2010 March 27

The boys arrived around last night (Friday) as planned. First to arrive was Dave “Planman” Smithey armed with rough sketches and coloured hi-lighter pens, followed by “Sparky” Brendon Groufsky, and finally Ray “The Doctor” Parmenter.

Brendon was straight in to shifting the light switches, followed by one of the two sets of power outlets and the garage door opener. That finally done and power/lights restored to the layout room and the back half of the house, we got down to discussing the plan I had sent both Brendon and Dave (Ray is not on the internet yet).

Both felt that my mainline run was too short (once around the room) and thought that a folded figure 8 may be better, but it would not be all level. We mulled over various options and then, while I was inside making the tea/coffee they came up with another variation on the same. The branch was still in the same basic configuration, and the mainline looped around climbing to about a maximum of 4” (100mm), while the branch crossed the mainline (at the 4” mark) at about 8”. This meant that the doorway “swing open” section would have track at three different levels.

This morning while I was cleaning up the mess from the wiring changes I was thinking about their final proposed plan. What if the main and branch were both at 4” (100mm) level as it crossed the doorway section? The main could then start to drop back to 0” while the branch could continue climbing up to it’s final height. But, if we included a crossover between the branch and main at the 4” (100mm) height (not to be used in a true operating session) this would turn half the branch and half the main into a large reverse loop that could be used to arrange the staging of trains prior to an operating session. More thought needed on this!

But back to last night. We sat around having supper and chewing the fat about prior NZ Association of Model Railway Clubs (NZAMRC) conventions and American Model Railroad Association (AMRA) conventions and meets. My first National (NZAMRC) was in 1980 (Christchurch) when I was on the organising committee, while Ray’s was the following one (1982 Palmerston North). Brendon and Dave’s first was the 1997 AMRA convention as well as several other mini-AMRA events around that time. Around 1998 Brendon formed The PFE Group and most of that group attended AMRA conventions (1999 Tauranga, 2001 Palmerston North), while a smaller group (Brendon, Graeme and myself) attended the 2003 AMRA in Hamilton. As The PFE Group we exhibited our large portable layout at the 2000 Christchurch Convention where the guest speaker Tony Koester of USA hit home the Golden Spike on our layout.

We also talked about some of the dickheads we had met, both in the hobby and out. One for example thought that aircraft shuddered as they flew over the date line and another thought the northern and southern hemisphere seasons were tied into the time zones (it was winter in UK when summer in NZ as they were 12 hours different, but not winter in USA at same date as there was only a six hour difference). Actually that guy who shall for moral and legal reasons remain “he who shall not be named” was the subject of a decent amount of discussion.
We also discussed the Garden City Model Railway Club at Ferrymead. Three of us are ex-members (left about 10-12 years ago when The PFE Group formed) while Ray is a current member.

NZAMRC conventions I have attended (always at Easter, even years):
Year City and Venue
1980 Christchurch (Arts Centre)
1982 Palmerston North (Civic Offices/Convention Centre)
1984 Hamilton (Te Rapa Racecourse)
1986 Wellington (Hotel Willis Street)
1988 Christchurch (Kirkwood Intermediate School)
1990 Auckland (Teachers College)
1994 Palmerston North (Freyberg High School)
1996 Porirua (Mitsubishi Motors)
1998 Henderson (Henderson Events Centre)
2000 Christchurch (Teachers College)


AMRA full conventions I have attended (always at Queens Birthday weekend, odd years):
Year City and Venue
1999 Tauranga (Tauranga Boys High School)
2001 Palmerston North (Awapuni Racecourse)
2003 Hamilton (Glenview Club)