OSR pictures

lets see you lose this spring in the carpet 

prepped for paint

this is how the big boys join rails of different sizes

Rules and regulations

Joseph submitted this set of rules, please read and comment.
1. Politeness and consideration for other members is mandatory. Anyone being rude or inconsiderate may be asked to leave for the rest of the evening.
2. Guests are the responsibility of the member that brought them. They are not allowed in unless accompanied by a member; proxies are not allowed. Guests can be asked to leave the premises if they do not follow proper operation etiquette or break any other rules.
3. Membership is on a yearly basis, starting January 1st of every year. Members who join later than March 1st can have their fee pro-rated. If a member quits the club, no rebate will be available. If a member is asked to leave the club, a pro-rated refund will be given. Calculation will be: (Fee paid divided by months paid) times remaining whole months left.
4. The first Tuesday of every month is considered a meeting night and a track work night. Issues will be discussed, so if you have an opinion on something, come out to the meetings. Trains will not be allowed to run while either of these activities are taking place.
5. When running trains, it is the responsibility of the engineer to ensure that the track ahead is clear. This should be done before leaving one town for the next. A conductor can be assigned this responsibility, but the engineer is where the buck stops.
6. If a track master is assigned for the operating time, the track master's directions must be followed. The track master also has the power to arbitrate any problems and their decision is final.
7. Each member is required to sign a copy of this, which will be kept with club records. A copy is also posted on the club bulletin board for reference.

BY LAWS

DRAFT OF BY LAWS

1 The conduct of club members should be professional an courteous.

2 New members will be voted in. Any new members are subject to a height requirement

of being head height above Lincoln.

3 Dues are for the period from Jan. to Dec. at a rate determined each year. If a member

quits the dues are not refundable. If a member is asked to leave any remaining dues

will be returned, based on remaining months in the year.

4 Deliberate damage to the premises, layout or rolling stock, or theft will not be tolerated.

5 No one shall remove anything from the premises without permission.

6 The theme of the layout is the steam/diesel era. It is designed to be a small, rural railroad

running short trains with age appropriate rolling stock

7 All trains will be run with care and at a reasonable speed to avoid collisions or damage to

the property of others.

8 Any violations will be brought to the attention of the Club's Board of Directors (5 members

to be elected in Jan. of each year). The Board's decision to terminate a member will be

    voted on by all members present at the next general meeting with a 70% approval rate.

Don's vision for Elsewhere

The yard in Wellington will be made larger and will be the main yard on the layout. The front 2 tracks in Elsewhere will be realigned into the turntable and be used to run around incoming trains. The back 3 tracks will be cut in half with a new turnout ladder to the second half. This will give us 2 yards with 3 tracks, each holding about 7 cars. How it will operate. You arrive at Elsewhere with x number of cars. Run around your train and pickup a new made up train from 1 of the six yard tracks. You then hook your new train to the 1 you arrived with and put it into the track you just emptied, uncouple it, leaving with your new train and the caboose you had on the other train. The old train will have new cards added to it. This will require sorting through the current days deck for suitable cards. Don't worry if some cars are without cards or there are not enough cars of each type to meet the card requirements. The cards will be put in a slot with a track number, and is ready for its next run. New departures will be taken in order from this slot. What is the result. There will be no need for a caboose track. There will be no switching of rolling stock in Elsewhere. Train size will vary. The ore train could be held on 1 of the 6 tracks, as could a passenger train.

Meeting Night

Lots of ideas were discussed. Most of the discussion was around having some rules to operate by. It is thought that we should impose a safe operating speed, there has been a few cases were trains have been run into. On the same topic of keeping trains at a safe distance, it was agreed by all (all that we're there, if you don't come to the meeting you can't voice your opinion) that if a town is occupied you must wait at the town your in, or ask permission to run through. A lot of agreement was reached on having a train master for each session, maybe on a rotating schedule. The responsibilities might include, enforcing the operating rules, allotting trains to be run, answer questions about operations, and resolve complaints. It might be better to vote in 3 or 5 people yearly. I will bring a draft set of rules to be accepted by the membership. A big thanks to Donald for changing the lights in the stairway. All the best to Trent and a quick recovery, hope the knee is better. In the next post I will talk about Don's Elsewhere plan.

Double Sidings

We have 5 sets of double sidings, coal mine, refinery, gravel pit, Coastal Oil, and Zorra Cement Warehouse. The second siding is only used during switching. Would it be too confusing to designate them siding 1 and siding 2? That way we could deliver and pick up at both sidings. To help keep it clearer, track 1 at Coastal Oil and the Refinery could only receive box cars and siding 2 tank cars. We could move the coal bunker/unloader to siding 1 at Zorra Cement Warehouse, and increase the coal hopper deliveries there. This would help decluter the yards as there would be 10 to 15 more cars in these sidings. Another idea to think about. We could reroute the ore car siding to join the lowere mainline between Lincoln and Jutland, eliminating the steep grade. As a bonus the turnout and about a foot of track could be left at the Springbank Station for freight deliveries there. I don't think there is enough siding space at Shell Ind. in Herons Landing. We could swap it and Bingham The Mover, Or Country Feed and Seed.