We did our first year in review last year to take a look back to see what we accomplished in the past 12 months.  We had some positive responses from the review we did last year so I thought I would put another one together for 2001.  Once again I’ve probably missed a few items but these are some of the items I found in the newsletters.

 

Events/Meeting

We had 13 official club events in 2001.  Several were first time events and the met our goal of getting together to run trains and have some fun.  They were:

·        January 20 – Work Day/Member Meeting at Branch Creek Estates 

·        February 3 – SAMRA Show at Live Oak Civic Center

·        March 24 – Layout Tour at Ed Weltens’ house

·        May 9 – Member Meeting at Luby’s Cafeteria

·        June 16 – Work Day at Scott Smiley’s house

·        July 28 – Work Day at Scot Smiley’s house

·        August 18 & 19 – Texas Hill Country Rail Fair in Burnet

·        September 20 – Cub Scout Demonstration at Eanes Elementary School (4x8)

·        September 27 – Cub Scout Demonstration in Dripping Springs (4x8)

·        September 29 & 30 – AMRE Fall Train Show at Live Oak Civic Center

·        October 10 – Annual Meeting at Luby’s Cafeteria

·        October 27 & 28 – Czhilispiel in Flatonia

·        October 27 – Austin Jamboree in Round Rock (4x8)

 

Projects

Our major project this past year was developing a method to improve the way we get our trains on/off the mainline tracks.  We decided to build the yard/switching/siding modules to do this.  A lot of time, money, and effort were  spent on this project and we are nearing  our goal as everyone becomes familiar with the method of switching the trains from the mainline to the sidings.  The modules look very good and there may be a few more problems to work out but its all coming together.  

Besides this effort there  were several other projects  completed during the year.  Here’s a few of them:

 

·        Additional brackets were built in the trailer to hold the new siding modules

·        A shelf was built in the trailer to hold the spare tire better and make better use of the space around the spare tire.

·        Routine maintenance work was performed on many of the modules.  This included;

·        adding support to decks

·         adding ballast

·        adding leg sockets

·        refastening decks and  track

·        adding plug boxes to get rid of the hanging wires

·        adding track E to corners

·        labeling module ends for easier identification

·        new bollards/crowd control barriers

 

Something New

There’s a saying that if you’re not moving ahead you’re falling behind.  During the past year we have tried things to keep the club moving ahead and making it  better.  Some of these items include:

·        New web site at Trainweb.org/TTAT – our old web site host wanted to start charging us a monthly fee to use space on their web server, so Steve and Adrian found a new home for our web site. They did a great job and now our web site is bigger and better than our original site.

·        4’x8’ layout – In the past the club received invitations to run trains at locations where the area was too small for our modular layout.  The club wanted to be able to set up a layout in a smaller area so Bob, Steve, Adrian, Scott, and others got together and built a 4’x8’ layout for these events.  The layout wasn’t in running order until late summer, yet we were able to take it to 3 events in 2001.

·        New Modules - Besides adding the yard modules as a club project, several members took it upon themselves to build new modules for the layout.  Ira built the Trolley Line modules, Adrian built the oil derrick modules, and Ed built the Hellgate Bridge modules.  These modules, along with the additional accessories that were added to the other modules really help improve the looks of the entire layout and were enjoyed by our many visitors during the year.

·        Raffles – The club’s treasury ran low during the year so we needed to come up with a way to make some money.  We tried a couple of raffles late in the year and thanks to the efforts of a lot of people we were able to put some money into the treasury.  If the situation is right in 2002, we may try to do it again.

Do you have any new ideas to make the club better in 2002?

 

New Members

The key to improve any club going is getting new members with new ideas in the club.  Once again in 2001 we were fortunate to have Steve Wise, Rob Reynolds, Grady Reynolds, Randall Howell, Ryan Howell, and Ed Weltens Sr. join the club.  They bring a lot of expertise with them in a variety of areas and the club has already benefited from their memberships.  

 

Summary

Thanks to the efforts of a lot of members, 2001 was another great year for the club.  We had more events, more members, more modules, and hopefully more fun running trains.  We need to keep everyone involved in the club to make it better in 2002 than it was in 2001.