On30 Shay and Wharf diorama, a contest winner at the Fall Meet.

* * * * SHIRTS AVAILABLE * * * *

As Jim Ruisinger promised at the spring meeting, he has arranged to have black golf style shirts embroidered with the Mini-Bunch logo in gold. Your first name can be added for an additional fee. Now, the shirts are available.

See the order form

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Our condolences to Jim Hamlin on the death of his wife, Shari, last August. Jim and Shari worked with the Friends of the Cumbres and Toltec for five years.

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SNIPING by Jim Foster, King Snipe

Once again the electorate has spoken for regime change, and it is my mandate to lead the Mini-Bunch to new heights of glorious ecstasy and accomplishment over the next two years.

For those fortunate enough to not know me, I model Appalachian brick making and coal mining in HOn30”; my home layout (the Gophir Tramway & Mining Co.) has the ridiculous premise of being a 30” gauge industrial in eastern Ohio in 1970.  I have had four articles published in the modeling press, one in the GAZETTE, two in the CRAFTSMAN and one in a British publication.  This does not make me a good person, but rather just illustrates where descriptions of my stuff may be found.  I also write for LIGHT IRON & SHORT TIES (the Three Rivers Narrow Gauge Historical Society magazine) and, from time to time, about bicycles and old Buicks.  Professionally I am the Director of Planning for the Greater Dayton Regional Transit Authority, a position I took in early 2001 after many years in local government.

I have been involved with the Mini-Bunch since 1985, when I idly “expressed interest” and found out that this was the membership requirement.  I have now also learned the requirements for being King Snipe!

Our Columbus meet on October 4 and 5 was a huge success, and our thanks go to Jim Ruisinger and his colleagues for setting it up.  I believe that elsewhere in this newsletter will be a more comprehensive report by our outgoing King Snipe, Bill Logan, likely his last written contribution for awhile.  I think all of us realize that Bill set a standard, especially for this column, that will be difficult to surpass.  Thanks, Bill.

Setting Up a Mini-Bunch Meet

There has been a certain sameness in our meets and especially the venues.  This is not necessarily bad.  For example, our participation in Gary Kohler’s Midwest Two-Foot Meet in April every year is fabulous, in my view.  This may be because it feeds my own particular interests, but for others it also creates a critical mass of modelers that warrants good vendor attendance, offsetting the lack of layout tours.  Otherwise, we have tended to stick to a few large metropolitan areas in Ohio, and when we have strayed to the outer limits of our membership base our meets have not drawn well no matter what the merits of the location.

A modest proposal:  I’d like to see us start to explore other places and will offer a few suggestions for putting on a meet based on my own experiences.  I’ve done four of these things with my colleagues Richard Davoust and my brother Don, and all of them have drawn well and made lots of money.  Again, this does not make me a good person, but if we can do this, any of you can also.

The location should have a base of home layouts, or a prototype attraction, or perhaps both.  Home layouts for tours do not have to be narrow gauge:  I have learned something at every single layout I have ever visited (sometimes what you learn is “Don’t do this!” but that’s okay).  Many communities have modelers and layouts.  One example is Ft. Wayne, Indiana.  Another is Marion, Ohio.  Any place that has a train show or flea market is also a possibility as there are likely to be modelers nearby.  In my own area, both Richmond, Indiana and Greenville, Ohio have train shows and Greenville even has a club!  Without putting any pressure on our members from Toledo (just using it as an example), that area has many modelers and what I think is the largest train show in Ohio.  This is a place we could have a good meet.

From time to time we have them in places with no layout tours.  I have done two meets in Connersville, Indiana where the attraction was the prototype Whitewater Valley Railway.  This is not only one of the best rides in the Midwest, but the destination, Metamora, is enjoyable for non-modeling family members.  We have also twice investigated the Ohio River & Western right-of-way.  Anywhere with excursions is a candidate.  We went to Angola, Indiana once and of course have been to the holy grail, the East Broad Top.  I believe that the group has been to Cedar Point (which has great trains), and recently we were in Sandusky and toured the Marblehead peninsula.

A place with a combination of the two is also workable.  A few years ago we went to the Detroit area, which had wonderful home layouts.  Our organizers for that meet also arranged for us to tour the shops of the narrow-gauge Huckleberry Railroad in Flint, and we could ride it if we wished.  I mentioned Angola, Indiana previously, where the attraction was a prototype excursion ride, but we also were able to visit Bill Florent’s layout in Huntington.

The physical location of the meet can vary.  We have had many in churches.  Meals can either be provided in the church, or folks can be cut loose to find a restaurant on their own.  Another easy way is to hold it in a hotel.  Lodging arrangements need to be made for out-of-town attendees anyway, and most communities have at least one hotel with meeting rooms.  My experience has been that the hotel will give you the meeting space free if they get to serve the meals, as that’s where the money is in the hotel business.  Normally a hotel or motel should be able to guarantee you a block of 20 rooms; this will be satisfactory for our numbers.  Try to pick a place that is not hysterically expensive but is not a dump either.  Again, most hotels will give you a special rate for groups, especially if they get to sell food.  The point of this is that all you need in any community is a room big enough for us, food service, and about 20 rooms somewhere close.

Finally, pay attention to your finances as it is “nice” if your meet can make us at least $200.  This pays for the newsletter.  I made over $400 in Dayton in 1998 and $308, as I recall, in Middletown in 2001.  Your income is the registration fees, the raffle and the fee for the meal[s].  The Mini-Bunch is under no obligation to subsidize the meals, so arrange a nice buffet and charge us what it costs and no less.  Your expenses are the food, incidentals like copies, and possibly the meeting room.  If you are in a hotel, remember that their snacks are nice, but pay attention to the charge for them.  Be clear on whether or not the meeting room is free.  The quality of the prizes will directly affect your raffle income; try to get donations from local hobby shops in exchange for publicity and customers, and leave some time during the day to let those customers go there.  Otherwise you will need to depend on donations from our members and local modelers.  There is no such thing as too many prizes, or prizes that are too nice, and try to get enough to give them to the model contest winners also.

When you have everything arranged, get the publicity in the newsletter and it is an asset to get it in the national magazines.  I would recommend the GAZETTE, the CRAFTSMAN and MR.  Do this about 90 days prior to the meet.  On the special day lock everyone in a room with little trains and stand back!  Afterwards, take the time to thank each and every person who contributed, from the meeting place to the layout owners to the prototype facility.  This maintains the relationships in case we’d like to come back some day.

Anyone who would like to talk about this or any other subject may reach me at 937-299-1599.  Future subjects of this column:  motivation, little layouts, outreach and ?.

His Royal Snipiness,

Jim

National Narrow Gauge Convention

Sandy and I attended the 23rd National Narrow Gauge convention in Denver during the first week of September.

Prior to the meeting we visited Ouray, Silverton and Chama. The Cumbres and Toltec was fun - until we derailed. Traveling from Chama (It looks as good as ever and a lot of the buildings and cars have been repainted.) on Saturday, the train made it to Cumbres with no problems. However, about 2 miles past the Los Pinos tank, there was a jolt and we stopped. It turned out that the rails spread and the locomotive dropped between the rails. So then, in the rain and snow, they brought the diesel (Pineapple) down from Cumbres and towed three passenger cars back to Los Pinos. We transferred to buses and we went back to Chama.

Pineapple returned to pick up the remaining passenger cars. The whole crew of C & TS RR appeared on the scene to begin to rerail the K-36. We talked to one of the Chama store owners, got out our maps and drove back to Los Pinos. However, we were not able to get closer than 1/2 mile to the derailed locomotive. We could have climbed the fences, but some landowners frown on that in Colorado, so it didn’t seem like a reasonable thing to do.

About 24 hours later, we drove past the site again on our way to Gunnison, and the K-36 was still in the same place. (We heard later that it took until Monday noon to get it back to Chama.)

Every year the models get better, and this was certainly no different. The Grand Prize winner was a modified Sn3 Western Scale Models 20 stamp mill. It RAN. Press one button and the fire was visible in the boiler, the lights came on, and steam engine started. Press the second button and the stamps moved up and down and the Wilfey tables began to shake.  Marvelous. (The overhead belts do not move, but ... well that would be a bit harder!)

There were the usual excellent models in all scales - RGS, DSP&P, D&RGW, EBT and some 2 foot as well.  I had  two favorites: A K-27 modified to the 1920’s and a totally scratch built RGS stock car. There were several wonderful structures and dioramas. Hard to choose a ‘best’ in any category!

The convention was excellent - many manufacturers had new kits in N, HO, S, O and large scale too. The Saturday evening event was as usual with Mr. Getz doing a good job of summarizing the days, and the evening was climaxed with an auction of ‘stuff’ with the total proceeds going to the Colorado Railroad Museum. There were two original DRGW and RGS signs as well as the nameboard from the Rico. 

All- in-all, an excellent event. - ted

Fall 2003 Mini-Bunch Meeting (Columbus, OH) 

Check out the new shirts - Available at the show

The fall meeting was well attended with about 50 people registering for the clinics, contests, BBQ dinner, the railroading of a new King Snipe and finally, an excellent print of the Denver & Rio Grande movie.  After the movie, several of us went over to Doc’s house to run his Chama - Antonito railroad.

Jim, Butch and Doc put on an excellent show as usual.  Thanks, guys!! (and we made some money, too.)

Some models and contest entrants:

 
O-scale Backwoods Miniatures model

Al Askerberg and his photos - several people thought these were prototype photos and not On30! Al did an excellent clinic on the use of digital cameras and how to work on the photos by using Photoshop Elements. 

 Contest winners included: Terry Hansley and Mike Yoakam tied for locomotives, Charlie Malinowski for an O scale flat car, and Ron Lane for the Mann’s Creek Village diorama.

Neither John nor I was able to attend the full meeting, so Bill Logan provided the photos shown above. Thanks Bill.

Mini-Bunch History

Fritz Prosch has gathered copies of all prior newsletters into a book and your editor now has the book. Thoughts at the meeting included making a CD ROM version of the book or otherwise printing a portion of it. (A CD ROM could cost several hundred dollars to create the first one.) The first newsletters were from 1971 which is  when Karl Parshall and Doc Sage started the organization. Lots of information from the past. Interesting reading.

Next spring we will have a “modeling” meeting again at the  Midwest Narrow Gauge Meet in Greenford. That will include our spring business meeting. This will be held on April 16th and 17th. Gary is considering a Thursday night session in addition to the usual Friday and Saturday meeting. Note that this date is subject to change. Look for our February letter or the website.

Please note this is a date change for Gary’s meet. It was scheduled for the first weekend in April, but it was bumped by a wedding at the church that Saturday.

Then there will be a May 15 and 16th “prototype” meeting in Durbin, West Virginia. Fritz Prosch is getting more details on this one.

Next fall we will go to the New Philadelphia area to visit a narrow gauge railroad at a brick plant. More details later.

A group of modelers in Cleveland are building an On30 layout based on the Kellys Island limestone quarries. It is 4’ x 16’ and includes the engine terminal, quarry, crusher and loading dock for boats carrying the crushed rock from the island to the mainland.

Nat Howard is the driving force behind this project. The thought came from the KILT articles by Lee Rainey that appeared in RMC a number of years ago along with the release of a Shay locomotive by Bachmann. Russ Haigh has built several structures  using a CadCam program and photos of various structures that were on the island.  There will be more photos as the project proceeds.

Check out the photo of the shirts now available. You can have your name monogrammed as well. See the order form for more information.

Jim Ruisinger sent us the following information:

There are a limited number of embroidered Mini-Bunch shirts available in the following sizes:

Extra Large @ $23 each
XX-Large  @   $25  each

We also have 1 Large tall available for $25

The shirts are a 60/40 cotton polyester blend, black in color with yellow gold embroidery. They don't shrink and are quite comfortable. Just ask any of the Mini Bunchers that already have them.  I would like to clear out what we have on hand before we order more. I would also expect a price increase around the first of the year, so don't delay.  Great gift idea to have your significant other get you one of these for the holidays!!!! (only applies to sizes on hand) To order one (or more) send a check or money order, payable to Jim Ruisinger and send order to:

Mini Bunch Shirts
c/o Jim Ruisinger
2490 Johnston Rd.
Upper Arlington,  OH  43220-4668

Some members have never received a name badge since they were not available for a number of years. Others have lost theirs. Jim Eakin has a vendor who can make badges that are nearly the same as the previous design.

So send $10 to Ted, and we will send a new badge for you by the next meeting. (Tell us how to spell the name too - nickname - or whatever.)

If you send your email address to Ted, it will be added to the address book, and you will be notified when the newsletter is available on the Internet.

John and Ted thank Jim Eakin for the help in getting these newsletters printed. Jim has been in the railroad printing business for a number of years. So we get better copying for a really reasonable price.

We plan to send out 4 newsletters per year. We are looking for articles on modelbuilding and prototype that will be of interest for the members. John and I have a special interest in Western narrow gauge. Would anyone like to try their hand at preparing a column on logging or Eastern narrow gauge?

We plan to send out 4 newsletters per year. We are looking for articles on modelbuilding and prototype that will be of interest for the members. John and I have a special interest in Western narrow gauge. Would anyone like to try their hand at preparing a column on logging or Eastern narrow gauge?

If your label has “last copy” written on it, then we would appreciate your sending  $8.00 to Ted for the next 2 years.

If you register at a meeting, then you will receive the newsletter for the next 8 issues (2 years).

Parties Responsible for this Newsletter
Jim Foster, King Snipe
1221 Hathaway Rd.
Dayton, OH
937-299-1599

Editors:
John Hansen
17826 Clifton Blvd
Lakewood, OH 44107
216-521-1779
jvhansen@earthlink.net

Ted Wiese
9099 Regency Woods Drive
Kirtland, OH 44094-9380
440-256-5212
mononbell@ncweb.com

Narrow Gauge Websites