Page 3 - March April 2000

CUPOLA
Believe it or not, I am beginning this editorial on Dec. 30, 1999! (Well, it’s been a long boring break so far!). Actually, what started me off was receiving some details, from John Hey, about the April 2000 Derby Show, at which NMRA (BR) will have strong representation (see “What’s On”.) I remember clearly the first time we were invited to take over the Darwin Suite, one of the smaller (but still substantial) halls in the Derby municipal buildings used for the show. Under John Hey’s organising efforts, the room full of assorted American railroad modelling was enough to lift the heart and spirits and, later on, the pints! (No, come to think of it, on the Saturday evening we all had a communal Chinese meal, one of the best I can remember.) This year will be John’s fifth involvement with the show in ten years, the alternate years having seen the Suite occupied by other societies’ “non-British outline” exhibits.
From this year’s show details, it seems that John will surpass even those grand predecessors. I remember that during the first of these events, we signed up around 35 new members on the spot. Probably others joined later, after having enjoyed their visits. In other words, it showed we must be doing something right!
But although attracting new membership is an important and ongoing task for the Region, it also shows that we are capable of putting on a good standard of varied modelling for our own pleasure, i.e. the pleasure of existing members.
These events are both a Region showcase, and an persuasive argument for modelling American. Also, though, like any show, it can be hard work for the participants, they are great fun and leave one with a feeling of achievement. Coincidentally, they are one of the better examples of a large section of the Region working together to the common good, rather than squabbling like trainee politicians over trivial, and often irrelevant, side-issues!
Yes, it’s only a hobby. But our leisure pastimes are a vital balance to the daily grind, and probably as good for the temperament as any amount of Prozac! The same viewpoint was put to me recently by a friend who is trying to drag me into his local Masonic Lodge. I asked him if I joined the Lodge, would he would join the NMRA? He said yes, and meant it! (And he has little or no interest in railways, models, or America). Hmm, I’ll have to think about that one.
Words come back to haunt you. Just after I received my February Roundhouse and re-read my own comments about oversize diesel handrails, I picked up a copy of Nov. 1999 “Railmodel Journal”. It featured an article on converting an N scale Atlas GP9 to a UP GP9B, using a Des Plaines Hobbies conversion kit. Part of the job included replacing the Delrin handrails and stanchions with GMM etched
...FROM THE EDITOR
ROUNDHOUSE APRIL 2000
CONSIST...
CUPOLA 3 PRESIDENT’S CAR 4 SACRAMENTO RAILFAIR #2 4 Vin Callcut
HO MODULE BENCHWORK 6
Peter Everitt
NAILSEA 2000 Bob Taylor reports 9 BEANERY 10 UNCOUPLED CARS 10 NATIONAL DUES NEWS 11 TIMETABLE 11 WHAT’S ON & WHERE 12 2000 CONVENTION NEWS 13 HEY THERE! Info from John Hey 14 1999 AGM MINUTES 14 CONSPIRACY OF SILENCE 15 Mike Martindale
FEDERAL STREET UPDATE 16 John Wright
RAILROAD REVIEW 18
Bachmann G Scale 4-4-0 Spectrum HO Scale 4-8-2
REGISTRAR NEWS 20
CONSTRUCTORS' CORNER 21
Aristo Gondola
A Quick Improvement to HO Hoppers
CONVENTION BOOKING FORM 23
Material for ROUNDHOUSE should be sent to: The Editor, Martin Boyask, 135 New Church Road, HOVE, East Sussex BN3 4BE. Telephone: 01273 422048 (before 9 pm) E-mail: ed_nmra@mboyask.freeserve.co.uk
TRADE ADVERTISING COPY to:
John Sammans, 32 Oker Avenue, Darley Dale, Matlock, Derbyshire DE4 2GN.
Telephone: 01629 734931
COPY DATES FOR FUTURE ISSUES...
Deadline for June 2000 is April 21st., and for August 2000 is June 23rd.
ROUNDHOUSE is designed by Ian Wilson, Mackenzie Wilson, 2 High Street, Corby Glen, Lincolnshire NG33 4LX Tel.01476 550502 and printed by Ruddocks Colour Printers, Great Northern Terrace, Lincoln LN5 8HL.
stanchions, and the handrails with .008” phosphor bronze wire by Creative Model Associates. Now the Atlas handrails aren’t bad but the conversion looks strikingly better. QED.
I expect you have noticed a lot of recent input relating to lightweight baseboard construction. Peter Everitt adds to this discussion with his modular baseboard article which begins in this issue. I make no apology for using numerous baseboard construction articles recently - there have been many advances in materials and ideas, and you don’t see many layouts without baseboards!
Of course the major benefit of these advances is in the field of portable layouts - and, boy, do they make life easier. I first remember being intrigued by this idea when Model Railroader ran the N scale “Clinchfield” series. The main frames of the layout were built up from extruded aluminium alloy section. This appealed to my “racing car” side, and I imagined precision engineering, along with rigidity and lightness. I’ve always yearned for layout sections that would just go together like Lego - no alignment problems - just click and go. (Ideally, all electrical connections would also be made by the joining process.) Even better would be built-in alloy legs that telescope out of the frames. I guess what I was really after was one of those gadgets beloved of Wily Coyote, and made by the ACME Corp., a sort of self-inflating D.I.Y. model universe posted to you in a teabag. (ACME must be a global multi-national by now!)
The by-now-infamous Aldridge layout is stored in my garage and I have to occasionally get the 6 ft. long yard sections down to work on. I find I can throw them around like a feather! (Whereas I struggle, using many unprintable words, with the original layout’s 4 ft. sections built by traditional methods.) The light weight of the freight yard sections is due entirely to the baseboard construction. No attempt was made to continue the theme with, for example, light weight scenery methods or structure materials. Consequently, what feeling of mass there is seems to be mostly due to what has gone on top of the base. Also, these sections are fully decked (being mostly track roadbed for a yard it was felt there was little point in cutting away areas of deck.) For a more normal scenic section, being mostly open- topped and using various kinds of polyfoam for scenery, and possibly for roadbed, a lot more weight-saving could be envisaged.
The interesting thing is that portable layouts also require strength, and this does not seem to be compromised by building them light, so long as the right techniques are used. So hopefully R.M.H. (Railroad Modellers’ Hernia) will soon be a thing of the past.
However, STD (Switcher’s Thumb Disorder) may remain for a while - pass the tablets, nurse...
Martin Boyask
APRIL 2000 3