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

Bud, Those are some nice photographs of you, Tom, and Ted making good progress!!  I'm glad you are getting more tracks operating!

On Sunday, we were at the Manalapan Veterans Affairs Advisory Committee Train Show.

Militaria.

Stephen Baker of the NY Giants who brought his race car and virtual reality simulators for the guests to try.

OCSMR's set-up.

When Ted gets tired running trains, he hands the Cab II over to one of the younger guests.

Don't know if Ted's trying to get his Cab II back or is just distracted.

Brought along my snow globe and target launching cars.  The target launching car seemed to get the most attention.

Had kids waited to take turns "capturing" the magically floating balloon or trying to get it to "float" again.  Not everyone got it on the first try.  Lots of opportunities for the guests to "retrieve" the target since it didn't always stay floating as the train moved. 

Sean, one of our Junior members is heavy into Lego and brought a display.

And, the others...

Looks like a nice show!  That is a nice variety of displays, and it is good many were interactive.

Here is a clip of my layout from the show.

Joe - Thanks for posting the vid.  Thought I got pix of everyone.

Joe, The video looks good!!  Is that a full size milk can on your layout?  Can you tell us about that?  

Thanks Mark, this milk can was my grandpa's. He gave it to me a few days ago actually as he was given it from a pharmaceutical company he used to work for.

Now called Bristol Meyer Squibb, the company was originally called E.R. Squibb and was actually served by the Raritan River Railroad. (Which you can see puttering around in the video) Anyways, there are faded orange letters on the can saying PEN ONLY. Apparently when my grandpa worked there they used to make or store penicillin inside the milk cans.

Joe,

That is a very interesting story!  Thank you for replying!!

RaritanRiverRailroadFan4 posted:

Thanks Mark, this milk can was my grandpa's. He gave it to me a few days ago actually as he was given it from a pharmaceutical company he used to work for.

Now called Bristol Meyer Squibb, the company was originally called E.R. Squibb and was actually served by the Raritan River Railroad. (Which you can see puttering around in the video) Anyways, there are faded orange letters on the can saying PEN ONLY. Apparently when my grandpa worked there they used to make or store penicillin inside the milk cans.

While I was attending Cook College, which is adjacent to Squibb, in the 1970s, I often witnessed RRRR trains working the plant and surrounding area. It was usually while I was fishing Westons Mill Pond or exploring the local woods, and was more interested in those things and in railroading at the time and took little more than casual note of the trains.  Oh, the regrets! One thing I don't want to revisit is the smell emanating from the Squibb plant. The livestock pens on campus (it is an environmental/agricultural school) smelled far-better!

Speaking of livestock, the dairy farm was the closest part of the campus to the plant. Considering that a milk can would be more often associated with a dairy farm than a pharmaceutical plant, I wonder if there might have been a connection. 

Friday nite some rogue members hacked track 4  and added jumpers to make the loop operational.  Rumor has it that they were running trains at breakneck speeds without any derailments.  Other than their clever hacking, they were impressed with the track work  which allowed their unprecedented train operations.  The apprentice has come a long way (tho he didn't start the track work on 3 and 4 but finished most of it, along with Bob and Tom).  The hack was neutralized and electrical connections to track 4 have been completed making it fully operational.

Jim, our O-Gauge Superintendent, cleans track joints in preparation for Ted's soldering the joints.  On the 080 curves of track 4, we apparently used stainless steel track and proved problematic in soldering.  Center rail appears to be steel and soldered with little difficulty.  Will leave outer rail unsoldered for now.

Test run (conventional) on track 4.  No problems.  Ted also ran a Niagra with TMCC, again, no problems.  Have yet to run a DCS engine.

The wrecking crew added a short section on Masonite backer board so Johnbrandt can complete the painting of the scenery on the south wall.  Unfortunately, the bracing obstructed running thru the complete loops on tracks 3 and 4.

We had a guest who visited last year and was the one who pointed out where he sat in the chem lab when he attended the school in the late 50s.  He told the story of one student who had a chemical spill that burned a hole in the top of one of the tables.  He tried to locate it to no avail.  Maybe the ghost will locate it for the paranormal group (aka ghostbusters) when they attend tonite.

We're sufficiently operational for our Open House on April 8th.  Would also like to wire the sidings on tracks 1 and 2.

I'm glad to learn the hackers were successful in getting the track ready for operation!  If the speed demons are able to run safely, you should be in good shape!!  Yes, I can see soldering to stainless would be most difficult!!  Ted will come through!  That is really neat that someone who went to school in the '50s came by.  Wow, now I know why we had no chemicals in chemistry class.  Strictly lecture!!  The open house should be great!!

Here's panorama shot of the O-Gauge layout.

Bud, Thank you for the great panoramic photograph!  It really shows us how parts of the whole layout relate to each other!  Keep up the great work everyone!!

Mark - Guess it's not to bad for a layout concept that started with a 2D drawing.

And, a panorama shot of the HO-Gauge layout.  A helix to be located in the lower right corner will be installed to connect the levels.

More pix of out HO layout are on our FaceBook page.  Use the FaceBook link on our website (link on signature).

BTW the panorama pix were taken by our HO Superintendent, Chris.

Today we had the golden solder spike installed by me witnessed by the nutty layout professor while he was constructing a wiring panel for the various sidings.

So as of now, we have 4 operating lines which you can run conventional or command however you like.

Promontory Summit, New Jersey!  Congratulations on 4 operating lines everyone!!

Promontory Summit, NJ...hmmmm...will have to Google that.  Might find that it's located in the area of Pine Park, Lakewood, NJ.

Ted and Tom continued soldering track Joints.  Tom left early.  So, that left Ted having the honor of the Golden Solder Joint.  Thereby solidifying the electrical connections of the 4 loops.   There are still some minor jumpers and joints to solder, mostly in the turntable and station area.

The control panel didn't get as far as anticipated.  It's inset in the tile on the layout.  The "blue" color of the panel will be "black".  The blue is from using the Masonite of a small backdrop panel.  The panel will control sidings on tracks 1 thru 4 except in the area of the station and turntable.

The control panel and switches were installed.

Ted was busy installing jumpers and ground throws.  Bob, later in the evening, shimmed some areas of track.  Ted took his EM-1 for a spin on tracks 3 and 4 and did find some areas that needed tweaking.  And, here's his EM-1 around the layout.

Did experience some close clearances in a couple of places  but all made it thru.

Wow! You guys are making great progress. That panoramic photo really does a nice job of showing us the track plan. Looks amazing!

The panel looks very handsome and functional.  Ted's EM-1 certainly does show the layout in a great light!  The layout looks great everyone!  Ted, The EM-1 really looks great!!  What a fine locomotive!

Thanks for sharing... Looking forward to the next progress update!

More work done today with wiring up toggle switches to control power to a few of the many sidings we have on the layouts. Also, test ran my MTH UP E-8's ABA with 11 lighted passenger cars to make sure it ran fine for tomorrow's open house. Have to bring another engine, probably the Lionel UP 9000 steamer which runs smoothly. Pictures to follow when Bud uploads them here.

Looking forward to running these new cars tomorrow at the open house.

Joe - Bring 'em on down.

Ted and Tom added a pop-up to the southeast corner of the layout.  Ted did some additional soldering.

Got the main and 2 sidings on track 1 wired into the control panel.  At least they're operable for the Open House tomorrow.

Ted brought his UP E-8s with 11 passenger cars to test run for the Open House.  Had some initial problems until we found a passenger car truck was slightly off the track creating a short.

Test ran my TMCC converted Williams GG1.  Sure looked good on track 3.

Hope to see ya at our Open House tomorrow.

Layout looks good!

Ted and Bud, the engines and trains look good!!

Our Open House went well.  This was the first time we ran all four tracks on the O gauge layout.  Amazingly, it all worked.  Both TMCC and DCS performed well.  Had a couple of burps that required spot cleaning of track.  Guests ebbed and flowed between the O and HO layouts.  Our small space made it crowded at times.  Also, got to meet with some old model railroad friends.

Ted played the part of "accountant" along with the "accountables" checking the tally of screws before the show.

Our hall got a fresh coat of paint.

We had one vendor who donated the HO set for our raffle.

The HO layout.

The O layout.

Ted changed out his UP E-8s with his UP 9000.

Sean, out youngest member, quickly figured out the switches for the sidings and proceeded to do a lot of switching.

What's with the cell phones.  Our basement is a Faraday cage with all that rebar.  BTW, Joe, on the right, did make it with his Blue Comet cars and more.

Out of the minds of ... a push me pull you.

'Til next time.

Ted the accountant had the group counting out bags of 100 #4 screws to sell for $5.00 a bag at the next Brick show on April 29. We must have 5,000 screws left over since the professor only used 5,000 screws on the layout.

As for the cell phones, I was showing pictures of my new grandson to Sean and a good friend of mine.

A very good day running trains for the public.

Gentlemen,

   Williams Scale GG1 Converted to TMCC, now there is a real stump puller!  That baby needs some seriously heavy Tin Plate rolling stock to pull behind her!

PCRR/Dave

Dave - My GG1 had about 16 cars in tow.  The first two were heavy diecast hoppers.  The train just glided effortlessly up and down our grade of just under 2 percent.

Finished wiring the sidings on the west side of the layout.  Still have to provide labeling.  The siding between tracks 3 and 4 on the trestle is "shared" and is wired in a "cab control" configuration with a SPDT switch.  Here's a shot of the innards.

Panel for the east side will require a bit more work since it'll incorporate control of the turntable.

I hope you vacuumed up after making a mess! Glad you got something done. I won't be at the club this weekend as there is some small train meet in SE Pa. so once again, you are on your own to screw up the layout some more!

Not much going on except some train running.

Last Friday nite started to label the control panel.

Tonite was very busy with 5 trains running.  Had all control systems operating, Conventional, DCS, LionChief and TMCC.  Track 1 had Ted with his new acquisition of a conventional Lionel Southern Mikado from 1992 with some new NYC heavyweights and Johnbrandt with his LC Camelback running together on the TPC.  Track 2 was Eric running his newly acquired Rail King B&O FAs heading up his train of streamliners running on the TPC.  No TMCC/Legacy engines only the TPCs using TMCC.  Track 3 was my RK GE EVO with the Inspection car running on DCS.  Had some signal problems last Friday but had none tonite.  Merrill (a refugee from the HO side) was running his conventional Lionel NYC RTR set on track 4.  Ed had brought his MTH Santa Fe ES-44 and was experiencing some problems running with DCS.  It eventually ran.  He had lost his PFA sounds.  An engine reset fixed that but he left before all the fun.  All in all, everything worked well and everyone had a great time.  We'll have to work up to 8 trains running in the future.  Another club member runs 8 trains on 4 loops on his home layout and boy does it get busy.

Here's  a shot of Ted's Mikado and my EVO.

 Would have liked to have shot more pix but trains were going everywhere.  Everyone started to pack up before any pix could be staged.

Bud, Thank you for the report!  Things are moving right along with lots of folks getting into the action!  Nice EVO and Ted, nice Southern!  Very handsome!  I ran into Ted twice at York.  He said you were ready for action, and that is for sure!

Tom added lattice strips to two of the portals.  Gives some depth to the 3/4 inch plywood base.  Similar to this (don't have pix from our layout).

Added labels to the tracks and sidings to help most members locate which track is which.  Our junior member Sean doesn't have this problem with either the tracks or the control panel.  He just goes and does it.  Go figure.  Also rearranged some of the buildings.

Was pretty busy on Friday nite.  Here're a few pix.

My Lionel Pennsy E33 ore car train.  Thought I had more ore cars but couldn't find them.  Did buy one more at the Brick train show but it wouldn't fit in my small traveling case.

Our club President, Dennis, finally made it down the club after his second knee replacement surgery in early February and ran his AMTRAK headed by an Atlas Toaster.

Sean's WBB Pennsy 44 tonner.

Jack's MTH RK Pennsy steam turbine.  He was frustrated trying to load his engine into DCS.  First he thought it was already loaded and couldn't find it in the engine menu.  Them I just wouldn't load.  Finally, he checked the box and found out it was  a ProtoSounds engine.  After that, it ran fine, conventionally.

Tom brought his Williams AMTRAK FP45s and was racing Dennis' AMTRAK around the layout.  Don't know if either was trying to make up time or keep a schedule.

Today the O gauge layout crew did some housecleaning, painting of the layout, unboxing the rest of the buildings and accessories and glueing another blue panel to the wall so Johnbrandt can do his magical painting. A picture of the panel being kept in place until the glues dries.

LocoBudd posted:

Jack's MTH RK Pennsy steam turbine.  He was frustrated trying to load his engine into DCS.  First he thought it was already loaded and couldn't find it in the engine menu.  Them I just wouldn't load.  Finally, he checked the box and found out it was  a ProtoSounds engine.  After that, it ran fine, conventionally.

 

 

Had the same experience recently. A friend brought over his "Proto 3" engine purchased on the bay. I couldn't get it to load, thought it odd no switches on the bottom and took the cab off. There was the QSI board along with a dead and date expired 9 Volt battery installed in the engine. I told him the bad news...

Bit of a mixed bag today.  Tom finished trimming and installed the last portal.  Had about two dozen guests from the NMRA NJ Division visit our club.  We were on the layout tour part of their meet.  Our roaming painter Geoff stopped by later to paint the wall black between the ceiling and backdrop.

The final portal.  Will install foam stonework on the vertical surface between the portal and bridge abutment.  Stonework is not high enough and requires a spacer at the bottom.  Minor problem is that we need three sections of the stonework.  Have four but two are light and two are dark.  Looks like some additional painting is in order.

Geoff's magic brush work.

Ran Dennis' Silver GG1 and my Brunswick Green GG1 for the NMRA folks.

Our half of the Michaelangelo team painted some wonders of black on top of the walls above Johnbrandt's painting. Guess the walls got blessed on Saturday am! Lol!

Nice work and Thanks to Geoff.

Yes Ted, I see the black above Geoff’s fine artwork in Bud’s photographs!  That is fine art work for sure!!  I can paint a black bear in a cave and a polar bear in a blizzard! ;-)

Ain't no Sistine Chapel but the black ceiling to wall backdrop works.  Hides a lot of sins.   Even some of the HO crew were thinking about doing the same thing on their layout.

Mark - How do you get  the bears to stay still while you paint them?

Mark - How do you get  the bears to stay still while you paint them?

Answer - You bring lots of Hunny!  Just ask Winnie the Pooh!!