May ‘09
RAILMAIL
Tulsa Garden Railroad Club
President, Donnie Shirey
918-361-1760 donniewshirey@mbcsi.com
Vice. Pres. Bob Gardine
918-476-6374 bgardine@chouteautel.com
Treasurer, Suzanne Honeyman
918-827-7516 shoneyman@honeycreekfarm.com
Secretary, Barbara Black
918-742-6669 wgblack@att.net
Editor, Jim Martin
918-756-3324 nitram1933@sbcglobal.net
Web Coordinator, Joe Salamon
918-437-8050 salamon7@cox.net
Tulsa Garden Railroad Club
C/o Barbara Black
3813 E. 38th St.
Tulsa OK
74135
www.tulsagardenrailroadclub.org
info@tulsagarderailroadclub.org
Greetings from the
President’s Roundhouse
Hard to believe that it’s the middle of May
already. Just one more month and the years half over. Speaking of May, it has
been a busy month with two shows (Muskogee
and Claremore) both on the same day (May 16th) and I am sure of the
members getting ready for the tour coming up in June. The Muskogee setup was very interesting in that
the setup was inside within the old depot museum. Had a lot of floor space to
set up in with lots of railroad and old town memorabilia around. I will let Joe
talk about the actual setup at this months meeting. The setup in Claremore was
also very good, despite the wind problems in blowing the rolling stock off of
the tracks. They had 4 separate loops running and it was a full time job just
keeping up with the trains getting blown over on these 4 loops. Mike and Bob
will fill us in on this setup at the meeting.
I encourage everyone to help with the upcoming tour
next month. We need volunteers to help at the individual tour locations.
Anything from just talking to guest about the hobby of garden railroading to
running trains and keeping up with the host request on what needs to be done
within the layout is helpful.
And one last note, the time for a workshop/clinic
will be here (after the tour of course) very soon, so someone think of
something that they would like to pass on to the rest of our club members and
get started on putting that presentation together.
Until the meeting….Donnie
Banner Photo This months’ foto is of one of the high speed trains in Europe, (whoops, almost missed that one!) After 14 days
at sea, Donna and I traveled by rail from London
to Lille France through the Chunnel, a
distance of 175 miles, and although we had a 20 minute delay en route, made it
in an hour and 30 minutes. We transferred at Lille
and made the run to Valence,
a distance of nearly 500 miles in three hours and 45 minutes! Average speed for
the trip was 136 mph with top speed around 160 mph. And it was smooooth. (Hello, anybody at Amtrak listening?)
Shows,
Meetings & Events
Annual Garden
Railway Convention, July 5-11,
Denver CO.
This is where it all began twenty five years ago. Great convention with tours,
vendors and exhibits. If you’ve not been to a Garden RR Convention, this is the
one to attend. Details and registration forms available at www.2009ngrc.com
Heart of America
Garden RR Show,
Friday/Saturday, August 14-15 This show has a couple
of years under its belt and is all large scale. If you don’t make it to the
National Convention, this is a good option. Info at www.hagrs.com
Minutes of the May
Meeting
Vernon Guess chaired the meeting as the
president and vice president were out of town. Vernon opened the meeting stating that the
club is 12 years old and he related how the club was originally formed.
He emphasized that garden railroading is a hobby and should be a lot of fun.
The club needs to be united.
The minutes and the treasurer's report
from the previous meeting were approved.
OLD BUSINESS
Jenks
Herbfest Joe Salamon reported that the location of our set-up, close to
the fire department and the trampoline and the addition of the plants borrowed
from Colebrook Nursery resulted in a lot interest and many people came
through. With the fire truck and trampoline, a lot of kids were also
interested in the train. It was mentioned that if we had a whistle we
could even entice more children to the site. The posters were a hit and
the heard a lot of "wow". Everyone working the Herbfest were
very glad to have the posters. The club did not sell any of the plants as
they were priced from $25 to $140. It was felt that the addition of the plants
brought the lay-out to life and we had approximately four times the amount of
interest than last year. It was decided that we would ask Colebrook to
team up with us again next year. It was felt that our location did not
give us enough exposure and we will ask for a better location next year unless
they want to charge for the new location. We could also use our signs
however, we don't have many signs and we don't have a stencil to make new ones.
Claremore Lilac
Festival - 10-5:00, May 2, 2009 Kathy Klawitter reported that we need
to be in Claremore by 7:30 a.m. We are located in the middle of the
intersection of Main Street.
We have a 25' x 50' space. The Klawitter's will host a BIG breakfast 6:30
am for all who plan to attend the festival. She also stated that the festival
will happen - rain or shine. Members may bring their own trains to run if
they desire. You may park on any of the side streets off main. We
will provide a map of Claremore via email.
Muskogee Train Show - 10:5:00, May 16, 2009 This show will
be inside on hardwood floors. The space is 60' long and 13' wide.
There is room for fencing and walk-arounds. Lunch will be furnished for
all working the show and they have requested the names of all that are planning
to attend. There is a loading dock so we can unload and carry right into
the building. They are publicizing our Tulsa tour in their local newspaper. We
need to be at Midland
Valley by 8:00 am as we need
about two hours to set-up. We are about 46.3 miles from the site.
Joe stated that we need more houses for our lay-out and members were asked to
provide some trom their private stock if they would like to. A motion
was made, seconded and passed for the club to pay Joe Salomon to pull
the trailer 13-15 cents per mile.
Spring Tour -
9:30 - 4:30, June 6, 2009 Television stations 2 & 6 have agreed to run
PSA's advertisi8ng the tour. The web page information and flyers have
also touted the tour. Vernon Guess sent the club email address to Fox 23,
K-95 radio station web master and Keli Cash of the morning show.
Information has also been sent to the editor of SPOT and Vernon
will bet with Broken Arrow for the Ledger, Green
Country Small railroad, Wichita,
and Ozark Ground Railroad Society. Flyers have been sent to HDTV's and Tulsa's Paul James.
Channel 8 took 4-6 flyers at the Bixby Show. We need helpers for the
hosts. This is very important as the hosts can't get around to speak to
everyone and this is important. All members will be asked to help. You
don't have to be there all day. Vernon
requested that we use sign-in sheets again this year as they are helpful in
securing new members. We also need a set of rules to visitors to the tour
to remind them that they are at a private home.
Ground Track Vernon has suggested that the week of July
5th that we could have a tunnel club get together and make a tunnel and
work on a raised track at his home. He suggested a
sub-committee to get things done. There was quite a discussion on raised
track and the majority in attendance feel we need to pursue building one.
Members interested could work on it. Mike Klaiwitter will head-up a
committee for raised track afterJuly. Respectfully submitted: Barbara Black,
Secretary
Editors
note: After two days on the road in preparation for the “trip”, fourteen
days at sea (loved it), a day in London (great), a fast day on the high speed
trains (zoom), eight days touring the south of France (fabulous), a twenty four
hour long day flying home (groan), two days collecting the animals and the
motor home and a week of trying to catch up on outstanding chores around
here....... I just don’t anything more
to write about……. See yah on down the line, Jim
May
Meeting: Thursday,
May 28th at the Zarrow Library, 2224 W.51st St, Tulsa
(off 33rd West Av. & Union) Meeting starts at 6:30pm