Local Cooperstown neighbors were treated to a personal tour of the FUNTRAK layout and running trains when Brian hosted some children from the nearby day care establishment. The children were fascinated with the trains and had many, many questions. Brian did his best to answer any and all that he could. The trains ran well with a few problems that were quickly remedied without too much fuss. Each of the children was given a flashlight which they found useful in investigating the details on the layout. This is where the future of model railroading is going to come from so it was a great opportunity to entertain them and answer their myriad of questions. Hopefully, this will peak their interests and get them more involved in model railroading in the future. It is always a pleasure to see the smiling faces of happy children who are having a good time while learning new things.

The 2014 FUNTRAK PicNik has come and gone. As usual, everyone had an outstanding time. Prizes were awarded to all the participants so nobody left without some kind of memento. These ranged from tarps to multimeters to screwdriver sets. There were enough prizes to go all around and one and all received something. The food was plentiful and cooked to perfection by our Canadian friend David King. There was the possibility of some confusion with names this year—What was the confusion? Brian’s brother and nephew were both in attendance, along with our Canadian friend: all three are named David King! Folks did manage to figure out who was who after a while.

With all three of David King’s boys in attendance, along with all of Brian and Roseanne’s children it made for one big happy King family. Attendance was up this year with total population somewhere near the century mark. The fifty-fifty went extremely well and helps support the PicNik. Bobby Miller was this year’s lucky winner.

Besides the fun and games, food, and camaraderie, there were plenty of trains running too. FUNTRAK club members kept six layouts operating in the basement for the entire PicNik. Friends Mike and Al from Albany supplied some additional T-trak modules which enhanced the overall size and running capabilities of the layout.

All in all, another fantastic time for all the revelers at the annual event. Number twelve is scheduled for August 2, 2015. Mark your calendar and don’t miss this exciting event.

It was a dark and dreary morning. You fool, it’s always dark and dreary at 4:00 am in the morning!

So this is the beginning of Whirlwind III. David and Brian started out in Cooperstown and headed out to pick up the remaining individuals going along on this journey. John was picked up in Herkimer and then onto Saint Johnsville where Lorenzo met the group to continue to Amsterdam. In Amsterdam the remainder of the troupe was collected with Mike and Al. Finally, when everyone was gathered, we were off to Boston.

First stop, George Sellios’ Franklin and South Manchester. We hooked up with Ernie in Peabody and proceeded to George’s. We were warmly welcomed by George and kindly allowed to take pictures of this treasure of a layout. The level of detail is indescribable! This is truly a wonder of the model railroad world. If the opportunity presents itself, do not miss this layout.

After a while, the group gathered together again and moved on down the street to a local hobby shop. The N scale selection was minimal, but Lionel, HO, and plastic models were abundant. On to lunch. Ernie led us to a local establishment where we were treated to excellent cuisine.

Following this it was off to Ernie’s wonderful N scale layout where we were afforded the opportunity to operate a great fleet of finely tuned locomotives.

Our schedule called for our meeting Pete Laier next around 3:00pm, so we left Ernie’s on our trek to Pete’s. After a small mix-up in directions we finally arrived at Pete’s place. Here we were warmly greeted by Pete and his wife who welcomed us with open arms. Pete’s Arcadia Terminal is a compact, highly operable, around the wall, shelf style layout.

Although not large, there are a tremendous amount of operations possible on this beautifully scenicked railroad.

After running the railroad for around an hour, we were off again on our way back. Along the way we managed to stop at Shepaug Hobbies where we were able to find a large cache of N scale supplies available.

The next leg of our trip took us to the Steaming Tender for dinner. This is an old railroad station turned into a restaurant with fabulous food and fantastic railroad surroundings. Following a very satisfying meal, we were off on the final leg of our trip back home. In Amsterdam we dropped off Lorenzo, Mike and Al then continued to Herkimer where John departed. Lastly, David and Brian finished up the trip when they arrived back in Cooperstown around Midnight. All in all, a wonderful and full day of all kinds of railroad fun. Whirlwind IV is being considered in the near future!

Brian

FUNTRAK made the tedious journey to the Boston area to visit some of the finest model railroads around. This is a picture on the Franklin and South Manchester of George Sellios in Peabody. Whirlwind III was a tremendous success and everyone was impressed with the entire trip. Stay tuned for more details of our trip.

We anxiously await the next outing for Whirlwind IV!

Model railroading is all about running small trains on scenicked layouts. Sometimes, though, it is good to be inspired by real trains, running through real landscapes.

David and Brian went on a short train ride with the Adirondack Scenic Railroad from Utica to Forestport for a lunch at the Buffalo Head restaurant the next day. This was a relaxing diversion from all the travel on the previous day. It was a rather gloomy day but at least it was not unbearably hot as it sometimes is this time of year. The meal at the Buffalo Head was marvelous, as expected. Pictures along the way up and back provided a different view of the railroad. A pleasant surprise found FUNTRAK’s friend, Adam Brunet, as the engineer on the trip. David was glad for the respite from driving. See the photos below.

Greetings fellow train modelers! I am happy to report that FUNTRAK members Mark Bean, Brian King, and Canadian friend David King have finally been able to culminate their efforts on the automatic
reverse loop project that has been in progress for over a year.

After much consternation and brain racking, all the pieces came together when Mark arrived at Brian’s and was able to actually handle the hardware. There is a lot to be said for presence. Long distance communication is nice, but nowhere as nearly effective as actually being present. After Mark arrived it was only a matter of hours
overall until the software, hardware, and operation all came together to make the reverse loop automation a
success. Of course, this leads to more projects in the future. However, these may be a little easier to accomplish now that the experience of developing the original reverse loop has been successfully completed. We are considering building and automating a new one-trak interface tee sized module. This will take some time, so in the meantime, FUNTRAK will utilize the current mechanically operated interface module.

This module works but has some limitations. The curves are really small, thus limiting the trains that can be sent to the reverse loop. It is also rather difficult to understand how to operate electrically when using it. The goal of the newer replacement module will be not only to automate things as much as possible, but to simplify the operation to make it much less difficult to use. FUNTRAK will report on the progress of this project as we move along.

Speaking of moving along, FUNTRAKset up a small layout at Dave’s Diner in the beginning of June at Dave’s weekly Cruise In. The small layout incorporated FUNTRAK’s “eyeglasses” loop to make it interesting. This loop limits the length of the trains possible to run without running into itself and keeps the public’s attention on the trains. Everyone expects the train to collide with itself, but careful prior planning prevents this from happening. The layout provided the first opportunity for FUNTRAK to use the small generator purchased for just this reason. The generator ran perfectly and amazingly quiet for the entire time FUNTRAK was there. This makes it easy for FUNTRAK to take a layout nearly anywhere since we can now provide our own source of power to operate the trains. The next test will be next month when FUNTRAK anticipates running a small HO layout, provided by club member Greg Brockway, at Dave’s again. Meanwhile, other club activities for July include the Whirlwind III tour. This will be a day trip to the Boston area to visit some of the renowned layouts in that area. FUNTRAK will report on this in the next issue.

Keep on training!
Brian

FUNTRAK set up a smal layout at Dave’s Diner in the beginning of June at Dave’s weekly Cruise In.

Welcome back to the “Hobo”! Mark and his family are scheduled to visit us at the end of June from “down under” in Australia. We are anxiously awaiting his arrival and looking forward to all the excitement, camaraderie, and fresh new ideas Mark always brings with him. It is refreshing to get a different perspective on things, especially model railroading things, and Mark certainly is noted for his different perspective.

Mark has been in Australia for over ten years now and is firmly established as a citizen and resident there but his roots are back here in the good ‘ol USA. Hopefully, he can get to see many of the things that make this country so interesting and great and show his family the better side of America. There is much to offer for visitors and residents alike in nearly every nook and cranny of this great country. In our little nook we have a rich history of baseball with numerous teams which originated in New York to the Hall of Fame here in Cooperstown. To support this great sport over the years the railroad transported many of the fans from upstate areas to the city where the games were played. This continues even today with Amtrak being one of the best means of travel for convenience to the games in New York City. More often than not the close proximity of the train stations to desirable landmarks makes them the logical choice for getting to your destination. Besides the tourism industry, trains are also a mainstay of transportation for goods. It is one of the least expensive ways of shipping large quantities of goods over long distances available to industry today. This real life diversity makes modeling the railroad industry both challenging and exciting. It maintains a keen interest in the details of recreating a miniature world of travel and adventure for those involved in the hobby. This is where Mark’s outlook shines.

He finds the details many overlook and shines his own light on the obvious to the amazement of others. This introspection makes Mark’s models stand out over similar models where the details he incorporates are not found elsewhere. Mark’s willingness to share his observations and ideas with others makes him one of model railroading’s true giants. Mark is always ready to help in any way he can if you have a problem or idea that needs to be expanded. He often shares some of his ideas with FUNTRAK when he occasionally writes a column for Hobos Fire. FUNTRAK wishes Mark well and hopes he not only has a great time during his visit, but also gains some valuable insight to develop new ideas to incorporate into his own model railroading and further share some of these ideas with us in the future.

Brian

FUNTRAK‘s annual PicNik is just around the proverbial corner, so with this in mind, preparations for the big event are underway. FUNTRAK club members Doug Davis, John Fleming, and Brian King gathered
together over the course of Saturday, May 10 to move the N-Trak layout out of storage and into Brian’s basement. This only made sense since having the layout reside outside in storage and not be used was a waste of space and usefulness. After much grunting and groaning, the modules were all moved to the basement and assembly began. Of course, more preliminary preparations were required as Brian was able to obtain some carpet to put under the eventual layout. Finishing up this minor task, the final setup of the layout began in earnest. All went well until it came time to put the legs on the last module. Where were those legs? Finally, a different set of legs ended up being used so the layout could be completed. We still don’t know where the missing legs are located. Next came placing all the connecting tracks in the layout. This is a rather tedious job with only a few people, but success was accomplished after a relatively short time. Now the moment of truth, would everything run? The red line had some problems because the yard was not properly lined up for trains to pass through from one end to the other. The line ran alright, just not through the yard. The yellow and blue lines were properly aligned and ran well. There were some issues with the yellow line, but those were figured out and dealt with appropriately. Minor adjustments were made later and the N-Trak layout is back!