May 21, 2024 - Meeting Summary

The San Diego S-Gaugers held the April club meeting at our clubhouse and on Zoom. Attendees were: Mike Forys, Ken Sadlock, Robert Graves, Alex Sibbald, Scott Lewis, Raulf Polichar, Les Smith, Craig Carlson, Don Briggs, Al Kiel, John Racey and Dale Minard.

Introduction of New Faces / Show and Tell:

Dale Minard passed around two CVSCA S-Spree boxcars made by American Models. He brought in a car builder tech manual that he is scanning into his database for us to see.

Treasurer's Report:

Bob Graves reported that the club received visitor donations totaling $273.31 in April, $161 less than March, and $84 below the average for April with $52.30 of the donations coming from our Venmo account. In the twenty-one months we have had Venmo Service we have received $1342.65 in donations. Bob sold $197.06 worth of donated trains. To date the club has received $7,976.94 from the sale of donated trains. The club showed a net gain of $1002.42 for the month after expenses.

Standards Report:

Ralph Polichar is working on an E-Unit simulator for the test track. He has been working to eliminate problems with the button on the ceramic village window layout.

Publicity Report:

N/C

Library Report:

Dale Minard is working on merging sections of the club digital library and the NASG digital library. He has been scanning real train data from Train Shed Encyclopedia and others into his database.

SN3 Layout:

N/C.

Window Layout Success and Visitor Attendance:

Mike Forys reported that from April 14th 2024 to May 18, 2024 the window buttons have been pushed 2,285 times. Windows 1=1,191 Windows 2 =1,094 average 65.3 per day over 35 days.

Grossmont total (beginning Feb, 2016) = 314,093

Day one (beginning May, 2011) total = 353,651

Visitor Total since February 1, 2016 = 93,558

Old Business:

Club Mural:

The mural has been completely painted and the hanging of the barn door is complete. Ken Sadlock has completed stenciling the letters and they are filled in. Mike Forys has built, painted and installed the ladder. He has constructed, painted and installed the grab bars. The UP logo and door hardware are next.

Window Layouts:

Raulf Polichar located a dip in the trackage. We are running a locomotive that is not affected by it.

New Business:

Lego Days:

The next Lego Build Day will be June 29th, 2024.

Future Events:

The next meetings will be on Tuesdays, June 18th 2024 and July 23 2024 and will be held at our clubhouse and on Zoom. The July meeting has been moved back one week.

Main Layout:

A circus display has been located on the S curve temporarily until the permanent town is completed.

Window Displays:

The log loader on the Streeterville window layout is operational for visitors and is a big hit.

Halloween:

Mike Forys relayed a conversation with Larry Brown regarding Halloween. We told him we would support Halloween candy give away.

Visitor Celebration:

The club expects that we will see our 100,000th visitor at this location sometime in November.

SDSG Layout Expansion:

Mike Forys has begun constructing two new modules to support the layout expansion to include our turntable module. One is 24 inches deep and one is 30 inches deep. They are ready for track.

A crew will stick around after the meeting to turn and position the roundhouse modules.

Clubhouse Lighting:

Due to the expense of having all of the lights replaced with LED lights by the mall’s electric contractor and the lack of support from the mall, the black can lights will have the non-functioning halogen lights replaced with LED equivalents by club members. After the meeting a swap out of one light was successful.

The meeting was adjourned at 11:10 am.