Track Reports - Maintenance Requests can be posted here if you have a problem with our layout. The more information provided will help with a resolution. In the near future I will provide a layout diagram that can be marked with dry erase markers to clearly define the problem areas. Have fun with our amazing club!

The meeting was called to order by President Larry Breedlove at 7:34PM. 24 members and one guest were present.

The minutes from the July 6, 2017 meeting were presented. A motion to accept the minutes was made by Ross Craig and the second was made by Jeremy Craddock. The motion was approved by a voice vote.

Presidents Report by Larry Breedlove:

Larry announced that out Vice-President John Hewitt would not be at the newxt few meeting while he recovered from injuries following a fall.

VP Report by John Hewitt:

No report

Council Report by Steele Craver:

The club’s duty assignments for the Fall train show on September 30 – October 1, 2017 has been released. We have 9 hours to fill. The layout will be on the tour. We should try to have multiple trains running along with one person at the gate for the sign-in sheet, and a couple of members to act as guides to answer questions.(and to guard against switch throwing and to protect the trains). This is a great recruiting opportunity for new members. The open house announcement will be added to the web site.

Treasurer report by James Kropp:

Beginning balance on 7/1/17 $23,303.78
Expenses $ 2294.60
Receipts $ 3438.22
Ending balance $24,447.40
We have 35 members that have currently paid their membership with 6 unpaid members
Expenses for the month were: rent $1400.00, Supplies $306.60, and Insurance $588. Receipts included $100 from club sales and $735 from estate sales.

Superintendent by Thomas Stephens:

Repairs to the refinery area is underway. Ross Craig will work on the refinery. We are still looking for members to help with the scenery repairs inflected by the move. Brian Lingle will work on the planning for the mountain area. The track is not currently energized. A new control panel will be needed. Rex Rutledge will inventory the available spare parts we currently have in the back.

Past President by Mike Cook:

Mike is working on estate items to have them priced, catalogued, and ready for sale at the Fall train show. Chuck Grimes is working on the hay field. We already have some structures and animal. Volunteer are needed to work on the section of the layout. Mike reports that he still needs to complete the drive-in movie theater.

Mike Rehling Operations SIG:

Operations are up and running. More members have been attending the Tuesday evening sessions. Oliver Bowe has been working as the yard master. There is still plenty of room for more to join the Tuesday evening sessions.

Old Business
New members Bryan Norton and Scott Fletcher were introduced.

Larry Breedlove reported that material for the skirting has been ordered. It will be completed before the 9/30 open house. The seamstress will charge $600 for her work.

The source for additional lockers did not have any available. Larry will continue the search. If anyone comes across lockers that match the standard size and color, contact Larry.

Bob Johnson reported that the website www.texasnorthern.org can be used to send emails, post comments and announcements. Contact Bob if you have questions or are unable to login to the member’s area. We need new pictures and video to replace the old Mesquite images.

The Great Texas Train Show will be held in Lewisville 12/9-10. The cost for 3 tables will be $225.00. A motion was made Dan Goins that the club buy 3 tables to sell estate items, hand out club brochures, and have an open house. Hayden Meredith seconded the motion. The motion was approved by voice vote.

New Business
The ceiling tiles damaged by the drain test had not been replaced by the mall. Ross said that he had a source for replacement tiles.

The mall requested that we provide them with a Certificate of Insurance. The document was sent to the mall office the following business day.

The need for an additional sign to list contact information, open house hours, and special events was discussed. Mike Cook moved that we spend $300 for the sign. The motion was seconded by Rex Rutledge. The motion was approved by voice vote.

John Best would like to find a copy of the June 1995 Railroad Model Craftsman magazine.

Elections will be held at the September meeting. Candidates for Vice-President are needed.

Ross Craig asked if members were interested in club apparel. He will present some cost and design options at the next meeting.

A motion to adjourn was made by Steele Craver and seconded by Gordon Guile. The meeting was adjourned at 8:45

Next meetings will be on September 7, 2017 and October 5, 2017

A new video from Kevon can be seen here: https://youtu.be/id4tcIuXXG8
Nice job, Kevon.

I will not be at the upcoming Operating session on Tuesday 8/15/17. I have done Classification and Made-Up Trains to prepare for Tuesday. Following are some comments;

1. Our practice of parking freight cars at Wausau Station as a Staging location needs to be reevaluated. There are Club members who like to run Passenger Trains and use those tracks for Staging of Passenger Trains. I discussed this with Larry and agreed that we would cease using those tracks for Freight Staging.

2. I made-up 4 Trains that are ready for Tuesday's Operating session; Tulsa, Russelville, Gary and Palestine. There is a 5th Train that can be run to WEST Staging once we identify a new location for it (i.e. not Wausau Station).

3. We have Club Members (and some guest) that pick-up parked cars in the Yard and Staging (Wausau). Most do a good job of returning the train to where it was picked-up but not always. I've had to hunt down more than a few cars and resort Car Cards that were out-of-order. I think it is important that we continue to allow Members to use Operating Cars to run trains. I think we need to POST instructions for How. (i.e. we could make either Track 10 or 11 a designated Off-Layout Staging track during Non-Operating Times. We Post guidance that Members can run this Train provided they return the cars to same track as picked-up and not add (or take-away) any cars. In order to support this, we will need to ensure that we do enough Classification before leaving on Tuesday night to clear at least 2 of the 3 remaining Through Tracks (1, 2 & 10).

Well enough for now. Enjoy this week and I'll hopefully see you next weekend.
Oliver

Now that the brewery structure is nearing completion and has been located on the layout, we need your input as to the signage and branding for this structure. It has been initially identified as the "Superior Brewery" but there are some some neon signs available for real beer brands that would lend some "action" to the layout and be a real conversation piece for visitors during open houses.

Attached is a poll for the four currently available choices. If you have a preference please indicate on the poll. I've included photos of each sign below and links to the web page for each sign so you can observe the "action" of each.

Option 1 - Pabst Blue Ribbon
Option 2 - Schaefer
Option 3 - Ballantine
Option 4 - Budweiser

Please make a selection that you think presents the most attractive option that would appeal to visitors to get their attention.

To vote, click on the Thread title in the blue bar above.

Bob Johnson

Brian Lingle and I discussed tis past Thursday whether and how we might include the intermodal yard movements into our weekly operating sessions. He and I agreed it's probably time and to that end I'll be creating a roster of operational cars and segregating them into operating blocks. We think we can probably get 4 manageable blocks of cars to rotate through the operations cycle. We propose to work the intermodal yard like we do the grain elevator; pickup cars on track 1, move cars from track 2 to track 1, and set out cars to track 1. This work would best be added to the Palestine Turn local in our estimation.

I'll create the car cards and work with Mike Rehling on waybills. Any additional thoughts?

Bob Johnson

Guys;

We've discussed among ourselves in the operations group the missed opportunity of tank car (and other) traffic to and from the ADM facility located at the west end of the yard due to the lack of rail siding(s) for access. Last night we had a discussion with Larry Breedlove and after extensive discussion decided to try relocating the ADM facility to the Russellville industrial area (outlined in red & identified as "A" on the attached map) adjacent to the brewery where Kropp Paper has been located.

Several things came out of this exercise; the building known as Kropp Paper will work well as a warehouse extension of the brewery complex and afford more loading doors/bays for up to three 62' insulated beer cars (outlined in blue and identified as "B" in attachment). The real estate formerly occupied by the Kropp Paper building is now occupied by the ADM plant facility and this industry makes much better use of the oddly shaped footprint. We'll need to discuss among the operations group when Mike Rehling returns what changes are needed to accommodate the anticipated new traffic patterns (additional tank cars, new waybills, etc.) and how to best implement these changes.

The former footprint with no rail service formerly occupied by ADM (outlined in black and identified as "C" on attachment) will become (or is proposed to become) a new UPS service hub/sorting facility and equipment yard which doesn't prototypically require rail access/service. This was because Walthers just introduced (today, August 4) a wide range of UPS licensed building kits, vehicles, and details that we already have reservations placed with Walthers and should be among the first to receive the items as soon as they're available (see http://1-87vehicles.org/New%20Products/current.php for announcement).

If you have ideas for implementation of these changes you want to discuss, please present your proposals here for thorough discussion.

The meeting was called to order by President Larry Breedlove at 7:34PM. 23 members were present.

The minutes from the June 1, 2017 meeting were presented and approved

Presidents Report by Larry Breedlove:
Larry will discuss the upcoming elections under new business.

VP Report by John Hewitt:
No report

Council Report by Steele Craver:
The Fall train show will be September 30 – October 1, 2017. The dates of winter show is January 20-21, 2018. We will have 3 tables at the show to sell estate items and the layout will be on the tour. Signup sheets for show duties is not yet available.

Treasurer report by James Kropp:
Beginning balance on 4/1/17 $23,116.38
Expenses $
Receipts $
Ending balance $23,303.78
We have 35 members that have currently paid their membership with 5 unpaid members

Superintendent by Thomas Stephens
Repairs to the refinery area is underway. A leak from the drain upstairs resulted in several soaked ceiling tiles falling onto the layout. Chuck Grimes was prompt in limiting the damage.

Past President by Mike Cook:
Mike is working on getting the Lee Thomas estate items priced, catalogued, and ready for sale at the Fall train show along with items from the previous estates. A few pieces of old Lionel cars were received.

Mike Rehling Operations SIG:
The administrative work is nearing completion Car cards and waybills are done. A few problems with track and electrical have been found and fixed. They have placed about 170 cars around the layout and in the yard. About a quarter of these cars are club owned.

Old Business

New member Zack Neely was introduced.

Some material will be purchased to test skirting options for the layout.

Lockers need to match the standard size and color. There is room for about 8 more lockers. A motion was made by Thomas Stephens for authorizing Larry to purchase up to 8 lockers at $100 each for club use or resale to members. Mike Cook seconded the motion and was passed by voice vote.

Larry is working to complete the name change back to Texas Northern Model Railroad Club.

Bob Johnson reported that the website www.texasnorthern.org is running. A members only area requires password access. See Bob if you are having difficulties or have other questions.

Ceiling Lights: Rex and Ross will do some checking to determine if the lights need to be replaced or if the ballast is the problem.

New Business

Election of officers will be during the September 7th meeting. A slate of candidates will be ready by August 15th. Positions are: President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, Superintendent, and Council Representative. Nominations will be accepted from the floor at the September meeting.
Larry received an email from the mall manager requesting a contact number for people that would like to see the layout. A discussion about committing to set hours for guests followed. Since most of the requests come during the daytime hours, there was little support for having posted hours other than Tuesday and Thursday evening.

Mall Update: A recent newspaper article was passed around regarding Collin Creek and Vista Ridge malls. Although a couple of investors have looked at CCM, there was no hot prospect mentioned.

The Great Texas Train Show will be held in Lewisville December 9-10. A club promotion table may be free and the cost of dealer tables was not known.

James Kropp announced that the McKinney Avenue Transit Authority was looking for motorman trainees.

Thomas Stephen mentioned that the NMRA October meeting might be held at our club location. That would be Saturday October 21 from 9 to 3. This is still tentative.

The meet was adjourned at 8:41

Next meetings will be on August 3, 2017 at 7:30 and September 7, 2017

Hello Everyone,

Just wanted to give an update on the third beta operating session that was held on July 11, 2017.

We got off to a bit of a rough start with the curved turnout on the "West" yard lead that leads to the inside passing or outside passing. Thanks to Mike Cook and Thomas Stephens quick action it was repaired immediately and did not delay the kickoff of the operating session.

We we had enough participation to run all of the locals and were able to have two yard operators keeping everything moving as the locals returned with their trains for classification. Oliver Bowe joined me in the yard and handled the classification of trains on the "East" end of the yard while I was able to "trim" or block the locals for the next session on the "West" end of the yard. Thank you Oliver for taking the leap into the yard.

All of the locals operated with no significant issues. Everyone seems to be getting familiar with how car card operations works and using the train orders to navigate each local to and from their destination(s).

We have discovered that the most challenging local to operate is the Palestine Turn. This local typically has the most cars (due to the refinery and coke plant) and has many facing and trailing point switches making it a real operators challenge. We may have to break this into two separate locals, or add a separate "yard job" to service the refinery. There are many options available and we are soliciting input from the beta team.

Our goal at the end of each session is to have all of the locals made up for the next session or for people to run in between sessions. These trains will be placed at the west end of the yard and their car cards will be placed in the appropriate slot in the car card box on that end by the control panel. They will also have a green slip in the car cards that says "These cars are ready for departure". That way it is very evident that the train is ready to go.

I will be posting another thread on the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) that we are developing so that everyone can identify the status of the trains/cars in the yard. Look for that in the near future. Remember, our goal is to be able to run a train when someone wants to run one, even in between operating sessions. That is why we chose to use the car card system. It can be done at anytime and the system keeps on chugging (pun intended).

If you have any questions, please feel free to post them and I will monitor this board and respond the best I can.

Cheers,

Mike

Hello Everyone,

I just wanted to give an update and overview of where we are with the operations.

Our approach to introducing operations was to do it in two phases. Phase 1 is to establish the basic requirements for operating. Phase 1 will introduce approximately 2/3 of the required waybills/rolling stock required for full operations. Phase 2 will add the remaining waybills/rolling stock to the layout bringing us to the full operating potential.

Phase 1 Activities

Waybill Requirements:

First order of business was determining the number and location of each industry as well as how many "spots" each industry has that need to be served. We have identified 23 industries with a total of 123 "spots".

Once we made these determinations, we used this information to develop waybills for these industries. The number of waybills for each industry was dependent on how many "spots" each industry has and they types of cars required for each spot.

There are many considerations on how many waybills are generated for each industry/spot. The NMRA Opsig Group has a lot of information out there on how this works best. We used these recommendations as we developed our waybills. Each waybill has 4 positions, the recommendation is for one of these positions represent and industry/spot on the layout, the other 3 positions are for connecting the car to the layout from "off" the layout via "staging" or "interchange/transfer" from other railroads.

One waybill equates to one car on the layout. To keep car count down, we opted to use two positions on the waybills for spots on the layout for about 30% of the waybills we created. The remaining 60% only have one position on the waybill for the spot on the layout. This is how overhead traffic is introduced to operations via connections to off layout locations and interchange/transfer with other railroads as mentioned above.

Rolling Stock and Car Cards:

Once the particulars were known about each industry and what type of commodities they handled we could start populating the layout with the required rolling stock. Each car requires a car card which identifies the reporting marks, road number, type of car (AAR code), length, color and who physically owns the car.

We used the waybills to determine the exact number of cars and the type of car that we would need. We opted to generate our own car cards utilizing the computer instead of using the Micro Mark kit available. This was done simply because we wanted to customize the information on the car cards and we wanted to utilize a printer to print the information on them in lieu of hand writing this information. This produces a very professional looking car card. We did use temporary car cards with hand written information to help speed up the process and we are in the process of replacing these with the computer generated car cards.

Train Designations:

Once we had the waybills and the car cards generated, we needed to determine the number and types of trains we would need to operate to serve the industries. We determined that we would need 5 locals to serve all of the industries on the layout. Each local is designed to handle approximately 10-15 cars maximum. Any more than that becomes unmanageable. These locals are:

L-TEX421 - Tulsa Turn: This train serves Tulsa industries in the Route 66 section of the layout.
L-TEX437 - Russellville Turn: This train serves the Russellville industries section of the layout (but not the US Steel Mill).
L-TEX446 - Palestine Turn: This train serves the Palestine, Hartdale, and Mountain industries sections of the layout.
L-TEX479 - Hobson Turn: This train serves the Hobson industries in the Route 66 section of the layout and includes interchange with another railroad (name TBD).
L-TEX454 - Gary Turn: This train serves the US Steel Millcomplex.
L-TEX101 - East Interchange: This train serves interchange with another railroad (name TBD).
L-TEX102- West Interchange: This train serves interchange with another railroad (name TBD).

Then we have the road trains that bring us cars from "off the layout" representing distant connections to our layout. These are run as extra's when enough cars accumulate in the yard. The yardmaster will call for one of these trains for either Eastward movment or Westward movement. I took a little liberty in determining where these trains go, but they can be wherever we decide. Keeping with the East/West Theme I came up with the following road trains.

M-LRDSTL: Manifest train from Larado, TX to St Louis, MO
M-AMASHV: Manifest train from Amarillo, TX to Shreveport, LA
M-ELPSHV: Manifest train from El Paso, TX to Shreveport, LA
M-LRDKCK: Manifest train from Larado, TX to Kansas City, KS
M-STLLRD: Manifest train from St Louis, MO to Larado, TX
M-SHVAMA: Manifest train from Shreveport, LA to Amarillo, TX
M-SHVELP: Manifest train from Shreveport, LA to El Paso, TX
M-KCKLRD: Manifest train from Kansas City, KS to Larado, TX

Beta Operation Sessions:

We began beta operating sessions to see determine how well we did with all of our planning and if the waybill ratio was correct based on our planning numbers. We have made some adjustments during the first two beta sessions and will hold a couple more to monitor how these adjustments affect traffic flow. We also used these sessions to identify (and correct) any trackwork or electrical issues.

Normal Operation Sessions:

We are very close to ending the beta operation sessions and begin normal operations sessions. We still have some work to do on the rolling stock to verify each car conforms to the specified standards to ensure operating reliability.

Phase 2

We will eventually add the phase 2 waybills/rolling stock to operate at the full potential of the layout, but for now we will continue to operate using the phase 1 waybills/rolling stock.

I hope this was helpful to understand how big of a project this has been. I want to thank Thomas, Bob, Brian and all those who have provided input and feedback on getting this going.

We are on the verge of moving the layout to the "next level" and we are hopeful that each member will participate. As you can see there are a number of trains that will need operators!

We will provide updates as we continue to get this going.

Regards,

Mike Rehling