Congratulations to our new club officers!

Congratulations to our new club officers!

Matt Glazer - President
Elliot Courtney - Vice President
Jimmy Paterniti - Treasurer
David Stavans - Secretary

A big thank you to outgoing club president J.C. Mayer who worked very hard over the last few years to guide our club through a difficult transition process from old layout to new layout.

More progress was made at our February 15 work session. Matt, Elliot, and Phil worked on wiring up the staging yards below Niagara Falls. We'll need to purchase some more wiring supplies to complete this project.

Otto installed the last customer siding on the B&O branch, and Elliot and Matt worked on wiring feeders and blocks. The B&O branch will not be fully operational until the block detection wiring is completed later this year.

David S., Elliot, and Phil put the first coat of plaster on the backdrops at Albion and Lockport, with the help of Corey and Nick.

Otto and E.J. discussed some solutions to address some sagging structure in our helix. Relief came in the form of some additional spans and relocated legs. Discussions also included the installation of a small workbench and computer station for an operator inside the helix.

Nick and Otto leveled out the subroadbed just east of CP 373 to eliminate a slight rise in the tracks. David S. and Nick made repairs to the superelevation in the area to compensate.

Last week, Phil made extensive repairs to Albion, including an adjustment of the Falls Road Secondary track all the way back to CP 373. This helped compensate for a poor transition from the mainline into the curve. A few customer sidings need to be installed here, but that is contingent on the design of some buildings.

Matt G. made an adjustment to the yard and brewery lead at High Falls to compensate for a similar bad transition that was a bit too sharp for some equipment.

On Sunday, February 16, several members paid a visit to the WNYRHS Train Show at the Hamburg Fairgrounds, and made the purchase of many trains and artifacts. Lunch was at Duff's in Amherst for tasty wings and weck. A supplemental to-go order was later delivered to club advisor Otto because we felt sorry for him not being able to go to the train show.

Next meeting is Tuesday, February 18.

Next work session is Saturday, February 22.

First work session of Spring Semester

We held our first official work session on Saturday, February 1, and addressed a number of issues and ongoing projects around the layout. We had rushed to complete the basic main line so that we could operate trains for our first open house that we hosted during our 2013 Tiger Tracks Train Show back in December.With that event passed, and our return from winter break, we jumped right back into the action...

Phillip constructed the passing siding and runaround at Albion, and also fixed some issues with the long, curved turnout at the west end of the siding. Next we will lay the customer sidings to complete track work in this area.

Elliot and Matt installed the switching lead for the chemical plant in High Falls. The chemical loading tracks will be installed once we determine exact spacing against a Walthers unloading platform kit. Otto and Dave S. completed the installation of the running track at far right. Two turnouts for customer sidings will be cut into the runner at a later date.

Otto and Elliot installed the siding to the old BR&P warehouse (under the soldering iron power pack). Matt, Jimmy, and Elliot began installing power feeders on the B&O branch to downtown Rochester.

What's this steep ramp heading down under the main line? Is that the B&O interchange with the Rochester Subway? Where did that come from? Also, the two tracks for the B&O passenger terminal  have been installed, and a turnout will be cut in for the More Lumber siding at right.

An R&IT switcher makes the first delivery into the Rochester Subway. In real life, this connection from the B&O to the subway remained active until 1996 as the local newspaper received deliveries of newsprint until they moved their printing presses out of the city.

We will continue work on these projects and others throughout the semester. We are also working towards scheduling some public open houses and some events with the local NMRA division. Stay tuned! Meetings are Tuesday nights in Room A420 in the Student Union at 7:00pm, and work sessions are Saturdays at 10:00am. Stop by any time and follow us on Facebook!

Welcome back!

Time to start another semester! We have regular club meetings Tuesdays in Room A420 in the Student Alumni Union (SAU) at 7:00pm, and Saturday work sessions that usually start around 10:00am. Want to see what we're all about? Come down and visit! We are hard at work building the next generation model railroad project...