Pikes Peak "N" Gineers Model Railroad Club

THE RAILHEAD

Important Dates
Layout Hours and Address
Just a reminder
Fun at Rail Fair 1999
Three Palms Station for sale!
Off to Chapel Hills
Pikemasters Open House
Painful life of boxcar kids
Renumbering cars today
How we began, part Deux

Every year since September 21, 1991, the Denver and Colorado N scale model railroaders, with their family and friends, have gathered in either Palmer Lake or Monument to watch trains, eat good picnic food and enjoy each other's company. It was no different on August 12, 1999 where 43 of us gathered under the Palmer Lake Pavilion.

The picnic started about 11:00 am and ended a little after 3:00 pm. It was marked with good weather, good food, and great company.

The food at these annual get-togethers is delicious. The baked beans were just wonderful. (It's against the law to have a picnic without beans). We also ate potato salad, Mike and Mary Peck's mexican salad, brownies (some of which Joe baked), chocolate chip cookies, Rick's cucumber salad, hamburgers, and hotdogs.

Once again, train traffic wasn't real busy. We saw just three 3 trains-2 empty unit trains northbound, 1 mixed BNSF freight south bound. That didn't seem to matter. The horseshoe pits were kept pretty busy.

Craig arranged one of the nice things that happened. He had everybody gather and listen to each club president outline what was happening in each organization. Each also presented their respective club's future hopes and plans.

The picnic was the kind of event that makes pleasant memories-a very nice way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Thanks, Alan, for coordinating with the Denver guys! Your efforts were very worthwhile.

Webmaster's Note:  Meeting minutes will not be published on the website.
PPNG members may obtain minutes from the Stationmaster.

On June 21, 22, and 24, my Mom and I went to Sacramento, California to attend Rail Fair 1999. There was a lot to see and more than we could ever hope to cover in 3 days. Over thirty different operating steam and diesel locomotives including the Union Pacific steamers 844, 3985, two Southern Pacific steamers, the 4449 Daylight, the 2467, P-8 Pacific, and Santa Fe 3751. Plus, there were two shays, a hessler, and other small steam and diesel locomotives.

There were also examples of modern diesel-electric locomotives at Rail Fair: a BNSF Dash 9-44 CW and UP C4416600AC, an Amtrak F59 PH1.

You could look in the cab of the Dash 9 which was fully air conditioned and computerized.

Along with the locomotives, there were also some passenger cars. They had one of the Talgo train sets, an Amtrak coach, and an Amtrak California coach. The ones I liked the best were the old Union Pacific and Southern Pacific business cars brought by the UP Historical Society, and the old SP coaches pulled by the 4400 and the Granite Rock Co tank switcher on the excursion rides. I never even got a chance to go on them because I sat in the open observation cars getting covered with soot and ash. It was great!

You could also get up and look in the cabs of some of the steamers like the 4449, 844, 3985 and the cab forward AC12 4294 in the museum.

There was more to see than you could have possibly seen in three days or even week and I couldn't think of a better way to spend a week's vacation.

Well, gang, some prime real estate on the club layout has just gone on the market. Dan Benton has decided to sell his 3-module set, Three Palms Station.

Dan advises, "To make it easy for a prospective buyer, I'm will to remove some of the items and sell it as:
Everything: 18 switches and switch machines, track, scenery, buildings, bridges: $950 I remove all the trees: $700 I remove all the trees and buildings: $650 I remove all the trees, buildings, and bridges: $550"

Interested buyers can contact Dan at
  Home: (303)-470-8685
  Work: (303)-226-6674
E-mail to: dcbenton@sni.net

On Saturday, August 21, Joe and Charley met and fixed the dinged traveling module. While Charley worked on the scenery, Joe cut plexiglas strips for use on the layout set-up yards.

On the following Saturday, August 28, Joe and Charley met again in preparation to loading the traveling layout and all of the necessary equipment into Joe's trailer. They looked around. There was no one else to help. Oops!

Arriving at Chapel Hills Mall at the planned time, the two members unloaded everything. Horrors! Joe forgot to bring his trains!

Rick appeared and the three intrepid members assembled the layout and got organized. Because they were shorthanded, the layout wasn't ready at the scheduled 10:00 AM starting time. With persistence, the three sweating workers got a train running by 10:40. Then, things became fun.

We have all seen little kids' faces when they first see our trains easing down the line. We saw a lot of adults' faces really light up at Chapel Hills. Many of them did not know anything about N scale. They didn't know that our club existed. Not only do they know now, they also learned that we have a permanent layout and when our open houses are coming up.

Rick, Joe and I had fun at Chapel Hills. I think that Jim, Vicki, Steve, and Sam did, too. We all had ample opportunity to show off our equipment to a steady stream of visitors all day long. Sometimes, it got downright crowded, too. It was fun talking to people and explaining our hobby.

When we started breaking down our operation at 4:00 PM, there were still a lot of people watching. We were a real attraction! Even though we had a rough start, our Chapel Hills visit was good for us.

Pikemasters Model Railroad Club is going to have an open house on Saturday, September 25, and Sunday, September 26. The hours are 9:00 AM until 4:00 PM both days.

Let's get downtown, visit Pikemasters and see what they have been doing lately.

During the Great Depression, ours was a nation which, in the words of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, was "dying by inches." Economic calamity plunged the country into a decade of devastation and despair, leaving millions with little or no means to support themselves and their families.

From these times emerged 250,000 young people who would come to be known as "boxcar boys and girls," teenagers who shed their youth for a life on the rails, hopping trains in search of work and something-anything-better than what they'd left behind.

[The book] Riding the Rails is their remarkable story, a riveting document of hope and hardship during one of this nation's bleakest eras. For all that has been written bout the Depression, the travails of those under the age of 18 have been sorely under represented.

As gripping as it is well-researched, this book by Errol Lincoln Uys is a companion piece to the award-winning 1997 documentary of the same name, written and produced by Uys' son and daughter-in-law, Michael Uys and Lexy Lovell. With more than 500 interviews and stunning archival photographs by Walker Evans, Gordon Parks, and Dorothea Lange, Uys so thoroughly re-creates the wretched conditions the boxcar boys and girls endured that the reader can all but hear the cadence of the trains on the tracks and the lonesome wail at every whistle stop.

Even before the Depression, the hobo life held a certain allure for many youths. A swaggering life on the road without boundaries or rules was romanticized by Jack London, best known for his novel The Call of the Wild, who spent part of his teenage years on a "push," a gang of youthful freight riders.

But with "Black Tuesday," the day of the 1929 stock-market crash, the spirit of adventure gave way to desperation. Tens of thousands of businesses failed. Schools shortened their terms or locked their doors altogether. And in many families, children were suddenly seen as just another hungry mouth to feed, leading many teenagers, some as young as 13, to take to a life on the rails. They were among 4 million people to taste the bitterness of hobo life.

"A boy or girl's decision to leave home was intensely personal, often spurred by naivete and hope," Uys writes. "Many held the grand visions of finding work and sending money home. Like their parents, many sought jobs that simply did not exist."

What often began for the teens as a euphoric experience of freedom and wanderlust quickly turned to hunger, despondence and fear. They suffered from malnutrition, lived in squalid conditions. They were often beaten bloody—or worse—by brutal railroad cops they called "bulls." Young travelers, unaccustomed to the rules of the rails, were sometimes injured or killed while attempting to hop trains. The problem was so acute, Warner Bros. produced the 1933 "social conscience" film Wild Boys of the Road, which was meant to discourage train-hopping.

Not surprising, life on the rails was far more difficult for black youths. In 1931, nine African-Americans, ranging in age from 12 to 20, got into a fracas with a group of whites, including two women. When the blacks were discovered by authorities on the train, they were arrested for trespassing; later, the women falsely accused them of rape. The nine young men, found guilty and sentenced to death by an all-white jury, would come to be known as the "Scottsboro Boys."

It was just as grueling for girls and young women, who often traveled disguised as men. Ten percent of the boxcar kids were female, some of whom resorted to bartering their bodies for money or food. One man recalls a pair of girls who "received 30 or 40 men and boys in a boxcar, some men doubling back on the line. Promptly at six o'clock, the girls quit, demanded their supper, divided 70 cents in nickels and dimes, and caught a night freight for the East."

Yet what is most surprising about Riding the Rails is how many people look back on their experiences with a certain nostalgia. Certainly they recall the horror of being "hungry, cold, and miserable, with nobody to help you," as one man says. But for others, their recollections brighten with the flush of lost youth, and still-vibrant dreams of an unencumbered life.

"Living in run-down, dirty cities was worse than being on the road," says Clydia Williams, who began hopping trains at age 7. "I was never unhappy or lonely when I was riding the rails. I was free."

Question: A railroad buys cars from another railroad. Do the cars keep their original numbers or can the new owner renumber them?

Art Cole replies: Renumbering cars is pretty easy, but a little more complicated than just walking around with a paint brush and stencils! You can do just about whatever you want for a number so long as the equipment does not move in interline service—that is, it never leaves your own tracks—but it's better to follow the rules for interchange.

The numbers on the side of cars are (must be) the same as in what used to be the Railway Equipment Register (RER) or the Uniform Machine Listing Equipment Register (UMLER). Up to a few years ago, the RER-a big paper book with thousands of pages-was the official list of all railroad equipment in the US and, I believe, in Canada as well. I haven't seen an RER in many years, and don't even know if it's still published. The UMLER is a big computer file and is the "official" document used by railroads today to report and interchange equipment, prepare bills, and so forth.

Rail equipment identification numbers must have a 2-, 3-, or 4-character carrier code, all alphabetical, followed by a number of up to six digits, all numeric. The carrier codes (really owner codes) are assigned/approved by a committee of the Association of American Railroads. The numbers are up to the individual car owners. The car owners usually assign a series of numbers to a certain type of car, but they are pretty much free to do that however they wish.

So if you buy a railroad car from CSXT, and its old number was CSXT 123456, then when CSXT sells you the car they would notify UMLER that CSXT 123456 no longer exists and the new number is whatever. You need to assign a new number to it, like RWRR xxxxxx. Assuming the code RWRR hasn't been taken by someone else, you would call the AAR and get their approval in a few weeks. You could use RWRR 123456 (so you don't have to paint over all the numbers, just the carrier code), as a lot of carriers do when they acquire other equipment. If later on you decide to change the car number from RWRR 123456 to RWRR 12, you could do that as well.

All these changes would have to be posted to the UMLER, and you would have to change the AEI units at the ends of the car.

Hope this helps.

3645 Jeannine Drive, Suite 108

Tuesday: 7:00 - 9:00 PM

Fridays: 7:00 - 9:00 PM

Saturday: 1:00 - 4:00 PM

Last month we left our club as it was on July 1, 1990. It was 8 months old and had 40 very enthusiastic members. Its first summer of existence established a pattern that continues to the present. There's a world outside of model railroading—especially when you can go hiking, fishing, camping, and play tourist during vacations.

The club wasn't dormant. Planning was taking place for an active fall. In September alone, there was a swap meet on the fifteenth. Seven vendors came to the club. "Rolling stock and engines from every road name and era were available."

The club had a very special open house on September 20. It was an opportunity to host 600 engineers from around the world, including Russia, from 6:00 until 10:00 pm. It was a great chance to show off the layout. "We had hundreds of visitors and we took over 100 names from 28 different states and 6 foreign countries.

On September 22, 1990, the club took its first field trip. 28 adults and 7 kids rode the Georgetown Loop. Tickets cost $8.00 for the train ride and $10.00 for the ride and the mine tour. The club enjoyed perfect weather and the aspens were in their Fall colors. "Everyone had a great time.

The club celebrated its "1st Birthday Bash" on Saturday, October 13, 1990 at the Raintree Inn. The party was hosted by the club and Train Showcase.

At this point in time, the club has built a main layout, held a tremendous number of clinics, gone on a field trip, participated in Springspree, had a couple of swap meets, raised money for itself and donated $100 to charity.

Of course, not all was peaches and cream. There were problems of all kinds. The club had a store front window viewed by the public. Items were constantly needed to make nice and ever changing displays.

Some members were simply slobs. Keeping the club room and layout neat and clean was a constant irritation. There were concerns about non-members being behind the layout during open houses. With so many new member faces, the club felt the need for a means to tell members from non-members. Neckerchiefs were the answer. Different colors mean different things. Blue meant that the member had passed the class on being a conductor/ Switchman. A red neckerchief designated those members who passed a class on running on the layout. These were operators (engineers). A select few passed the course on being a dispatcher—meaning that he ran things during an open house from his perch inside the layout where he could look out and over everything.

Storage space was always at a premium. It seems there was never enough space for everything.

But, one on the biggest problems was the operational layout problems caused by less than perfect electrical work. In the rush to bring the layout into existence, wiring wasn't done very well. Matters got so bad that, in September, 1990, "a committee was assigned to 'do whatever it takes' to get the layout to run smoothly. Almost all modules were checked, problems were corrected and the process will continue until we have smooth operation. This is critical and small problems have continually plaqued (sic) us. Lets (sic) work to get these solved."

In November and December, 1990, the club had open houses. The donations collected enabled the club to donated $600 and two boxes of toys to Toys for Tots. The club also gained five more members.

At the end of 1990, the club had collected revenues of $5,405.03 and expenses of $4,570.62 which included donations: $600 to Toys for Tots, $95 to Habit for Humanity and $100 to Rocky Mountain Rehabilitation. The club had no rent to pay.

Editor: Charles J. Bay

THE RAILHEAD is published monthly by the Pikes Peak 'N' Gineers Model Railroad Club, P.O. Box 594, Monument, CO 80132; Telephone 719-488-9318. Subscription is covered through membership in Pikes Peak 'N' Gineers, a nonprofit corporation. ©1999. All rights reserved. We assume letters, questions, news releases, and club items are contributed gratis.

On January 1, 1991, the club had over 50 members and $834.41 in the bank.

With the January 18, 1991 business meeting the club started its long tradition of raffling off a door prize donated by Train Showcase to help fill the club coffers.

Attendance at the last few months' business meetings dropped off. Beginning in late February, our Margaret started her long tradition of calling all members to remind them of the upcoming club meeting. This had an immediate effect. The March business meeting had a pretty good attendance.

The June 14, 1991 business meeting contained three important decisions. The first was to replace the existing pipe and rope barrier protecting the layout with Plexiglas mounted on the layout. Secondly, the club bought six headsets for operators to wear during operations to make communication easier. Finally, the club decided to create "a stand alone modular type layout that we can take to various events."

The first big club activity for 1991 was participation in Springspree on Friday evening, June 21, and all day Saturday. Jerry Burkey headed up this effort which included a scripted train program, Walk Through History, which Tom Levy wrote. [We still have the written script and tapes of this program in case the club ever wants to do this again.]

In addition, the club members were "not going to simply run trains is circles, but we are going to create timetables and operate our layout in the most realistic manner possible."

This event also saw the first implementation of ground rules for club open houses. The club wanted "to create some sense of organization amongst us as members, but also to have our operation appear smooth running, and be of a quality that we are proud of, to the general public. Some of these rules were:
"Size of train on the mountain line will not exceed 8 cars.
"The length of trains on the main line will be limited to the length that can be staged in its in the yard area. My [Dave Boles's] guess is this will limit these trains to 30 - 35 cars."

The result of the club's efforts were described by Dave Bol. "On a high note, we had a fantastic turn out for the Springspree Open House. Jerry Burkey did an excellent job in coordinating and executing the entire weekend. We were able to donate $231.00 to The Arthritis Foundation. They sincerely appreciated it."

Two weeks later, the club was a part of the National Model Railroad Association National Convention held in Denver by having with another open house on Tuesday and Wednesday, July 2 and 3. Over 300 NMRA members came down from Denver to Colorado to view the layout. "Added to that, at the last minute we were asked by the NMRA to bring up seven of our modules to help in their N scale layout. After some last minute hustling, it all worked out. It was however, only due to the substantial effort put forth by a lot of individuals."

Another first for the club occurred September 21, 1991. "The Colorado division of N scalers from Denver want to have a picnic with the Pikes Peak "N"Gineers.... The location of the picnic is at the Palmer Lake Recreation area across from the state highway. The time will be from 2:00 till (sic) 6:00 PM. They are going to provide hamburgers, hot dogs and lemonade. All we would need to bring is a salad, desert (sic), etc. that will feed you and several other people...."

October 26 saw the first appearance of PPNG's traveling layout in action. The location was the Slim Rails Model Railroading Club at Irving Junior High School. The modules were originally a part of the main layout. "We have taken the club corner modules and are making a modified oval with a mountain line."

On January 1, 1992, the club had $1,103 in the bank.

[Continued next month]