APRIL 22, 2019 ■■■■■■■■■■■ VOLUME 39 ■■■■■■■■■■ NUMBER 4 Amtrak “Montrealer” on Georgia High Bridge 13 17 The Semaphore David N. Clinton, Editor-in-Chief CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Southeastern Massachusetts…………………. Paul Cutler, Jr. “The Operator”………………………………… Paul Cutler III Cape Cod News………………………………….Skip Burton Boston Herald Reporter……………………… Jim South 24 Boston Globe & Wall Street Journal Reporters Paul Bonanno, Jack Foley Western Massachusetts………………………. Ron Clough Rhode Island News…………………………… Tony Donatelli “The Chief’s Corner”……………………… . Fred Lockhart Mid-Atlantic News……………………………. Doug Buchanan PRODUCTION STAFF Publication…………….………………… …. … Al Taylor Al Munn Jim Ferris Bryan Miller Web Page …………………..………………… Savery Moore Club Photographer……………………………. Joe Dumas Guest Contributor……………………………… Peter Palica The Semaphore is the monthly (except July) newsletter of the South Shore Model Railway Club & Museum (SSMRC) and any opinions found herein are those of the authors thereof and of the Editors and do not necessarily reflect any policies of this organization. The SSMRC, as a non-profit organization, does not endorse any position. Your comments are welcome! Please address all correspondence regarding this publication to: The Semaphore, 11 Hancock Rd., Hingham, MA 02043. ©2019 E-mail: [email protected] Club phone: 781-740-2000. Web page: www.ssmrc.org VOLUME 39 ■■■■■ NUMBER 4 ■■■■■ APRIL 2019 CLUB OFFICERS BILL OF LADING President………………….Jack Foley Vice-President…….. …..Dan Peterson Treasurer………………....Will Baker Chief’s Corner ...... ……. .3 Secretary……………….....Dave Clinton Contests ................ …….….3 Chief Engineer……….. .Fred Lockhart Clinic……………..……..…4 Directors……………… ...Bill Garvey (’20) ……………………….. .Bryan Miller (‘20) Editor’s Notes. ….….....….10 ……………………… ….Roger St. Peter (’19) Members ............... …….....10 …………………………...Gary Mangelinkx (‘19) Memories .............. ………...4 Potpourri ............... ..…..…...6 ON THE COVER: Northbound Montrealer in Ride the Rails ....... ………..11 Georgia, Vermont. Summer 1981. (DNC photo) Running Extra....... .….……11 2 weirdest, or the one you remember most of FORM 19 ORDERS AMTRAK’S PROMOTIONAL SLOGANS over the years. You’ve heard them on the Radio; saw them on TV or on posters and in train stations; there BUDGET COMMITTEE MEETING were many of them the past 48 years. Use the contest entry forms available on the old display Monday, April 22nd 8 p.m. case inside the train room door or any piece of APRIL B.O.D. MEETING th paper but don’t forget your name. Should be fun to Monday, April 29 8 p.m. make a whole poster of them for 48 years of DECODER/EQUIPMENT TUNE-UP CLINIC progress? nd Thursday, May 2 8 p.m. MAY BUSINESS MEETING th Monday, May 6 8 p.m. Fred Lockhart MAY NEWSLETTER DEADLINE th Saturday, May 25 MAY B.O.D. To start off this month I will give you all my Monday, 27th 8 p.m. progress report for the railroad. First off, the new staging yard is now up and running! Some of the features are eight storage tracks ranging from CONTESTS approximately sixteen to twenty feet in length and each track can be shut off so as not to overload the circuit breakers, but to also quiet sound Congratulations to Will Baker on winning this locomotives. Also, indicator LED’s to month’s 50/50 raffle! indicate when a train is about a foot away from the bumpers, as the last At this month’s Business Meeting, we had a record three feet of the yard is under the 21 entries for Al Taylor’s “word-find” puzzle “Steam Boston Division and is difficult to see Loco 6”, with some unusual part names; obviously, (LED’s will be installed when Boston a favorite type of contest: benchwork is in place); a model board with LED’s to show turnout position Steve Wintermeier Bob Farrenkropf and if track power is on, similar to Cedar Hill Bryan Miller Ron Clough passenger terminal model board. We also added Barry Doland Jim South detection on the lead track because when the Fred Lockhart Dan Peterson existing Boston/Great Lakes staging yard is Will Baker Jim Ferris replaced with the new sections of the railroad, Al McCarty Bill Garvey about two thirds of the ramp will be hidden; it is a Skip Burton Paul Cutler, Jr. long grade and it will be beneficial to know if your Savery Moore Doug Buchanan train is still making progress up the grade. We will Paul Cutler III Joe Dumas have to run some tests to see how much power a “Gunny” Roger St. Peter train will need for different length trains. This yard Don Pierce will be an asset during shows for the extra storage Drawing was for the just released Bowser and capacity. When all the new work is done, this Walthers New Haven Boxcars and here’re the staging yard will be a walk in, no crawling on the winners: floor to get in to it. The scenery work in Cedar Hill Bryan Miller, Bill Garvey, Paul Cutler III continues, some re-worked rolling stock has been Congrats and thanks to all for playing the game! transformed into yard buildings, roads are being th added and of course ballasting continues--it never For MAY, in celebration of Amtrak’s 48 ends does it? There is still a lot to do in Cedar Hill, Anniversary, everyone wins even if it’s just a piece but each month it is looking better. Scenery work is of cake! For the contest: Give your favorite, 3 also being done in White River Jct. (the wye area). dressed in B&M maroon. This unit had a motor over That is why you will see more of the backdrop one truck with “rubber band” drive from the motor to removed in that area. Not far from White River Jct., the gear powering both axles. It did have “all-wheel” around the curve near the crossing with the Larson pickup, though! He used the basic DH123D and Branch, work is being done to create a base for was successful in hard-wiring and replacing the scenery to be finished in that area, as it has been headlight with an LED. Doodle Bug runs very untouched for a long time. The benchwork for the slowly, though. Boston Division that will be in the staging area is being built off the railroad, near the Model Shop. Paul Agnew brought two ECL locos. The first, an Roadbed is in progress and trackwork has been Athearn GP50, which had burned out a sound started; the Electrical Committee will wire it and decoder. He found the problem and replaced the after that we will install it. It will sit idle until all the decoder in the loco. The second was also an new work is done and connected to it, but we need Athearn but one of the old GP38s. So old, that the that level done because above that will be motor mount had dried out and the motor was loose benchwork for the narrow gauge railroad. Going in the chassis! He installed a new mount and away forward, I have a couple of small jobs for the the unit went, ready for another 100,000 miles! Benchwork Committee to do and then they will be ready to start the benchwork for the new sections Paul Cutler III brought a Bochmann Spectrum that will replace the Boston/Great Lakes staging, unlettered 4-4-0, which the owner wanted lettered which by the way will be re-located and re-used to for B&M. He installed a TCS “Wow Sound” decoder accommodate the end of the line and make for #121, with a B-MB4 “motherboard” in the tender. All “continuous running” for shows. Work will also be worked out successfully. starting on adding a track to reach a new trolley barn that will be located near the Moxie factory, this Ye Ed installed a DH165AO into an old Atlas is something that was planned years ago but never “Classic” RS3, decorated in Rutland’s nice green got built; it will complete that end of the trolley with yellow striping. The decoder is a direct infrastructure on that end of the trolley. There are a replacement for the factory board. I replaced the lot of members that have been involved in all the bulbs with 3mm LED’s at each end. Many of the work mentioned above, but I hesitate to try to new decoders are coming with on-board current- mention everyone by name because if I leave resistors, so that it is not necessary to add resistors someone out, well, no one likes to be left out. for lighting, if you’re using a 1.5v mini-bulb or an Thanks to everyone for all your efforts. LED for each direction. I found that it is very That is it for this month. As usual, your questions important, though, to press the wires into the “wire and comments are always welcome. channels” in the weights at each end, as there is no Fred Lockhart extra clearance between the top of the weights and Chief Engineer the body shell. In fact, I had to Dremel both channels larger, as the heat shrink over the ends of DCC & EQUIPMENT TUNE-UP CLINIC the LEDs was thicker than the original light wires. I used tape over the top of the weights to keep the wires in the channels. Dan Peterson brought an “original” P2K E8 decorated in C&NW’s handsome green and yellow Thanks to Paul Cutler III for all his assistance with scheme. Without a decoder plug, these units the clinic. Our next Clinic will be Thursday, May nd became “hard-wire jobs”. He used the NCE D135R, 2 . Sign-up sheet on Bulletin Board. All are which is a 4-function decoder. He needed the extra welcome! functions because of the MARS light.