Front Range

Here is the 1st Quarter Callboard report for Division (16), the Front Range Division:

The Front Range Division was meeting by Zoom. As of the April meeting, we will again meet at the Colorado Railroad Museum, and with a little luck also via Zoom. Schedule and contact information are at the end of this note. Please join us. We have members and friends logging in from as far away as Portland and San Francisco.

January Meeting Report

For our Zoom meeting in January, Detlef Kurpanek wowed us all with his knowledge and down to earth explanation of Layout Command Control, LCC. The LCC is intended to run along side the DCC system providing for a more robust bi-directional operating environment. This means that the train control, DCC, is separate from the layout functions of signaling, detection, turnout control, and lighting. An important aspect of LCC is that it is a networked system where every LCC component has a unique address and can interface with every other LCC device. It is capable of interfacing with the DCC system and has capabilities for WIFI and Ethernet.

Detlef introduced the group to the various components needed to assemble a basic LCC system and indicated the supplier for his system components. This hardware is interfaced and with the use of the JMRI for the initial setup and the use of available programming the desired actions can be completed. He pointed out that with the modular nature of the LCC system, it is not necessary to complete the entire layout at once. He has been working on areas of his layout and has four areas under LCC control. He cautioned that once a portion of the layout is under LCC, one can find many more uses for the system and adding more modules.

To further help those who are interested in more education and enlightenment, Detlef has a YouTube channel devoted to LCC – The LCC Channel. Search for this on YouTube and see more byte sized chunks of LCC instruction and discussion.

Detlef's Test Programming Track

February Meeting Report

Gary Myers joined us as our clinician for the February meeting. He gave us a brief history of American Refrigerator Transit, A.R.T.

This St. Louis based company developed and owned a large number of refrigerated cars for produce shipment. The company was formed in 1881 as a subsidiary company of the Missouri Pacific and Wabash Railroads. The initial purpose was to get producers in Texas to ship their perishable products north in the winter months.

One of the most successful shipments were the Texas pink grapefruit. The unique aspect to A.R.T. was that they focused on fruit and vegetable shipment while most of the refrigerated transport was handling meat products.

A number of competing refrigerated transport companies formed as subsidiaries to railroads during the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. A part of the refrigerated transport business was icing of the cars and icing stations along the route. These were fixed locations and regularly supported the cars. A few “emergency” icing stations were located on routes but the icing at these was only performed on a scheduled occasional basis.

There was a lot of infrastructure devoted to the refrigerated transport business. These icing operations were continued through World War II until the introduction in the system of mechanical refers in the late 1950’s.

Gary showed us a number of charts on the number of refrigerator cars on the rails by owner and this illustrated the growth of the business and the decline with a series of unfortunate weather and regulatory issues, and with the increase in size and number of trucks.

He was able to show his modeling work with a kit-bashed icing station in Salida. He went on with a series of car photos showing the evolution of the car types and paint schemes for the A.R.T. over the years.

This had an impact on Colorado with the shipment of produce from the San Luis Valley and the peach orchards near Grand Junction and Palisades.

Gary Myers Salida Emergency Icing Station

Late 1920’s Era Wood Refrigerator Car

March Meeting Report

The March Meeting of the Front Range Division was a virtual layout tour of Gerry Glancy’s “Dueling Gauges Railroad and Navigation Company”. This layout tour was an under construction review of this version of Gerry’s layout.

Due to a move, his previous layout was dismantled, and a few key scenes were salvaged. As luck would have it, or possibly with superior negotiating skills, he ended up with a full unfinished basement space.

All the layout planning resulted in a two level layout featuring scenes from Western Colorado and with the expanded space Oakland and San Francisco California. This expansion into California gave rise to the “Navigation” part of the name as rail traffic into the Embarcadero at San Francisco was largely ferry or car float based.

This allows Gerry to get into ship, ferry, and car float modeling. These need docking facilities and bridges over the waterways.

Gerry wanted to operate his layout in three time periods, so with a little re-staging he can accommodate pre-diesel (1930’s), traditional transition (1950’s), and neo-transition (1970’s). This gives him a wide range of locomotives and rolling stock to collect and run.

He is also passionate about named passenger trains so he can include the Southern Pacific Daylight, the California Zephyr, and the ATSF San Francisco Chief in his operating scheme.

In order to keep with the educational bent of the FRD clinics, Gerry introduced us to his unique modeling and layout construction tips which he terms “Extraordinary Brilliant Ideas” or EBI for short. These ideas can be summarized thus:

· Bending the Masonite backdrop with the use of 409 cleaner.

· A dedicated rolling cart for scrap lumber and other materials.

· A low to the ground rolling chair for under layout tasks.

· Storage shelves on casters for ease of rolling about the space.

· Venting the spray booth through a removable panel in the sliding glass door.

· Using a circular saw plunge cut to fashion “L” brackets for layout support.

· Using a temporary caster bracket to move lower layout sections to facilitate upper deck construction and scenery work.

Continuing, Gerry showed a mockup of the electrical wiring scheme that he is using throughout the layout. This includes the use of Euro style connector strips or as Gerry terms them “blunder strips”. With this system he can easily correct any wiring errors and also add feeders to the circuit.

He concluded his presentation with a layout tour of the to date construction. We all look forward to operating sessions on the layout as well as a fully illustrated book of EBI’s for modelers.

The “Chief” pushing through Gerry’s Layout

View down the Embarcadero on Gerry’s Layout

In the return to normal, the Front Range Division meets the third Monday of the month at 7:00pm at the Colorado Railroad Museum in the Delay Junction building.

We are resuming in- person meetings in April 2022. The meetings start off with a clinic, followed by a “Show and Tell” session and is concluded with a short business meeting. We do not hold meetings in August and December.

In August, we have the FRD picnic and in December we have a Christmas Party off site. However, we are still broadcasting the meeting by Zoom the third Monday of the month at 7:00pm. Click on https://zoom.us/j/86897654169 if you have downloaded Zoom which can be done at https://zoom.us/support/download.

Anyone who wishes to join us please feel free to do so.

Allen Grasmick

Secretary/Telegrapher Editor

Front Range Division - NMRA