NewsLetter

Year End News Letter

The month of September had the last two gatherings of the Vancouver Island Garden Railway Club. Sept 13th was the Victoria Model Railway Show at which the Club put on a display. Sept. 20th was our last open house for the year at Dave & Helena Hitchcock’s.

Dave Marecek, Keith Yundt, Werner Grundmann, Dave Hitchcock, with the help of many others set up the display on the day before the show at the Rec Centre. The display consisted of three independent loops. On the floor was a large figure 8 loop. A raised dog bone loop was set up over top of this loop. This loop was about foot above the figure 8. At one end inside the top dog bone loop was a small circle loop. This loop was set up with a control for the children to be able to control the train on this loop. Art Knapp’s Plant Land loaned the Club two pickup loads of small shrubs and miniature plants.

Members brought some of their buildings, people, animals and vehicles, so that the layout came very close to a true Garden Railway. On the day of the show the three loops enabled the Club to run three trains at the same time. The layout was on the floor, which made it easier for the children to see the trains run. They did not have to be held up to see it. Some chairs were setup around the layout so the young at Heart could sit down and keep an eye on the children.

Dave & Helena’s open house was a very nice end to our season. I have been to their place several times and have yet to figure out how many loops they have and where they all run. Furthermore, how do they get the trains from the storage area out to the different loops? I am sure that at least four maybe six trains are running most of the time. They also have a point to point auto reversing trolley line. They have passenger, freight, steam, diesel and even a circus train running. This is a track-powered line with manual control with a Bridgeworks power supply.
The weather was very nice, though the maintance crew had to clear some early fall leaves. A round of applause ( in lieu of doubling his pay 2x0=0) was given to Dave Hitchcock for the fine job that he has done as our president.

For any new members that have joined the Club and have not got their name tags, please let me know as I am going to put in an order and I am sure that I have missed a few of our new members and maybe some of our long time members. At this time our club has approximately $780.00 on hand in the bank account.

Hope to hear and see you all in the New Year!!!!!

Members can log in here for detailed information about the locations of the next meeting and mailing addresses for club dues.