Everyone
My issue has just arrived. Hopefully no-one has been tempted to throw this one into recycling. A great job by Brian and Peter to get the mailing done this month.
As always, any comments, positive or negative, are welcome.
Stuart
I shall listen out for the postie!
{a few minutes later...}
It's arrived! That's me sorted for the rest of the morning. :)
I await a visit from the postie. :)
What a good magazine!
Arrived in South Wales in the post this morning. Much appreciation to BrianE and everyone else that may have been involved for the prompt, efficient and seamless (to the punter, but probably a great deal of furious paddling under the surface to those involved!) Service, with a capital S
Well done all! I bet Bill is pacing his living room right now wondering how he is going to fill all this time he has suddenly got spare!
Mick
Build all those models and a layout to put them on that he's never had time to so far?
I was honored to have my Alviso Salt Works layout featured within and on the cover of the September 009 News. I also wanted to thank Stuart for being a pleasure to work with and helping me get it all together. I hope members found the California theme interesting and encouraging to others.
We are in the process of adding two new HOn30 operating features to the South Bay Railroad Historical Society museum layout in Santa Clara, CA. While many are curious about HOn30, which is not common in these parts, some are just bewildered. Its always an interesting discussion. We would like to find a few more 009 modelers and possibly form a Northern California group.
Thanks again. Mike Laine
I'm aware of the time difference, but you'd be welcome to join the Group Zoom meetings over here; The ScOONS have a regular visitor from the States. And I believe the East Midlands group has a member in Australia (!)
Meeting up online may be a start to beginning a group near where you are.. (You can at least see what we get up to!)
Let me add that the ScOONS group have been extraordinarily welcoming and helpful to an American who has only the vaguest idea of what he's doing. Their kindness in sharing and locating information has put me very much in their debt.
Paul
Mike,
I enjoyed your article. A US group of 009 members would be interesting. Unfortunately, I live in NW Oho.
Would it be possible for you to post an overhead view of the layout?
Jeff S.
Jeff - Thanks for comments. I have a feeling 009 Society members are quite scattered. While I don't think I actually have an overhead view of the Alviso Salt Works, I'll see what I can do today. Mike Laine
Quote from: Jeff Schumaker on August 23, 2021, 15:45
Mike,
I enjoyed your article. A US group of 009 members would be interesting. Unfortunately, I live in NW Oho.
Would it be possible for you to post an overhead view of the layout?
Jeff S.
Quote from: Jeff Schumaker on August 23, 2021, 15:45
Mike,
I enjoyed your article. A US group of 009 members would be interesting. Unfortunately, I live in NW Oho.
Would it be possible for you to post an overhead view of the layout?
Jeff S.
Hi Jeff
A US group should be entirely feasible using Zoom (or other similar product). Scotland has a relatively low population density and widely scattered Society membership. It's only by having online meetings via Zoom that it has been practical to meet regularly at all. I understand that there have been several failed attempts in the past to get a group going, but were defeated by geography. As Paul mentioned, he has been a long-distance member of the group for several months now and Appleton, WI is quite a long way from Scotland!
(And just to reassure Americans reading this, I know that distances and travel times we Scots think of as quite long are ridiculously short by US standards. Our entire country is about the area of South Carolina, but less compact - we have a lot of islands!)
Ian
A US group should be entirely feasible using Zoom (or other similar product).
Ian - Yeah, good idea. I'll need to get the word out that we are looking to form a new group here in the San Francisco /Silicon Valley area and see if anybody replies. Perhaps in the next 009 News. As you mention, with Zoom, distances become less critical.
Eventually, I would like to promote the portability of 009/HOn30 layouts for occasional meets. Small layouts don't have the following here they do in the UK. But that could change if potential modelers actually see one in action. Thanks Mike Laine
Would it be possible for you to post an overhead view of the layout?
Jeff S.
[/quote]
Jeff here is an overhead view of the Alviso Salt Works Layout. You can see the tidal marsh, pump works with its siding, and the salt loading area. Mike Laine
That's interesting, I didn't see that other siding in the photos in the News and as there wasn't a track plan I didn't realise it was there! I did wonder how you ran two locos with only one siding!
We currently have about 40 members in the US and another 10 in Canada. All we need to get an area group going for North America is for someone to contact me (chairman@009society.com) and say they are willing to be the focal point for it. We can then email all the relevent members individually and ask if they are interested in taking part. If so, they should contact the focal point and they can take it from there.
The Scottish area group has proven that the template of monthly Zoom meetings works well, though there is the additional consideration of time zones. No two of our recognised area groups work exactly the same, so to a large extent it is a matter of getting started and seeing what works for the group.
Any takers to act as focal point and get started?
Julian
Quote from: Michael Laine on August 24, 2021, 07:42
Would it be possible for you to post an overhead view of the layout?
Jeff S.
Jeff here is an overhead view of the Alviso Salt Works Layout. You can see the tidal marsh, pump works with its siding, and the salt loading area. Mike Laine
[/quote]
Thanks, Mike. I wondered where the 2nd turnout was. The overhead shot shows it.
Is that a fence running along the bottom of the layout?
Jeff S.
Yes, the second siding isn't really apparent in the photos. It was mentioned in the article text:
"A second turnout leads off the layout to future salt water evaporation ponds and a refinery complex."
Operationally it is used to stash the flat car or one of the locos if needed. Someday it might be the gateway to a layout extension or fiddle yard. Mike
Jeff - it isn't a fence that runs across the back of the layout, but a wooden flume. There was not much information on the use of wooden flumes in salt harvesting, but they do appear in a few historic photos. I believe they were probably used to transport brine to various evaporation ponds. In addition, I believe I identified the archaeological remains of others on my field exploration of the area. I thought it would be interesting to include one and it forms a bit of a scenery transition between the layout and the backdrop. Mike Laine
Julian - There is some discussion here in the San Francisco Bay Area about forming a local group or one that may include a few of the surrounding states due to low member density. We hope it might serve as a channel to report on their activities and encourage others. We would also like to promote local meets to familiarize attendees about narrow gauge modeling in general and the potential of small portable layouts - which are quite rare in these parts.
We'll see how it goes. Mike Laine
Quote from: Michael Laine on August 24, 2021, 22:20
Julian - There is some discussion here in the San Francisco Bay Area about forming a local group or one that may include a few of the surrounding states due to low member density. We hope it might serve as a channel to report on their activities and encourage others. We would also like to promote local meets to familiarize attendees about narrow gauge modeling in general and the potential of small portable layouts - which are quite rare in these parts.
We'll see how it goes. Mike Laine
MIke - that sounds promising. If you would like us to email members in a selection of states (we have Zip codes), please let me know. To be a 'recognised area group' of the Society the main requirement is thet you have at least three Society members. Having non-members and narrow gauge modellers in other scales participate is also usual.
Julian