Modular Group News, Update 7/9/24

It all looks great, Tom!!

Referring to the first set of photographs; "Who was that masked man?"    Oh, it's the short timer Peter!! 

Yes! We had a busy week last week.....here are a few more shots.....I like the way it has dried.....time for "scenery touch ups" this weekend.....

Peter

Looking good.👍

On Halloween morning, I put the final touch-ups to the scenery on our 12x15 layout. I went to check on it yesterday to see how it dried......It gets loaded into the trailer for our holiday display set up on November 19th.......

I am excited to see it set up with the buildings and lights!

Peter

It looks great, Peter and gang!  It’s great you will finally be able to set up for an event again!

Hello,

I am a member or Peter's club.

After months of lockdowns and zero activity:  We were blessed to be invited to not just one, but two train events this weekend.  We still have our 12 x 15 and 6 x 11 layouts at the Greenhouse, and we had or large layout at the Science Museum of Virginia for the past three days.  The SMV asked us to make our layout as "long and skinny as you can," so they had plenty of space between layouts for people to keep their distance from each other.

This event has always been packed with people in the past.  This year, attendance was very low as expected.  However, we had a good time running trains with our fellow members again, and interacting with the crowd.

Videos coming.

Nice videos!

Re: The small crowds noted by Rick.  Access to the train area at the Science Museum of Virginia was by special ticket (I assume to control the crowd) and I know on Sunday it was sold out!  The smaller crowd was likely impacted by the limited  ticket policy.

Good job to the RC3R team in making this event happen again.

@hokie71 posted:

Nice videos!

Re: The small crowds noted by Rick.  Access to the train area at the Science Museum of Virginia was by special ticket (I assume to control the crowd) and I know on Sunday it was sold out!  The smaller crowd was likely impacted by the limited  ticket policy.

Good job to the RC3R team in making this event happen again.

Thank you for the kind words.   ......It was truly a team effort.....

I have a few more videos to put up when I finish clinic......

Peter

Looks great!  I'm glad you were able to get back to running trains for the public!!!

YAY! A train show! Signs of good things to come in 2021.

Bob

Some very nice work!!

Thanks for posting the videos.  The red caboose trailer with the O and HO layouts is from the club I belong to.  Glad to see they made the trip up again this year.

The club tries to run a couple of LionChief trains and allow the kids to run them.  Doesn’t look possible with current restrictions.

While I’m glad they didn’t cancel the show, I miss the big crowds that are now restricted.

Here are few more videos....

....our layout.....

....and a very creative Island of Sodor in O Gauge by a father and son team who displayed with the Silver Rail Club....

Enjoy, Peter

Peter, Rick, Jstraw124, and all; The Science Museum sure draws in a lot more layouts than when I attended back in the late '80s or early '90s. 

I'm quite impressed with the River City 3-Railers, the caboose trailer layout, and the Sodor layout.  I have also seen what Peter Martens does with his Silver Rail layout.  All of the layouts employ very different concepts, and all are quite excellent!

As many know,  we have had the gracious use of a storefront at the Westchester Commons shopping center in North Chesterfield VA (at the intersection of State Rte 288 and US Rte 60). Our "rent " was to provide train display "open houses"  which due to the Pandemic, we have not been able to provide...

On Wednesday, Tom (Gilly@N&W) received word that we needed to clear out of our space to make room for a virtual Santa display.......and move into larger space next door....

WOW!!!! This space is 42' wide and we will be able to put up all our layouts......and, when the Pandemic abates, there is plenty of room to have public display's again!!!!

We will be setting up our displays early in January once we finish our holiday display at the Great Big Green House on 12/31.

This is the old space:

That is Modular Group member and OGR Forum member RickS who is a magician with a vacuum!

Peter

These are pics for the Great Big Green House this past week stating the day after Thanksgiving....

Enjoy,

Peter

@Putnam Division posted:

As many know,  we have had the gracious use of a storefront at the Westchester Commons shopping center in North Chesterfield VA (at the intersection of State Rte 288 and US Rte 60). Our "rent " was to provide train display "open houses"  which due to the Pandemic, we have not been able to provide...

On Wednesday, Tom (Gilly@N&W) received word that we needed to clear out of our space to make room for a virtual Santa display.......and move into larger space next door....

WOW!!!! This space is 42' wide and we will be able to put up all our layouts......and, when the Pandemic abates, there is plenty of room to have public display's again!!!!

Looks like a great big spot to build a permanent layout. Time to give up your nomad ways?????

You guys are lucky to have such a generous landlord. The pix from the greenhouse look great too. Nice to see people out enjoying the trains.

Bob

@RSJB18 posted:

Looks like a great big spot to build a permanent layout. Time to give up your nomad ways?????

Not likely. Our revenue stream is dependent upon appearance fees at venues. The 12x15 layout sees 75%+ of the use. It only takes an hour to tear down and setup. It is built to move.

As for the new space, each and every layout we have demands maintenance annually. The first order of business will be repairs. Then we can get back to work on the big layout.

Stay tuned. The Big Layout is getting ready to be wider. And, we have a lot of scenery to do.

That sure is a nice big space you will be able to utilize.  I'm glad to see you are setup at the Big Greenhouse! 

Yesterday was "take down" of our layout at the Great Big GreenHouse......and set up in our store front......our large space allows us to be socially distant and still meet....

Included are a few picks when Santa visited the GBGH.....

Take down:

Set up in the storefront space......

Peter

Santa was smart to wear a clear face mask so children could see his face!!  👍🏻

I know you fellows have a well honed system, but still lots of dedicated work to tear down, move, and set up!

We had a "socially distant" membership meeting last weekend to set up the agenda for the coming year, uncertain though it is.....

Unfortunately, this year we had to skip our usual annual 1st meeting "pancake breakfast".

We have our 6x11 and 12x15 layouts set up.

We are cleaning up our storefront and categorizing all our "club owned" trains, most of which have come from generous donations.....

We hope to have the 20x42 layout up sometime in March for train running, refurbishment and repair.

The storefront where we are currently located is a wonderful gift and we hope to utilize it as much as possible within the published safety guidelines.

Here are a few pictures of us organizing our club owned trains......

The particle board book cases have been in my attic since 2004......I built them around this time in 1986 to use as benchwork support for my layouts and used them on 3 layouts through early 2004.  One of our members suggested adding some thin wooden decking with wheel grooves.... we will be doing that at some point.

Peter

@Putnam Division posted:

We had a "socially distant" membership meeting last weekend to set up the agenda for the coming year, uncertain though it is.....

Unfortunately, this year we had to skip our usual annual 1st meeting "pancake breakfast".

We have our 6x11 and 12x15 layouts set up.

We are cleaning up our storefront and categorizing all our "club owned" trains, most of which have come from generous donations.....

We hope to have the 20x42 layout up sometime in March for train running, refurbishment and repair.

The storefront where we are currently located is a wonderful gift and we hope to utilize it as much as possible within the published safety guidelines.

Here are a few pictures of us organizing our club owned trains......

The particle board book cases have been in my attic since 2004......I built them around this time in 1986 to use as benchwork support for my layouts and used them on 3 layouts through early 2004.  One of our members suggested adding some thin wooden decking with wheel grooves.... we will be doing that at some point.

Peter

Looking good Peter! Hoping for a better time in 2021 compared to 2020 though the government reports I read suggest masks and social distancing will be the norm into 2022 at the least.

The storefront space is great For your group, Peter!  

I’m sorry you couldn’t have the pancake breakfast.  Since my Thursday morning men’s Bible study group finally was able to start meeting at our favorite Ma and Pa restaurant last week, I’ll dedicate my pancakes to the River City 3Railers!  I can’t eat those greasy sausage, eggs, potatoes, bacon the other old guys eat!  😜

We continue to meet (with masks and with social distancing, of course!).  We are now tackling the big layout.....repairs, refresh, rewire, etc.

We are going to stat with "Members Only" running sessions and than expand it to viewing by the public....

The place is huge and with masks and social distancing, we are confident that we can do it safely.

The inventory of "club-owned" donations continues:

Tom (Gilly@N&W) checking on wiring of the 12x15 layout....

Railroadania being mounted on the walls.......this used to be a lady dress shop....the changing rooms are used for storage.....you can see them behind Tom in the picture above.....

We got the Amtrak poster a few years ago at Ashland Rail days. We have tons of magazines to share with the public. Old catalogs, old magazines, etc.....

Marx Nickel Plate.....really puts out the ozone!

The layout beneath it is our John Allen TimeSaver

A postwar style layout will be put on a hollow core door and raffled at a train show this summer (we hope, we hope!)

As Alan said in his editorial piece in Run 317, Friends and the Hobby are what make the hobby great.

Peter

Looks great Peter. 🙂

Peter, Gilly, how many layouts does RC3R have?  Once all are on display at the mall do you ever envision all of them out on the road and the storefront empty?  Being in Virginia, does the model of 611 garner any more attention than other trains when run at shows?

That is an even better space than I thought!  What an excellent space for 'Friends and Hobby" for sure!!

John Allen's Timesaver never grows old!!  I first remember seeing it in Model Railroader or Railroad Craftsman back when John was still alive.

That's a really nice space you guys have.

@coach joe posted:

Peter, Gilly, how many layouts does RC3R have?  Once all are on display at the mall do you ever envision all of them out on the road and the storefront empty?  Being in Virginia, does the model of 611 garner any more attention than other trains when run at shows?

We have 3 layouts......the large 20x42......the 12x15 and the 6x11.

We also have access to Gilly's TimeSaver and Halloween layouts ( both of these have been featured in issues of OGR).

Before the pandemic, we would take the 12x15 and 6x11 out on the road frequently.....about 10 times a year

The 20x42 comes out for the Thanksgiving Show at the Science Museum of VA and then makes a 7 week run at the Great Big GreenHouse in Midlothian/BonAir.

One the pandemic is over, we plan to be mobile....the storefront just gives us a "clubhouse" to keep the layouts up longer  and "play with them".

Peter

@Putnam Division posted:

...We also have access to Gilly's TimeSaver ... layouts ( both of these have been featured in issues of OGR)...

Great space and your use of it!  Vacant strip malls are good for something.

Which issue of OGR had Gilly's Timesaver in it?

Not sure which issue......will have to ask him......but pics are in this thread:

https://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/...ribute-to-john-allen

Peter

So the Timesaver mentioned previously is Gilly's and the club has the three.  When you mentioned the Timesaver it threw me off.

We met today and put up the 20x42 in a smaller form......without the yard peninsula which widens the layout. The yard needs rewiring and its complementary module, the stone bridge, needs a refresh.....here are some pictures which include the smaller layouts:

Next week, I will likely will be making an announcement of a train show in the space next door for the 3rd weekend in May.....but I want to make sure the date is firm before I do.....

We have a lot of scenery to refresh.....the core modules were built in 2009 and 2010....they are a little worn.

However, having the gracious use of this "clubhouse" allows us to work on them while we can run trains.....

Peter

Looks great, Peter!

More work yesterday to try and get the layout running......we continue to straighten up.....

A few videos first:

Peter

We finally got our "club property"motive power organized........generally speaking, all of the PostWar has been graciously donated over the years......Imagine, as a kid, thinking that one day you would have all of these classic Lionel engines at your disposal to run whenever you wanted.....as a PostWar Lionel kid, it would have be unfathomable to me.....

There are at least 2 more PostWar steamers on the work bench....as well as another AA Santa Fe set.

Peter

Looks great

A collection anyone would envy!

You guys hit the jackpot with that new space!!! It’s a blast just seeing how you are getting it all set up. It’s sure to be a huge crowd pleaser.