[Accrs] Club Cars vs Era (changed heading to reflect the topic)

Mon Jul 10 12:50:31 PDT 2017

How about we do an inventory of cars we have and do an evaluation before we begin adding more?
In my opinion we have too many club cars now.  The cabinet in the hidden yard is full, as are all of the sidings in Oildale and the port, which means any additional cars will end up in the hidden and freight yards taking up one more tracks there.  I think the freight yard is pretty much full now and hidden is getting that way.  If we cull the cars we have now, getting rid of the ones that are beyond repair and fix the others it would upgrade the fleet without clogging the yard.  If everybody selected an era of preference and took responsibility for all of the club cars in that era it would spread the  maintenance effort. 
As for the cars with the pipes, they are Pennsylvania RR which went away in 1968.  That makes them appropriate to pull with steam or first generation diesel, but not contemporary power.  I doubt many people notice, or care, about the trucks.  I also doubt the green protective coating was used that far back.   BUT they are attractive and reliable, which can't be said for a lot of the club cars.  
Prototype accuracy is probably beyond our ability (and probably desire) at this stage, but prototypical REASONABLENESS could be achieved with a little effort.  
I look forward to the discussion.
Dennis

Lee,

Yes it is a topic for discussion and to think about.   August will bethe annual BBQ.   September would be on Labor Day weekend and probablythe Good Guys car show.   October would be the first real opportunityto hold a meeting when most of us could attend and it would come aboutthe time we should start paying dues.   Dues of $25 per year are reallygreat when other clubs charge  $40-$60 PER MONTH.   A car from your erawould be a small expense given our dues.  I know that I have a fewduplicates running around the layout that say "club" on the bottom.  That string of 10 grey balast cars were made from cars I hadaccumulated a long time ago.    They are club cars now.  The earliertwo empty ones I also added a long time ago.  They are appropriate forseveral eras.

Dean

On 7/9/2017 8:02 PM, Alameda County Central Railroad Society wrote:
 Message From: Lee And Joan Buckner  buckyrailfan at aol.com
  Hi Guys: 
  That sounds like a good idea to me, that each of us donates ahigh quality car to the club of an era we each choose.  Can discuss itat a club meeting, which I hope to be able to attend in the near future. 
 Lee  

  -----OriginalMessage-----
From: Alameda County Central Railroad Society<accrs at mail.accrs.org>
To: accrs <accrs at mail.accrs.org>
Sent: Sun, Jul 9, 2017 12:10 pm
Subject: Re: [Accrs] Head count

Message From: Dean & Margaret Lewis lewis2 at earthlink.net  Thereis nothing wrong with running steam.   Most of the club cars thatwould fit in that era are in the worse shape.  They  have been aroundthe longest.   Running steam with modern cars is not realistic unlessit is an excursion.   For shows and the Fair,is only seems appropriate to run cars that match the era.   I have a whole string of ATSF 40' reefers that I would run withF-units.   I certainly wouldn't run them with a SD40-2.   Likewise, Iwouldn't run my 4-8-4 on the TOFC train I was running the other day.  Let's clean and rehab the cars that we have, get rid of the junky onesand go from there.

Here is a novel idea.   Why don't each of us donate a new quality car,of an era of our choice, to the club.  That would more than make of forthose we should remove from service.   Pay our annual dues and add anew car at the same time.  Now that would make a CLUB.

On 7/9/2017 11:00 AM, Alameda County Central Railroad Society wrote: 
 Message From: Andy Kelsey  kj6dtq at gmail.com  

 I think we should keep a fleet of roolingstock thatis older than the 70s for those of us that like running steam.  Beingthere are some members that are picky and chew out members runningequipment that is out of era in one form or another.  I personallydon't want to come to the club to get chewed out because all I couldbring was a locomotive and the only cars available are out of era.   
  Before any disposal takes place this should bebrought up in a meeting.  This is a CLUB environment and not a personalrailroad.  We need to as a club represent multiple facets of therailroading world and not scare people off because what they want tomodel differs.   
  Andy K.  
 On Jul 8, 2017 1:16 PM, "AlamedaCountyCentral Railroad Society" <accrs at mail.accrs.org> wrote:

MessageFrom:Dean & Margaret Lewis  lewis2 at earthlink.net

Good old person to person contact is best.   Sure technology is awonderful thing, but for us, it really doesn't seem like the way togo.   I would rather see us do more on the layout.

We could add another lightning bolt or two.   We could change out allthose hot colored lights with LED's.   It would make it cooler in thebuilding.  Adding the hot box detector on 37 with speakers by thecontrol panel would be a nice addition.

I also would like to see a concerted effort to clean and rehab the clubcars.  Some of them need to go in the dumpster.  They have really cometo the end of being useful.  I have worked on several cars that needrepair but I can't do it all.   I know that each of us have a period welike to model.  With that said, I think that freight cars that can'tresonably be used in a semi modern era of mid 70's and on should bedropped from the club freight cars.   Those are the ones in the worstshape.   Cars like the green pipe loads are nice, but they have oldfriction bearing trucks.   If we want to continue to use them,replacing the trucks with modern roller bearing trucks might be an idea.

WE just need to get everything back to as close to like new as we canget it.

Dean

On 7/8/2017 11:42 AM, Alameda County Central Railroad Society wrote:

MessageFrom: Gary Lewis  glgslewis at comcast.net

How much will it cost and are you volunteering to set it up andmaintain it?  Will it say hello to visitors and answer their questions?

Gary

-----Original Message-----
From: Accrs [mailto:accrs-bounces at mail.acc rs.org]On Behalf Of Alameda County Central Railroad Society
Sent: Friday, July 7, 2017 2:35 PM
To: accrs at mail.accrs.org
Subject: Re: [Accrs] Head count

Message From: Tony Long  tony.long at outlook.com

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Message From: Dean & Margaret Lewis  lewis2 at earthlink.net

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       From: Alameda County Central Railroad Society <accrs at mail.accrs.org>
 To: accrs at mail.accrs.org 
 Sent: Sunday, July 9, 2017 9:03 PM
 Subject: [Accrs] Club Cars vs Era (changed heading to reflect the topic)

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