Annual Holiday Open House Season Is Underway!
Last weekend was the kick-off of our Annual Holiday Open House Season at the SLMRC! Here is a short video capturing a bit of the action that happened during the weekend. We hope to see you and your family during a Saturday and Sunday between now and January the 12th, when members will be running multiple trains on the layout from 1PM – 4PM.
2013/14 Open House Schedule Released
The kids are back in school and Fall harvest is upon us and that means one thing here at the Short Line Model Railroad Club, open house season is rapidly approaching! If you have been following along over on our Facebook fan page throughout the year you know that we have been busy working on making several enhancements to the layout. Work continues on the layout extension that was put in place during 2012, including the addition of a staging yard, DCC turntable, and roundhouse. We’ve also given some attention to older areas of the layout by rewiring the branchline and reworking the narrow gauge logging line for improved operating reliability. Many club members have purchased new locomotive power and rolling stock during the past eight months and we will be eager to show them off to you all. So without further ado, here is our 2013/14 Open House Schedule:
- September: 28th (Ephrata Fair)
- November: 2nd (NMRA), 30th
- December: 1, 7, 8, 14, 15, 21, 22, 28, 29.
- January: 4, 5, 11, 12
Hours are from 1-4PM. Admission by willful donation.
For more information please contact the club at: show@slmrc.com
Layout Construction Update
It has been quite some time since our last post and we think it is time to update everyone on what has been taking place at the SLMRC since the conclusion of our holiday open house events back in January. First of all, we would like to thank everyone who took the time to visit our layout during the holidays. Your generous donations are being used to fund the improvements and new features that you will be able to enjoy at future open house events.
As the members of the club began to evaluate possible projects for 2012 we knew we had to address the cause of poor operating reliability in areas of the expansion built during the previous couple of years. Much of the reliability issues were due to poor turnout performance, with uneven benchwork constructed of hollow core house doors being the root of the cause. After much discussion the club came to the conclusion that in order to complete the expansion to the benchmark set-forth in the original portion of the layout, it would be necessary to tear-out all of the work that had been done to date and build completely new benchwork.
That brings us to today. The new benchwork has been constructed offsite in sections, brought to the club, and now the top portion is assembled and waiting to be raised to have the legs attached during this Thursday’s club work night. The new benchwork is constructed using veneer core plywood for the cross members and legs, with Kreg pocket screw joinery used throughout. We feel this will provide the most rigid and level benchwork; resulting in a high-quality layout that will operate reliably; providing years of operating and viewing enjoyment for all!