Newsletter

MEETING AT Bud & Cass Oncay's In Sewell, NJ

Another rainy meeting day. Those who attended enjoyed the day and the luncheon. Bud told us that he has not made any changes to his layout this year. He has some thoughts about expansion of his shed to twice the size, but they have to make room since Cass' doll storage shed would have to be relocated. We will have to see what happens here.

While the use of a shed for his trains has been a great idea, Bud did mention that he is looking for a very good track cleaner to make the job of keeping the trains running a lot easier.

Cass told us that her son found a Bachmann Blue Comet set in the trash on his route. The set has the cars and track. The engine is not working. We discussed how to repair it. One option is to take it to Bachmann in Phila. And have them repair it. Most repairs are $50 and you get a 1 year warranty.

Attending: Jim & Marilyn Fox, Elaine Grindlinger, Bill Keller, Ed Young, Larry Paakh, Larry & Donna Grady, Al Schmidt and Bud & Cass Oncay.

The Business meeting was conducted by the Webmaster, Al Schmidt.

Old Business

Longwood Gardens: Based on a note from Anita, it looks as if we have met our commitment to cover the Longwood Gardens show for 14 days. However, there is still time to schedule a day to run trains. Ross will have the layout open until just before Thanksgiving. The layout is super. Visually it is great and technically it is a real joy to run. It never fails.

Shore Mall Update: Larry Paakh reported that the work on expanding and replacing the current the background scenery is going very well. The rock paper is being replaced with more realistic plaster.

Ocean City Show (December 4th, 5th & 6th): While there is no specific coordinator, we discussed that Ed will be working with Larry Paakh on the layout of the track. Everyone is invited to come down on Dec. 4th for setup. Larry will have the trailer there around 2pm. We understood that Anita will make sure that we have permission to bring the trailer up on the boardwalk for unloading/loading. Larry will try to set up a turnout that allows us to run a track back beyond the curtain so that we can set up trains out of site of the display. It this woks out, Larry will incorporate this type of turnout in some expanded modules. He will discuss this more in the Spring.

Atkinson' @ Christmas: Larry Paakh reported that the set up will be on Dec. 10 & 11. For a complete itinerary of the event click her to view the memo from Ed DeSipio.

BTO Planning: We expect to have our next planning committee meeting after the nominations meeting at the Brown's on Nov 15th. If you are on the committee please try to attend, members are invited to stay and get an insight into our plans and ways in which you can participate.

We are going to be looking for and firming up volunteers in January to cover registration, running trains, crowd control, etc. so hope to hear from many of you. An important thing. If you find something that you think would be good for the goody bag or banquet or door prize please contact Anita with your find. All items must be approved by the 2010 committee.

Click Here For a Copy of the Minutes of The Most Recent BTO Convention Planning Meeting.

Club Shirts & Jacket Orders Due: Donna Grady collected all remaining orders and will place a combined order for these. Since we do not have the minimum order for hats, she plans to order enough to get the price brake and expects that these will go quickly at the BTO Convention.

Treasurer's Report
Donna Grady reported that we have a total of $1,116.79. This includes money collected for the clothing orders. Donna mentioned that the cost to Tom Tomasello for the materials to background at the Shore Mall was $32.41. We had previously approved $25 for this. A motion was made by Al Schmidt, seconded by Ned Young that we reimburse Tom for the full amount of $32.41 instead of the previously approved $25. Motion passed.

New Business

Bill Keller reported that he visited a store on a recent visit to Vermont called Real Good Toys (www.realgoodtoys.com) that have doll houses and other items that we might want to look at for ideas / additions to our layouts.

Larry Paakh stated that he is considering building a storage shed (10' x 10') and may offer the club partial use of the space for storage of modules, Thomas from the Mall and BTO materials. If this works out, he would ask the club to pay 20% of the cost, but not to exceed $300.

Larry Paakh reported that he is considering expanding our existing modules. Work would begin next Spring.

Shore Mall: A question was raised for future consideration regarding the possibility of our opening the Shore Mall for private parties. No details were discussed. It was a question posed for future consideration.

Larry Grady passed around a sheet listing G-scale layouts that will be open on Nov 9th. If you are interested in seeing any of these, contact Larry.

50/50
Thanks to Jim Fox for running the 50/50.
We collected $30. Elaine Grindlinger won $15 and the club got $15.

The Oncays supplied some books as additional 50.50 items. The selections were a mix and there was something of interest for everyone

Anita Brown & Judy Beare are recovering from surgeries. Both doing really well.

If you know someone who would like to advertise in our newsletter, have them send their business card(with a check for $25 which will cover their ad for one year) to:

We now have a business card that we hand out atThe Shore Mall to people who inquire about our hours, days, etc. Please pick some up, if you can and hand them out to anyone who you think may be interested in seeing a great layout.