Hey guys!

Our club is starting its Open House this weekend. Its a neat club, and we have an INCREDIBLE steel mill module that we just installed, complete with lighting (in fact, we're adding more!). The layout is roughly 60 X 30 feet, and runs on DCC. $3 admission, children under 12 are FREE. For an added price, you can run a train around the layout (such as a rescue train headed by a GG1, complete with sound).

We have a huge variety of trains, from old slope-back steamers, to Streamliners, to modern freights (not to mention, GG1s, E44s and Silverliners by Me). I'm there most Sundays, and would love to show you around.

Adress- 900 Ponoma Road, Cinnaminson, NJ 08077

We're in the basement of the Footlighter's playhouse.

We're open from 12 AM to 5 PM

November 27-28
December 4-5
January 8-9; 22-23
February 12-13; 19-20

Sounds fun, if I lived closer I'd make the trip. I like the mu-ed power in the first photo, and the second photo is really nice.

We've already had our time in New Jersey for this year. Looks like the type of trains I'd love to see.

I checked the map and Cinnaminson is across the river from Philadelphia.

BR60103 Wrote:We've already had our time in New Jersey for this year. Looks like the type of trains I'd love to see.

I checked the map and Cinnaminson is across the river from Philadelphia.

Yes it is! its not very far at all. if people need directions, i know the area pretty good.

I'm not promising but I'll try to make it. What days are you going to be there?

tomustang Wrote:I'm not promising but I'll try to make it. What days are you going to be there?

Every Sunday unless something goes wrong. I randomly appear on saturdays if i don't have work that day. I'll usually know in advanced. Besides, this saturday is bad due to some poor planning on the part of Footlighters. Our shows always begin the weekend after thanksgiving, yet they planned to use the whole parking lot for something on that same day. pain in the butt.

Good looking layout! I really like the last picture!

Have a very successful open house! Thew layout looks great and the admission is inexpensive. I'm sure you'll get lots of visitors!
Ralph

Well, the first weekend went well for us, we got a lot of people without it getting two crowded. The best part for me is that my trains got photographed prominently (though probably without mention of me) by a local news paper (Courier post) on the layout, Mainly my Amtrak GG1 pulling my Metroliner MUs around. this pleases me greatly, and i think it gets posted online (along with the release of the article) on December 10. definitely going to pick up a copy.

Alright Guys! we have more show dates coming up in a few weeks. If you're in the area, try and come down! I'll probably get down there and take some more photos tonight, but here is some of the stuff I was running, as well as our new Steel mill

I forgot to turn the "lights" on. The steel mill is nearly fully lighted. The Electric furnace glows blue/purple, and there are street lights and such all around.

A video of this past show season. Not a bad year (actually a record year), but i think i've seen the end of our Junior Engineer program. Basically, people could buy a ticket to run the train, and it was popular, but what would happen is that

A.) none of the old guys wanted to deal with kids
B.) the kids can't even see what they're doing half the time
C.) People don't listen.

I've rarely had issues, since i only use my own tested trains, and my NJ transit set (seen above with the toaster) is SO reliable that you can run it backwards at full speed through tight switches and S curves without even a flinch. Unfortuneately, No one else could guarantee that standard, and so inexperienced people + grumpy old men= bad news for kids want to run the train. It brought in a lot of money to, but no amount of regulation seemed to keep it going. We'll see how it goes next year.

Anyway, here is the video-

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcfCmOozceU">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcfCmOozceU</a><!-- m -->

Nice looking club, G.E.C.! And pretty good sized, too! Looks like you guys have been working on it for quite a while as the scenery looks very close to complete, at least in the areas that you photographed.

The club I recently join still has quite a ways to go with scenis stuff, but there is a group that continues to work on it. Being my first experience in a club, I've been fascinated how there are a handfull of small groups who come in for a few hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays and the work in some little area ... two guys over here on the floor under the lower level running new wiring for a system of "Block Occupancy Status" panels that the elecrtical guys (including a couple E.E.'s) are instituting, thre of the NG guys are tearing up track to install a run-around track at one of the mines, a three-man track crew is checking rail gauge at the points of every turnout in staging, and so on. It has been an eye opener to say the least. It took me a couple of weeks to figure out where I wanted to jump in ... finally requesting an envelope of Tichy Group windows and a sheet with a a floor plan on it ... The House and Garage for San Bernardino.

I find myself wishing I had sought out and joined a club earlier in life! I missed out on years of friendships and collaberation on building, maintaining and eventually operating a large layout ... it really is a bunch of fun, don't you agree, G.E.C.?

P5se Camelback Wrote:Nice looking club, G.E.C.! And pretty good sized, too! Looks like you guys have been working on it for quite a while as the scenery looks very close to complete, at least in the areas that you photographed.

There is still a little while to go, i'm probably going to be working on a city scene, and i would like to build a small passenger station for my MU/PATCO cars to stop at along another portion of the line, but we'll see.

Quote:I find myself wishing I had sought out and joined a club earlier in life! I missed out on years of friendships and collaberation on building, maintaining and eventually operating a large layout ... it really is a bunch of fun, don't you agree, G.E.C.?

Part of the problem i run into, is that there are "newer" members than me, but they're getting all the projects, and i get left standing around. For all the dues i pay, i should NOT just be standing there. Its not like they have running nights during the year. I've finally gotten seriously annoyed and i'm now pushing to get my projects through.

I think because i'm relatively young, that they don't want to give me anything. I've got a reasonable set of skills, and so i hope to show i am capable and competent.

"... Reasonable set of skills" ... My ... aren't you modest!

Have they seen the locomotive for which you built the mold and cast your own shell? Good grief! Not just any Hobby Harry with a layout at home can do that, or would even attempt it!

We don't have those types of problems ... of course, I'm the newest guy and i have a couple of projects lined up in succession. But they were going begging, no one seemed interested and I wanted to do what I could to contribute, so I jumped in as the new guy and volunteered. We only have about 35 members, at least half of which are "Snowbirds" and treat the club sort of as a social club for like-minded individuals. In a effort to attract new blood that will actually do something, the initial membership fee was lowered ... I jumped on the opportunity! A dollar saved is a dollar saved, especially being retired in this sad economy!

Don't get me wrong ... there is a core group of fellows who are there at The Depot (what we call the club's building) at least once a week, if not on all three days that we're open. Each of those guys has some task or tasks that they're involved in, from the small group that is developing a schedule for freight operations, based on the prototype, that can hopefully be folded into the passenger schedule, again, based on the prototype, to a couple guys who are doing track maintenance at any spots marked with a small square of blue painte's tape, to the resident Electrical Engineer wiring up a systems of "Traffic Status Boards," showing train locations within that Tower's area of responsibility, to be mounted on the Fascia for when T.O.'s speak on the radios with the Dispatchers (2 - one for each "Division.")

No one seems upset that I have taken on the projects that I have ... in fact, I have been thanked for volunteering.

They're just a good bunch of real gentlemen who all love model railroading!

P5se Camelback Wrote:"... Reasonable set of skills" ... My ... aren't you modest!

Have they seen the locomotive for which you built the mold and cast your own shell? Good grief! Not just any Hobby Harry with a layout at home can do that, or would even attempt it!

Actually they have, but i know they don't really know what i'm about, though i can see why they look at me the way they do. They're under the impression that i'm a "Passenger guy" and that i like to run the trains. They haven't really seen my layout (haven't really shown any pictures though), and have only seen a few of my buildings.

Just looking at my layout thread, every other post is either a Transit Vehicle or a book about one. My last few models have ALL been a commuter of some type. My last couple models look something like this- Silverliner IV in the summer, two Silverliner IIIs over the fall, an NJ transit GP40FH-2 for a contest piece. Now i've got 15 Arrow IIIs, PATCOs, possibly a free Light Rail Vehicle and i'm ordering a third Silverliner III that i found, and have another Silverliner IV on hold when they arrive. my most reliable trains are my NJ transit and SEPTA push-pull commuter trains (visible in the above pictures and in my Avatar here). Its what they see me do there. Even here, my fellow conrail modelers bust my chops because i've got all these Passenger projects lined up.

The truth is, building industries is one of my favorite things. I get to learn about how it all works, and get a feel for something i don't encounter in everyday life. I love building other structures and infrastructure. Its all very interesting to me. I love running operations, and i love just running a few Geeps around and switching out the cars. The passenger stuff is only big news to me, because as anyone who models such things can tell you, Electric MUs are far and few between, so i'm generally excited when i come across such kits. I can't say i don't enjoy running my push pulls and MUs, but thats only part of the picture.

Quote:We don't have those types of problems ... of course, I'm the newest guy and i have a couple of projects lined up in succession. But they were going begging, no one seemed interested and I wanted to do what I could to contribute, so I jumped in as the new guy and volunteered. We only have about 35 members, at least half of which are "Snowbirds" and treat the club sort of as a social club for like-minded individuals. In a effort to attract new blood that will actually do something, the initial membership fee was lowered ... I jumped on the opportunity! A dollar saved is a dollar saved, especially being retired in this sad economy!

Actually, they ended up creating a billion committees at the last business meeting. We now have (on top of standards) a Layout committee, and Train/Rolling Stock Committee, and Advertising committee. Its All in the interest of preventing stupid stuff from happening (not trying to insult people, but sometimes their quality of work isn't on par with the rest of the layout and it doesn't fit in or look good). Now i have to wait a little longer to get my building projects on a roll, and i now before show seasons i have to try and explain to a rolling stock committee why my commuter trains aren't at NMRA specifications (in terms of weight. Wheels and such are good to go).

Quote:Don't get me wrong ... there is a core group of fellows who are there at The Depot (what we call the club's building) at least once a week, if not on all three days that we're open. Each of those guys has some task or tasks that they're involved in, from the small group that is developing a schedule for freight operations, based on the prototype, that can hopefully be folded into the passenger schedule, again, based on the prototype, to a couple guys who are doing track maintenance at any spots marked with a small square of blue painte's tape, to the resident Electrical Engineer wiring up a systems of "Traffic Status Boards," showing train locations within that Tower's area of responsibility, to be mounted on the Fascia for when T.O.'s speak on the radios with the Dispatchers (2 - one for each "Division.")

No one seems upset that I have taken on the projects that I have ... in fact, I have been thanked for volunteering.

They're just a good bunch of real gentlemen who all love model railroading!

Well, in the past it was all volunteering, but a few people just started "working on things", and the results were, honestly, not good. someone tried to make a moutain with a big rectangular pile of insulation foam board, and covered it with plaster gauze, then painted it black and put pipe cleaner trees on it. It was eventually my job to tear it down and remove it. I felt bad, people spent time on it, but it not only looked like a pile of brown gauze, but it actually hung over the mainline tracks and hit trains. It sat like that for months, with clearly no attempt to make it "mesh in".

This and a bunch of other problems revolving around scenery and train quality (in terms of function, not appearance) have really driven my club to try and get things to a particular level. We're getting to many "NEW" new members, who don't even have much of any experience with model trains. I have no problem helping people learn, but as the older guys put it, "if you going to do it, do it right the first time!".

Thats actually whats holding me up, since they want me to now to ALL OUT on this city, not just make it presentable. Not really in my comfort level, but i'll go for it.