THE WHISTLESTOP NEWS

The Official Newsletter of the Central Operating Lines Model Railroading Club 90F Raynor Avenue, Ronkonkoma, NY 11779 * (631)-737-4634 * www.trainweb.org/centoplines

Don’t forget the April 11th Business Meeting. Please make it a point to attend and participate in your Club’s business. Starts promptly at 8PM.

Simply said, this open house was a resounding success. The layout was packed on Saturday and Sunday. We had visitors from various places. I saw two hobbyists from Virginia Beach, Virginia sign the guest book. The Open House of course brought in extra revenue for your club, which helps the club to fund additional projects and improvements. That also goes a long way towards keeping your COL monthly dues steady, not an easy feat these days when everything is going up. The new signs have dramatically boosted attendance at these events and thanks to all those members who worked to get those signs out on Friday and Saturday and picked them up on Sunday. Layout ran great and all the members that were there had a great time. Please try and bring trains to run for these events. The more trains and members we have at these shows, the more interesting it is for our visitors and the more fun we have. Thanks to all who made these events successful during the year!

Mark your calendars for Friday April 11^th. Tom Nuzzo, Events Manager for Lionel LLC., will be at the COL Layout demonstrating Lionel’s New Command Control System, Legacy. Tom will be here at 6:30Pm to show you all the features of the Legacy System as well as demonstrate the new features in several Lionel Legacy Locomotives. Tom was at Trainland on Saturday March 29^th demonstrating the Legacy system. He had with him Legacy Locomotives Norfolk Southern SD-40 and the Union Pacific FEF 4-8-4 steam engine. I believe he will have these with him at COL on the 11^th. You don’t want to miss these as they are impressive locomotives and the Legacy features are great. Tom also showed us running Lionel TMCC in TMCC mode as well as conventional locos with the TPC. You will like the way Legacy runs those Older TMCC locos. So mark that calendar and be there for the Demo!

Plans are firming up for this first of a kind event for COL and clubs on Long Island. We have invited about a dozen clubs and RR organizations on Long Island to come visit with COL, METCA and fellow hobbyists from 10 AM to 3PM on Saturday May 10^th. It’s a chance to learn a bit about TCA as well as our TCA regional organization, METCA .We will be running the layout that day so we need folks to bring trains to run and operate the layout. We may also have some guests bring a train or two. It should be a great fun day for us, METCA and guests to promote the hobby and make new hobby friends among clubs. Looking forward to seeing as many of our members there to enjoy themselves. There will be refreshments on the house!

April 11^th- Tom Nuzzo Lionel here to demonstrate LEGACY for us.

April 17th,18th,19^th – YORK TCA Meet

May 10^th – COL –METCA MEET and GREET

June 11^th - Tracks Ahead Video session at COL @ 9AM

June 21^st-29^th – TCA National Convention Burlington Vermont.

Update on Weaver Cars and cars for 2008

Update on Model railroading Center.

Lionel Club car

Lionel Legacy Demo 4-11-08, METCA Open House 5-10-08, Tracks Ahead video 6-11-08

No it’s not the latest Thomas Video but two items of interest for you. First let’s talk about Thomas. At the Open House Sunday “Smokey” brought his Thomas Set and it was the hit for the younger set. I even thought that at one point that I heard the chant of young voices “We want Thomas”. So of course, out he came on the rails of COL 4^th Main. So who was Thomas before he was Thomas? Well Thomas was born is 1917 and worked at one time as # 15 for the Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal, a dock railway in Brooklyn that interchanged with every major carrier in the NY area but did not have a track connection with any of them. BEDT had three yards in Brooklyn, North 6^th street, Queens, Pidgeon Street and The Brooklyn Naval Yard. All interchange was by car float. In those days, Thomas liked to take a sea voyage and would often travel from North 6^th street to either Naval Yard or Pidgeon street on the car float. Thomas retired from BEDT on October 25^th, 1963, the last day of steam operations on the BEDT. He went back to work, assuming his current identity as Thomas the Tank at Strasbourg Railroad in PA. He sometimes visits other railroads around the USA. He is 90 years young and the only active BEDT steamer at this time. His younger Step-sister, BEDT 16 is at the Railroad Museum of Long Island where you can see her today.

So what about the Steam Turbine? Well, 63 years ago in 1945, the “P“company first ran its latest experimental, no. 6200, the first direct drive steam turbine loco, class S-2 on the Pennsy. She usually ran between Chicago and Crestline Ohio handling “The Trail Blazer “Eastbound and “The Admiral” westbound. It was actually two turbines in one as the loco also had a small turbine which powered reverse moves. The Pennsy Steam turbine was a one of a kind engine, operating only for about five years or so. Lionel immortalized this loco with its 1946 offerings, Nos. 2020 and 671, 681 in 1950 with magna traction and improved 682 in 1954. Fundimensions continued in 1984 with the FARR release 5 loco and again as the third in the Century Club 1 series. The loco lives on in the modern era having been made by Williams Reproductions and MTH. Scale versions were made by Williams, Third Rail and Lionel. There are 100’s of thousands of these out there my friends! Well that’s it for now! Happy Railroading to All,