January – March 2016 Volume 36 Issue 1

METCA welcomes you to 2016!

Metropolitan Division Waybill Train Collectors Association Vol. 36 Issue 1

Board of Directors 2016-2017 President~ Kevin Quinn 98-47167 Vice President~ Stuart Rankin 87-25191 Inside This Issue: Secretary~ Robert Amling 80-15029 Merkur Church construction, Somerset County 4H club, Treasurer~ Jeffery Corrick 08-62417 Larry’s Long Island Sound, Kevin shows how to reuse Director~ Larry Laskowski 91- 33858 Director~ Sam Deo 05-59610 left over parts and much more! Director~ Doug Schembs 93-36718 Director~ Rem Hunnewell 75-7642 Inside This E-Issue: Part 2 of the video railroad with the final production TCA MISSION STATEMENT video and Tour of the Trainmasters To develop an appreciation of and to preserve an important segment of history~ Tinplate Toy Trains~ through research, education, community outreach, fellowship, establishment of Coming in the next Waybill: collecting standards, and to promote the growth and enjoyment of In the next waybill we will introduce a new series about collecting and operating toy, model, and scale trains. you, our MIGS and their collections. Answer to CONTACT METCA abandoned in METCA as well as the next mystery Website: www.METCA.org location. Jeffery Corrick: [email protected] Discussion: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/METCA/ Asking for your help! Facebook: …This is your Waybill Folks! We want to hear from our https://www.facebook.com/METCA-128942873789498/ MIGS about what they are doing it this hobby. Send us news, a photo(s), or a story. I want to see your name in Correspondence, membership and mail issues: METCA Secretary 5 East Warwick Ct, Farmingdale, NJ 07727 the byline! Send your info to [email protected] Phone: 718-541-8619 Fax: 732-938-2024 On The Cover: Email: mailto:[email protected] Jersey Central Blue Comet

Train Collector’s Association Application Credit: http://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.traincollectors.org/reso http://www.jeffpolston.com/CentralNewJersey.htm urce/resmgr/PDFs/application.pdf

Metropolitan Division (METCA) Application Answer to Abandoned in METCA’s previous cover: http://www.metca.org/documents/2016%20METCA%2 Belle Mead NJ Train Station 0DIVISION%20Application.pdf Source:

Train Collectors Association National Officers https://www.flickr.com/photos/christopherskillman/25 17508778 President Wayne S. Sheriff, #99-49818 President-Elect Charles R. Anyan, #69-2511 Calling all MIGS! METCA is looking for a Social Events Vice President Joseph Fanara, #82-17381 Director to help put together special events like ball Secretary Christie M. Wilson, #91-32878 Treasurer Rick McKenny, #86-23260 games, train rides, etc. If you’re up for the job please drop us a line at [email protected] TCA National Website http://www.traincollectors.org/

The views expressed by the contributors to this publication are their own and not necessarily those of the Waybill editor or of the Train Collectors Association 2

January 2016

“From the Tower”……………K.J. Quinn

I hope everybody had a Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and a joyful holiday season. Renee & I just got back from Christmas vacation and are now ready another great year of METCA, TCA & trains. With this being my first column, I thought I would call it “From the Tower”, Since Hoboken Terminal Tower is where I spend most of my time. This is where I will keep you updated with where METCA is headed and what has been happening around the division. For those who are not aware METCA has a yahoo group https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/metca/info ,a Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/METCA-128942873789498/ and a webpage, www.metca.org. for information and photos of events. Here is my contact information if you need to get in touch with me: cell phone: 201-321-6619 & email [email protected]. I would like to congratulate Stu Rankin for a very successful tenure as President of METCA. His leadership, positive energy and all around great guy personality was a great inspiration to me as well as the division. For that he was awarded the Metropolitan Division’s 2015 “Member of the Year” for his untiring work and tremendous leadership as 2015 TCA Convention Chairman and for raising the division to the next higher level of greatness. Many thanks Stu. Also in November we had a METCA table at the Greenbergs toy and train show. The table promotes the value of TCA & METCA by displaying our items and handing out information. Networking with the public gets new people involved in TCA and talking with fellow hobbyists keeps the core of our membership coming back to TCA. Promoting membership in both, TCA & METCA, will be a priority now that the convention is wrapped up. We will have another table at the March show in Edison show on 3/12-13/16. I encourage our members to spend a few hours at the table to promote TCA and our hobby. I hope to see many of you there. I would like to thank the membership who participated in our election process. Our election committee, Rick Tedesco, Father Emil Minkovich, & Bob Taylor stepped up at the last minute and did nice job with the ballot counting. This leads me to congratulating & welcoming Doug Schembs and Rem Hunnewell to the division’s board of directors. They bring many years of TCA experience to our already outstanding board and officer corp. I am looking forward to working with them on upcoming events and projects. One of those projects will be to reestablish a train show in north jersey. Like membership this also will be a priority for the division. Some ideas and visions I have for the upcoming years will require the involvement of the membership. So keep an eye out for postings for these committees that will be set up to accomplish these ideas. Looking forward to talking and working with many of you in the future and in the meantime let’s keep the hobby and METCA growing.

SOMERSET COUNTY 4-H TRAINMASTERS Kevin Quinn & Doug Schembs

On January 30, 2016 Metca President Kevin Quinn & Director Doug Schembs attended the Somerset County 4-H Trainmasters January winter show at the 4-H center in Bridgewater NJ.

When you walk in to the center you see a large display case showing trains and pictures of the club. Then you walk into the main room and you see this incredible 40x60 modular layout. 4 main tracks loop this giant square. There is an 8 track yard in the middle for train storage as well as sidings around the layout. There were at least 4 trains circling the layout at any given time. Each module is decorated or has some sort of scenery on it. The scenery ranges from dinosaurs to a volcano to a small village. As we took in all that was happening on the layout we met one of the adult leaders of the Trainmasters. That’s right adult. Jim Wood one of the adult leaders welcomed us and brought us inside the layout for a closer look at the operation. As he

gave us the overview of the layout he introduced us to the club president, Cary, who is 17. The Trainmasters are an organization run by the kids. There are 34 youth members and 12 adult leaders. Cary and Jim explained to us that the club is the forerunner for youth operated model railroad clubs. The Somerset County 4-H Trainmasters is a group of 4th through 12th graders who build and operate their own O gauge modular layout. Their members, as they progress through the various years, construct their own train modules, create landscaping, custom paint train cars, build their structures from kits, design & make buildings from scratch, and participate in special projects as senior members.

Cary walked us around the layout explaining the operation and introducing us to other youth members. With every introduction we talked about the layout and the hobby. Doug and I handed out framed pictures of the group that were taken at the 2015 TCA convention. TCA members may be familiar with this club and the layout because of their attendance at the convention. This modular layout is impressive. What is more impressive is the youth members who built it and operate it. Clubs like the 4-H Trainmasters are a positive direction for our hobby. For more information and details on the Trainmasters go to their website: http://www.trainmasters.sc4-h.org

LONG ISLAND SOUNDS Larry Laskowski

The days are getting longer and warmer as spring approaches. Time for lots of yardwork. Our Long Island Model railroad clubs also have a lot of Yard Work underway. No rakes here but some 0-6-0s and some NW-2s handling the chores. There is still plenty of time to catch an open house or two before the days of summer take us to the shore and involve us in outdoor activities. Here is list of open houses coming up. Make it a point to visit these clubs and let the members know what a great job they are doing on the club layouts.

Date Club open House Address Hours March 6th St James Model RR RTE 25A & Mills Pond Rd St James NY 11AM -5PM March 11th Nassau Lionel Op. Engrs. 2953 Hempstead Tpk Levitown NY 8-10PM March 12-13th Nassau Lionel Op. Engrs. 2953 Hempstead Tpk Levittown NY 1--4PM March 19th Club day Nassau Lionel Op. Engrs. 2953 Hempstead Tpk. Levittown NY 12-4PM March 20th Central Operating Lines 50A Carlough Rd Bohemia NY 10AM -4PM April 17th Central Operating Lines 50A Carlough Rd Bohemia NY 10AM-4PM May 21-22nd Trainmasters of Babylon 120 Schmitt Blvd Farmingdale NY 12 -4PM May 22nd Central Operating Lines 50A Carlough Ave Bohemia NY 10AM-4PM

Central Operating Lines is focused on scenery and structure additions. Along with the Brooklyn Naval Yard, a rendition of the Williamsburg Bank building at Flatbush Ave. has been added. A Met Life building is also under construction. Check the preview here. COL will have three open houses from March through May so check them out at 50A Carlough Road in Bohemia NY, just off Johnson Ave and South of the Long Island MacArthur airport. . Info at www.coltrains.com

The Nassau Lionel Operating Engineers layout will be on view during the club’s spring 2016 open House. Not to be missed is the Club member’s day on March 19th. METCA is invited so please visit as a special guest. And while you’re there, ask about the club’s LIRR Hopper car offering , one in red and one in black. They are at 2953 Hempstead Turnpike in Levittown NY. Club info at http://nloe.org/

The St James Model Railroad Club is a 38” by 48” layout with mains, yards and subway. Club info at http://stjamesmodelrailroadclub.weebly.com/ they are at the Mills Pond House, 660 Route 25A, and Saint James, NY.

The Railroad Museum of Long Island will get its 2016 season underway starting in April. There are lots of great railroad equipment to see as well as the Lionel Visitors Center Layout. The organization is raising funds to restore LIRR G5s 39 to operation. You can help them with a donation. Check them out. Club info at http://www.rmli.us/RMLI/Riverhead_Site.html

I encourage METCA members to join a local train club. Benefits include, expanded friendship across the club and metro region, learning new skill sets from masters, enjoying operations on large size layouts. In addition, train club members who are in TCA are invited to join METCA as well. It will be a rewarding relationship with opportunities for clubs/METCA activity to promote Model Railroading. Well that's the news from Long Island. See you soon at our clubs.

Merkur 9956 Church Build

Sam Deo 05-59610

When it comes to tinplate structures, the options out there are limited to original designs from the prewar era and maybe a few smaller companies over the years that produced limited number pieces. That was case until I discovered Merkur out of the Czech Republic. Merkur has been around for some time now but relatively unknown in the US. There seems to be limited suppliers outside of CZ, so when I found one I ordered a 2 stall engine shed. I was extremely happy with the quality of the materials and decided to order a church for the layout. This article will go over the assembly of their 9956 church but the process is the same for their other structures.

The first thing you’ll notice is there is “some” assembly required. Actually there is a lot of assembly required with this. Everything comes to you in a flat box with tiny nuts, screws and a tube of glue.

The instructions are completely pictorial and what little writing it does have is mostly in Czech so that leaves a little to be desired. The instructions are one folded page with a very basic idea as to what order things go together.

I took a brief look over the instructions to familiarize myself with the parts. Once done I dived in. The first step is to bolt the walls together than bolt that assembly to the base. And here’s where the first issue I had with the instructions came to light. There’s no guide as to what comes first, the walls going together as my mockup below or bolting one wall at a time to the base than bolting the walls to each other. I built the structure first that bolted to the base which seemed to work but having that basic detail would be nice. Again, this doesn’t take away from the quality of the material.

The model comes in a mix of gloss smooth parts as well as semi-gloss textured parts which is a nice change. The walls for example are textured which might be a little difficult to make out in the picture above but I assume they went with this look to recreate the idea of stone/stucco. The one thing that Merkur encourages is that these models should be custom painted by the owner to add their own unique look. I decided not to do this as I think the colors they use work well together.

Next I bolted the assembled walls to the green base. The challenge here is the base is open but small so getting your hand in there to hold the nut while you tighten the screw requires patience.

The roof panels go on next. This by far is the hardest part of the build, mostly because the instructions don’t explain the order in which you should go in. The steeple has overlapping panels that need to be bolted together than the steeple roof bolts to the walls. Again, small, tight spaces make it difficult to

9 maneuver inside the building. The workaround that seemed to do the trick was to glue the nuts to the underside of the mounting tabs on the walls. I let them dry than I placed the roof onto the walls and screwed them down. With the nuts glued to the wall, this saved time and frustration. The following picture show the roofs bolted on. The contrast between the textured light grey walls and smooth dark grey roof really stands out.

The final step is to glue on the remaining trim pieces. The kit comes with a super glue but I assume any store bought super glue would work just as well. This part was also a little tricky just because once the piece is set you have very little time to adjust it. Taking your time gives the best results.

All in all I was very pleased with the model and plan to purchase a few more Merkur pieces down the road. Considering the kit is made out of steel bolted together it should last a good long time on any layout. So for any of you tinplater’s out there looking for new structures for your layout, click on the link below and take a look at what Merkur has to offer. http://www.merkurtoys.cz/en/products/railway

Metropolitan Division TCA

Prototype Artwork Shown actual graphics may vary

Order NOW – First Come – First Served METCA’s first Made in the USA Box Car is a deco scheme rarely seen in model railroading. The Lehigh Valley Map Box Car is modeled after the real life promotional car that roamed the rails of the Route of the Black Diamond system. This 100% Lionel made and decorated 6-58274 box car is molded, decorated, and assembled in the USA. The car features a stamped metal frame, metal brake wheel and die-cast sprung trucks. Capturing the essence of the different names that the car carried throughout its career, this model features different names (and colors) on each side of the car. Get 2 so you can see both sides at the same time. You can also order online and pay with your credit card or Paypal.

Available exclusively from METCA Division.

Only orders received by May 30, 2016 can be guaranteed. Quantity may be limited to 100 cars. ------First Come-First Served. Only limited quantities will be made. Order early, avoid disappointment. All checks or money orders must be in U.S. funds. Make checks payable to METCA. Questions? Email: [email protected] To see other cars offered visit www.METCA.org

Mail to: Lehigh Valley Box Car Your cancelled check will be your only receipt. c/o Stuart Rankin Please return the below form with payment. 6 Packard Drive Delivery expected by end of 2016. Middletown, NJ 07748 Please print clearly. ------cut here ------cut here ------cut here ------cut here ------I would like _____ Lehigh Valley Map Box Car(s) at $79 ea $______Total $______

Name ______TCA #______-______Address ______Phone No. ______City ______State ______Zip Code ______Email Address ______(WAY) 6257/2420 Rebuild Kevin Quinn 98-47168 When on the hunt for trains, how many times do you find them broken or neglected? Especially when finding Lionel Postwar. Since most of the postwar became plastic as time went on there was more chances of it breaking. Now being the hunter of trains that we are, we find these neglected treasures and sometimes store them for later use, otherwise categorized as parts. Throughout the years when I have bought up collections or found garage sale items, I have stockpiled a lot of these “parts” items. We all know that our hobby takes up space and when we run out of space we have to find more space. In my case the containers and shelves of “parts” had to be addressed. Instead of getting rid of them I figured I would try my hand at repurposing them. Let’s start with one I did rather recently. I had a broken Lionel 6257 and parts of a Lionel 2420 caboose. Using a Dremel drill I started to take apart the 6257. The end steps were cut off of the shell and the screw tabs cut off of the frame. The end steps were glued on to the frame with a new wood floor. The floor was painted wood and the rest painted railbox yellow.

The 2420 cabin was cut on one end to make the large window. The window frame is plastruct angle bars. The cabin body was painted railbox yellow and the roof and window frame grimy black.

I used clear plastic sheeting to make the window and added benches and two people inside for effect; just in case anybody looked through the window. Several coats of yellow and black were applied to the pieces for coverage.

Above in picture 3 you can see the people inside and a few more details applied: a ladder of the coupler end, stripes on the hind, the side railing are the end railings of another caboose frame & a custom Lackawanna logo. By this time you might be saying the yellow paint looks bad. I agree it does, it went on thick on gloppy but that is ok because later you will not notice it. I have found that the color weathered black becomes your number 1 friend when doing this fun stuff. Now that the car is glued with details and primarily base painted the fun part is next. Messing it up.

In pictures 4 & 5 below, you will see that the colors weathered black, earth, dust, foundation all play a role in making your new creation look like it was just used by a salty yard crew. After the paint dries you can spray a coating of Dullcoat on it to take away any shine.

Over all it took me about 10 hours spread over several days to finish this. You now have a weathered transfer caboose for your local freight crew to haul around your layout. For a bunch of broken parts I don’t think it looks half bad.

SPOTLIGHT -THE TRAINMASTERS OF BABYLON MODEL RAILROAD CLUB. Larry Laskowski

Recently, I visited the Trainmasters of Babylon Club as a guest of secretary Steve Scagnelli. The hospitality of club members is great. I met a member who is associated with my former employer; interestingly he has an aunt who was an associate of mine at an earlier position. Small World! Our layout tour was up close and personal.TMB has accomplished a great deal since moving from the Rte. 109 site. . I must say that folks here are doing an outstanding job. The scenes are very well done and I was particularly impressed with the scenic treatment of the layout corners and the layouts detailed structures Checkout the tall buildings, the harbor, the towns and the subway terminal complete with Mezzanine. It was a fun evening; thank you for that. TMB’s new layout is 4000 sq. ft. of model railroad with 10 trains running on 19 scale miles of track along with an elaborate underground subway system. Trains run conventionally, via DCS and Legacy. Currently under construction are the logging line as well as various layout scenery and wiring projects. The club also has a modular layout that is used to promote Model Railroading and the club at various community events such as the VA Hospital, and train meets around Long Island. They also have a train layout featured in the Blue Comet episode of the HBO series, The Sopranos. The club is located at 120 Schmitt Blvd. Farmingdale, NY 11735. Club membership consists of approximately 80 men and women who love O-gauge trains. Members meet Friday nights to work on the layout or run trains. Memberships are available. If you have a passion for O-gauge trains, have a talent for scenery, or just enjoy running trains give a call or visit on a Friday evening. They will get you going. METCA members should consider joining a Train Club whose benefits include: expanded friendship across the club and metro region, learning new skills, enjoying operations on large size layouts I would encourage members of clubs who are in TCA to join METCA as well... It will be a rewarding relationship with opportunities for clubs/METCA activity to promote Model Railroading. Steve once again thank you for a great evening.

Tour the Trainmasters of Babylon Pictorial by Larry Laskowski

Walking through the TMB layout shows us overall views, the waterfront, coal bunkers, reservation Tepees, A LIRR train and C liner and the Sopranos Layout. Be sure to visit soon.

The final cut, trains on camera Sam Deo 05-59610

In the last e-version of the waybill I discussed how I wanted to get a point of view (POV) recording of my layout from the locomotives perspectives. Camera placement, light issues and sound were just some of the challenges I had to face when making the video. Once the videos were recorded, I used editing software to create a final product that I think came out great. So let’s dive in and look at the process to create this video.

I learned from the test videos that even with the lights on in the basement they always came out on the darker side. For the most part this isn’t too bad until you get into the tunnel. Once the train hit the tunnel it was like someone put a lens cap on. So for the final product I used a flash light mounted behind the camera. This will illuminate everything in front of the lens and brighten up the tunnel enough to see inside.

Another issue I had from the test videos was camera placement. If you remember I tried a few different locations for the camera, on top of the engine, in front of the boiler, on the roof of the caboose, etc. The location that worked best and was used to create the final video was placing the camera on a flat car in front of the train. This helped isolated the camera from the train which helped reduce noise from the motor. It also was low enough on the flat car so you could see the tracks better; this was part of the effect I was going for.

I taped the camera and flashlight to the flat car, this way neither will move around as the train is running. Also when I switch trains I just need to pick up the flat car and move it to another track.

I wanted to record all 4 loops for this exercise and splice them together to create one longer video showing the entire layout. The original idea was going to be record the first track, than the second followed by the third and fourth than splice them together in that order. However when I did that I wasn’t happy with the results so I mixed up the order a little bit.

This is where the editing software comes into play. I’m a radio engineer by trade, which means I make sure when you attempt to make a cell phone call, it goes through. One of the things I do at work is creating how to videos as well as tech tips so field engineers have a visual tutorial to watch. Because of these videos, I recently started using editing software called Filmora http://filmora.wondershare.com/ which allows me to cut and paste clips, add music and sound effects, add screen shots and captions and clean up the final product to make a polished piece. Filmora is free to download and use but the format of the freeware version adds a water mark to the video so for the base price of $30 it’s well worth it if you plan on doing something like this or just want to change up other videos you may have made in the past. There are several how to guides on line how to use the software but I found this one from Filmora to be the most helpful, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8567DmojT8Ca3oZQlKip9w .

Here is a sample of a screen shot from Filmora.

I took the four videos and decided to stagger them. The first section is the lower level outside rail. This is the mainline for the freight trains. The second section is the upper level, outside rail or mainline for the passenger trains. The third section is the lower inner loop followed by the last section which is the upper inner loop. The reason for the staggering was to change it up for visual effect. The four sections were recorded independently of each other so mixing them up with Filmora is as easy as dragging and dropping them as I see fit. I can also cut one of the videos and insert part of another. I through about this but I think it would have been too confusing for the viewer. Besides the 4 lines I have two other “trains” a monorail and trolley but I decided to not record videos from either one as they have very short tracks and I don’t think the videos would add any benefit to the final product.

Once I spliced the four videos together I wanted to add some additional sounds to keep the video interesting. Who doesn’t love the sound of the trains going clackity clack over the tracks? But with just the sound of the trains, I felt it was a little dry. I was able to find some train themed music from the 30’s and 40’s which fit the tinplate style nicely and don’t take away from the video. On a side note, you’ll notice I said “tinplate style”, once watching the video you’ll see that all of my locomotives are tinplate reproductions with contemporary PS electronics so we have full sound and smoke. I find that the reproductions are a little more “kid friendly” around my boys and besides, who doesn’t like a steam engine barreling down a mainline with a huge plume of smoke pouring out of the stack!

Once the videos were trimmed up and the music was added, I decided that I needed an introduction screen to start the video as well as closing credits at the end. Both screens were created in PowerPoint and inserted into the video as a picture. I was also able to change the length of time these screen shots were visible which allowed me to line up the music with the video so they start and stop at the same time.

I did most of the editing in Filmora but YouTube also has a few options. The two editing options I used were the anti-shake which smooth’s out and reduces the excess movement from the train and their auto-light feature which enhances the light. This helped with the dimmer areas of the layout without changing the color or hue of the video. Both features are automatic so just click apply and sit back while the changes are made. If you don’t like the outcome you can always revert back before saving.

And this brings me to the final cut. The video is right under 8 minutes but I could have made it as long or shot as I wanted. I felt that 8 minutes was a good end point, anything more I think the viewer would start to lose interest, anything shorter and I don’t think you get the full effect. My layout is 10’X15’ at its largest part and shaped like U with a small extension for the yard. Because of this it doesn’t take that long for any train to complete the loop, even the lower level mainline can be completed in less than a minute when I give it enough throttle. With that said, the link below will bring you to the finished product. Please take a look and leave me a comment on YouTube, tell me what you like, tell me what you don’t like, hopefully you’ll enjoy watching the video as much as I did making it.

Sam’s prewar style layout POV video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2Wm-cPdIH4

Abandoned in METCA

So for the first abandoned in METCA for 2016 I kept it really easy, I’m sure most of you can get this one!