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Editors: John Hansen & Ted Wiese RAILINGS from the KING SNIPE Bill Logan wrlogan@msn.com Summer Rail-fanning and Conventions I always look forward to summer’s rail-fanning and conventions. Live steam remains alive and well here in Ohio with the Ohio Central Railroad operating out of Sugarcreek, Ohio. This is a 1 hour ride through the heart of Amish county behind steam loco 1551 of the Montreal Locomotive Works circa 1912. Model rail-road conventions so far this summer have taken us to Orlando Florida for a tour of the Disney 3’ railroad. They offer a behind the scenes shop tour I highly rec-ommend – no Mickey Mousing around in the shop (we did Disney World by the way). And to Cincinnati, Ohio for the National Garden Railway Convention. In ad-dition to the many fine garden railroads, check out the Cincinnati Union Terminal. Their S scale model of Cincinnati is a modeler’s wonder to behold. The National Narrow Gauge Convention in Rhode Island is coming up in September. Although not strictly summer, the Fall Mini-Bunch meet is in October --- Plan to attend. We look forward to seeing you. Views Along the OR&W – Perryopolis Tunnel Gn3 Tracks Six weeks of my time this summer was involved in designing and building with a lot of help from the Columbus Garden Railway Society a new garden railroad for the Franklin Park Conservatory here in Columbus, Ohio. The outdoor railroad located in the sculpture garden has eight hundred feet of track installed in five separate loops each with an operating train. Add to that one 40 foot back-and-forth shuttle line. The most photogenic loop is the high line Colorado and Southern built 42" above grade winding between concrete rocks simulating the Rockies. Most of this track is elevated on handmade trestles. Take the opportunity to visit the Conservatory to view the railroad while in Columbus. They are open Monday through Saturday 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM. This is the largest public access garden railroad east of the Mississippi. There is an admission fee. (There is a large railroad with 12 loops of track at the Chicago Botanical Garden in Skokie, IL.- ed. )
This September 8th from 1:00 PM to 6;00 PM here in Columbus, 20 garden railroads including my OR&W garden railroad will be open to the public as part of the Columbus Parks and Recreation Department’s Summer Garden Tour series. If time and circumstance permit drop on in. Directions can be gotten from the website noted below in internet savvy. Membership In Memoriam – Robert Stetson The Lancaster Eagle-Gazette Saturday July 27th, 2002 announced the death of our good friend and fellow Mini-Bunch member Robert (Bob) Stetson on July 25th, 2002. A memorial service was conducted on August 18, 2002 at First United Methodist Church in Lancaster. Bob was a charter member and past president of Hocking Valley Model Railroad Club, member of the Columbus Garden Railway Society, awarded Chief Dispatcher and Master Model Railroader by the National Model Railroad Association, and longtime Mini-Bunch member. His family recommends memorials be given to the First United Methodist Church or the Hocking Valley Model Railroad Club in care of the funeral home, Frank E. Smith Funeral Home Lancaster Ohio. Personal note - Bob was an enthusiastic and talented model railroader
with both indoor scale and outdoor garden railroads. I always was glad to
see, talk to, learn from, and appreciated his modeling skills and
friend-ship. He will be missed and remembered. On behalf of the Mini-Bunch
to Pat and the family our condolences. Internet Savvy For the internet crowd try this site for maps and directions to the twenty garden railroads open September 8th 2002 in Columbus, Ohio : www.cgrs.orgWRL Miscellaneous notes Jack Thode, a noted DRGW employee, historian, and author died on August 3rd in Denver Colorado. He worked for the DRGW for 42 years and was a founding member of the Rocky Mountain Railroad Club. The Cumbres and Toltec and the Durango and Silverton lines were shut down due to wildfire conditions for about 4 weeks this summer. The trips resumed on July 13. The Sundown and Southern RR equipment was auctioned off on July 20th. The Colorado RR Museum was able to obtain an old C&S/RGS reefer, a GRAMPS tank and several gondolas. The EBT was able to buy two of their former passenger cars. The CRRM was also able to buy two kits for 50,000 gallon water tanks at the S&S auction. Unfortunately, there were no instructions. The kits included all of the hardware, but only part of the wood needed for the tanks. The wood was ‘preweathered.’ (The material came from the Farmington and LaBoca, New Mexico tanks.) The Fall 2002 Mini-Bunch Meet will be held October 19 and 20, 2002 at St. Paul Lutheran in Sandusky (near Ohio's Marblehead Peninsula ) See the registration information on the back page! The Clarion Inn is also in Sandusky. There will be a special group room rate available for reservations made before October 1, 2002. Phone 419-625-6280. There will be a model and photo contest too. Pete Stroth has prepared a Marblehead tour guide for us for the meeting,. Please respond directly to Pete if you plan to attend since he needs to know the number of tour guides to copy and to make accurate dinner reservations. A major feature will be a drive yourself tour guide of:
Pete still needs a clinic for the afternoon. If you can help, or know someone who can, please call him at 330-483-3962. Fall Meet registration and other details A Mini-Bunch Layout Directory Al Askerberg volunteered to put together a layout guide for Mini-Bunch members. Al will assemble the information and forward to the editors for publishing with the newsletter. Now Al cannot visit each of you to take photos and write the history of your layout, so you will need to take your favorite photo plus a paragraph description and send it to Al. If you can email the photo and information, Al’s job will be that much easier. The Layout of the Month Bill Florent came from Huntington, Indiana to the meet at Gary’s and he had a CD of layout photos. (The CD was done by Dave Ritenour.) The layout must be good considering the number of model building contests Bill has won. (He has had 18 models in NMRA contests that have scored over 100 points, and he has won several contests at National Narrow Gauge Conventions.) Remember - this is HOn3! Go to the website to see these and five more photos in color!! Follow the Link to see Bill Florent's Layout
Other photos Lee Vande Visse, a former Ohio resident now living near Milwaukee, sent the following photo of his layout.
Please go to the website to see this in color!! Thanks Lee, this is a great photo. Ted’s Trip to Red Mountain Just after the spring meet, I learned of a Passport in Time project of the US Forest Service at Red Mountain, Colorado. Purpose: to survey 3,000 acres of an old mining area that was being transferred from the Idarado Mining Company to USFS administration. I applied and was accepted for the week of work beginning July 8, 2002. What a great experience this turned out to be! Five of us plus two Forest Service archaeologists looked over the National Belle, Yankee Girl, Guston, Colorado Boy mines as well as the Tomboy pumphouse and Atlas mill. The group included a civil and a mining engineer, so we had a quasi-professional analysis of the sites. We took GPS readings, bearings, photos and made maps of the sites, and recorded the location of what artifacts are still there. A great way to spend a week, and now my San Juan Southern is going to incorporate more of the Red Mountain area. I now have several hours of video and 100+ photos that cover the Red Mountain area pretty completely. And for our "day off," we hiked to the Corkscrew Gulch Turntable!! (It has deteriorated badly since John Hansen and I were there in 1978.) The next day, I hiked to Silver Lake above Silverton. Quite a site to behold!
Yankee Girl headframe
Tomboy boiler and pump
Longfellow headframe Genessee Vanderbilt mine Next Mini-Bunch Meetings Mini-Bunch voted to return to Gary’s meet for the spring of 2003. Gary plans to enlarge the contest categories, and he would like a Mini-Bunch volunteer to record the entries for the contests. It will probably be the 4th and 5th of April, but Gary will confirm these. Tentatively, we are planning on a Cass, West Virginia meeting in the fall of 2003. Fritz Prosch is doing some initial planning. We will keep you posted. Maybe we can rent a train. There are cabins available right on the site, and he is looking into rental costs for those. Name Badges available Some members have never received a name badge since they were not available for a number of years. Others have lost theirs. Jim Eakin has found a new vendor who can make badges that are nearly the same as the previous design. So send $10 to Ted, and we will send a new badge for you by the next meeting. (Tell us how to spell the name too - nickname - or whatever.) Mini-Bunch Newsletter on Internet Thanks to David Keith, our webmaster, we have the chance to see the photos in color. We will send each newsletter to David for posting. Generally, there will be additional photos that we do not have room for in the newsletter. If you send your email address to Ted, it will be added to the address book, and you will be notified when the newsletter is available on the Internet. Rio Grande Modeling and Historical Society This Society publishes six newsletters plus two mag-azines per year. Although it includes standard gauge, several of the founders are historians interested in the narrow gauge. If you are interested, go to the website - http://rgmhs.drgw.org, or write to the Society at PO Box 25114, Colorado Springs, CO 80936-5114. Notes from the Editors John and Ted thank Jim Eakin for the help in getting these newsletters printed. Jim has been in the railroad printing business for a number of years. So we get better copying for a really reasonable price. HELP NEEDED!!!! We plan to send out 4 newsletters per year. We are looking for articles on modelbuilding and prototype that will be of interest for the members. John and I have a special interest in Western narrow gauge. Would anyone like to try their hand at preparing a column on logging or Eastern narrow gauge? LAST COPY ????????????? If your label has "last copy" written on it, then we would appreciate your sending $8.00 to Ted for the next 2 years. Parties Responsible for this Newsletter Bill Logan, King Snipe Editors: John Hansen Ted Wiese Narrow Gauge Websites Mini-Bunch - http://www.narrowtracks.com/minibunch/index.htm 22nd National Narrow Gauge Convention - http://www.22ndnngc.com/ Cumbres and Toltec RR - http://www.cumbrestoltec.com/ Friends of the Cumbres and Toltec - http://ctsfriends.railfan.net/ Durango and Silverton RR - http://www.durangorailway.com Colorado RR Museum - http://www.crrm.org/ Future NG Conventions
2002 Fall Mini-Bunch Meeting Sn3 Symposium
2003 Spring Mini-Bunch Meeting Ted Wiese Co Editor
Remains of Corkscrew turntable
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