INSIDE THIS ISSUE

• Layout of the Month:Jim Allen

• November’s monthlymeeting

• Member News• Modeling Tip• Model Winners• Mike’s Minute• Meeting dates

FOX VALLEY DIVISION • MIDWEST REGION

THE SEMAPHOREDecember 2012

HAPPY HOLIDAYS ! from the Semaphore crewand all of us on the FVD Board

Trains in my Christmas'sby Walt HerrickAs with many of you, trains havebeen a part of my holiday season fordecades. Since receiving my firstAmerican Flyer train set forChristmas in 1955, seldom has aChristmas gone by without trains.

That first Flyer set consisted of adie cast Atlantic loco, green T&P gon,silver Gulf Oil tank car, and asignature red AF northeasterncaboose, all with the old linkcouplers. Three years later my brotherSkip got another Atlantic train set,this one with a 4-4-2 that smokedand made “choo choo” sounds, and ayellow AF caboose. Five or sixAmerican Flyer layouts were built inthe Herrick basement in Crystal Lake,Illinois based on these two trains setsand the other trains and accessoriesmy brother and I received atChristmas in subsequent years.

I stayed with American Flyer foreight years and then received an HOTyco/Mantua Santa Fe GP 20 trainset as a Christmas gift in 1963. TheAF trains were wrapped innewspaper, boxed and put in theattic to make room for a new HOempire. The empire was short livedas sports took over almost all of myspare time in high school andcontinue on page two

Fun StuffAlthough steam-poweredand geared locomotiveswere intitially importedfrom the United States,New Zealanders quicklydeveloped their ownversions. This Johnston16 wheeler was built inInvercargill for theGlenham SawmillingCompany in 1910.

It's the Christmas season 1957. Sunday Schoolis over and it's time to play trains on theHerrick's first American Flyer train layout. BrotherSkip is on the left.

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Trains in my Christmas'scollege. After my sophomore year in collegethough, a July 1970 trip to the Hesston SteamMuseum rekindled my latent interest in trains,and I found myself building a small 2 x 3 foot N-scale layout in my parent's basement at theholiday break. I told dad and mom it was for myyoungest brother Bob, and it was, more or less.In the next couple years of holiday breaks wegraduated to building a 4 x 8 foot HO scalelayout.

After graduating college in 1973, I moved toCincinnati, Ohio to begin my first full time job. Ialso began serious modeling on a regular basis. Iworked on a friend's large HO layout every weekand, thanks to an understanding landlord,started an HO attic layout above my apartment.In 1974 something interesting happened. I washome for the holidays in Illinois shopping for aChristmas present for my girl friend in a

Woodstock antique shop. There I spied an oldAmerican Flyer caboose for sale. I almost boughtit for nostalgia's sake, but remembered ouroriginal Flyer trains were still inthe attic of my parent's house. I made a bee linefor home and headed up to the attic. There,untouched for ten years, were five boxes of ourold Flyer trains and Plasticville buildings. Withina couple of hours a loop of track was set up on thefloor and a train--one of the old Atlantic's and astring of cars--was running.

Since that Christmas in 1974, I've set up somekind of American Flyer layout for manyChristmas's despite moving around the country abit between 1977 and 1982. Only recently have Iretired the AF trains. They were once againreplaced by newer, more reliable HO trains (andslot cars) for the grand kids. The old scrap bookphotos in this article capture a few of the “Trainsin my Christmas's.” I'm sure some of you havesimilar photos of your old trains.

Fast forward to my family's Christmas party in 1988. Uncle Mike andAunt Linda look on as my two sons and cousin Amy play on a “new”kids American Flyer layout in the basement. The trains, buildings andaccessories on the layout were 25 to 30 years old by this time.

The American Flyer trains were resurrected from my parent'sattic and set up on the floor just before Christmas Eve in 1974.

Several college holiday seasons were spent helping my brotherBob build a 4 x 8 HO layout.

A 4 x 6 foot Flyer Christmas layout was built in Cincinnati in 1975.The layout became a year round fixture in my apartment's livingroom.

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One guy who might not want to see the year2012 end is the FVD's own Jim Allen. Jim addedto his collection of 2012 contest winnings bywinning “Best in Show—Module” at this year'sTrainfest held in Milwaukee November 10 and11. Prior to Jim's Trainfest win, in 2012 he hadwon two FVD division meet contests, fiveMidwest Regional Meet model contests inSpringfield, IL (including the President's Awardand a Best of Show), and took first or placed infour Midwest Regional Meet photo contests. Notbad and certainly well deserved! Of his Trainfestaward Jim said, “That award was totallyunexpected. It really took me by surprise.”

Jim's Bluff City Modular Engineers groupcorner module started out three years ago as alast minute replacement module built by Mike

Hirvela when a BCME member could not attendthe 2009 Trainfest due to a family emergency. Jimagreed to add some scenery to the module beforethe show, but ended up reconstructing the entiremodule to his standards in two days! In the nextthree years, scenery and structure additions andupgrades were added. One addition thatparticularly appealed to the Trainfest judges wasthe abandoned crossing and tower scene whichfits perfectly in its corner location. This year inthe weeks prior to Trainfest, Jim spent many longnights adding scenic details to the module. Hewas well rewarded for his efforts! Congratulations,Jim! (See “Mike's Minute” and December's“Member Layout” for photos and more on Jim'sTrainfest award and module. Ed.)

Layout of the Month: Jim Allen's BCME Corner Module

Jim Allen Wins Big at Trainfest by Mike Hirvela and Walt Herrick

Yep, this month's Layout of the Month is a module--a very special module. As has been relatedelsewhere in this Semaphore, Jim Allen won “Best of Show—Module” at this year's Trainfest showin Milwaukee. We couldn't resist using his module for this month's “Layout of the Month”. Themodule struck a chord with your editor just as it did with the Trainfest judges! Ed.

Continued on next page.

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Jim Allen's Basic Layout InformationLayout Name: BCME layout corner moduleLayout Builder: Jim AllenLayout Format: Part of the BCME's modular layoutLayout Size: 4 x 4 feet with interior corner cutoutTheme: Mid-west country highway sceneLayout Philosophy: Inspire viewers to think “I can do that, too!”Era: 1960's to presentBenchwork: 1x3 grid with ¼ inch birch plywood topRoadbed: ½ inch homasote base with cork roadbedTrack Code 100 super elevated flex track. No turnouts.Minimum Radius: 36 inchesControl: NCE digital command controlScenery: Variety of techniques. 70% complete.Structures: Scratch built; scratch built resin from molds; modified laser cut and plastic kits.Operations: Display running for shows.Favorite Aspects of Hobby: Kitbashing; I also really enjoy turning ordinary items into nice models.Hobby Influences: John Allen. Also, I always look to the real world for modeling inspiration.

Top left: Notice how the road, field,and orchard all follow thecurve of the tracks.

Bottom left: The Trainfest judgesloved this mini scene.

Bottom right: Another great miniscene. The sign, barnand silo were scratchbuilt.

All photos by Brian Hirvela.

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Mike's Minute by Mike HirvelaThis month Mike reports on Trainfest 2012 heldin Milwaukee. Ed.

Trainfest 2012 was another big show with slightlymore in attendance (25,569 to be exact) than lastyear. More than a dozen from the Fox ValleyDivision participated in the show this year. Ialong with FVD members Ed Pavlovic and JimAllen (more on him later) worked at the BluffCity Modular Engineers layout. Fox Valley Super,Jeff Jarr, and FVD members Tom Cara, GordonJohnson, Jim Goettsche, and Mike Bychowskimanned the excellent North Shore and WesternHO modular layout. Other FVD membersworking at Trainfest were Bruce Rodbro andothers as part of the Waukegan Modular RailroadClub's HO layout, Eric Bronsky and others whomanned the Northwest Trainmasters HO modularlayout, Bert Lattan and Harry Sorenson with thehuge Midwest Rails G scale modular layout, andMike Cieselka, Jeff Varney and others whoworked the Lake County Modular Railroad Club'svery nice HO layout. FVD MMR, David Leidermanned the Soo Line Historical Society booth,and Mr. Hiroshi Kato represented KatoManufacturing, Inc. at their fine booth. If I leftanybody out I am truly sorry!

Sunday morning at the show was, to say theleast, interesting. So there we were, Jim Allen and

I, standing at the northwest corner of the BCMEmodular railroad, next to Jim’s Action-ReactionRR display, discussing various topics, when JohnTewes, Trainfest Executive Director, walked up tous and asked who owned the corner module onthe opposite corner of our railroad. “Oh no,” Ithought, “what’s wrong?” knowing that whenJohn Tewes speaks, people jump. I fully expectedsome tongue lashing (or worse!) from John, like“Your layout is sticking out too far in the aisle,”or something. But when we turned around, therewas a full contingent of bright yellow shirtedWISE Guys (representatives of the WisconsinSoutheastern or WISE Division of the NMRA andsponsors of Trainfest) standing near andadmiring Jim’s corner module. All the while theywere holding a plaque that read, “BEST IN SHOW– MODULE” on it. The next thing I knew, Jimwas being awarded the plaque! Handshakes werethe order of the day as each congratulated Jim onreceiving this recognition. Wow! This is the firstTF award any of us has achieved in the manyyears we've been there. It made for a Trainfestwe'll never forget.

“The next thing I knew, Jim was being awarded the plaque!”

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November Monthly MeetingWe had another well attended FVD monthlymeeting in November with almost 50 in ourroom at the Gary Morova Center in ProspectHeights. After members enjoyed some pre-meeting Eddie Shlemon home made cookies anddrinks, taking a quick peek at the contest entries,and a little socializing, the meeting was off andrunning. Superintendent Jeff Jarr's remarks wereshort but he did remind us that there were stillopenings for High Wheeler 2013 volunteers.Contact Jeff or Dave Johnson to volunteer for aHigh Wheeler spot. Jeff also reminded us that the2014 Midwest Regional Spring Convention isbeing sponsored by the FVD and that we are inthe process of lining up volunteers for it. ContactJeff if you'd like to help with this effort.

Highlights from other FVD Trainmasters were:

• Achievements Trainmaster Jim Landwherrecognizing long time member and formerAssistant Superintendent, Harry Sorenson, forhis considerable work for the FVD and NMRAover many years. Harry was presented with awell deserved NMRA Service Award plaque.

• Public Relations Trainmaster, Jim Osborn,handing out our well known High Wheelerflyers for members to pass out to area hobbyshops. This year's flyers are a nice bright green.Thanks to all who volunteered to do this bigjob!

• Clinics Trainmaster, David Leider, MMR, notingthat he needs clinicians for the February andMay meetings. Contact David if you have aclinic to present or know of someone who can.

• Membership Trainmasters, Mike Hirvela andBert Lattan, noting division membership wasdown by three members from November of lastyear.

After a break, the afternoon's speaker, DavePhillips of the Chicago and Northwestern Ry.Historical Society, presented us with aninteresting and thorough photographic look atthe CNW's covered hopper fleet as it existed inthe 1970's through the early 2000's. Being anAppalachian coal railroading fan, I thought Imight be a little bored with this topic. Boy was Iwrong! I found the clinic to be fascinating. Daveis a CNW historian, excellent modeler, and isemployed as a professional railroader. His clinicwas loaded with great prototypical and modelinginformation. It almost had me thinking ofmodeling a grainger road! Prolific area railphotographer, John Szwajkart, will be presentingDecember's clinic on the Indiana Harbor BeltRailroad. Note this is a change from his originallyscheduled topic on railfanning the CB&Q inBrookfield, IL.

CNW's covered hopper fleet as it existed in the1970's through the early 2000's. Presented byDave Phillips.

Meeting contest winners next page.

First place; Art Jones' HO scale Bauer & JonesMfg.

2nd Place Mike Motherway's HO ScaleStubblefield Well and Pump Supply

Contest Winners

3rd Place Jim Landwehr's HO Scale EngineRepair Facility

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November's contest was another good one. Contest Trainmaster Jim Landwher didn'tknow what to expect with the contest being “Large Structures”, but we had sevenstrong entries. Art Jones' long, beautifully kitbashed and finished Bauer & Jones Mfg.took first place honors. Mike Motherway's expertly built and weathered StubblefieldWell & Pump Supply took second, and Jim Landwehr's “scratch bashed” UP EngineRepair facility took third. Great job winners and all entrants! Jim Osborn's photos ofthe winners appear in this Semaphore with all contest entry photos appearing on theFVD website. December's contest is “Open Loads” with a three car maximum. January'scontest is your “Favorite Train Picture”. Ed.

November's contest

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Member News• The NS&W modular layout guys were busy

over the past six weeks displaying a nice largelayout at Trainfest in November, and a smallerversion of their layout at the Glenview PublicLibrary in early December. They'll be at ourHigh Wheeler train show March 9 and 10.

• FVD members who also worked Trainfest werethe Northwest Trainmasters, Lake CountyModular Railroad Club, Waukegan ModularRailroad Club, Midwest Rails, and Bluff CityModular Engineers modular layouts atTrainfest.

• New MMR, Don Cook, had one of hisprototype CNW photos grace the cover of theCNW Historical Society's Fall 2012 issue.

• Right before Thanksgiving Harry Sorenson andWalt Herrick assisted in putting up the SunCity Huntley KV&EC Model Railroad Club'sHoliday Display layout. The large displayfeatures N, HO, hi-rail O and G scale trains. Itruns through December 28th and is open tothe public 11 to 3 week days and 11 to 5weekends at Sun City's Prairie View Lodge onDel Webb Blvd.

• The FVD's Sodor portable layout along withThomas the Tank Engine and friends made anappearance at the Glenview Public LibraryDecember 8 and 9 thanks to Mike Hirvela.

• John Cloos's widow Debbie is looking forsomeone who might be interested in havingone of John's O scale modules. Forinformation call her at 630-432-0137.

• FVD members David Leider, MMR, and JimAllen are both running for one of the severalDirector at Large positions in the 2013Midwest Region elections going on now.

Regional and National News• Midwest Region Director at Large and FVD

member, Dave Johnson, reports that in amember survey he took regarding a proposalto shortened the Midwest Region SpringConvention, respondents overwhelmingly didnot want to shorten the convention. Theshorter convention would have been run inone and a half days rather than the current

two and a half day format.• The Winter Midwest Region Waybill

newsletter has candidate bios and a ballot for2013 Midwest Region elections. Your ballotmust be mailed back by January 31, 2013.Please vote!

• NMRA Magazine Editor, Stephen Priest, MMR,reported in his December 2012 “ObservationCar” column that there is soon going to be anew Master Model Railroader in his family.Son Joel is expected to have his MMR beforehis 13th birthday in January. Stephen pointsout in his column that 12 year old Joel hashad some terrific advantages other modelersdon't have, but that it still wasn't easy for Joel.There is a lot of work and excellent modelingto do. From Stephen's column, it sounds likethe biggest advantage Joel has is his burninginterest in modeling. Congratulations Joel,from the Fox Valley Division of the NMRA!We're sure your example will motivated manyof us adults to get working on our MMRs!

Modeling TipHave you ever used a pallet knife in yourscenery work? A long bladed pallet knife is aparticularly useful tool for many scenery taskssuch as spreading plaster, Structolite, etc.,carving or shaping wet plaster, ballasting,applying ground cover, and shaping roadsand streets from wet plaster. Pallet knives areavailable where ever art supplies are sold andcost less than $5.00. Below is the editor’strusty old pallet knife next to a typical hobbyknife. WH

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FFooxx VVaalllleeyy DDiivviissiioonn BBooaarrddSuperintendent

Jeff Jarr jjarr@comcast.net 773-286-8755Assistant Superintendent

Bob Shlemon, Jr. shlemonjr@att.net 773-334-4208Chief Clerk

Leif Hansen mudhen454@att.net 847-437-7124Paymaster

Tim Kleimeyer kleimeyert@comcast.net 847-426-4732

Achievements & ContestsJim Landwher JLandwehr901@yahoo.co 847-577-7984

ClinicsDavid Leider MMR sooauthor@netzero.net 847-253-7484

Publications Editor Walt Herrick wherricks@yahoo.co 815-459-1334

Circulation EditorJim Allen jallenad60@comcast.net 847-356-2061

Membership PromotionsMike Hirvela mhirvela1@gmail.com 847-360-9579

Membership RecordsBert Lattan blattan@comcast.net 847-295-7959

Public Relations & Webmaster Jim Osborn FVDWebsite@comcast.net 815-578-8315

Ways & Mean -High WheelerJeff Jarr jjarr@comcast.net 773-286-8755

Meeting DatesHere's what's coming up in the next several months.

Date Clinic Contest Other

December 16 John Szwajkart on the Open Loads. Three car 1:00 p.m. start withIndiana Harbor Belt R.R maximum; same load a pizza lunch being(Note change in topic.) in each car. served!

January 20 George Woods on modular Favorite Train Picture Regular 1:30 pm start layouts.

February 17 TBD Open Loads. Single load Regular 1:30 pm startwith 2-3 cars to transport.

March 9, 10 FVD's High Wheeler 2013 Train Show. No monthly meeting. Go to HW instead!

High Wheeler Needs YOU!High Wheeler 2013 is coming up March 9th and 10th and still needs volunteer workers. ContactDave Johnson on line at mjd@bds-soft.com , or Jeff Jarr on line at jjarr@comcast.net or by phoneat 773-286-8755, to offer your services. Serving at High Wheeler is one of the best ways you canhelp the FVD and the hobby of model railroading. Thank you!

Next MeetingThe Fox Valley Division will hold theirmeeting on December 16, 2012.Note: 1:00 pm start time to 4:30 pm, at theGary Morava Center, 110 W. CampMacDonald Road, Prospect Heights, IL.

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Fox Valley DivisionMidwest Region-NMRAP.O. Box 1535Arlington Heights, IL 60005-1535

About the Fox Valley DivisionIf you receive this newsletter you live in the Midwest

Region and Fox Valley Division of the National ModelRailroad Association or NMRA. The Fox Valley Division(FVD) includes McHenry and parts of Cook, Kane andLake Counties in Northeast Illinois. About 240 membersof varied ages and modeling ability levels belong to theFVD. Almost all modeling scales are represented in ourdivision. Membership in the division is free as are theSemaphore newsletters.

FVD general meetings are held September throughMay at the Gary Morava Center in Prospect Heightsfrom 1:30 to about 4:30 pm. Each meeting features aclinic, model contest, information of interest to themembership, and a time for socializing. Outings, layouttours, and operating sessions are also held periodicallyin addition to, or instead of the general meetings. Topromote the hobby of model railroading, the FVDsponsors and runs a large train show called “HighWheeler” in early March each year at Harper College inPalatine, Illinois.

We encourage you to take advantage of all the FVDhas to offer. We are here to help answer your questions,help improve your modeling, and help you better enjoythe great hobby of model railroading. Join us at a FVDmeeting or outing. Weʼd love to see you. Or, visit us onthe web at: wwwfoxvalleydivision.org.

Questions? Contact FVD Superintendent, Jeff Jarror any board member listed on the “FVD boardsection of this newsletter. We are here to help you!