[Accrs-ho] March Good Guys

[ACCRS HO Scale]

All,

At our November HO meeting, it was requested, voted and passed that for The
Great Train Show we run both days in DCC as it "provides the best showing"
and it was felt that was important. I "agreed" but stated that if we do not
get enough to sign up to run, that I would change one day to DC if it would
facilitate enough volunteers to run. There was the same request for the
March Good Guys and I stated the same requirement of filling the shifts or
I may need to change the schedule.

During the Fair, I had several people comment to me that they wanted either
more DCC days, more DC days and/or that the days that either of those were
given were the wrong days because of the kind of day it was (IE: weekend,
weekday, holiday, etc.).

It has also been asked of me to have more Fridays be DCC running days. As
has it been brought up as an option to both rewire the layout to repair DC
and/or DCC operations or to remove DC as a whole.

I have no doubt that in the future at some point (this point however I am
not sure how soon will come) that clubs will run solely in DCC. There are
some clubs now I visited that do that now if I remember correctly. However,
for a club with such a long history and a wide variety of members, I did
not envision this happening anytime soon.

In my opinion, both DC and DCC are unique and valuable in their own way.
Some DC points for me are historical value, a type of craftsmanship, and
certainly a sentimental value often passed through generations. Some points
for DCC are greater detail, more realistic and more bells and whistles (Pun
intended). That being said, to me that does not award either style a
"better" standing than the other.

In another of my opinions, I believe we are all here because we like to
have fun. Whether that fun is physically playing with the trains, showing
them off, remembering a time spent with family in the past either playing
with those same trains with a parent, Grandparent or other, or time spent
working on those very trains in the real world, it is still fun to do it
and why we do it. That being said, it does not mean that one reason is more
important than another.

Now, it is my experience that both DC AND DCC trains and related equipment
are available new and used from many sources. Myself I purchased a brand
new DC (Non DCC ready) SP Daylight F7A/B unit for my son that is a current
model produced that way on purpose. I converted it to DCC only because he
was going to be unable to run it at the club during a DCC day if that was a
day he wanted to go with me. Also because as a young child and of this day
and age of instant gratification and more is a minimum, he values more the
additional capabilities of DCC, even though it is still not a complete
conversion, no sounds yet as I believe patience is still important as well.
That being said, it is not a matter of how simple it is, cost effective nor
even the additional capabilities it gives, its a matter of personal choice
for which each person has the right to have.

Also in yet another of my opinions, I feel that club equipment should be
available to all. That however does not mean that the club can not take
steps to protect those investments as we do by the simple act of locking
the front and back door. Procedures for use of the DCC engines and/or cars
is high on my list among the list of policies and procedures I am trying to
accomplish. I have stated that if anyone wants to use any of that equipment
for a show in the meantime, they need only ask Joel or myself and we will
"check" it out to you for that purpose. Also while on the subject, in my
opinion it does not matter if an item is purchased, donated and/or acquired
from other means like a previous member leaves us and it was unable to be
returned for any reason, that it is the officers of the clubs job to decide
what will happen to it and how it is used. It is prudent to pole the
members and develop a way for all to enjoy certain items but not required
to my knowledge.

Therefore, since both styles are still produced and available used. Since
we have long standing members that own both. Since at least some of the
most recent new members I have witnessed come in with nothing or only DC
equipment and being the expensive hobby that it is do not require them to
purchase or have DCC only equipment. Since I am not aware of us being the
type of club that forces members to do anything they do not want (except
for certain items that are for the safety of our trains and related like
Kadee couplers, coupler height and related standards), I do not believe we
should operate in a manner that gives certain members the choice to upgrade
or don't participate. I believe that we should continue to operate in
alternating mode Fridays and operating in alternating mode weekends for
shows. As well as alternating modes for weekdays and weekends for the fair
until a lack of DC operators presents itself.

I also feel that a more involved deliberation of which days should be DC
and which should be DCC for the different days of the fair is needed for
this years scheduling. That is what was my intent last year when I emailed
out a poll asking if individuals would sign up for more days if there were
more DC days and/or more DCC days and what each of your preferences were?
Were you a DC person, DCC person or both and what your preference was?

Sorry for such a long email but I feel this subject is not a simple one and
probably is actually more than one subject. If anyone has any comments,
concerns or questions, please do not hesitate to reply or speak to me in
person. If you wish to do so privately, you can call me at 925-519-4796 or
email me directly at myputertech at gmail.com (do not reply or reply to all).

Disclaimer: These views do not necessarily reflect those of my Assistant
Train Master or any other officers of our club.

Ed Carreno
HO Train Master
ACCRS




Ed Carreno
System and Network Consultant
Myputertech
mytech at myputertech.com
925-829-6505


On Mon, Mar 9, 2015 at 5:16 PM, ACCRS HO Scale <accrs-ho at mail.accrs.org>
wrote:

> Message From: Dean & Margaret Lewis  lewis2 at earthlink.net
>
>
>  Lee,
>
> Maybe I should just leave you message alone, but there are some
> interesting comments here.   Since I wasn't there, I don't know who might
> have shouted you down, but I have a hard time believing this was anything
> done on purpose.   Also, I don't know of anyone that tells you what cars to
> run or not.   I know that I feel that trains should look prototypical per
> the era.  I wouldn't want to see a 53' container car running with a bunch
> of 1950-60 style 40' box cars.  There is a certain level that should be
> maintained in our trains to keep them prototypical by era.
>
> As far as I know, all major projects get member approval.   I know
> recently I discovered some tunnel portals that didn't like double stacks.
> I widened a couple of portals in the last couple of weeks.   It wasn't
> voted on as it was more of a maintenance item than a major construction
> project.  I still have a couple more to fix.   You even said that was a
> good idea when I discovered the problem.
>
> As far as cars on the layout, everybody can run their own cars or use club
> cars.  Personally, I try to keep "hidden" in some semblance of order.   I
> try to keep club cars restricted to tracks 1 through 4.   That leaves 5
> through 9 for members to set up their own trains.   As we have more cars
> than those 4 tracks can hold, I have placed the extra ones in the club
> drawers under hidden.  Since the more modern style cars are the most
> popular to use, I put the older style in the drawers.  I don't see that as
> telling anyone what cars they can run.
>
> I think that we should respect each other and have fun.  I don't believe
> there is anyone there that is trying to run the club and I don't think
> anyone will be trying to tell us which railroad we can model.   I have seen
> a wide variety of equipment on the layout recently.  It seemed to me that
> everyone was having fun.
>
> Just for the record, I am not a fan of "Thomas the Tank" but others are
> and run him.   If they are not there, I won't run him.
>
> Just my take.
>
> Dean
>
>
>
>
> On 3/9/2015 4:20 PM, ACCRS HO Scale wrote:
>
> Message From: Lee And Joan Buckner  buckyrailfan at aol.com
>
>
>
> Group:
>
> While I've complained about the DCC vis DC issue for the upcoming show,
> and I wasn't able to say my piece before getting shouted down, what upsets
> me most is that we have a couple of members that think the club is
> "theirs", and not "ours", and their don't have to follow club procedures,
> such as getting club approval for a project they want, and just go ahead,
> and do it.  That is why I made the comment that the back of my vests say
> ACCRS, and not their names.  Also they rule what cars we can run on the
> layout.  What is next, we have to model the railroad they do?
>
> I expressed my concern to John Kohlberg about this on Friday night.
>
> I express my condolences to you John, and to Ed for having to go through
> all this, but I feel I have to take a stand on this subject.
>
>
>
> Lee
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Accrs-ho mailing listAccrs-ho at mail.accrs.orghttps://mail.accrs.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/accrs-ho
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Accrs-ho mailing list
> Accrs-ho at mail.accrs.org
> https://mail.accrs.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/accrs-ho
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://mail.accrs.org/archives/accrs-ho/attachments/20150309/592041fa/attachment-0001.html>