Ivan & Gerry

Please take a look back at some of the previous post on Ivan & Gerry.  Showing the time they had over 250 people stop by and also one of their many MGRS Open Houses.    To view please Click Here:

In Memory of Ivan Smith

It is with regret we announce the passing of Ivan Smith a longtime member of MGRS and a friend to many of us.  

Ivan and his wife Gerry were true ambassadors to model railroading and wonderful people who opened their hearts and home to anyone interested in trains. They would gladly take the time to make you feel welcomed at their I&G RR in Buckfield, Maine.  They also wintered in Florida and belonged to the Tampa Bay Railroad Club.

Ivan passed away on Sept 23 in a hospital near Tampa where he battled cancer.  Gerry called Carl and wanted other MGRS members to know.  We greatly appreciated all that Ivan and Gerry have done and we truly send our love to the family.

Note: I located the following on-line:     MGRS has signed the Guest Book but you may wish to leave a message yourself.  Thank you.

 sgould said...

This is tragic news. There are very few people who, the moment that you meet them, inspire with their strength of character. Ivan was one of these. Clear-eyed and gentle, yet solid as an oak, he was among Maine's finest. We give our deepest sympathy to Gerry and the family.

Scott and Kris Gould

September 28, 2013 at 12:10 PM

Driving Safety Tips

Trains and cars don't mix. Never race a train to the crossing — even if you tie, you lose.

The train you see is closer and faster moving than you think. If you see a train approaching, wait for it to go by before you proceed across the tracks.

Be aware that trains cannot stop quickly. Even if the locomotive engineer sees you, a freight train moving at 55 miles per hour can take a mile or more to stop once the emergency brakes are applied. That's 18 football fields!

Never drive around lowered gates — it's illegal and deadly. If you suspect a signal is malfunctioning, call the 1-800 number posted on or near the crossing signal or your local law enforcement agency.

Do not get trapped on the tracks; proceed through a highway-rail grade crossing only if you are sure you can completely clear the crossing without stopping. Remember, the train is three feet wider than the tracks on both sides.

If your vehicle ever stalls on a track with a train coming, get out immediately and move quickly away from the tracks in the direction from which the train is coming. If you run in the same direction the train is traveling, when the train hits your car you could be injured by flying debris. Call your local law enforcement agency for assistance.

At a multiple track crossing waiting for a train to pass, watch out for a second train on the other tracks, approaching from either direction.

When you need to cross train tracks, go to a designated crossing, look both ways, and cross the tracks quickly, without stopping. Remember it isn't safe to stop closer than 15 feet from a rail.

ALWAYS EXPECT A TRAIN! Freight trains do not follow set schedules.

Chasing WNYP through the Appalachian's

Good train video,  looks and sounds good in full page.

 Click here to view:

WNYP Home

Fair Season

  Today was a great day to take in the Cumberland Fair.   Lots of fun and lots to see.  Kind of a full scale version of parts of our layout:  The Sugar Shack,  Blacksmith shop, Barn museum, even the original Yarmouth Junction building!  There were G scale displays and a train shop.  Delicious foods and a nice day  put you right in the perfect Fall season state of mind.

Good News

  I got a call from Carl.   He is feeling a lot better!   So good that he and Dennis went into the Mall today.   Carl got a hair cut and he stopped in to say hello to Keith and they went over some plans for this years train display.  They arranged for a space to be set aside for MGRS to bring in and store the track and the buildings in a staging area.  There will be a meeting scheduled in about a week to go over "ground cover" samples that Stefanie has sent for.  It will not be that long before the staging will be set up to use for the Fall pumpkin display and then it will be our turn to come in and begin the setup!
   

Please remember to sign up for the Mall

  Please check the schedule,  just click on the link at the top of the blog.  We are doing pretty well. The display runs for a total of 51 days, and only 9 are completely empty.  However, there are several days with only one name so far.  We now need the people who have been holding back to start filling in where ever possible.  Thank you very much.

Cheap G Scale Train System & Garden Railway Set Up

I enjoyed watching this video, I hope you do too.
Click here to start:

Track Update

We inventoried track recently and had extra 10 foot curves and needed 8 foot curves.  Carl picked up a circle of 8 foot track at USA Trains on Monday with Dennis and Walter who drove him down for his follow up doctor visit.  And, I took out some 8 foot curves and substituted 10 foot curves on the following track lines.   The Trolley line, Thomas line and the Saw Mill , a small point to point line.  

The drawing is for a guide and may change due to building placement or unknown requirements.  Also not drawn in is the track lines for the Circus display and the Lionel train display.  No doubt about it,  If all the interactive buttons are pressed at the same time there will be a tremendous amount of action when everything is running!  Please see updated plan below:

The Newsletter Arrived!

 Thank you Art Handman, I always love it when I open the mail box and see the latest copy of the Iron Horse!  I enjoyed all the pictures and an excellent recap of many of our summer activities.  No doubt we have a great Organization and we do a lot of good things together!  One of those is the fantastic train display we put on every year at the Main Mall.  Thank you Art for also reminding us all to click on the link at the top of the blog and see who signed up and what dates are available.

July - August Iron Horse now available on-line.

We can all say - Thank You

 I am just enjoying baseball on my headphones as I am looking at the Blog and realized this was the the 9th consecutive Thursday Outing MGRS has had at Carl's.   There were a dozen MGRS members there today which is about the norm.  We all have our specialties which include Train Operators and Track Fixers, Helping our Guests, Golf Cart drivers and guides, Grill Masters, Talkers and Listeners and we all do well as Eaters.  Plus we ALL enjoy are own Train Shed round house conversations!   Plus our guests have a great time.  I think they really enjoy sitting under the big tent and the beautiful surroundings.  Plus their picnics and trail rides are BIG favorites!!!  It is great to get outdoors and many people enjoy the sounds and sights of the trains and the pleasant memories they bring back.  So, as we draw near the end of summer outings, we all can say thanks to everyone that took part and turned Thursdays into extra special days.

Huntington Place still plans to visit MGRS today.

Carl just received  a call at 8:45am.  They are still planning to come over.  Similar to last time, they expect the sun to come out for their picnic time.

FOLLOW-UP
Guess what . . The sun did come out and so did Carl!  He looked good and was up and about quite a bit of the time.  

Below is a short video of one of the trains that was running.  It is the latest engine from PIKO an 0-6-0 Canadian National that Tiny brought with him.  It runs real nice and it also has great sound.    

Tip from Paul

Member Paul Smith is building a fantastic outdoor railroad and has explored the subject in great depth.  Here is a copy of recent correspondence he had with Garden Railway's Mark Horovitz who thanked him and said he would use the letter in a future column:

         HI Mark,

I enjoyed Kevin Strong's article on track cleaning in the October issue of GR. I had always used the Scotch-Brite pads on a drywall sander with a velcro attachment system. However, the plastic sander broke recently, so I wanted a more durable drywall sander.

The only metal sander that I could find locally didn't have the velcro attachment system, so I had to purchase a sander with clamps like the one shown in the picture in Kevin's article on page 16. The problem with that sander is that the head with the clamps is too long to work with the standard size Scotch-Brite pads which are readily available.

I found a similar product at a local hardware store designed to fit under the clamps of the metal drywall sander. It is made by Gator Finishing (www.gatorfinishing.com) and is called "synthetic steel wool" for polishing metal. It is item number 7320.

This product works just like the Scotch-Brite pad and does not contain metal like real steel wool. It has worked great for me this summer!

Paul Smith

Lincoln, Maine

Happy Labor Day ~ Look who has been hard at work!

 Just in, some pictures from Barry showing the eight foot long bridge he made for this years Maine Mall Train Show.

Thank you very much.  It will look Great!

Old Cog RR Steam Engines

 

Good video about the old Mt. Washington Cog Railway the way it used to be.  I was lucky, I took my grandson on this trip and we were lucky to go up on a clear day.
The video shows some great views and excellent pictures.  I love the way he blows the whistle at the top!
Very good.   Click here for video:

Bangor Daily News

Truck Driver very Lucky in Hampden Maine train accident.
See Pictures and Video here:

Wardwell Outing

 Carl was settled in on the "Command Couch" and was talking to Walter over the  hand held radio who was running the trains.  "How many cars is the B&O pulling?  What is running on Track 4?" Walter handled everything like the perfect Dispatcher.

A family of four from Standish stopped by and asked lots of good questions.  Luckily, Tiny was close by and had lots of good answers for them.

The Wardwell group arrived in 3 car loads and they had a very good time.  We had nine MGRS members to help and Mac, Scott, Mike and Ernie all took turns with the golf carts.  The ladies all seemed to enjoy themselves and rewarded us all with sandwiches, cookies, watermelon, chips and drinks!

The close up picture is Tiny's new PIKO engine.  His is Canadian National 7470 a real nice  looking engine.
    Also thanks to  Dennis, Paul and John.  We all had a chance to look in and say hi to Carl and Pat.  They both looked good but are probably tired and will be glad to get a little rest.  I am sure they feel good to be back home.  So far there are only two outings coming up.  One next Thursday and the last on Monday Sept 16th with a group that Pat works with.

Carl is on the way home.

  About 2:00pm today the phone rang, I recognized Carl's cell number and said Hello, where you calling from? The voice answered ""From Beyond".  It was Carl, he still had his voice and his sense of humor!  They were just crossing over the NH line.  He did say the doctor said the operation went well.  But he was told he could not drive the tractor for 3 months.  The reception was bad so he had to hang up.  So, that is just a little bit of news but it is good news.

Update on Carl

Many members are aware but perhaps not all that Carl is scheduled to under go a planned operation this morning at the Lahey Hospital in Mass, to correct a problem in his urinary tract.  They are recognized as the best in the country for urology treatment and he is planning to only stay there tonight.  Pat is preparing to drive him home tomorrow!

For those of you interested in how he is doing you can stop over Thursday as the outing for Wardwell will be held as scheduled!  Pat will probably give us an update as Carl will be resting inside.

In fact he expects four other people to stop by and look around the garden railroad!  These are simply people who have talked to him on the phone and expressed an interest to see the layout.

So for any MGRS members who would like to help operate trains, golf carts or just be available to answer some questions about what we do, please plan to stop over and help out.  Thank you ahead of time from Carl and Pat.

MGRS ~ Board of Directors

The following Changes will be made to the Maine Garden Railway Society Board of Directors.

MGRS member Kathy Young has served faithfully as the Society's Treasurer since 2009.  She and her husband Lou also a member will be relocating to Northern Maine.  We thank them for their service and participation as excellent members and terrific people.  We wish them the very best in their new pursuits and thank them for many years of dedicated service.

MGRS Director Dennis Farrell  will assume the Office of MGRS Treasurer.   Dennis was recently elected to the Board of Directors and  brings lots of experience to the position as well as being a very big model train enthusiast and is very active in MGRS events.  He recently led the Annual Outing Committee for 2013.

MGRS longtime member Denneth Lee has accepted the position of Director.  Denneth sometimes called "Tiny" has been one of the most active and dependable members participating in all of MGRS activities.  He is also one of the most knowledgeable railroad members that we have.

~

  We are very fortunate to have such talented and dedicated members as Kathy, Dennis and Denneth.  Thank you very much for what you have done and for the new responsibilities you will be assuming.  We thank you and wish you all great success.