OCSMR-Ocean County Society of Model Railroaders Club Latest update 11/23/2024

Well, folks, Day 2 of our Spring Open House turned out to be a HUGE success.  Many thanks to the people that came to see us, and our contacts who spread the word about our show.

From beginning to end of that day, we had a big number of visitors from the local community and a number of model railroad enthusiasts who came down to see the action and what our club was about.

Below are photos of what had occurred.

Enjoy!

John, the layout looks great!  A lot of kids look to have had a good time!  It’s good to see Ted had things under control!!

Layout looks great   Why does Ted look ****ed off in every picture 

Ben,

We were overwhelmed on Sunday by loads of visitors that attended.
Still had a great open house!

Ted, That’s great that so many wanted to attend, but I can see it was tough for you and the other club members!  We call it crowd control!

Some more photos of Ted’s and Dennis’ DD40ax AAs on the layout. Also, the luan board was completed over the fascia board.

Bud’s store closed due to screw shortage. He must have used too many!  

Myself, Tom Ball aka TBall on OGR and Dennis Hodge, VP of our club at the May 21 Brick, NJ show with our fastrack set up.

Ted, the DD40ax AAs look great, fascia looks great, It is so sad Bud had to close the store! 😄

It is so sad Bud had to close the store! 😄

Bud never opened the store. He really needs the screws! Lol!
We will be replacing the S gauge track from American Flyer to Gargraves track which will make running AF trains more reliable and less derailments. Bud has made a track plan so we know what to get. Updates coming down the road on our American Flyer portion of the layout.

I love the W&LE USRA 2-6-6-2.

I have the C&O 2-6-6-2 mallet as well as that WL&E one, both Lionel engines from around 2002. I’ve double-headed them numerous times, a sight to see them on the club layout.

We had a visitor to our club this past Friday night, Joe Milko who is one of the 5 founding members of our club when it was formed in1987 and is a now a charter member. He does post here on OGR.

Left to right: Ted Bertiger, Dennis Hodge, Joe Milko, Bud Phillips.
We are the 25 plus years members of the club.

In between Dennis Hodge and Jerry Del Pazzo is Ted(Tory) Port, our junior member and future of the club.

Ted (Tory) Port all decked out in his engineer uniform. Our hobby needs more like him.

Our open house is today, October 15 again. If you are in the area, stop by our club.

Pictures will be posted after our 2 day open house.

Not much progress has been made on the layouts but we will be replacing the S gauge track with Gargraves S gauge track in the very near future.

Thank you to the OGR folks for hosting my club here on the forum. More pictures and activity from our club is forthcoming.

Have a great time, Ted and Gang!!

Hey Folks!

Like our president said, our Fall Open House was last weekend.  Our first day was a bit of a washout due to the rain we had.  But, a few families and couples decided to come on down and see us.  They enjoyed our sights and sounds of the Halloween trains and monstrous creatures running loose upon the layouts.  Our second day proved to be better as the sun came out.  The volume of people grew from a few to a crowd within the five hours we were open.  No one left disappointed and all the kids had fun.

Soon we'll have photos of the trains and creatures that ran amok during the show posted.

Greetings All You Model Train Monsters and Ghoulish Gandy Dancers!

As promised, I have for you a cornucopia of photos from our Fall Open House last weekend.

Enjoy everyone!

Creepy yet cozy at the same time!

Monsters run amok as Halloween Trains run the rails!

Large LEGO Monsters trudge through the town......

....while familiar transforming alien robots duke it out downtown!

Meanwhile, at the Seafood Shanty, the catch of the day ends up catching everyone!

While down on the farm, those darn aliens are at it again stealing Mr. Menard's cow!

Apparently, the radiation from the ship caused some poor woman to mutate into a giant!  They should make a movie about this!

Looks like these monsters have decided to take residence in the local derelict district....

While some giant ants decided to eat at the nearest diner.  Hopefully the people are not on the menu!

Maybe THIS guy can stop the ants.  (Hint Hint)

"NICE VIEW, HUH, GUYS?!?!"

Some creatures were actually small enough, and SMART enough, to take the train.

Here's one Halloween Train!  A double header Area 51 Freight Train.

A young visitor gets spooked by one of the trains.

Hope you like our sample of frights and freaks.

If you would like to see more videos of the action, just leave a comment below.

Until then, Happy Haunting!

John, I see some children like the trains.  In the background are there stools for them to sit on?  It looked like one child swiveled in a seat.  If so, nice idea.

@Mark Boyce posted:

John, I see some children like the trains.  In the background are there stools for them to sit on?  It looked like one child swiveled in a seat.  If so, nice idea.

Yes, we do keep a few bar stools for small children to sit on during the shows.  Most of the time, we have about five foot stools available so they can stand up on.

Now that our open house is over, we are revamping the S gauge portion of our layout from American Flyer track that had roadbed underneath to using new Gargraves S gauge with their switches.
Pictured below was what the track layout was with EZ streets and the buildings were cleared off, then with it being a barren island.
In a few weeks, I will be posting a tentative track layout that we will test out before making it permanent with all those “Bud” screws holding it all down.
More to follow…

More pictures of gargraves S gauge track being laid down temporarily to make sure the trains run properly. We will be adding some switches for pass through sidings and dead end spurs.

More progress on the S gauge track plan with added tortoise motors for the 3 switches.

An aerial view of the layout from S gauge area which is the northern end looking at the southern end of the layout. As progress is made, I will be adding pictures. The EZ Streets need to be added back.

Some more progress on the Gargraves track laying for our S gauge portion of the layout.

Hi Folks,

Last Saturday,the OCSMR took part in a local event called the Farmingdale Holiday Market and Train Exhibit.  This is their second year running in Farmingdale, NJ, and it was a great turnout!

The local recreation committee held the event for the first time in the town's elementary school.  The festivities included local artists and crafters selling gifts, a local author signing his latest book, Santa making a visit for photo-ops, and a model train setup operated by our club.

This time around we had a 24 foot long setup with 3 O Gauge loops made with FasTrack, and a G Scale Oval.  A G Scale PRR passenger train ran at one end while three holiday trains ran on all three FasTrack lines.

Photos will be uploaded soon.....so stay tuned.

Here we are.  Below are photos of the Farmingdale Holiday Market & Train Exhibit.

Enjoy!......

That’s a lot of children watching the trains!!

Some more progress from the S Gauge swat team moving along with 2 loops completed. A siding was laid down with a switch and that will run along the rear and go by the bridge.
They did lay 2 switches so you can go between the 2 loops.

What a cozy work space!  It looks like they have everything they need!

The S gauge had some additional help from our youngest member, Tory aka Ted who is an avid toy train fanatic/club member. Here is helping James work on the S Gauge track.

More S gauge track updates with trains operating on both loops with crossover switches wires and installed.
Close-up view of 2 gargraves switches being used as a crossover with a 3rd one in the rear that will serve as a siding.

Looking good, Ocean County Club S Gaugers. Thank you for the update, Ted!

We had open house this past weekend so the S gauge was up and running as well as the EZ Streets. Buildings and scenery was placed even though that was temporary. More track work needs to be done and the siding on the rear needs to be installed.

So with the holidays over, the S gauge crew cleared everything off the layout there so they can permanently attach the track down to the ceiling tiles and work on the back spur/siding. Also, the 2 EZ street loops were removed until the track is in place.
I was running my NYC SD 80 last night as you can see in the pictures. Next up for that side of the layout is to paint the floor underneath.

Are the S gauge folks required to use lots and lots of screws to attach the track like the O gauge!

The SD80 looks small from the drone view!  I’ll bet it’s a monster when viewed from the side!

Mark,

The S gauge guys will do sensible judgement in allocating the correct amount of screws to use. They won’t go loco like Bud!
Yes, the Lionel SD80 is about 18” in length. Besides the NYC, I bought 2 Conrail and 2 Norfolk Southern as I really like those SD80’s from the early 2000’s.

Ted, I'm glad the S gauge folks won't break the bank on hardware! 

Wow, you really do like SD80's!! 

Been a while since we posted about our club. The S gauge folks are still testing out their switches so they function correctly. So really nothing to show with their progress. But, their trains do run well on their gargraves track set up. The track and switches need to be put in permanently.

We were set up at the Brick, NJ train show on 3/3/2024 and have a few pictures to share.

Our string of girafee cars bobbing up and down!

Our own Locobudd, Bud aka the "screw man" sitting there and our treasurer, Frank (in the beige coat) ready to take the cash from a buyer.

The 3rd picture is our 16 foot fastrack set up with S gauge track in the midst of the O gauge. All the trains ran well for that show.

Next up is our SPRING OPEN HOUSE in April 6-7. Details to be posted here, on facebook and on our website.

Our club was at the Manalapan,NJ Veterans show that was sponsored by the veterans and fellow train hobbyists besides our club. There was 9 operating layouts continuously running trains for the public, not the usual train people who attend shows. This is what makes it every bit worth our time to show the hobby and get folks interested.

Looks like a well attended event, Ted!

@Ted Bertiger, thanks for the updates and photos. You and you're club are doing a great job supporting and promoting the hobby.

We had our Spring Open House this weekend on the 6th and 7th of April.  Attendance on Saturday was a bit light but picked up on Sunday.

On the O-Gauge side.

A couple of youngsters really got into watching the trains.

Ted's Conrail.

James' Jersey Central.

Ralph's NYC passenger.

Dennis' Mickey Mouse train in the front and his beer train in back.

My junk food train.

And, of course, you will probably need...

On the HO-Gauge side.

A number of the O-Gauge guys were spending time on the HO side.  Could it be that that's where the food was?

The food was definitely the attraction!

Very nice, Bud!  Was the junk food train really Ted’s. 😉