and modern trains were running on the layout. Ken Prager had a couple of GN Consolidations pulling over 50 cars. One of the engines pulled so hard on a 2.5% grade that one of the traction tires came off. One other quick note. The Trackside Photographer featured a nice article on the NKP Roundhouse facility in Bellevue, OH. Great pictures and a story on an abandoned facility and a car trip from the club. and CLICK HERE for the latest information on the 2023 Train Show. CLICK HERE for our latest "Friday Running at the Club" video. If you would like to visit the club we are open every Friday from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm to the public. Check out the top of this page for a more concise schedule. CLICK HERE If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains. CLICK HERE to see the latest regional train show listing. Have some fun with Model Railroading.

November 4, 2022

The Elkhart Model Railroad Club held a "Clinic at the Club" on the first Friday of November with Member Paul Ewing discussing the work that goes into the annual train show. The train show on March 18, 2023, is the largest in Northern Indiana and behind the scenes and during the run-up to the show, everyone puts in a tremendous amount of effort. EMRRC members ensure the public and vendors have a fun and safe time at the 14,000-square-foot Claywood Event Center. For more info on the 18th Annual Nappanee Train Show CLICK HERE.

There will be no formal operations sessions during November and December due to the holidays. This will change our visiting schedule for the public.

November 11th Open Running including the public starting at 7:00 PM.

November 18th Business Meeting from 7:00 PM till 8:00 PM. Open Running including the public starting at 8:00 PM.

November 25th, The day after Thanksgiving, Open Running including the public starting at 7:00 PM.

December 2nd, "Clinic at the Club" from 7:00 PM till 8:00 PM. The public is welcome to the clinic. Maintenance 8:00 PM till 9:00 PM. Open Running including the public starting at 9:00 PM.

December 9th, Open Running including the public starting at 7:00 PM.

December 16th, EMRRC Annual Christmas Dinner Club Closed to the Public.

December 23rd, Christmas Weekend Open Running including the public starting at 7:00 PM.

December 30th. New Year's Weekend, Open Running including the public starting at 7:00 PM.

January 6th, "Clinic at the Club" from 7:00 PM till 8:00 PM. The public is welcome to the clinic. Maintenance 8:00 PM till 9:00 PM. Open Running including the public starting at 9:00 PM. EMRRC's regular monthly schedule goes back into effect.

On October 28th, EMRRC held its regularly scheduled Operations Night. We had a lot of members during the session. Chief Dispatcher Ron Breniser ran the session smoothly and everyone had a great time. Members Bryan Good and Ken Prager operated the Wood Creek area with Ken as the engineer running the train from a remote location while Bryan was conductor throwing switches and calling distances and speed. It was an interesting experiment that turned out well and may be incorporated into future operations.

Member Matt Glassman has been busy rewiring the HO Scale layout. First up new wiring to the command station and boosters.

Members Ken Prager and Rich Farrough have been busy adding new buildings to the North Wall Grand Trunk Interchange area. The 3D printer has been busy as member Jim Ford has turned out over 100 50-gallon barrels and Member Rick Crawley designed and printed a set of gears for a locomotive Ken Prager is working on. Member and Club Secretary John Banicki underwent surgery but already is back at it and the magic is still there.

Here is the upcoming "Clinic at the Club" schedule.

- 2 Dec – Make Junk Freight Cars into Something That Works – Ken P.

- 6 Jan – New York Central – Gary P.

- 3 Feb – Photo Collage of EMRRC Through the Years – Jim F.

- 3 Mar – Freight Yards and Yard Limits – Chuck H.

Friday, November 11, 2022, is Veteran's Day. There are a number of Veterans at the Elkhart Model Railroad Club including, 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, Bryan Good U.S. Air Force, and Ken Prager U.S. Air Force. Thanks to all of you for your service.

NEWS for October 2022

October 21, 2022

It's a beautiful time of year in Northern Indiana and Southern Michigan. The Elkhart Model Railroad Club is surrounded by trees changing into their fall colors and the air is crisp but soon it will all change and Old Man Winter will come calling. We're here to Catch up on the last two weeks at EMRRC with all of the club events. October 14th was an open running night at EMRRC and we had several members and guests running trains, talking trains, and catching up with old friends.

October 21st was the Elkhart Model Railroad Clubs' monthly business meeting. Items discussed included the Operations era for our formal operations on Friday 10/28/2022 will be 1955. Still some steam running but diesel is taking over. This will be our last formal operations session in 2022 due to the holidays in November and December. So if you want to get one more operations session in 2022 be there Friday 10/28. Also, Ron Breniser's Clinic at the Club Operations is up on the website and on YouTube. Here are a couple of links. https://youtu.be/zw3Wm5rVGJA

https://www.emrrc.com/index.php/home/tech-filesC

Please look at the video if you didn't attend the clinic as Ron intends to implement some of the procedures discussed in the video. Matt Glassman is working on rewiring the network interface between the computer and the command station and boosters. The N-Scale track plan is being worked on by Chuck Hart. Bill Trail and Rick Cawley have been working on N-Scale rolling stock getting them up to specs. One item that came up is making sure visitors are welcome and members stay with them. Inflation is affecting even the small stuff. Snacks and drinks are now $1. There is a committee to work on the Club Constitution and By-laws. It will be next year before this work is done. If any members have suggestions please turn them into a committee member. Upcoming Clinics at the Club have changed. The new schedule is;

- 4 Nov – ‘Behind The Scenes’ of Putting on the Club Train Show – Paul E.

- 2 Dec – Make Junk Freight Cars into Something That Works – Ken P.

- 6 Jan – New York Central – Gary P.

- 3 Feb – Photo Collage of EMRRC Through the Years – Jim F.

- 3 Mar – Freight Yards and Yard Limits – Chuck H.

After the meeting set up for Friday, the 28th Operations Session took place.

Some other items for the club members are; Ben our 3D print Guru Ben is leaving us for a faith mission working at a homeless shelter in Pennsylvania for his church. Ben will be back with us in 2023. A group of Tuesday night regulars got together for pizza and cake for a send-off for Ben and his wife Val. All the best for your new venture Ben. Member Michael Wenzelmaier has started a new business Michael's Trains an online business selling Trains, Accessories, and Electronics. It looks like he has some good deals with free shipping so take a look. If you have an interest in passenger cars look into Streamliner Memories a site that has memorabilia, articles, postcards, posters, ads, menus, and timetables all scanned to high-quality PDFs and jpegs all downloadable and free.

October 7, 2022

Here we are in the Fall of 2022 at the Elkhart Model Railroad Club. It was a cool night Friday but we had several members show up for our "Clinic at the Club" on Operations with Ron Breniser with an assist from Matt Glassman. Ron shared his early days of operating on Drake Omstead's NYOW "The Old Lady". Many of the ideas learned at Drakes were passed on to the club by Ron, the Chief Dispatcher at EMRRC. Matt helped out with the clinic by running a train from Schult Yard to Liberty with commentary from Ron and himself.

After the clinic, several members were running trains on the layout. Heislers, Trackmobiles, and a 40 Ton switcher were some of the small engines on the track. Be sure to check out the "Friday Night Running at the Club" video for all the action. Gary was performing last-minute maintenance on a finicky switch, programming was taking place on the JMRI system and lots of socializing and talk about operations were all happening as the night progressed.

Our 3D instruction sessions are wrapping are coming to end as our instructor Ben will be leaving us for a faith mission working at a homeless shelter in Pennsylvania for his church. Ben will be back with us in 2023 and we wish the best for Ben and his wife in their upcoming endeavor. Ben's instruction has paid off and several of the members are able to print 3D items. Here are a few of the latest items coming out of the printer. Here's Rick working with the slicer software to turn out an early 1900s chain drive Mack dump Truck which Rick also designed with CAD, printed, and painted with craft paints.

To the left is a group of N-Scale trucks just out of the printer by Ben.

Upcoming "Clinics at the Club" include
- 4 Nov – ‘Behind The Scenes’ of Putting on the Club Train Show – Paul E.
- 2 Dec – Freight Yards and Yard Limits – Chuck H.

NEWS for September 2022

September 30, 2022

The last Friday in September 2022 was open running night at the Elkhart Model Railroad Club. We had a good turnout of members and an enjoyable evening was had by all. There were a lot of large trains on the track and several members who are usually busy in the background ran trains. Steve Storey ran a beautiful ScaleTrains ET44AC Tier 4 GEVo. Kansas City Southern Belle, while Eden Marshall ran a Central of Georgia NS Heritage unit and Jim Ford was running a group of PRR E7s and E8s.

Also during the week, a bad spot on the main lead running into Hammes Yard was taken care of by Ken and Bryon. There was a noticeable hump that started derailing engines. The area was graded down and releveled. Unfortunately with a few thousand feet of track including mainlines, sidings, and yards. there is always continuing track maintenance. New 3D printing this week included 4 late model HO Scale pickup trucks. Chevy, Ford, Dodge, and Toyota trucks were all printed out by Ben.

Member Matt Glassman is also a member of the Michiana T-Trakers. Follow the link to their Facebook page for more pictures, specs, and info. Matt has been working on an endcap module for the T-Track Modules they exhibit around Northern Indiana. The endcap has been finished with static grass and wildlife. It simply hooks into the rest of their system by connecting the track. You can see their setup at EMRRCs Train Show in March 2023 at the Claywood Event Center in Nappanee, Indiana.

Upcoming "Clinics at the Club" include

- 7 Oct – OPS Training Update – Ron B.
- 4 Nov – ‘Behind The Scenes’ of Putting on the Club Train Show – Paul E.
- 2 Dec – Freight Yards and Yard Limits – Chuck H.

September 23, 2022

Just a quick update for this week. Friday was operations night at the Elkhart Model Railroad Club. We had a good turnout of members and visitors for the night. Be sure to check out "Friday Night Running at the Club" for this week as Schult Yard was a very busy place Friday night. We are continuing with learning how to 3D print with our new Anycubic Photon Mono X printer. Several items are being designed and printed.

Member Rick designed a lathe with CAD printed it, and here is the painted finished product. A lot of hours to get it to this point but the cost has been under $2 and of course as many of these as we want can now be printed for a few cents. If you have an interest in 3D printing our classes will end in mid-October so be sure to show up on a Tuesday night to get an idea of how you can 3D print model railroad items at the club.

Ken Prager has been working on converting and weathering Athearn Blue Box locomotives to Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range Railway (DM&IR). Gary Pressnell has added an ESU Loksound 5 to a 40-ton switcher. The switcher also has a keep-alive and sound stuffed into the body. Check out the front exhaust stack. Gary lost the original and turned the replacement on a lathe. (not the 3D printed one).

Upcoming "Clinics at the Club" include;

- 7 Oct – OPS Training Update – Ron B.
- 4 Nov – ‘Behind The Scenes’ of Putting on the Club Train Show – Paul E.
- 2 Dec – Freight Yards and Yard Limits – Chuck H.

Friday, September 30, 2022, is open running at the club. The public is welcome to attend.

September 16, 2022

Friday the 16th was EMRRC's monthly business meeting. There are responsibilities when the members own the club and the property it sets on. Outside and inside the EMRRC club property there are maintenance issues to deal with. Fortunately we have a vibrant membership who is willing to take on these responsibilities. Several members worked on cleaning up a disused landscaped area and a company will be out to grind the stumps out left from the cleanup. If you are interested in belonging to a model railroad club the Elkhart Model Railroad Club is interested in talking to you. Not only do we offer the latest in model railroad technology but membership is limited. We are approaching the limit to the number of members the club can support. What can you expect as a member of EMRRC?

A fiscally solvent club owned by the members with a responsible board. The club has been in existence since 1950.
A welcoming club environment with a variety of great members.
24/7 access with electronic lock.
A commitment to the latest in model railroading technology. a new 3D printer on-site with 3D printing lessons..
The largest yearly train show and swap meet in Northern Indiana.
Free well lite, secure parking, air-conditioned and heated building.
Monthly model railroad clinic, formal operations, member-only general running & railroad maintenance nights.
Member communications through Facebook, Youtube channel, website, and private group messaging.
Many model railroading extras are available to members only..

Friday, September 23rd is our operations night. The era is December 6, 1941. Bring your pre-war steamers and equipment. The public is welcome, we will pair you up with an experienced operator or you are free to watch. Please be at the club by 6:30 PM for assignments. Operations start promptly at 7:00 PM.

Upcoming "Clinics at the Club" include;

- 7 Oct – OPS Training Update – Ron B.
- 4 Nov – ‘Behind The Scenes’ of Putting on the Club Train Show – Paul E.
- 2 Dec – Freight Yards and Yard Limits – Chuck H.

Here are some of our latest 3D Printing projects.

Small coal load. Ore car load Uncoupling Tool

. CLICK HERE for the latest information on the 2023 Train Show. CLICK HERE for our latest "Friday Running at the Club" video. If you would like to visit the club we are open every Friday from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm to the public. Check out the top of this page for a more concise schedule. CLICK HERE If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains. CLICK HERE to see the latest regional train show listing. Have some fun with Model Railroading.

September 9, 2022

Lessons continue on the Anycubic Photon Mono X and several members are starting to turn out accessories. Some of the projects include mowers loaded on a trailer, along with an HO-Scale junk load for a gondola. Upcoming projects include an industrial lath, steel coil load, and hopper ore loads. If you have an interest in turning out projects on the 3D printer show up on Tuesday nights for lessons starting at 7:00 pm. The printer is easy to use and Ben and Byron will run you through the software to get started and set you up to 3D print your first items.

Several members and visitors were at the club Friday night for open running. Long trains, multi lashup diesel, both modern and classic were running. Members were also socializing and catching up with other members. We have several members with interesting jobs including Ken who is a remodeler who specializes in rebuilding historic homes in the South Bend historic districts. He always has some interesting stories about some of the hundred-year-old problems he runs into in some of these homes.

Also programming locomotives diesel and steam were happening as Matt brought in his personal programming unit. Want to see how he built it? CLICK HERE for a link to an EMRRC clinic that tells you how.

The long-awaited scenery on the N-Scale layout was underway as Jeff was busy working on buildings for the layout.

It's the time of year we start marketing for the Elkhart Model Railroad Club the 18th Annual Train Show for 2023. CLICK HERE If you are a vendor or just looking for information on the train show. CLICK HERE for our latest "Friday Running at the Club" video. If you would like to visit the club we are open every Friday from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm to the public. Check out the top of this page for a more concise schedule. CLICK HERE If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains. CLICK HERE to see the latest regional train show listing. Have some fun with Model Railroading.

September 2, 2022

The Elkhart Model Railroad Club started September with some outside cleanup. The club had a small landscaped area at the front of the property that had deteriorated. The track crew worked hard to get the area ready for stump grinding and eventually turn it back to grass. Thanks to all of the guys who turned out to shovel and haul gravel.

Afterward in the air-conditioned clubhouse, lots of cooling off happened with open running for many members. First a bit of track maintenance from Ken to fix a rail that had moved over.

Paul Ewing brought in the new Ewing Apartments and Condos building that will replace a derelict building on the layout. Many of the apartments will have visible interiors.

Some members of the club have been hard at work on the 3D Printer turning out accessories for HO-Scale and N-Scale. Ben is conducting classes on Tuesday nights and it has been an interesting learning experience. We've had several successes with some items and failures with others. The Photon Mono X 64 makes the process of printing 3D much simpler than I thought it would be. Some of the items include HO Scale lawn mowers, and stacks of pallets designed by Rick Cawley a former tool and die maker who has CAD experience. Rick is working on designing a lath for 3D printing a more demanding CAD project. If you have an interest in 3D Printing or have CAD experience and are interested in putting that experience to work Ben is conducting classes on Tuesday nights through October.

We had a couple of visitors from Cleveland. Tony and Jeff were on their way to the Hesston Steam Museum's Labor Day Steam and Power Show. Tony was a member of EMRRC in the early 2000s before moving to Cleveland and Jeff is a member of the Central Florida Railroad Modelers Club. thanks for stopping by fellows.

We had a reader from Spain Jose Zamora point out some interesting information on Hammes Station. It is a Kibri kit and was modeled from a German station near the Black Forest area. Unfortunately, we haven't tracked down who at the club originally built the kit.

Take a look at the photos of the Calw Bahnhof. The station was opened in 1874 in the town of Calw. It was located on the Nagold Valley Railway. The building is still there but was replaced in 1989 by a more centrally located Calw station for passenger services. The original building now houses shops and offices.

Some of the trains running at the club were a lot of NS, a 5-engine Alaska Railroad hookup, and a Rivarossi Heisler steam locomotive with DCC. CLICK HERE to see the latest "Friday Running at the Club" video. If you would like to visit the club we are open every Friday from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm to the public. Check out the top of this page for a more concise schedule. CLICK HERE If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains. CLICK HERE to see the latest regional train show listing. Have some fun with Model Railroading.

August 26, 2022

Friday was EMRRC's Operations Session for August. We had several members show up along with members of The Indiana Model Railroaders Visitors Club. The club's members visit a different railroad venue every month. They also had layouts at Goshen's Old Bag Factory but recently had to vacate the building after it was sold to new owners.

In this week's "Friday Night Running at the Club" we follow Ken Prager switching the Wood Creek area. Ken had a lot of fun tying up the main line as there wasn't room enough to stage and spot all of the cars that needed to be moved out of the Chateau Paper mill complex.

Other members involved in operations included Ron Breniser/Dispatcher, Will Babcoke & Rick Cawley/Downtown Elkhart, Gary Pressnell/Bud Liberty, Bill Trail/ Wood Creek Shuttle. Jeff & Issac Lepird/AMTRAK Passenger Train, Gary Babcoke II/VanLear Mine Shuttle, Matt Glassman/Hammes Yardmaster, Aaron Marshall/Road Freight, Jim Ford & Eden Marshall/Video, Bryan Good/Alaska Railroad Liason.

Also, Nick Farrough who usually runs one of the road freight trains successfully worked his first night switching as he spotted, switched, and delivered all of the empties from the Elkhart Industry area to Hammes Yard and returned and spotted all the incoming cars from Hammes to Elkhart Industrial.

Upcoming "Clinics at the Club" include;

-Sept 2, 2022, Clinic was Postponed till January 2023. Make junk freight cars into something that works, Ken Prager.

-Oct 7, 2022, Operations, Ron Breniser
- Nov 4, 2022, Behind the scenes of putting on the club train show, Paul Ewing
- December 4, 2022, Freight yards and yard limits - Chuck Hart

CLICK HERE to see the latest "Friday Running at the Club" video. If you would like to visit the club we are open every Friday from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm to the public. Check out the top of this page for a more concise schedule. CLICK HERE If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains. CLICK HERE to see the latest regional train show listing. Have some fun with Model Railroading.

August 19, 2022

EMRRC's August Business meeting took place on Friday. The item's discussed included; The coming Operations Session era on Friday, August 26 will be Modern. So bring your latest engines, container cars, car carriers, and AMTRAK for operations starting at 7:00 PM. Please be at the club by 6:30 for assignments. The public is welcome for operations. The next Clinic at the Club will be with Ken Prager showing how to "Make Junk Freight Cars Into Something That Works". The clinic will be on September 2nd at 7:00 PM. The new parking scheme to handle the increased number of cars in the lot is working great. Keep pulling those cars in straight.

One new permanent member was welcomed to the Elkhart Model Railroad Club. Bryan Good successfully fulfilled his probationary membership. Bryan has brought in a new era of Alaska Railroad engines to the club as you have seen from the videos. Bryan has been busy on Tuesday nights with track maintenance and is looking forward to becoming one of our 3D Printer gurus. We also welcomed 2 new probationary members to the club. Jim Metzger, a former member from the 70s and 80s is making a comeback now that he is retired, and Rick Cawley a retired CNC and tool and diemaker. Congratulations to the new members. With those additions, the club is now carrying 30 members.

Tuesday Work nights, we are getting a good turnout for Tuesdays. Ben will be available Tuesday nights for 3D Printer Training. The 3D Printer has a permanent home and has passed its initial checks. The printer is a Photon Mono X 64 and includes the following Technical Specifications● System: ANYCUBIC Photon Mono X 64● Operation: 3.5 inch Touch Screen● Printing accuracy: 5,760 x 3,600 px (6K)● Light source: Parallel matrix (LED x 40). What does all of this mean? The printer can build several duplicate items at once and is fast. We are building 6 N-Scale Hoppers at a time. HO Scale Hopper loads are next for me.

Other items discussed included; The club had shelves of old model railroading magazines. All of the magazines have been donated or recycled. We are keeping 2 years' worth of Model Railroader print magazines on hand. Thanks to John, Paul, Rich, and Nick for handling this. After the meeting, we had several visitors including Tom Nelson from New Hamshire. Tom was a member of the St. Joe Valley Model Railroad Club and was in the area visiting. CLICK HERE for our latest "Friday Running at the Club" video. If you would like to visit the club we are open every Friday from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm to the public. Check out the top of this page for a more concise schedule. CLICK HERE If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains. CLICK HERE to see the latest regional train show listing. Have some fun with Model Railroading.

August 5, 2022

August 2022 started with a clinic on how to make trees with Steve Storey. Steve did this clinic a few years ago but we never got it on camera. If you want to learn to make some great-looking trees watch for this clinic on the website and Youtube coming in the next week.

We had several visitors for the evening and many came for our monthly "Clinic at the Club". Every month on the first Friday we present a clinic on a model railroading subject and the public is invited. The kids in attendance and several members had a great time making several trees for us and some are already on the layout.

Projects are moving along. Thanks to Chuck for adding the shelving for our radios. Also thanks to Ken for working on the new 3D printer area and Chuck for putting the wiring in. We are still getting a good turnout for Tuesday night maintenance. One of the major track projects taking place involves rebuilding the cutoff for Elkhart and Flushing. This cutoff is just west of the large trestle that leads to the Bud/Liberty area. The cut-off has its dangers because of the curve radius and elevation drop. These problems are going to be solved after the rebuild.

Check out The Trackside Photographer for some interesting articles on "Mill Marks" and "Railroad Towns" There are still a lot of rails out there with mill marks from the 1800s and 1900s. Amazingly, some of these rails are nearly 150 years old. There are some Rock Island fans at EMRRC and one of the articles visits Stuart, Iowa with its historic restored Rock Island depot with plenty of old Rock Island photos.

Member Ken Prager brought in his new ScaleTrains GE ES44AC BNSF 25th Anniversary unit. On September 22^nd, 1995, Santa Fe and Burlington Northern merged to become the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway. The company’s name was later shortened to BNSF Railway. To celebrate its 25^th Anniversary, BNSF added the heralds of eight predecessor railroads to 10 ES44AC locomotives. Following the clinic, several members and visitors enjoyed the rest of the evening running trains.

CLICK HERE for our latest "Friday Running at the Club" video. If you would like to visit the club we are open every Friday from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm to the public. Check out the top of this page for a more concise schedule. CLICK HERE If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains. CLICK HERE to see the latest regional train show listing. Have some fun with Model Railroading.

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NEWS for December 2021

December 17, 2021

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

12172021 Meeting Christmas313Lots of pizza, 3 24" pizzas, and not a slice was left. Free soft drinks and desserts were provided. Lots of talk and socializing and a good time was had by all. Thanks to President, Chuck Hart for setting up the party and all the hard work he put into it to make a fun time for everyone.

12172031 Meeting Christmas12912172021 Meeting MR220After the party, everyone waddled over to the layout for running trains. Several Christmas trains were running including Gary Pressnell's NYC Boxcab with holiday decorations and Ken Prager's holiday train with Santa and his reindeer including Rudolph. Matt Glassman had his Big Boy and UP diesel running along with members Milwaukee Road passenger, NS and SP freight, Norfolk and Western Steam, and Will's British steam trains. All in all several members and a few guests had a great time. Click Here for the "Friday Night Running at the Club" video. Click Here If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains. Click Here to see the latest Train Show List courtesy of Ken Scoop.

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

December 10, 2021

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

12102021 Meeting Train Show8Although we are a few months away from the Elkhart Model Railroad Club's 2022 Train Show the work is ongoing. Tuesday night members stuffed envelopes going out to all the vendors. Thanks to the 5 members who were there for maintenance and Train Show work.

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12102021 Meeting Thomas12Member Ken Prager is getting close to finishing the North Wall interchange with the Grand Elk. The trackwork is wired and finished and Thomas decided to try out the bridge.

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

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

December 3, 2021

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

12032021 Meeting Steam6We then joined Ken for a clinic on how to apply Grafitti to freight cars, buildings and structures. . It may not be something everyone likes but if you are modeling a modern era tagging and graffiti are a part of it. The clinic will be coming up soon on the Elkhart Model Railroad's website and our YouTube channel,

12032021 Meeting Steam6Several files have been uploaded on groupsio highlighting the proposed work area and 3D printer. If you are a member check out the messages and files area. We hope to bring this proposal to a vote at our January Business Meeting. Take a look at Lance Minheim's latest newsletter. He covers several areas including the use of bump/outs on layouts to increase space. We had a proposal at the November Business Meeting to take a look at adding LED lights to the exterior of the building. Kevin Pisani of KP Electric will be coming by Tuesday to take a look at the outside lighting. Last Tuesday evening we had 4 people show up for work night. Quite a bit got accomplished including tack maintenance, scenery painting, and general clean up.

12032021 Meeting GN39After the Grafitti Clinic, we got down to the main business of the evening running trains. We had some really long trains running including a 47 tank car train pulled by 4 Great Northern E units. Switching at Giuseppe's Salvage was busy as new loads of scrap were rolling in. Also, Indiana trains Indiana Harbor Belt, Monon, and Indiana Rail were making run-throughs on the EMRRC layout. Click Here for the "Friday Night Running at the Club" video. Click Here If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains. Click Here to see the latest Train Show List courtesy of Ken Scoop. Have some fun with model railroading.

November 26, 2021

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On the Thanksgiving Holiday Weekend, we had Operations Night for Black Friday at the Elkhart Model Railroad Club. First, a big thank you to Members Paul Ewing and Matt Glassman who came in early and spent a lot of time sorting out our layout problems. The Loconet had a short in the wiring and the JMRI system had communications problems. After the problems were sorted out Operations proceeded full steam ahead. (Sorry no steam, it was the modern era for Operations Night). Everybody had a great time. Lots of joking around, problems to solve and 11262021 Meeting Dispatcher VanRon Breniser Chief Dispatcher had to come out in the van several times to get things moving.

11262021 Meeting Ops37The club is looking for ideas to promote our Tuesday Night work sessions to the members. If you have an idea to get more members out on Tuesday Nights post it on our Groupsio page. We need to start the New Year with a better handle on maintenance for the facility and the layouts so let's end the year with more folks coming in to work on Tuesday Nights. There is one last Tuesday in November for maintenance let's get a good turnout. Some items we need to attend to include;

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

11262021 Meeting Christmas Train1Coming up in December the 1st meeting on the 3rd will include; General Maintenace and then a clinic by member Ken Prager at 7 pm on "Using Decals for Grafitti". Afterward will be open running. Tuesday the 7th (National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day 80 Years ago the raid on Pearl Harbor) will be a maintenance day. Friday, December 10th will be Open Running. Tuesday, December 14th Maintenance Day. Friday, December 17th will be the Club's Annual Christmas Dinner for the members. Tuesday, December 21st Maintenance Day. Friday, December 24th Christmas Eve we will be open for informal running. Tuesday, December 28th General Maintenance. Friday, December 31st New Year's Eve we are open for informal running. Click Here for the "Friday Night Running at the Club" video. Click Here If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains. Click Here to see the latest Train Show List courtesy of Ken Scoop. Have some fun with model railroading.

November 19, 2021

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

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

11192021 Meeting Guys11The club is looking for a project manager to take over the Wood Creek area and finish the remaining projects in the Chateau Paper Products area. Gary Pressnell has procured several items for the Hammes Roundhouse area and is installing them. The most important item on the agenda was the reelection of the current board for another 2 years. Board Members are Chuck Hart President, Matt Glassman Vice President, Steve Storey Treasurer, and last but not least John Banicki, Secretary.

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

11192021 Meeting Coal1We will not have another Business Meeting until January as December's Business Meeting date the 17th will be our annual Christmas Party. Also in December, our clinic will be Ken Prager and how he adds graffiti to freight cars. on December 3rd. Next week on Friday, November 26th will be EMRRC's Formal Operations Night. The era will be modern 1997. This week's Trackside Photographer this week looks takes a look back at the Bloomington Illinois Union Depot. The Depot started life at the junction of a multitude of railroads in 1873 and ended life as an AMTRAK station. Click Here to take a look. After the meeting, it was locomotive, train, freight car passenger car running time. NOT. We had problems with the DCS 200s working and JMRI didn't like the logic it was seeing from the system. So no trains were running Friday night at EMRRC. Of course, we had enough unseen footage from prior weeks to produce a "Friday Night Running at the Club". Click Here for the "Friday Night Running at the Club" video. Click Here If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains. Click Here to see the latest Train Show List courtesy of Ken Scoop. Have some fun with model railroading.

November 12, 2021

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

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

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Several modern diesels were moving over EMRRC trackage 11122021 Meeting NYC3but the main show was PRR diesel and steam passenger trains, along with NYC, Norfolk and Western, and Virginian, and Southern Coal Trains were just a few of the classic engines running.

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

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

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

November 5, 2021
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And here we are steaming toward the end of 2021. EMRRC's November began with a 24" deluxe pizza and a clinic 11052021 Meeting Freet15by Jay Freet on Background Painting. How much better can a Friday night be? Oh yeah, we ran trains after the clinic. Jay is a race photographer and a former member of EMRRC. Jay has a home N-Scale layout that has been featured in the Walthers Catalog many times. While at the club Jay had a hand in many aspects of the scenery you see in our videos. Friday Jay did a succinct presentation on painting trees, brush, and clouds on your model railroad backdrops. Look for this clinic soon on EMRRC's Tech Files page. In other club news.

11052021 Meeting AMTRAK228Member Ken Prager has been working on the North Wall interchange with the Grand Elk. The area is coming along nicely with the bridge almost finished. The N-Scale layout is almost finished with the track, electronics, and the facia looking good. Look for an upcoming report on the progress with the new N-Scale layout.

The Trackside Photographer has an interesting article on trackside industries and photography. Click Here to take a look. We had a lot of members show up to watch the clinic and to run trains. Several Indiana trains were on the layout including, Indiana Rail, South Shore Line, and British Railways (kidding). Click Here for the "Friday Night Running at the Club" video. Click Here. If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains. Click Here to see the latest Train Show List courtesy of Ken Scoop. Have some fun with model railroading

NEWS for October 2021

October 29, 2021
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The last Friday in October ended up being EMRRC's Formal Operation Session for October. The era was 1986. Yardmaster Matt Glassman is featured in this week's "Friday Night Running at the Club." Hammes Yard runs so smoothly no one realizes how many trains are arriving and departing the yard. In the few moments, I was shooting the yard I counted 3 incoming and 2 departing trains. In a typical operations night, 2-4 road engines passenger or freight from Chicago or Toledo will arrive and depart. A shuttle will depart Hammes yard and run to Schult Yard with full cars for Wood Creek, Budwiser, and the North Wall (Oceola, Mishawaka area) and then return to Hammes Yard with empties. Also, the coal train for Van Lear Coal Mine and the power station will depart. Meanwhile, switchers from the Elkhart Industrial area and Elkhart Downtown will be arriving and departing. Matt makes it look easy while also shuttling cars around the yard tonight with NS 3204 originally built as a Class SD40-2, in December 1972, #72652-4, FN 72652-4, as Southern 3204. It became NS 3204, Class SD40-2.

10292021 Meeting Zach5Our Dispatcher Zach Maierle came dressed in full engineering regalia for Halloween. Zach is one of our student members and is attending college at Grace College in Warsaw, Indiana.

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Halloween made a strange appearance at EMRRC. BN 7140 was sitting on the mainline and fell over on its own. No one around, no trains or cars close to it. Maybe one of the EMRRC ghosts doesn't like BN.

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We never get to see our Treasurer run trains because of too many transactions. Members, please conduct any financials with Steve on the 1st and third Mondays of the month.

10292021 Meeting LS8This month's Trackside Photographer has an interesting article about a 1955 visit to a Canadian Pacific Roundhouse in Maine. Click Here to take a look at the roundhouse and some of the steam giants being serviced. Lance Mindheims monthly newsletter had a great article dealing with gaps and seams when creating neatly assembled structures. Click Here to go to Lance's website and subscribe to his website. A retail outlet Streamlined Backshop products have a wide selection of products available and a great tutorial, tips, and tricks section. Click Here to take a look at their tips.. Click Here for the "Friday Night Running at the Club" video that we ran at the show. Click Here. If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains. Click Here to see the latest Train Show List courtesy of Ken Scoop. Have some fun with model railroading

October 22, 2021
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10222021 Meeting Show1Friday was the Elkhart Model Railroad Club's monthly business meeting. Items discussed included the 16th Annual Train Show and the upcoming 17th Annual Train Show. The 16th was a success for the club with over 400 paid attendees. After having to skip a year due to the pandemic the show was one of the smoothest we've done and club members all looked great in their new EMRRC club shirts. The smooth running of the show was due to the hard work of the Train Show Committee chaired by Member John Banicki, members of the Elkhart Model Railroad Club, and the Claywood Event Center staff. Our 17th annual show is scheduled for March 19, 2021. We've already started receiving vendor applications for tables. Click Here for the application and more info on the show. Congratulations to Jeff Lipird as he was voted in as a probationary member of the club. Jeff is an NS fan and has a Youtube channel ‘NSfan3001 Productions’.

BenA new clinic is up from EMRRC. Ben Brubaker's clinic on "Cheap Freight Car Loads" is on our Youtube Channel. Click Here to take a look. Our next clinic will be on November 5, 2021, with photographer and artist Jay Freet giving lessons on background painting. After seeing this clinic anyone will be able to add trees, and clouds to a layout background.

Looking for a copy of the new EMRRC Brochure? It is on the website. Click Here to download a copy. The Trackside Photographer takes a look at railroading in the west. The trains may look different but a lot of the area they run through has not changed since the railroad's made their push through the region. Click Here to take a look at this article.

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After the meeting setup was done for the upcoming Formal Operations run on October 29th. The era will be 1984. If you are new to operations and would like to run operations with one of our experienced operators be at the club before 7:00 pm. After setup trains were run and to see the latest Click Here for "Friday Night Running at the Club" video that we ran at the show. Click Here. If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains. Click Here to see the latest Train Show List courtesy of Ken Scoop. Have some fun with model railroading

October 17, 2021
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The Elkhart Model Railroad Club's 16th Annual Train Show is in the books. The official numbers aren't in yet but from this unofficial observer, we had a great show. I'm estimating somewhere over 450 attendees and all of the vendors I spoke with had good sales for the show. I saw most of the attendees leaving with lots of bags and several making multiple trips back into the show to pick up more.

10162021 Meeting TS13There were several operating layouts and exhibitors at the show. Of course, we ran the "Friday Night Running at the Club" video made especially for the show.

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Other interesting areas included an Inglenook Puzzle layout by member Nathan Overmyer. What is an Inglenook Puzzle? In the 1950s Alan Wright came up with a classic British shunting (switching) layout that was small and simple to setup, had easy rules, and is ready to play in seconds. At first look, the Inglenook doesn't look like much, but first impressions can be misleading, and it is precisely the simplicity of the "Inglenook formula" which makes it work so well and makes operating it so highly addictive.

10162021 Meeting TS57The Michiana T-Trackers came to the show with over 15 N-Scale T-Modules. The layout saw a lot of action all day with several trains running on the layout all controlled by member Matt Glassman's Portable DCC Prog. Station. Matt showed how he built the station during an EMRRC Clinic. Click Here to see the video.

So the 2021 show is a wrap but the 17th annual show will be coming up in March of 2022. Thanks to the Train Show Committee for their hard work and all of the members, vendors, exhibitors, and visitors who made this year's show a success.

MEMBERS DON'T FORGET FRIDAY OCTOBER 22, 2021 WILL BE THE OCTOBER BUSINESS MEETING FOR THE CLUB. WE WILL BE CLOSED TO THE PUBLIC UNTIL 8 PM THIS FRIDAY EVENING. The last Friday in October will be the Formal Operating Session for the month of October.

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

October 8, 2021
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Mid-October is already here which means next Saturday will be the Elkhart Model Railroad Club's 16th Annual Train Show in Nappanee, Indiana. The show is all set to go, and all of the planning, details, and hard work come together next weekend at the Claywood Event Center in Nappanee. This will be the largest train show in Northern Indiana for 2021. There will be plenty of vendors, lots of trains and accessories from all scales, food, free parking, and EMRRC members to help you find your way around.

10082021 Meeting Wabash10Friday night was open running at EMRRC. A lot of members were on hand for a good evening of fellowship at EMRRC. This week instead of the normal "Friday Night Running at the Club" we will be running the video that will be played at the train show.

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The video starts with 2 gorgeous Big Boys waiting to cross the trestles into Liberty. From there you will see plenty of action with over 25 trains and locomotives running on the layout at EMRRC. So if you want to see a lot of action with steam and diesel check out this week's "Friday Night Running at the Club".

10082021 Meeting Military2EMRRCs latest clinic with Randy Robbins discussing "Military Flatcar Loads" is on Youtube and here on this website. Click Here to see the video on our Tech Files page or click the icon in the upper right of this page to go directly to Youtube. We have nearly 30 tips on our Tech Files page gathered from members and around the internet.

10082021 Meeting Bear6The Trackside Photographer had an interesting article titled "The Laboratory and the Outhouse". No, it's not what you think. Click Here to check it out and see what you think after reading the article.

I'm sure you know who Lance Mindham is. If you haven't signed up for his newsletter please do. This month Lance covers a quick and dirty way to quickly and effectively paint and weather roofing. Click Here to go to Lance's webpage. The webpage has a lot of great ideas and articles and you can sign up for his free newsletter.

10082021 Meeting Bush Train7The Elkhart Model Railroad Club was started over 73 years ago. During that time a tremendous amount of talented people have passed through the club doors and made a lasting impression on the club. Every year the club has made advancements and improvements and we have started a memorial page to remember and honor as many members as possible who came to EMRRC and made a difference that helped the club's legacy. Click Here for the Memorial Page and if you have a memory of a former club member please pass it along.

That's it for this week. Click Here to see the latest "Friday Night Running at the Club" video. Click Here. If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains. Click Here to see the latest Train Show List courtesy of Ken Scoop. Have some fun with model railroading and see you at the train show.

October 1, 2021
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The first day of October 2021 at Elkhart Model Railroad Club saw a new clinic presentation by Randy Robbins on Military Freight Car Loads. Randy being a U.S. Army tanker vet mixes his military interest with trains and we get a great clinic out of his interests. Look for the finished clinic on Youtube and this website soon. The next clinic coming up on November 5th is painting trees, grass, clouds, and brush on backdrops with Jay Freet.

10012021 Meeting Diorama12Don't forget the 16th Annual Elkhart Model Railroad Club's Train Show is coming up in less than 2 weeks. Members make sure you are signed up for show duties as it's all hands on deck for the show.

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Ben Brubaker was working on a diorama over the last couple of weeks and we added in old number 10 to complete the scene.

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The Yoakam Junkyard has changed owners. There is a new sign announcing Giuseppe's Salvage. There were rumors about an East Coast entity with questionable ties to concrete and boot companies.

10012021 Meeting Members5 After the clinic, some general maintenance on the railroad, and socializing we had a ton of members and guests for the night. I'm guessing somewhere around 35 people enjoyed running and watching several trains running at EMRRC. Click Here to see the latest "Friday Night Running at the Club" video. Click Here. If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains. Click Here to see the latest Train Show List courtesy of Ken Scoop. Have some fun with model railroading.

September 24, 2021
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The Elkhart Model Railroad Club is in the final days of September well on our way into Fall and more indoor time to spend on model railroading. Friday was our Formal Operations night and we had a good group of members and over 10 trains running through their paces.9242021 Meeting DT21

Member, Mike Miller brought in his Digitrax DT602D throttle along with a Digitrax UR93 Duplex Transceiver.

9242021 Meeting UR9322At EMRRC we are running a Digitrax simplex system. The UR93 gives us the added duplex system for the DT602D throttle to work. The UR93 is extremely easy to hook up. Just plug in the included PS14 Universal power supply, hook up the included loconet cable into any handy transceiver and it was there for the DT602D to recognize.

9242021 Meeting DT21WHere are the features for the DT602D

Features:
Works with compatible LocoNet systems
Color 2.4” LCD Display Screen
Full Duplex radio when paired with a UR92 or compatible Duplex Transceiver (sold separately)
Advanced menu system and displays
Built-in scrolling help and prompting
Soft ON/OFF switch, with zero OFF power-drain
Advanced display Power Saving for longer wireless battery operation
Throttles are now powered in wireless modes by 3 AA cells! No more 9V batteries to remove!
Can use recharged AA batteries
Works in standard tethered, IR, or Radio Duplex modes
Duplex Scan for available Networks and radio signal strength. Run without cords!
All throttles come with a LocoNet cord that can be unplugged and is replaceable
Dual throttle controls let you control two locos simultaneously
Run locomotives with “encoder click” knobs for both speed and direction control
Full numeric keypad makes loco selection simple
Control light and sound effects functions with the press of a button
Control 29 functions (F0-F28).
Function active/inactive indicators
Convenient step-by-step throttle option set up
Supports simplified decoder programming
Simplified 2 or 4 digit addressing setup
Over 9,000 locomotive decoder addresses
Supports turnout and stationary decoder control
Over 2000 turnout decoder addresses
Fast clock display
Recall feature
Advanced Route editor

9242021 Meeting Nscale3While operations were in progress on the HO-Scale layout members also enjoyed trying out the new N-Scale layout. The electronics are just about finished and the scenery is up next. Click Here to see the latest "Friday Night Running at the Club" video. Click Here. If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains. Click Here to see the latest Train Show List courtesy of Ken Scoop. Have some fun with model railroading.

September 17, 2021
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EMMRC has had over 800 business meetings over the years as the club was formally founded in 1950 and records of business meetings start then. September 17th was the Elkhart Model Railroad Club's monthly business meeting. Items discussed included; The October business meeting will be delayed one week to October 22nd due to the October train show. The new club shirts order is in and shirts will be on the way to the club soon. Member Paul Ewing presented a mock-up of the new club brochure. Paul worked very hard on the brochure with some assistance from Jim Ford and it looks great. Printing will begin soon and you will be able to download a copy here on the website.

9172021 Meeting AFT14 Chief Dispatcher Ron Breiser announced the era for next week's Formal Operations Session,1976. Steam, unfortunately, is gone except for some excursion locomotives and the 1976 American Freedom Train. In case you weren't around or don't remember the American Freedom Train featured twelve display cars, ten that visitors would go aboard and pass through and two to hold large objects that would be viewed from the ground through huge "showcase" windows. The display cars were filled with over 500 precious treasures of Americana. Included in these diverse artifacts were George Washington's copy of the Constitution, the original Louisiana Purchase, Judy Garland's dress from The Wizard of OZ, Joe Frazier's boxing trunks, Martin Luther King's pulpit, and robes, and even a rock from the moon. The American Freedom Train was a 26-car train led by one of three steam engines restored just for the occasion. Over 21 months from April 1, 1975, to December 31, 1976, more than 7 million Americans visited the train during its tour of all 48 contiguous states. Tens of millions more stood trackside to see it go by. It was by far the greatest event on rails since the end of the steam era, and the uniquely magnificent vehicle that brought America's Bicentennial celebration to the people. If we're lucky we may see the AFT pass through next Friday night.

1042019 Meeting TanksRandy Robbins is our next EMRRC Clinic presenter on October 1st. Randy is a veteran of the U.S. Army, Armour Branch and has an interest in military trains. Randy will discuss tanks and moving them on the railroads. The main item for discussion was the upcoming 16th Annual Train Show. We are under 30 days till the show opens and all preparations are moving along smoothly. The vendor tables are all sold out and there is a waiting list. The final details are ironed out, and members are signing up for volunteer work at the show. A really interesting motion was brought before the members. EMRRC has a chance to move the show back to a Spring date. It looks like the 17th Annual Train Show will happen in March 2022. It's a quick turnaround for the club but after 16 years of shows, the membership is up to the task. More news to come on this development as we move forward.

9172021 Meeting OP Setup310After the business meeting, setup started for next week's Formal Operations Session. Several members set the cars and locomotives for their upcoming journeys to and from various businesses and industries on the railroad.

One other item for this week is another article from The Trackside Photographer. The article chronicles the author's travels mainly around Indiana tracking Illinois Central's number 101 through the years from his childhood to adulthood. CLICK HERE and check the story out, you'll enjoy it.

9172021 Meeting BB1116A couple of Big Boys strutted their stuff around the layout Friday night. Nathan and Matt brought their Athearn Genesis #s 4002 and 4017.Twenty-five Big Boys were built exclusively for the Union Pacific Railroad, the first of which was delivered in 1941. The locomotives were 132 feet long and weighed 1.2 million pounds. Because of their great length, the frames of the Big Boys were “hinged,” or articulated, to allow them to negotiate curves.

9172021 Meeting BB49They had a 4-8-8-4 wheel arrangement, which meant they had four wheels on the leading set of “pilot” wheels which guided the engine, eight drivers, another set of eight drivers, and four wheels following which supported the rear of the locomotive. The massive engines normally operated between Ogden, Utah, and Cheyenne, Wyo. 9172021 Meeting BB52

There are seven Big Boys on public display in cities around the country. They can be found in St. Louis, MS; Dallas, TX; Omaha, NE; Denver, CO; Scranton, PA; Green Bay, WI; & Cheyenne, WY. 2017 is on display at the National Rail Museum in Green Bay Wisconsin along with a Pennsylvania Railroad GG1, The Dwight D. Eisenhower Locomotive & Command Cars, and several other permanent railroad displays. Be sure to Click Here to see the Big Boys in the latest "Friday Night Running at the Club" video. Click Here. If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains. Click Here to see the latest Train Show List courtesy of Ken Scoop. Have some fun with model railroading.

September 10, 2021
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On September 10 at the Elkhart Model Railroad Club, we had several members and visitors in for our informal running session. We started with a clinic on freight carloads with Ben Brubaker.

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

910021 Meeting Nscale22President Chuck Hart informally spoke about EMRRC's new N-Scale layout. The layout is operational and, a train was run with a phone throttle through a Raspberry Pi totally separate from the EMRRC system controlling the HO-Scale layout.910021 Meeting Nscale1

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

910021 Meeting NW4 Steam18We are interested in members with an interest or expertise in computers, apps, artwork, construction, electrical, model buildering, or just want to see and work on a piece of history in the Elkhart area. We ran onto one interesting statistic. The Elkhart Model Railroad Club has around 30 members. Of those members, only 3 are from Elkhart. All of the rest live in an area from Southwest Michigan to Warsaw and Marshall County. It may be the Elkhart Model Railroad Club but we serve and draw from a large area.

910021 Meeting Show1We are just over 30 days from The 2021 Elkhart Model Railroad Club's 16th Annual Nappanee Train Show. The 2021 Train Show will be at the Claywood Event Center on October 16, 2021, from 10:00, am to 3:00 pm EDT. This is the same excellent event center we held the tremendous 2019 show at. It's approximately 3 miles southwest of Nappanee, Indiana at 13924 N. 1100 W (County Line Road). The building has all the amenities and we will take up about 14,000 sq. ft with 150 vendor tables. There will be plenty of direction signs to find your way there. If you are a hobbyist don't miss this show. All scales will be well represented with plenty of used and new items. If you want to bring the family, kids under 12 are free and it's just $5 for adults. There will be a restaurant on-site with hot Amish sandwiches, desserts, sides, and soft drinks. Be sure to join us on Saturday, October 16th at the Claywood Event Center. You won't be disappointed. The Elkhart Model Railroad Club and Claywood Event Center will be following all Corona Virus protocols in effect for the month of October 2021 provided by the City of Nappanee, Indiana, Kosciusko County, and the state of Indiana.

910021 Meeting PRR417Members don't forget we are in the final days to order a club shirt. Sign up now if you are interested. Click Here to see our latest "Friday Night Running at the Club" video. Click Here. If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains. Click Here to see the latest Train Show List courtesy of Ken Scoop. Have some fun with model railroading.

September 3, 2021
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Labor Day weekend at the Elkhart Model Railroad Club saw 20 members and several guests come in for our usual social gathering and to run trains. There are many benefits to being a member of the club. Friday night we sorted and priced donations we receive during the year for the upcoming 16th Annual Train Show. Afterward, members were allowed to buy any item they wanted at a great price. Treasurer Steve Storey could barely keep up with all of the transactions. Speaking of the upcoming Train Show we are sold out of vendor tables. Any vendor application received will be added to a waiting list. This means 150 tables of vendors will be at the show.

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EMRRCs first two clinics of the year are up on YouTube. You can go to our Tech Files page and hit a direct link to each clinic from there. The clinics are "Building a Portable DCC Programming Unit", and Track Ballasting". Each clinic has nearly 100 views with 8 Likes each. Our next clinic "Freight Car Loads" will be debuting in the month of September. The Elkhart Model Railroad Club's YouTube channel has had a growth spurt this year with 175 new subscribers so far.

9032021 Meeting Rock Island 620We had a lot of trains and locomotives running Friday night. One of these was a Rapido Trains EMD SW1200. General Motors Diesel (GMD) began production of the first example of the 1,200-hp SW1200 switcher model in January 1954. Built through until May 1966, over 700 examples of this versatile road switcher were built by EMD. This unit was painted as a Rock Island unit and had Rapido's normal attention to detail.

9032021 Meeting Rock Island 716Designed from original blueprints and field measurements

Heavy diecast frame, chassis, and gearboxes for superior pulling power

Rapido’s renowned silky smooth-running drive system

Working cab interior light and inspection lights

Fully detailed Type A or Flexicoil trucks, as appropriate

Full cab interior with working cab interior light and non-working fire extinguisher and fridge (where appropriate)

9032021 Meeting Rock Island 418Working headlights and illuminated number boards at both ends

Some models have a rotary beacon or flasher/strobe as appropriate

Separate handrails, including crash bars inside the cab

Multiple exhaust stack and battery box door styles

With or without working drop steps, as appropriate

Incredible underbody piping and conduit detail - a Rapido hallmark

DC/Silent or DC/DCC/Sound versions featuring an ESU Loksound decoder with accurate recordings from a 567 prime mover

9032021 Meeting Hammes Yard26Be sure to watch for this engine and a pair of Scale Trains Rio Grande Tunnel Motors on our latest "Friday Night Running at the Club video. Click Here. If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains. Click Here to see the latest Train Show List courtesy of Ken Scoop. Have some fun with model railroading.

NEWS for August 2021

August 27, 2021
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The last Friday of August was the Elkhart Model Railroad Club's Monthly Operations Session. The era was 1968 and we had a lot of classic diesel show up as steam was pretty much over with.

The Friday Night 8272021 Meeting GP23Running at the Club" video takes a look at member Gary Pressnell switching the Wood Creek area and Chateau Paper Products. Click Here to see the switching at Wood Creek. Dispatcher Zach Maierie did a nice job of steering us through the night and didn't have to come out of the Dispatcher Office too often. Zach is a student at Grace College and has just started classes.

8272021 Meeting Nathan Rich16Marketing and preparation continue for the 16th Annual Train Show on October 16, 2021. Announcements & flyers are out to tons of venues.

8272021 Meeting Wood Creek8Part of the preparation involves sorting the donation items we have to sell at the EMRRC Train Show. We are looking for members to volunteer to come in on Tuesdays to sort the items. We have 4 members signed up, but we could use more as there is a lot of stuff to go through. Please signup at EMRRC's groups.io page to help the club get these items ready to sell.

8272021 Meeting PUD Clinic1The Elkhart Model Railroad Club's first two clinics are posted up on Youtube. Matt Glassman did a great job talking about how and why he created a portable programming box to use during T-Track sessions and at the club or at home. Take a close look at Matt's photo and you'll see something as rare as Jim Ford or Steve Storey running a train on the layout, Matt smiling.

8272021 Meeting Ballast Clinic10Speaking of Steve Storey he did our 2nd clinic of the year on Ballasting. Steve looks really happy while he's working away on ballasting and does a very good job of showing the intricacies of How to Ballast Track. Click Here to watch the clinic on the Portable Programming Unit. Click Here to watch the clinic on Ballasting. Thanks, guys for the great job and time you put in on these important videos for the club. Our next clinic is September 10th with Ben Brubaker discussing how to make loads for freight cars.

8272021 Meeting North Wall12On a technical note have you ever wondered if that sweet running locomotive with a Keep-Alive device will begin to degrade, resulting in worsening performance over time. Charging efficiency, as well as total capacity will begin to decrease as the capacitor(s) begin to reach their end-of-life. Click Here for an article on why electrolytic capacitors degrade, as well as some factors which can expedite this process of reaching EOL.

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

August 20, 2021
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August 20th was the Elkhart Model Railroad Club's monthly business meeting. At the meeting items discussed included the club's 16th Annual Train Show coming up less than 60 days away on October 16, 2021. We are going to have 150 vendors at the show and vendor tables are sold out. Any vendor application received after August 19th will go to a waiting list. Also, there are several jobs still to be done before and during the show. Members please check out the jobs and signup sheets on EMRRC's groups.io page or on the bulletin board at the club and sign up. In the upcoming weeks, more detailed preparations and assignments will need to be finalized.

8202021 Meeting Lots of Vis10EMRRC also welcomed 4 new probationary members, Zach Maierie, Bill Trail, Mike Miller, and Rich Farrough. Congratulations gentlemen. 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 72-year piece of history in the Elkhart area. Do you like Arduino or have experience with Raspberry Pi? 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. Stop by on a Friday and say hi. The AC is on, the parking is free and it's a great social environment. We just had 6 guys from Ohio looking to set up their own club and looking for information on how successful clubs operate.

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As soon as the meeting ended, Steve Storey, ( Steve wears several hats at the club, he is also the Club Treasurer) conducted a clinic on ballasting. Ballasting is a tough job as it is tedious but exacting and EMRRC has over 1000 feet of mainline and another 750' of spurs, yards, and connecting railroads, and members have to keep up with ballasting. The clinic was recorded and will appear on EMRRC's YouTube page and on this website in the Tech Files area.

8202021 Meeting OP Setup15After the meeting and clinic, it was time to set up for next Friday's Operations Session which will cover the pre1968 era. Operations take some time to set up when you are dealing with a large layout, several members, and lots of cars and locomotives to get in place. It is an enjoyable experience as members, visitors and guests set up the pieces to a large puzzle and that puzzle will be solved on Friday, August 27th during EMRRC's formal Operations Session. Click Here to see our latest "Friday Night Running at the Club" video. Click Here. If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains. Click Here to see the latest Train Show List courtesy of Ken Scoop. Have some fun with model railroading.

August 6, 2021
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The Elkhart Model Railroad Club held its first clinic in a long time. Matt Glassman spoke about building a portable programming station. Matt is also interested in N-Scale T-Track Modules and needed a quick way to set up power and control for T-Track modules. This brought about Version I of his portable programming station. Matt is now on Version II of his programming station. The clinic delved into how Matt built the programming station and how it operates.

8062021 Meeting Clinic29We are going to post the video of the clinic on the EMRRC YouTube channel and on our Tech Files page soon. We will have a mini-clinic on ballasting Friday, August 13th. If you are interested see Steve Storey and be at EMRRC by 7 pm. Our next clinic will be on September 3, 2021, with Ben Brubaker. Ben will speak on "Freight Car Loads" and how to inexpensively build them. Look at the cost of buying premade freight carloads. You can get into more money than you spent on the flat car very easily.

Shirt Logo 1EMRRC is also going to have club shirts made for the members. The Polo shirts are forest green with the club logo. All of the options are listed on the signup sheet is on the bulletin board at the club. Please signup by the August Business Meeting as the order will be turned in by the end of August.

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We deal in running trains friend so after the clinic, lots of steam, diesel, MOW, club members, and guests had a great time at EMRRC. It's airconditioned and the parking is free.

If you want to see a great railroad museum don't forget the Michiana NMRA Division will have an August outing at the National New York Central Museum in Elkhart on August 21st. Please be at the front entrance at noon.

July 23, 2021
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The last Friday of July 2021 was the Elkhart Model Railroad Club's Formal Operations Session for July. It was a smooth session as up to 10 trains were operating under the direction of Chief Dispatcher Ron Breniser. Ron also took the time to start breaking in a new dispatcher Zach Maierle who did a great job the first time out of the chute. CLICK HERE to check out this week's "Friday Night Running at the Club" as it's all Operations.

7302021 Meeting Crossing6Our next meeting on August 6, 2021, will feature our first clinic in over a YEAR AND A HALF. Matt Glassman will provide information on building a portable programming station. The clinic will start at 7:00 pm after the club maintenance. There is no informal train running until after the clinic.

7302021 Meeting UP3C RP10We're going clinic crazy all of a sudden. We will have a mini-clinic on Friday, August 13th (what can go wrong) @ 7 PM Steve Storey will present a clinic on track ballasting. Yep, there's an art to it if it's done right and Steve is the guy to make sure you get it right. It will be a quick demo and participants will be turned loose on the EMRRC tracks afterward. Also one last reminder we are just about sold out of vendor tables for our 16th Annual Train Show in Nappanee. If you are a vendor and don't want to be on the waiting list for a table you need to get your application in now. Click Here for more information.

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A couple of more items to take a look at. Ron has finished the TLC to Stan's Wood Creek Roller Press Building and it is on the layout in place with a full interior. Ron did a great job as it was in sad shape inside & out when the club got ahold of it.

7302021 Meeting NW13Also, Ken Prager is working on the North Wall rebuild based on Nathan Overmyer's plan. This is a major rebuilt which got stuck in the middle of the pandemic shut down and we are just now starting to see the results. Take a look when you get a chance. Click Here. If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains. Click Here to see the latest Train Show List courtesy of Ken Scoop. Have some fun with model railroading.

July 23, 2021
7162021 Meeting Eden.jpeg6Friday, July 23rd was EMRRC's July Business Meeting. Items discussed included our 16th Annual Train Show in Nappanee. 140 out of 150 tables have been sold. If you are a vendor we're getting close to closing table sales. Please get your application in now. Click Here for more information. Club members will be able to buy an Elkhart Model Railroad Club Polo style shirt in dark green. Members, please check EMRRCs groups.io page for pricing sizes, etc. Orders and money will be collected at the August Business Meeting. EMRRCs Bad Order for Freight Cars and Locos will move from the library shelf to its own roll-around cart soon. Our July Formal Operations Session will be Friday, July 30. 2021 starting promptly at 7:00 pm. The era is pre1956.

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August 6, 2021, will be our first clinic in a long time. Matt Glassman will provide information on building a portable programming station. The clinic will start at 7:00 pm after the club maintenance. There is no informal train running until after the clinic. The Michiana NMRA Division will have an August outing at the National New York Central Museum in Elkhart on August 21st. Please be at the front entrance at noon. Steve Storey will be conducting a mini-clinic at one of the meetings on ballasting. This will be scheduled soon as we need folks to ballast club track. If you want to learn how to ballast track please see Steve. After the meeting members set up for the upcoming Formal Ops Session.

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Every Tuesday is a Maintenance Night at the clubhouse. Members are encouraged to come by and lend a hand. Chores include general cleaning in and outside the clubhouse and maintenance on the layout. Thanks to Ken for the general club clean-up and work on the north wall. Paul and Jim for trimming outside bushes, Will & Gary for lawn maintenance, Chuck for his continuing work on the new N-Scale layout, and Gary for track maintenance.

7232021 Meeting Whitcomb2Piko is releasing their HO-Scale Whitcomb 65-Ton (65-DE-19A) Diesel Locomotive this fall. The engine comes DCC ready or equipped with Piko's DCC decoder. James Wright did a review on YouTube on the engine and was impressed. Not only was the decoder superb but the engine is a brute. Click Here for the review. Some highlights include an impressive array of sounds including dual-engine and a real-sounding bell. The engine ran so slow it errored out his speedometer on slow-speed steps. It has 3.3 ounces of pull which is approximately 50 HO freight cars. Great detail, and a die-cast chassis. The only downside for the American market is it comes with European couplers and buffers. There is a separate kit to change these and later versions will be made for the American markets.

7232021 Meeting NKP6After all this the club members got down to our main business, running trains. We had a lot of great-looking Nickel Plate, PRR, South Shore, and Great Northern. We did have one problem while trying to set a club record. Be sure to check the end of "Friday Night Running at the Club". Click Here to see our latest "Friday Night Running at the Club" video. Click Here. If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains. Click Here to see the latest Train Show List courtesy of Ken Scoop. Have some fun with model railroading.

July 16, 2021
7162021 Meeting Eden.jpeg6Due to scheduling problems, EMRRC moved our July Business Meeting to Friday, July 23, 2021. We will be closed to the public next Friday the 23rd until our Business Meeting ends usually around 8 pm.

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Upcoming events at the Elkhart Model Railroad Club include; Friday, July 30, 2021, Formal Operations starting at 7:00 pm. The era will be pre1956. 7162021 Meeting NW22The Operations Session will start promptly at 7:00 pm. If you are late there is no guarantee a position will still be available. Visitors and guests will be paired with an experienced operator. On August 6, 2021 member Matt Glassman will have a clinic on building a portable test/programming station. As always please give the presenter the attention they deserve during the clinic whether you are a member or a guest. After the clinic is maintenance night. Members and guests are expected to pull maintenance on the building, grounds, and layouts. If time allows informal running can take place after maintenance.

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Gary Pressnell got a head start on maintenance working on a finicky switch near the entrance to Shult yard.

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Do you have an interest in Michigan railroads? The Elkhart Model Railroad Club would like to pass along a good resource for you. www.michiganrailroads.com provides contemporary and historical information about railroads in and near the State of Michigan. They have sections on contemporary and historical Michigan railroads including old railroad maps, station information, and photographs. Take a look at a valuable resource on Michigan railroads. EMRRC's 2021 Train Show is coming soon and vendor tables are almost sold out. The 16th annual Train show in Nappanee, Indiana will be on Saturday, October 16th. If you are a vendor and interested please get your vendor information and a check to us as soon as possible. Here's a link to the application if you need it. On Friday we had an Informal Run Session with several unusual trains and locomotives, along with some of our longtime engines making their appearance at EMRRC. We had a chance to revisit with some guests and members we hadn't seen since before the Pandemic and some new potential members that have an interest in the club. If you have an interest in Model Railroading be sure to visit us on Friday nights from 7:00 pm till 9:00 pm. The Elkhart Model Railroad has been in the same building since 1950 and the layout you see today was started in 1952. There are a couple of sections of hand-laid track still on the layout from the 1950s.
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July 9, 2021

The Elkhart Model Railroad had a great informal run session on Friday the 9th. We had a lot of locomotives show up. 792021 Meeting AMTRAK49

Watch the latest "Friday Night Running at the Club" video and you'll see a Broadway Limited Great Northern Boxcab, (we're using the latest 5G invisible catenary system). The PRRs class P5 comprised 92 mixed-traffic electric locomotives constructed 19311935 by the PRR, Westinghouse, and General Electric. Although the original intention was that they work passenger trains, the success of the GG1 meant that the P5 class was mostly used on freight. A single survivor, prototype #4700, is at the Museum of Transportation in St Louis, Missouri. The first P5s were built with box cabs. A grade crossing accident in which the crew was killed led to the substitution of a streamlined steeple type cab in later production, a design that was also applied to the GG1. Orders were placed for 90 production locomotives classified P5a due to minor changes from the prototypes. Production was split between General Electric and Westinghouse. The GE examples were assembled at GE's Erie, Pennsylvania facility, still a locomotive assembly plant today--while final assembly for the Westinghouse order was subcontracted to the Baldwin Locomotive Works.

A Rapido AMTRAK with a doppler horn ( I could actually hear it as it went by), pulling an AMTRAK passenger train made a stop at the Elkhart station on the EMRRC layout. The engine is an Amtrak F40PH. It is a phase 1 version, which means it is an accurate representation of the first order of F40 locomotives delivered in 1976. These 30 locomotives worked across the country until the very last days of F40PH operation, and many survive today as NPCU or “Cabbages." Phase 1 F40 locomotives operated all over the United States right until retirement.

792021 Meeting NYC2792021 Meeting NYC2Following that, we saw a couple of New York Central RS2s with lots of extras added (handrails, lift hooks, etc.) pulling a nice-looking coal train with a variety of weathered classic coal cars. 792021 Meeting UP5Don't forget the ScaleTrains "Big Blow" UP Turbine an aptly named locomotive that the model duplicates unbelievably look and soundwise. These are the hallmarks of the Union Pacific Railroad’s unique GTEL 8500 Horsepower Turbine locomotives. 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 are some important changes coming to the club for July 2021 only. Friday, July 16th will be a normal crazy informal run session, and guests and visitors will be welcome.We are moving the business meeting out one week for the month of July due to scheduling problems. The July business meeting will be on Friday, July 23, 2021, starting promptly at 7:00 pm. We will be closed to the public till after the business meeting concludes, usually at 8:00 pm. July 2021 has 5 Fridays so this will allow us to still have a formal operations session on Friday, July 30, 2021. The era will be pre1956. This is the year President Eisenhower's Interstate System was authorized, so no giant highways were connecting cities. Maybe there was a 4 lane highway with lots of intersections and stoplights. More than likely you were traveling on a 2 lane highway between minor cities. Indianapolis had one major 4 lane highway in 1956, US 40. Airplanes were not the great passenger carriers of today and airports were small and infrequent. So dust off your classic diesel, your passenger trains, and get your big steam, midsize steam, little steam, all your steam because the railroads and steam ruled transportation with diesel coming on strong The operations session will start promptly at 7:00 pm. If you are late there is no guarantee a position will still be available. Visitors and guests will be paired with an experienced operator. We will have our first clinic in over a year and a792021 Meeting Port Prog11 half on Friday, August 6, 2021. Member Matt Glassman will have a presentation on building a portable test/programming station. Matt has put together a tool that many will find useful and interesting. As always please give the presenter the attention they deserve during the clinic whether you are a member or a guest. The members put a lot of effort into their presentations and we will be taping the presentation for posting on our YouTube channel and our website Tech Files Page. Click Here to see our latest "Friday Night Running at the Club" video. Click Here. If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains. Click Here to see the latest Train Show List courtesy of Ken Scoop. Have some fun with model railroading.

July 2, 2021
It's been a busy two weeks for the Elkhart Model Railroad Club. We started last Friday, June 25th with our first Operations Session in over a year. Members had a great time and the session went pretty smooth.

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For the first Friday in July, along with 3 guests, we started with general maintenance of the club, and member Matt Glassman finished putting in a curved switch near the roundhouse.

722021 Meeting N scale12Also, Chuck Hart and Ron Benheiser were working on the new N-Scale Layout. The roadbed is very close to being finished and the scenery is starting to pop up around the layout. The N-Scale layout will be autonomous from the HO-Scale layout and will run on a Raspberry Pi. Running with JMRI the Raspberry Pi will generate its own wireless signal allowing the use of phones and wireless throttles separate from the HO-Scale system. On August 20th after the business meeting, Chuck Hart will host a clinic on the N-Scale Layout and its capabilities.

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Everyone was excited to get the informal running session going as we had two Big Boys running along with a PRR T1 and a UP DD40AX, a 6600 hp locomotive. The most powerful diesel-electric locomotive model ever built on a single frame, having two prime movers. 722021 Meeting BB38The Big Boys are Athearn Genesis models and did a great job running on the layout. The Union Pacific's Overland Route, the eastern portion of the Transcontinental Railroad, was built west from Omaha, across Nebraska and Wyoming, and on into Utah. The steepest grade was the eastbound climb on the Echo Canyon line through the Wahsatch Mountains just east of Ogden, Utah. Forty 4-6-6-4 Challenger locomotives were acquired in 1936 and 1937 to move 722021 Meeting PRR2fast freight over the grades in Utah and Wyoming. They were rated at 4,290 tons across Wyoming, but were limited to 3,100 tons eastbound through Echo Canyon. Union Pacific wanted something that could make the same speeds as the Challengers but could carry the entire 4,290-ton train over the Wahsatch Mountains without a helper. The easiest solution was to scale up the successful Challenger design by adding another pair of drivers to each half of the locomotive thus making a 4-8-8-4. In 1941 UP placed an order for twenty 4-8-8-4's, numbered 4000 through 4019, with the American Locomotive Works. Each engine cost $265,174.722021 Meeting BB Chalk Mark Resize

According to legend an unidentified machinist at the ALCO plant is responsible for the name "Big Boy", having scrawled the name in chalk on a partially completed locomotive. The Big Boys were exactly what the railroad wanted. They were coal burners with 6722021 Meeting PRR28-inch drivers, 135,375 pounds of tractive effort and 6,000 horsepower. They started service on the line from Ogden to Green River, Wyoming and their operating range soon increased to cover the line all the way to
Cheyenne. Traffic during WWII resulted in 5 more Big Boys, numbered 4020 through 4024, being built in 1944. These versions were slightly heavier than the original order due to wartime materials restrictions.

722021 Meeting BB11Despite the influx of diesel locomotives following WWII, the Big Boys and Challengers remained the prime power on the Overland Route. They also saw service as helpers, leading gas turbines and diesels over Sherman Hill. They remained active through the 1950's and weren't retired until the early
1960's. By then the first twenty units had been run well over one million miles. Eight of the twenty-five Big Boys have been preserved in the following locations:
#4004 in Cheyenne
#4005 in Denver
#4006 in St. Louis
#4012 in Scranton
#4014 in Pamona
#4017 in Green Bay
#4018 in Dallas
#4023 in Omaha

722021 Meeting Happy Fourth1Have a Great Fourth of July.

NEWS for June 2021
June 18, 2021
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The Elkhart Model Railroad Club held our June business meeting Friday night. We had a small turnout for the meeting. Some highlights from the meeting included a review of the guidelines for informal running. We are trying to make sure everyone, members, and visitors have a chance to enjoy running during informal running.

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We discussed club shirts for members. If you are interested be sure to check EMRRC's groups.io page for more info.

Clinics will restart on the 1st Friday in August. The plan is to video some of the clinics over the next few months and load them onto the Club's Youtube channel. After the meeting, it was set up for operations. We are going to have our first operations session in over a year on Friday, June 25th. Members and visitors must be at the club by 7:00 pm on Friday in order to be assigned by the dispatcher. Visitors will be paired with an experienced operator for the session. The era is steam in the year 1943 and before. After the meeting and set up there was still time for running trains.

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We saw a massive PRR T1, a nice NYC F7, and a couple of steamers running through.

6182021 Meeting Star Trek7One of the steamers was pulling a flatcar with a USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) prop being moved to Chicago studios. The model was built by Stan Shatto. Be sure to take a look at this week's "Friday Night Running at the Club" as we take a look at former and current members and some sections of the layout from years ago. Click Here to see our latest "Friday Night Running at the Club" video. Click Here. If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains. Click Here to see the latest Train Show List courtesy of Ken Scoop. Have some fun with model railroading.

June 11, 2021
6112021 Meeting Guests members13EMRRC had open running Friday night at the clubhouse. We had several members and visitors enjoy socializing, operating, and just taking a look at the many trains running on our 30' x 50' HO-Scale layout.

6112021 Meeting NW1Member Matt Glassman brought out his beautiful Norfolk & Western Class J locomotive. Only one class J locomotive, No. 611, survives. Its survival was in part due to its excellent condition after its 1956 derailment and subsequent repair, and also in part to the efforts of attorney and railfan, W. Graham Claytor Jr. who offered to preserve the 611 rather than seeing it scrapped. The locomotive was donated to the Roanoke Transportation Museum in 1962, where it sat dormant for two decades. Since then, it has had two excursion careers: from 1982 to 1994, after Norfolk Southern Railway restored the locomotive, and in 2015 (by Norfolk Southern) and afterward by the VMT.

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

6112021 Meeting UP Caboose6Be sure to take a look at the UP caboose in the "Friday Night Running at the Club" video. It is a Hallmark Brass custom-painted unit. The Elkhart Model Railroad Club is fortunate to be surrounded by railroad treasures. The club has been around for 71 years and is a great place to visit. Also in Elkhart is The National New York Central Railroad Museum. Across the tracks is the current Amtrak station constructed in 1900 by the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad. Later it became part of the New York Central System. Of course, the tracks are Norfolk Southern's mainline running to Chicago and NS's 2nd largest classification yard Elkhart Yard. Each day, more than 100 trains pass through Elkhart Yard. Also the Grand Elk Railroad and the Elkhart and Western Railroad interchange with NS in Elkhart. You can still see an NS engine with a caboose interchanging with the E&W. Just to the west of Elkhart is South Bend and there you will see NS, CN, and The South Shore an electric commuter railroad that runs to Chicago.

6112021 Meeting NS Caboose 51The third Friday of every month is our business meeting. This Friday, June 18th is our business meeting night. Visitors are welcome after 8:00 pm. Don't forget our 16th Annual Train Show in Nappanee. We are receiving reservations for tables weekly. Please check our Train Show page for more information and set the date October 16, 2021, on your calendar. Click Here to see our latest "Friday Night Running at the Club" video. Click Here. If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains. Click Here to see the latest Train Show List courtesy of Ken Scoop. Have some fun with model railroading.

June 4, 2021

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The first Friday in June had several operators and one tracklayer at the Elkhart Model Railroad Club. Member Matt Glassman was busy laying new track and switches in the Hammes Roundhouse area. This area is being converted into better access to Hammes Yards. Also on the HO-Scale layout member, 642021 Meeting Chateau PaperRon Breniser is working on several buildings in the Chateau Paper complex. The buildings were originally started by Stan Shatto but he never had the chance to finish them. Ron had a setback as he ended up in the hospital for a few days but he is doing well. 642021 Meeting CSS9Rumors are that scenery in the roundhouse area is starting and the powerhouse area may have a new building in place soon. The new N-Scale layout is coming along nicely. More roadbed has been installed around the edges and backdrops at each end of the layout have been installed. Don't forget we are open for visitors Friday nights from 7:00 pm till 9:00 pm. The third Friday of each month is 8:00 pm till 9:00 pm due to our business meeting. The fourth Friday is our operations night visitors are welcome and you will be paired with an experienced operator for the evening.

642021 Meeting BridgeHere's a project for someone. Do you have some flatcars laying around? This bridge is 6 flatcars welded together, off-site, in pairs. This is a county road that used to just run through the creek. You see this in some rural counties but not this elaborate.

As you have gotten older have you gotten the wobbles? A lot of boxcars end up with this problem sometimes right out of the box. RTR can mean Ready To Repair. Here are some ideas to help you correct this problem.

642021 Meeting UP413Check the kingpin. The kingpin can stand up a little bit higher than the inside of the truck. The solution to that is to file it down. Some kingpins are so thick that even when the truck mounting screw is tight the trucks wobble. Gently file it so that you can tighten the screw to the point that the truck barely swivels and rocks, then back off the screw about 1/4 turn. Don't take too much off, you don't want to file the bolster completely off.

642021 Meeting NS211One thing you might try is leaving one truck relatively loose, and tightening the other so that it just swivels without any up and down motion. You want to adjust the tightness of the truck screws carefully. Tighten the screws down until the truck won't swivel and then back off a quarter of a turn or thereabouts. 642021 Meeting NYC37One truck ought to be as tight as possible to eliminate side to side rocking of the truck. The other truck ought to be a little bit looser to let the track follow rises and dips in the track. Make sure the tops of the wheels don't hit anything on the bottom of the car. Both trucks should be parallel to the car bottom, not cocked to one side or the other.
The car can have a bad wheelset, warped, etc. Plastic wheels tend to add wobble. Replace with metal.

NEWS for May 2021
May 28, 2021
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EMRRC had some trains on the tracks that we don't see every Friday night. We had several switchers, British locomotives with passenger trains, On3. We took a look at the switchers on this week's Friday Night at the Club", click here to see the latest video. Since the pandemic has slowed significantly in Elkhart County the club is again open for visitors and guests from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm Friday nights. If you have an interest in model railroading stop by say hello and take a look at the large HO-Scale club layout that was started in the 1950s.

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If you like N-Scale work has begun again on our new N-scale layout and we are looking for people with an interest in N-Scale. Watch out we may put you to work. 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. Train shows are up and running and were are getting past the cancellations due to the pandemic. Even though were are at the beginning of June we are working on our upcoming 16th Annual Train Show in Nappanee. It takes a lot of planning and coordination with lots of different people to have a successful show. Tables are selling fast please check out our Train Show page for more information and get the date October 16, 2021, on your calendar. Tempus Fugit.

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We had a distinguished visitor stop by the courthouse in Elkhart at EMRRC. Take a look and see if you figure out who it is. Here's a hint the number 45 is associated with him.

5282021 Meeting Air9Do you know what a distributed air car is? They are containers or boxcars that have air compressors and diesel fuel tanks installed to maintain air pressure in long trains during the winter months. Here's a link to a discussion http://cs.trains.com/trn/f/111/t/146747.aspx CN and BNSF are the main users. Click Here. if you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains. Click Here to see the latest Train Show List courtesy of Ken Scoop. Everyone have a great Memorial Day weekend, take a minute to remember the men and women who sacrificed their lives in the military service of this country to preserve the freedoms we enjoy as Americans.

May 21, 2021
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Friday night was the monthly business meeting for EMRRC and several members were at the Elkhart Model Railroad Club. Items covered included; the club is open to visitors again from 7:00 pm till 9:00 pm Fridays except when there is a business meeting. The Elkhart County Mask Mandate ended May 14.

5212021 Meeting Oil32We have sold over 100 vendor tables for the October 16, 2021, 16th Annual Train Show in Nappanee, Indiana. We are trying out a few new rules on Friday nights to relieve congestion on the mainline at EMRRC. Train lengths are limited, and don't leave your train are a couple of the rules. Members can access the entire list on EMRRC's groups.io file area.

5212021 Meeting RG28EMRRC is looking into club shirts for the members. Joe Cipalla is checking into the shirt project for us. The Elkhart Model Railroad Club formed a committee to look into electronic CTC signaling. Matt Glassman, Ron Benheiser, and Jim Ford will look into electronic signaling and report back to the club. EMRRC is going to start formal operations again. Friday, June 25th will be our first operations session in 14 months. It will be the year 1943 so pretty much all steam will be running.

5212021 Meeting PM312Speaking of steam after the meeting a nice-looking MTH Pere Marquette just back from rehab made an appearance Friday night at EMRRC along with several NS trains, the Rio Grande Zephyr, and a long oil train.

Did you know the 5142021 Meeting Southern11Southern Railway extended into Indiana? The Southern operated through Louisville via the Kentucky & Indiana Terminal, which connected with the LE&StL to St. Louis. From 1900 until 1981, K&IT was owned equally by Southern, B&O, and the Monon; SR bought the whole thing in 1981 as B&O and Monon moved into the CSX camp. Here's an article http://cs.trains.com/ctr/b/mileposts/archive/2021/05/11/southern-where-i-least-expected-it.aspx. Southern’s St. Louis line had at least one other notable feature: Duncan Tunnel, a surprisingly long (4,295 feet) bore that pierces what is known as the Knobstone Escarpment, a formation of limestone spread out across southern Indiana. Located just six miles west of New Albany near Edwardsville, the tunnel is fairly well hidden, barely visible to motorists passing right over it on Interstate 64.

May 14, 2021
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The Elkhart Model Railroad Club definitely had a British feel to its meeting Friday night. A Camouflage WWI Boche Buster Rail Gun and ROD 2330 Dean Goods 0-6-0 Steam Locomotive ran through along with an Irish Railways 2-6-0 passenger train. The BL 18-inch railway howitzer was a British railway gun developed during World War I. The Railway Operating Division (ROD) ROD 2-8-0 was the standard heavy freight steam locomotive operated in Europe by the ROD during the First World War. There were three batches of orders for the 2-8-0. The first batch of orders was placed between February and June 1917 for 223 locomotives. Later orders brought the total up to 521 locomotives. Three ROD 2-8-0s and one pre-war 8K have been preserved.

5142021 Meeting IRISH3The Irish Railways ran a 2-6-0 steam engine with 3 passenger cars. The passenger cars are Gordon's Express Coach recolors and the engine seems to be one of the Bachmann UK engines in the Irish Green and Cream. The range of British models offered by Bachmann in Britain is easily adaptable to Thomas the Tank items. That being the case these items are modeled in OO scale (4mm = 1ft) and not HO scale. Note that traditionally British OO is designed to run on HO track.

5142021 Meeting Southern11The Elkhart Model Railroad Club after much thought has decided to reopen to the public on Friday 5/21/2021. Visitors and guests will be welcomed to the club from 8:00 pm till 9:00 pm because this is a business meeting night. NO VISITORS before 8:00 pm. If you have not been vaccinated please wear a mask. If you are a visitor or a guest please wear a mask. Children must be accompanied by adults. Please come by and enjoy a large layout that has been running since the early 1950s. This is the first meeting with visitors since March of 2020.

EMRRC's 2021 Train Show has over 100 vendor tables sold. The 16th annual Train show in Nappanee, Indiana will be on Saturday, October 16th. If you are a vendor and interested please get your vendor information and a check to us as soon as possible. Here's a link to the application if you need it. Click Here to see our latest "Friday Night Running at the Club" video. Click Here. If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains. Click Here to see the latest Train Show List courtesy of Ken Scoop. Have some fun with model railroading.

May 9, 2021
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Several members showed up for the first Friday in May to run trains and share some fellowship. We saw a lot of steam, classic diesel and, Ken's apocalypse train looking like it was on its way to the scrappers, but being pulled by 2 beautiful GN F3s.

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Yes, we are getting close to reopening the EMRRC clubhouse to the public. Elkhart County keeps bouncing around between orange and yellow but the latest stats show the cases going down and the vaccinations going up.

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EMRRC's 2021 Train Show has over 100 vendor tables sold. The 16th annual Train show in Nappanee, Indiana will be on Saturday, October 16th. If you are a vendor and interested please get your vendor information and a check to us as soon as possible. Here's a link to the application if you need it. There is a train show within driving distance of our area coming up this weekend. The Franklin Train Show will be on Saturday & Sunday, May 15-16. 94 vendors along with clinics will be at 250 Fairgrounds St, Franklin, IN 46131. Franklin is about 20 miles south of Indy. If you go be sure to check the times as they vary by day. Admission is free.

572021 Meeting Smoke6There seems to be some renewed interest in using graphite for improved conductivity and cleaning on tracks. I posted some notes on our Tech Files page. Several people with large layouts say this process solves problems and means less track cleaning. Model Railroad Hobbyist has done extensive research on the process. EMRRC has the perfect area to try this out as we have 2 extremely long tunnels from our Flushing Branch. ( You have run through kind of a waterfall area to get to this hidden gem on the EMRRC layout).

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I pass this underpass every day in Elkhart and have never noticed the "We The People" inscription. It's on the Grand Elk access to Norfolk Southern by the Elkhart and Western access to NS. Richmond Street runs under it and turns into Waterfall Drive. Elkhart Streets are crazy. Does anybody know anything about it? Click Here to see our latest "Friday Night Running at the Club" video. Click Here. If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains. Click Here to see the latest Train Show List courtesy of Ken Scoop. Have some fun with model railroading.

NEWS for April 2021
April 30, 2021
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Members continue to look through the many items from Stan Shatto. Another engine that showed up is the ClownRail engine. Stan built this parody engine of Conrail in the early 2000s and it had not been seen at EMRRC for many years. Members are taking a look at the engine to see what needs to be done to get it back on the EMRRC tracks.

4302021 Meeting Clinch48As the club gets closer to opening for guests and visitors (look for an announcement soon) remember if you are into 4302021 Meeting CO216model railroading not only do we provide a massive HO scale railroad to run your trains on but we have members with years of experience to help you out. I decided to join a club years ago as I knew I would never complete a huge layout, so I joined EMRRC which has over 1200 feet of mainline another 1000 feet of secondary, branch line, and yards. We also need N-Scalers. We started a new N-Scale layout before the pandemic but construction has slowed down. If you like N-Scale and want to be involved in constructing a new N-Scale layout think about joining EMRRC. 4302021 Meeting Gary Ben Mask9Looking to see what's wrong with that favorite engine or car? Need help with programming that new DCC decoder? We may be able to help. Look for an announcement in the next couple of weeks for EMRRC opening to the public.

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Here's an interesting article about the preservation of steam locomotives. This is the story of two locomotives that were preserved but still couldn't dodge the cutting torch. It's a two-part story so make sure to look for the second part. http://thetracksidephotographer.com/2021/03/18/a-passion-for-steam/

photo by railfan 44 - https://www.flickr.com/photos/129679309@N05/26046388862/, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=54427252

The 2021 EMRRC Train Show has now sold over 98 vendor tables out of 150. If you are a vendor and interested please get your vendor information and a check to us as soon as possible. Here's a link to the application if you need it.

April 16, 2021
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We had a lot of members on site for the Elkhart Model Railroad Club's April business meeting. Several items were discussed including; opening the club for visitors and guests. At this time we are still closed except for members Due to the Covid regulations in Elkhart County we have decided to remain closed until May when it will be revisited. The 2021 EMRRC Train Show has sold over 80 vendor tables of 150. If you are a vendor and interested please get your vendor information and a check to us as soon as possible. Here's a link to the application if you need it.

4162021 Meeting Sana Flush16We recently received the rest of Stan Shatto's model railroad equipment. Stan was a lifetime member and our craftsman when it came to anything in model railroading. The area Stan concentrated on was the Chateau Paper facility in Wood Creek. 4162021 Meeting Stan Equp3Stan had several buildings still to complete and some of these buildings were in the material we received. 4162021 Meeting Sana Flush16

Also, the infamous Sana Flush engine was found after a long absence from the EMRRC tracks. RIP Stan and thanks for all your work and the many items you left the club. The EMRRC Club Car has sold beyond our expectations, At this time there are 3 cars left at John Hall True Value Hardware in Goshen.

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Jay Freet had a post on Facebook about his use of old electronic boards for the interiors of buildings on his N-Scale layout. Who doesn't have a bunch of these lying around gathering dust? It's an easy way to easily put an interior in an industrial building. Another great idea, Jay had was to use drywall seam tape for the window frames that you see in the picture below. It adds a lot of detail to buildings.

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One of our members Paul Ewing has used this technique for one of our HO-scale buildings. This is the Jacobson Wood Products building in Roda. The use of old boards adds a quick interior to industrial buildings. Click Here to see our latest "Friday Night Running at the Club" video. Click Here. If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains. Click Here to see the latest Train Show List courtesy of Ken Scoop. Have some fun with model railroading.

April 2, 2021

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Rock Island center cab #423 lives. After a bit of LokSound programming, the decals have been added, the lights work and she moves on the Elkhart Model Railroad Club trackage. The 423 is a C415 road switcher. 422021 Meeting RI31Matt Glassman has put together the engine from parts on hand and resin castings from Pacific Northwest Resins. Everyone enjoyed seeing a rare engine come to life. Since Matt brought in his Loksound programmer he worked with some of the other members to tune up their LokSound decoders. 422021 Meeting EW8We had several engines running on the tracks Friday night. Be sure to check out our latest "Friday Night Running at the Club" video by Clicking Here and if you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains. I ran across an interesting link to CRP&A, the Center for Railroad Photography & Art. They have a tremendous collection of black & white photos available for research and browsing. Also, there are interesting biographies of some of the great railroad photographers who spent their lives shooting railroads throughout the United States so we can enjoy them today. Be sure to take a look at this tremendous collection. The Elkhart Model Railroad Club's 16th Annual Train Show is selling vendor tables like hotcakes. If you are a vendor interested in the show be sure to get your application in as soon as possible. Click Here to see the latest Train Show List courtesy of Ken Scoop. Have some fun with model railroading.

NEWS for March 2021

March 26, 2021
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Everyone had a good time Friday night at the Elkhart Model Railroad Club. We had nearly 20 members and 6 had their Nickel Plate Road #765 Berkshire with them, so several shots of 765 appear in this week's "Friday Night Running at the Club". Member Paul Ewing took some great shots of the layout Friday night Please enjoy them on our Facebook page. 3262021 Meeting MGMember Matt Glassman has been working on a Rock Island C415 road switcher. Matt has fabricated and cannibalizing parts for the engine while getting the frame, body, and side trucks from Pacific Northwest Resins. The C415 was a large switcher or small road switcher equipped with a raised cab mounted slightly off-center, with a lower, narrower hood on either side. The longer one contained the diesel engine, a 1,500 hp (1.1 MW) eight-cylinder turbocharged Alco 251-F, while the shorter contained auxiliaries. 3262021 Meeting MG25The C415 could be ordered with three different cab heights; a low one for minimum clearances, a regular height one, and an extra-height one for maximum visibility. Only 26 of the engines were built as Alco was nearing the end of its run. Unbelievably 6 are still around with 1 working on a short line in Australia.

The 16th annual Train show in Nappanee, Indiana on October 16th is moving right along. Every week we are selling more tables.

There is a train show in our area on Saturday 4/3/2021. The show is the 2021 Miami County Train Show and Swap Meet in Peru, IN at the Miami County Fair Grounds. The show will be complying with whatever COVID guidelines are in effect at the time. All proceeds benefit the Light Up Peru Chrismas fund.

March 19, 2021
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Several members were at the Elkhart Model Railroad Club for the monthly business meeting For March 2021. Member Matt Glassman was elected Vice President to finish Jerry Piatt's term. Congratulations Matt. Jerry retired from the club and will be missed by all. Other items on the agenda for March included a review of our Covid policies and unfortunately, Elkhart County has slipped back into the Yellow Catagory so we have to put off opening the club to visitors till we meet again in April. The 16th annual Train show in Nappanee, Indiana on October 16th is starting to look good. we have sold over 30 tables out of 150. Our Club Car sales did very well and we are sold out. After the meeting, several trains showed up on the EMRRC tracks.

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A patched Conrail EMD NW2 showed for switching duties at EMRRC. The engine was originally Erie and was sold to Conrail who patched it with a small CR but left the Erie colors intact. Eventually, the engine was scrapped after many years of service for Conrail.

A beautiful Northern Pacific A2 4-8-3192021 Meeting NP94 pulling a fast passenger train came through EMRRC. In 1938, eight Class A-3s (road numbers 2660 through 2667) were delivered from Baldwin.

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Another beautiful passenger train running Friday night was a PRR streamlined K4. In February 1936, locomotive #3768 was clad in a shroud designed by famed industrial designer Raymond Loewy. This highly concealing, enveloping streamlined casing hid most of the functionality of the steam locomotive, leading to its nickname of The Torpedo by train crews. At first, the locomotive was not painted in standard Dark Green Locomotive Enamel (DGLE) but instead in a bronze color. It was later refinished in DGLE. A matching tender ran on unusual six-wheel trucks. Like most streamlined steam locomotives, the shrouds impeded maintenance, and the covers over the wheels were later removed. For a time, the locomotive was the preferred engine for the Broadway Limited train.

The unusual white car pulled right behind the tender is Borden "Butter Dish" milk tanker. The Borden's butter dish cars could be found on trains running on the D&H, Rutland, Lehigh Valley, DL&W, NYO&W, Erie, and the NYC. I have yet to see a photo of a Borden's butter dish car on the PRR. The butter dish cars were rebuilt from Borden's wooden milk cars. It appears they may have picked the cars for rebuilding at random. Not all the wooden milk cars may have been rebuilt. One could see both the butter dish and wood sidecars through the years in the same consist. With this in mind, the butter dish numbering would not be in any particular series. It was reported that 35 cars saw conversions to th3192021 Meeting Butter Dish PRR5e butter dish style. One butter dish car, #520 is preserved at the Illinois Railway, Museum in Union, Ill.

The butter dish cars originally had a top fin and two end fins. Later during the war, the top fin was removed for scrap metal purposes. The end fins on some cars also were removed at a later date. In the mid to late 1950's the butter dish milk cars changed usage. They went from hauling milk to glue ingredients while others just became storage.

March 12, 2021
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Congratulations to member Gary Babcoke III, Penn State University Altoona, 2021 AREMA (American Railway Engineering and Maintenance-of-Way Association) scholarship winner. Gary will receive a Bachelors's Degree in 2022 in Railroad and Railway Transportation.

Slowly things are coming back to normal. There are train shows and swap meets scheduled in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio in March. Click Here to check Ken Scoops' latest Train Show List. Don't forget EMRRC's Train Show has moved from March till October 16. 2021.

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Here's is member Matt Classman's latest ScaleTrains project. It is a GE Dash 9 with the following changes and parts to turn it into NS 4002

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Intermountain ES44 center section. I broke the Intermountain cab so I had to sacrifice a tier4 Shell that I got earlier in the year.
Tru-Color Paint.
Circus City Decals
ScaleTrains tier 4 cab.
Truck lights.
Step lights.
Walkway lights.
Ditch lights.
Number board lights.
Headlights.
3122021 Meeting MG3 Orig 4402 Elkhart4NS 4002 was Norfolk Southerns 3rd release in the "Mane Series". It shows a mane with a Tuscan Red stripe behind the cab to highlight the DC to AC conversion. GE originally built the locomotive as standard cab D9-40C No. 8789. Great Job as always Matt.

Photo Courtesy Stan Sienicki. 9/23/2016 NS 65K with recently rebuilt GE AC44C6M's 4002, 4004 Roll past the Elkhart Amtrak Depot in a scene that can not be duplicated today due to the track realignment that placed the 2 mains south about 60 feet along with a new passenger platform.

News for March 5, 2021
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, We had so much footage from last week we used some of the footage to complete this week's "Friday Night Running at the Club". We had a couple of interesting loads run through behind a BN train owned by member Ben Brubaker. 3052021 Meeting Scrap Load10 The gondola has a scrap load made from the inner core of dog poop pickup bags. Ben just takes the cores after all of the bags have been used, breaks them up, and adds paint. No cost for the material. 3052021 Meeting Pipe Load1The other load is on a flat car. Ben does a blog on Model Railroad Hobbyist and explained how he built this concrete sewer pipe load for a couple of bucks. I put a link on our Tech Files page. Click Here. Member Chuck Hart posted an interesting link to some tips on using glues and keeping them fresh. Be sure to check it out on our Facebook page. 3052021 Meeting BLE24We had several trains running last Friday night, one was a Bessemer (B&LE) pulling some Rock Island coal hoppers patched to B&LE. Click Here to see our latest "Friday Night Running at the Club" video. Click Here. If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains. Click Here to see the latest Train Show List courtesy of Grand River Valley Railroad Club. Have some fun with model railroading.

News for February 28, 2021
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Several were at the Elkhart Model Railroad Club Friday night and we saw a lot of trains on the tracks. So many that we actually had more footage than we could use for "Friday Night Running at the Club" One of the unique trains was a New York Central Hudson Dreyfuss that member Randy Roberts has owned for several years and has run as a DC engine on our Digitrax DCC layout. Randy remotored the engine added a DCC decoder and new led lights and it made its DCC debut Friday night.
2282021 Meeting MG Alco C4157Also, our "I'm gonna rebuild everything" member Matt Glassman has an Alco C-415. The body is from Pacific Northwest Resins. Trucks and drivetrain are out of a Proto 2000 Alco locomotive. The front driveshaft has been cut about in half to get it to fit. Great start and job as always Matt. The C415 was a large switcher or small road unit equipped with a raised cab mounted slightly off-center, with a lower, narrower hood on either side. Only 26 of these locomotives were made.

2282021 Meeting Whitcomb6Another unusual locomotive coming soon from Piko is the Whitcomb type 65 center cab Here's the picture of Piko's test model of the Whitcomb in H0. They plan to release two versions during the second half of this year. The version of the Dutch state railways (they bought 20 after the war) and the version of the USATC. This is the USATC version. Piko America hinted there will also be a US version after these. Up till this point, there has only been a brass version of this engine.

2282021 Meeting Train SHow1During Friday night's session the committee for the 2021 Train Show met. John Banicki will serve as the chairman of the committee and Nathan Overmyer will serve as the vendor liaison. Both John and Nathan will be assisted by several other members to make this the best train show in Northern Indiana.

2192021 Meeting NYC12Also some good news for Elkhart County concerning the Covid Virus. Elkhart County has fallen into the Blue Advisory Level for a week. A county must remain at a lower Weekly Two-Metric Score for two consecutive weeks to move down to a lower advisory level. so we are still in the Yellow Catagory at this point, but it sure looks like the count will be blue in a couple of weeks. Hopefully, we will be opening the club for visitors after the March business meeting. Click Here to see our latest "Friday Night Running at the Club" video. Click Here. If you want to see more pictures of the members and their trains. Click Here to see the latest Train Show List courtesy of Grand River Valley Railroad Club. Have some fun with model railroading.