(UPDATED) The 48 Club *** Announcing Division 59 Membership ***

@Fatman posted:

See you even have to spell it differently ... litre ... and dont even get me started on aluminium

Yep its you, Mayanmar ( ye olde Burma) and Liberia ... so the U.S. , then a place mainly known for its war atrocity railway, and well .. Liberia! Famous for Ebola and eating any endangered species you come across (Bushmeat)

If only you metricated....

*please note this is sarcasm and Aussie Humour

UK is shown as "mixed".  That's for sure.  Instead of calling it O scale or O gauge, or 1:48/1:45/1:43.5/1:43, they call it 7mm to the foot (except when they don't).  Took me forever to figure that out.  Why would anyone express a scale as a ratio of metric to imperial?  Of course, it's from the same folks who choose to use 1:148 for N scale and run standard gauge 1:76 models on HO track, which ends up being narrow gauge. 

Was out pricing 36" hollow core doors at HD this morning, might be slapping together a display type of layout to give me something to run during the year.

Check out Habit for Humanity Restores if you  have one near you.

Bargian prices on used doors

@Mallard4468 posted:

UK is shown as "mixed".  That's for sure.  Instead of calling it O scale or O gauge, or 1:48/1:45/1:43.5/1:43, they call it 7mm to the foot (except when they don't).  Took me forever to figure that out.  Why would anyone express a scale as a ratio of metric to imperial?  Of course, it's from the same folks who choose to use 1:148 for N scale and run standard gauge 1:76 models on HO track, which ends up being narrow gauge.

Crazy!  That goes along with what we see on British television.  Sometimes it’s miles, sometimes it’s kilometers.  Another thing, British drive on the opposite side of the road as Americans.  I can never get used to seeing that on television.  Fortunately the sum total of my international travel has been to Niagara Falls long before we needed a passport.

@Mallard4468 posted:

UK is shown as "mixed".  That's for sure.  Instead of calling it O scale or O gauge, or 1:48/1:45/1:43.5/1:43, they call it 7mm to the foot (except when they don't).  Took me forever to figure that out.  Why would anyone express a scale as a ratio of metric to imperial?  Of course, it's from the same folks who choose to use 1:148 for N scale and run standard gauge 1:76 models on HO track, which ends up being narrow gauge.

Jerry

@Mark Boyce posted:

Crazy!  That goes along with what we see on British television.  Sometimes it’s miles, sometimes it’s kilometers.  Another thing, British drive on the opposite side of the road as Americans.  I can never get used to seeing that on television.  Fortunately the sum total of my international travel has been to Niagara Falls long before we needed a passport.

I highly recommend a visit to England and Wales for anyone who likes trains.  The National Railway Museum in York is as good as it gets, and York is a great city for many other reasons.  There are countless heritage railways across the country that offer rides on restored equipment.  My personal favorite is the Ffestiniog.

Driving on the left is a challenge - don't refer to it as "driving on the wrong side of the road" - but it's manageable as long as one avoids driving in London.

@baltimoretrainworks posted:

Jerry

You're oversimplifying it.

Test running tracks to check clearances. I’ve got the new LC 2.0 Pennsy switcher pulling 027 LIRR cars and it just works and looks great on a small 036 track.

I've noticed on some of the layouts and many of the replica display layouts the green ground cover doesn't seem to be a "standard" shade you would normally find available from say Woodland Scenics or the venerable Life-Like grass that I grew up using. Is it a blend the builders make or is there some other supplier I'm not knowledgeable of out there? Faller perhaps? I'm thinking about a Lionel display type of layout using a 36" door slab and framing it with 1x4 edging and I found some really nice butcher block table style legs at Lowes...

I'm thinking about painting the legs and frame with a semi-gloss cream paint and running a strip of this galley moulding around it like a fence in the same color...

This should give it a store display layout look to it.

Jerry

Jerry, the photograph of my first O gauge layout that wasn’t Christmas themed used a green indoor-outdoor carpet from Ollie’s discount store.  I never did that before.  On my HO layout from high school days had green dyed sawdust.  My later HO layouts featured Woodland Scenics ground foam.

@Will posted:

Here you go, @Fatman.

Most gorgeous @Will however technically we would have to add Charter Member to each of our signs as well

If this keeps up our signatures wil be bigger than the layouts our club is famous for !

Aussies drive on the left too , as do most of the "colonies" and after all this time in metric I still look at something and describe it as "20 foot away" while being completely at home with a tape measure in both feet and millimeters

People are still "6 feet tall" and TV's are still 40" etc lol We are truly a Bi-dimensional people !

But then the Americans metricated currency wayyyy early on ... and then you stopped !

Surely after figuring out 100 cents go into a dollar , metrics would be the next logical step I mean you got the dollar sorted out in 1792 and are feet and inching today still

Australia Ditched Pounds Schillings and Pence only in 1966 and went full metric just 6 years later ... even wiping out stoopid farenheit with its 212 degree boiling point and a freezing point that was for some reason "30"  ... 0 and 100 .. much nicer   also with Australia being so bloody hot 120F just sounds too hot 48C is much more livable ... and .. well 48!   ( which also happens to be the hottest recorded temp where I live to date )

You have a good point, Fatman.  Since Alexander Hamilton was the first Secretary of the Treasury and started the National Bank, maybe the change to decimal, metric died with Aaron Burr’s bullet.  Disclaimer: This is total speculation for humor’s sake!  😄

The test continues, this time with a PW loco. The whistling tender is modern, which is why it’s so efficient with a CW80 transformer. Loco works well on Fastrack. I’d prefer to have a loop of tubular but since the layout is temporary keeping tubular track from sliding around from the force of these heavy post war engines I’ve found difficult to do. Anybody else have temporary layouts (mine will be on banquet tables) and use tubular track? If so, any tips for keeping it in place without screwing into the table top?

Hi all,

This thread has been fun and funny as well as informative, enlightening and encouraging.  Please keep the member news coming!  While I do not qualify as a member of the prestigious 48 Club, I appreciate and supports is mission.

Because Gilbert AF S gauge with its 20” radius tinplate curves and 10” standard straights has been my primary collecting and operating interest, my 4’X8’ was always a 5’X9’ sheet of plywood in order to fit at least two loops of track on it like my boyhood friends with Marx and Lionel O-27 could do.

Back in the day, this ping pong table-sized piece of wood was fairly easy to find at a lumberyard.  My folks actually moved the same bare plywood train platform that size to three houses and halfway across the state for us to use with our AF trains before jettisoning it before another cross state move.

After I got married, and we moved to another state, I couldn’t find a 5’X9’ sheet anywhere in the city. Fortunately I did find a lumber yard that kindly cut me three 3’X6’ pieces that I framed into three tables that I could bolt together into a 5‘X9’ and occasionally a 5’X6’ display table. I still have and use them after 50 years.

Oddly, my only home layout is a loop of O gauge Lionel FasTrack I set up several years ago to run my wife’s Hogwarts Express for the grandkids.  My S gauge  running has always been pretty much limited to a modular layout a friend and I use for public display.

Although the existing benchwork in my basement room extends beyond the qualifying size, as you can see from the second picture, the space available for the O gauge loop is only about 4’X7’.  These pictures were taken a while back, but I can assure you, the layout is the same. Only the piles of “crap” have grown.

So, although this set up may not meet the requirements for The 48 Club, maybe this will qualify me for an an associate membership in The Brotherhood of Crappy Basement Layouts.

Cheers!

Alan

@M. Mitchell Marmel posted:

Yes.  Yes, it does.

Mitch

Better be very careful, Mitch... Number 1 will send the big bouncing white ball after you for illegally infiltrating The Village!!! (One of my favorite shows as a kid, even if I never really understood half of what was going on)

@pdxtrains posted:

The test continues, this time with a PW loco. The whistling tender is modern, which is why it’s so efficient with a CW80 transformer. Loco works well on Fastrack. I’d prefer to have a loop of tubular but since the layout is temporary keeping tubular track from sliding around from the force of these heavy post war engines I’ve found difficult to do. Anybody else have temporary layouts (mine will be on banquet tables) and use tubular track? If so, any tips for keeping it in place without screwing into the table top?

I operate on occasion standard or O or both, depending upon my mood and the banquet tables that I set up. I also use “off season” thanksgiving  (based upon my bride’s blessing) table clothes from bed bath and beyond. I like the almost brown ones. Nothing slides. A couple of modern standard sets roaring around stay in place. I should probably post a video.

@WRW posted:

I operate on occasion standard or O or both, depending upon my mood and the banquet tables that I set up. I also use “off season” thanksgiving  (based upon my bride’s blessing) table clothes from bed bath and beyond. I like the almost brown ones. Nothing slides. A couple of modern standard sets roaring around stay in place. I should probably post a video.

Yes! Please post a video! :-)

@Alan B posted:

Hi all,

This thread has been fun and funny as well as informative, enlightening and encouraging.  Please keep the member news coming!  While I do not qualify as a member of the prestigious 48 Club, I appreciate and supports is mission.

Jerry

@Apples55 posted:

Better be very careful, Mitch... Number 1 will send the big bouncing white ball after you for illegally infiltrating The Village!!! (One of my favorite shows as a kid, even if I never really understood half of what was going on)

Mine, too.  And my mom liked it, too, if only for Patrick McGoohan...  ;-)

Hmmmm...Now I'm wondering about an O scale Portmeirion... 

Just starting to build mine.  Can I join?

@BYIENGST posted:

Just starting to build mine.  Can I join?

I believe a photo ID is required. (Layout photo of course ) This club is very exclusive.

Debating whether we should keep a running account of regular members now that we've reached our Charter membership goal, maybe start a Century Club for the next 100 to join?

Jerry

Founding Members

1. BaltimoreTrainWorks
2. Amfleet25124

Charter Members

1. RSJB18
2. Conductor Earl
3. bptBill
4. CA John
5. Walt Rapp
6. M. Mitchell Marmel
7. OKHIKER
8. Coca Cola Guy
9. Nucci
10. Rich Wiemann
11. CSXJOE
12. graz
13. Melvin P
14. Mrhobby052
15. Khayden93
16. palallin
17. John E K
18. Miggy
19. pdxtrains
20. SouthernFan56
21. randr
22. Will
23. Dave Warburton
24. GG1Guyy
25. Diverging Clear
26. Penn Flyer
27. Coach Joe
29. JohnnieWalker
30. Robert S. Butler
31.Mark Boyce
32. Jon Stachowicz
33. Madockawando
34. ScoutingDad
35. Darrell
36. PRRMP54
37. Mallard4468
38. PRR Mark
39. Berkshirelover726
40. NIKHIL
41. Ryan Mc
42. Plankowner110
43. justakid
44. Pre-War Steve
45. WP
46. Fatman
47. Artie-DL&W
48. Brewman 1973

Honorary Members

1. Harry Miller ... My grandfather
2. Jerry Makowiecki ... My dad
3. Thor Sheil
4. Alan Arnold
5. Allen Miller
6. Rich Melvin
7. Ed Boyle
8. Jim Barrett
9. Putnam Division

Century Club Members

1. BYIENGST

Welcome aboard !

Jerry

@baltimoretrainworks posted:

Debating whether we should keep a running account of regular members now that we've reached our Charter membership goal, maybe start a Century Club for the next 100 to join?

Jerry

Maybe a different badge for us: Add the words "Charter Member" to the bottom of our badge, and add Century Club to the next group.  Just a thought. You could also add Founding Member to your badges. Special secret handshake optional, but we really ought to have a song, like Stan and Ollie did in Sons of the Desert.

Century Club sounds great!!!

Already have that!

@pdxtrains posted:

but we really ought to have a song,

Ditto...

Jerry

That certainly is the perfect song!  I haven’t heard it in years!

@Mark Boyce posted:

That certainly is the perfect song!  I haven’t heard it in years!

I loved The Midnight Special. Back then everyone actually sang and played and good groups had a horn and keyboard section! I actually bought the Midnight Special box set that was offered a few years ago, really takes me back to a simpler time just chilling out with friends watching that show!

Jerry

@baltimoretrainworks posted:

I loved The Midnight Special. Back then everyone actually sang and played and good groups had a horn and keyboard section! I actually bought the Midnight Special box set that was offered a few years ago, really takes me back to a simpler time just chilling out with friends watching that show!

Jerry

That would be a great set, Jerry!!  They did great back then.  Honestly I don’t know what they do nowadays.

Today I got out a set I bought in '93 that my son and I played with: Lionel UNION PACIFIC steamer. I'd forgotten how much play value we got out of this thing. Not exactly my post war from the 50s-early 60s, but still fun.

The inner loop of my 48'er is 031, so it's ideal for "toy" style--which I prefer anyway. Also my conventional PW that I ran on 027 will work really great here.

In related layout news, I'm really happy I got my hands on a new in box never opened ZW-C with the 180 bricks. Bought it from TinMan3rail. I know it's massive overkill, but ever since seeing Trainroom Gary's power set up, I've wanted that ZW look,  I want throttles for when I run conventional, and modern electrics for my modern engines. Plus the 180 bricks are nicely hefty and I do run a lot of passenger cars and they have incandescent bulbs. Anyway, I have the power taken car of, providing it all works when I unseal that never opened box.

Anybody else run with a ZW-C?

?

@Artie-DL&W posted:

Sorry, it worked!

Hey Artie, did it work?  I had to use a Windows 10 computer for a smooth drag and drop. My Linux-MINT laptop did not play well.

Well as I percieve ( rightly or wrongly ) the 48 club is about those who break convention a little and celebrate the smaller things in life ... although most certainly will be hated by the "Fuddy Duddy's " I want to offer up the Australian Tinplate Chapters theme as being ...

My song of choice.

@Fatman posted:

Well as I percieve ( rightly or wrongly ) the 48 club is about those who break convention a little and celebrate the smaller things in life ... although most certainly will be hated by the "Fuddy Duddy's " I want to offer up the Australian Tinplate Chapters theme as being ...

We went with "Will It Go Round In Circles" as a tongue in cheek reference to a comment made by someone in AmFleets original post who postulated that unless you had a huge layout those of us who didn't (for whatever reason) were just watching our trains go around in circles.

As if the size of your layout made a difference whether you were "just going around in circles" ! But given some of the other comments made towards small layouts in that thread your song is a good song too!

Jerry

Miggy, it worked. (Sort of). As you can see, for some reason, it cut off the top and bottom of the logo.

Finally, I got it right! I wouldn't mind, but I worked with computers as a film archivist for MoMA for almost 4 decades, so you'd think I could cut and paste without having trauma! Back to the trains!

How fantastic.  I wish you guys great success with The 48 Club!

Artie, as you know every software application is different.  I don’t have your experience, but I had trouble too.

On the electronics side, after retirement from 43 years in electronics you would think model train electronics and wiring would be a piece of cake for me.  Not so.  I am usually scratching my head with everyone else.  I don’t know why I still have a full head of blond hair.  It should be white and sparse with all the hair pulling over the years!

Well, Mark, at 74, my blonde hair did turn gray and sparse!

@Artie-DL&W posted:

Well, Mark, at 74, my blonde hair did turn gray and sparse!

I won’t mind a bit if that happens to me in the next 10 years

@Mark Boyce posted:

I won’t mind a bit if that happens to me in the next 10 years

Mine started going white in my mid 20s and by late 30s I was completely white !

Jerry