Next Saturday we have assembled several members of the website in a 1950 operating session on my layout. Our crew will include klrwhizkid Keith Robinson katyslug Mike Peters Bob Wintle yardmaster Chris Abernathy Trying to get Coonskin (Andre Ming) in the session as well but need to hear back from him. I will provide a little report and maybe some photos and let you know how it goes. It is going to be fun meeting up with my fellow modelers and fans of the Frisco. Frisco Faster Frieght! Rick
The slug and I are really looking forward to this. I am hoping to be able to run a couple of GP 7's. I wonder if anyone might have a couple of them they would be interested in parting with. They really look great in B&Y, just don't tell anyone I said that. We really enjoyed yesterday afternoon. Thanks a million Rick. See ya saturday!
I to I'm looking forward to next Staurday. Me and Mr. Johnson, ecuse me, Mr. Wintle had a great time yesterday. Its a nice way to spend a Friday afternoon. Good food and good friends. By the way, thought anymore about what was said at Zarda's? It sounded good to me. Later, Katyslug
Wow! Playtime! Oh boy! Hmmmmm.... we have a tax appointment on the 6200 block of Metcalf Ave that Saturday at 4:30 PM. How far from your place to Metcalf, Rick? Would love to at least catch up with you guys and meet mano u mano. We would also need to alter our travel schedule to leave on Friday night after work and maybe get to Joplin/Carthage area for the night or sumpthin'. Original plans were to leave AM on Saturday. BTW: I am a bit confused by all the side-features of this extensive forum site... so I'm sometimes late to answer/figure out what with some of the side-features this site offers. I'll get it eventually! Andre
Gang, a quick note before turning in... This may be a breach of etiquette to post a comment before the host, but Rick threw an awfully nice hootenanny. A swell time was had by yours truly; the buzz still hasn't left! What a blast to tie up an A-B-B-A set at 19th Street and have the dispatcher say "Grab new power and a caboose and report to Rosedale for Train 61." John Moenius and Keith Robinson did a fabulous job of keeping 19th St and Rosedale humming, and Mark was infinitely patient with me on my first train. Bob and Mike, hope you had a safe return trip to Parsons. Most of all it was fabulous meeting a great band of Frisco brothers. My thanks for welcoming a one-man band of idiot into the fray! Rick's layout environment is fabulous and things went, IMO, quite smoothly. As a newb, my palms never got to the point where I feared shorting out the throttle with perspiration! Thanks again, Rick. I'm not sure your dispatcher, Paul Grayless, is on the frisco.org so please pass along my thanks for his keeping the freight moving and the rail polished.
The Frisco Northern Division hosted an operating session on Saturday, March 21 of All Aboard website members in the KC-Columbia area. This was a great time to meet some guys in person and enjoy an operating session. In the first photo, Chris Abernathy (yardmaster) is at the throttle of a FA1-FB1-FA1 consist leading an empty tank train through Lenexa and on its way to Tulsa. The rail fan to the right is Mark Davidson (mark). The second photo is in the KC aisle where John Moenius (boomer John is on the left) and Keith Robinson (klrwhizkid is on the right) are keeping the traffic moving. John is at the 19th St Yard on the left in the cab of RS-1 #101 at the far left of the photo. Keith Robinson is putting a southbound freight together at Rosedale with 0-6-0 #3803 in the third photo. Keith also brought a sample of his benchwork made from some very interesting plywood. We took a look at his layout track plan and it looks like we are going to have another nice layout in the KC area. In the final photo, Parson's finest Mike Peters (katyslug) eases RS-1 #111 into Fontana, KS to work the elevator. Mike is a veteran operator on the Frisco Northern Division and needs to get credit for his operating time for his Chief Dispatcher Certificate. Mike, your assignment is to get your paperwork underway. NMRA Region AP Chair Marty Vaughn stopped by and we judged two pieces of rolling stock for Bob Wintle's Car Certificate. Bob received Merit Awards for both models, a Frisco cement hopper and a SLSF transfer caboose, completing his final requirements for his Master Model Railroader. His paperwork was submitted yesterday and soon we will have another MMR. Congrats to Mr. Wintle on his achievement. Who is next? Thanks to Bob Wintle who brought Decoder Pro and got one of my F3As back in service as well as putting road numbers on several of Keith's engines. Yesterday's session was great fun and a good opportunity to make new friends. In the process, we now have three new operators in the KC-Columbia area and I look forward to operating with them on the Northern Division in the future. Ship IT on the Frisco! Rick
It was a great day. I really enjoyed myself. Even though I was a total ball of nerves about having my models judged. When Rick first told me that he was going to change Era's I didn't think I would enjoy operating older equipment as much as I do my favorite Frisco era but man it was a ball. I Especially enjoyed running the GP 7's. So much so that I didn't pay enough attention to my train and left my caboose behind in Paola. Seeing the FA 1's and F 3's running the multi unit lashups was really neat also. Getting to run the train to the Hill was also really fun. So much so that when I got home I got on the Micro Mark website and ordered me one of the 45 tonners. I am keeping my fingers crossed and hope I get one of the black and yellow ones. Thanks Mark for brining that along. Your sound effects were really cool also. All in all it was a great day and I really enjoyed meeting all the new faces and hope that we can all get together again real soon. Bob Wintle
My thanks to Rick for inviting me to operate his fabulous layout. It is so well thought out and runs flawlessly. This was my first operating session and I somehow, more or less, kept things straight at the 19th St. inbound yard. I did need a little help from Mark D. when a 30 car tank train hit the yard while it was clogged up. Also, nice meeting all the other operators and thanks to Mark and Rick for giving up their morning to show me around the West Bottoms area. A wonderful day. John
We did have a great time. The weather cooperated in the morning when we first met John for breakfast and toured the west bottoms. We could see the gears in John's head turn as he got a new prospective of the possibilities and ideas for modeling the area along 8th and Santa Fe Streets. After some Rosedale Bar-B-Q for lunch Rick was kind enough to host another great operating session. And the day just got better with more new Frisco friends Keith and Chris. Keith was kind enough to provide us with some cool new tools. Keith and John did great jobs as yardmasters. They both jumped right in and tried something new. Chris also did a great job on the road. I believe he also got into the "sound" thing even, even without an electronic sound system. They each must have liked it too, as they even indicated they would like to operate again. Paul Grayless, a local regular operator, did a great job as dispatcher. Our "old buds" from Parsons, Mike and Bob, also joined in on the fun. They have been regulars at Rick's, but we do not get to see them as often as we would like, even though Parsons is only a couple of hours away. Congratulations to Mike as he nears completion of his certificate as a Master Model Railroader! Rick is great about promoting the hobby and welcoming new operators. He often extends the opportunity for new operators to participate and check out what operation is all about. He is a great inspiration to all and not only for his modeling and technical skills. He is very willing to share his knowledge and layout operations with others, the real goal of a Master Model Railroader. This is truly a great hobby. Everyone we meet enriches the fabric of our lives. It is amazing how much we each grow by sharing and learning from others. It just keeps getting better and better. It was really cool meeting each of you. I hope we can get together again very soon! Thanks! Mark
Well POOH! I wish the timing could have worked out better so I could have attended. We didn't hit KC until about 3 PM on Saturday. Had just enough time to run down to Southwest Blvd and eat some of our favorite KC food: Tenderloins at the Tenderloin Grill. Then it was back to make our 4:30 appointment. Finished with business somewhere around 5:30 or so... but too late to try to hook up with all you Friscoites that had fun at Rick's place. Mosied down to the West Bottoms to look around and snap a few west-facing structures. Returned to the Bottoms this morning for a few more pics, and then it was off for Oklahoma. Just got home a few minutes ago. Thanks for the pics. LOVE your era, Rick. SO much was happening on the Frisco during that time. Hopefully, I can hook up with you guys sometime. I know I'd be the richer for it. Andre Ming Eastern OK
Chris, Love the sweater. That took guts wearing it across the state line. Mizzou just dodged Marquette.....GO Mizzou!
Fellow Frisco fans and website members are welcome. Please advise when you will be in the KC area and I will try to arrange an op session. Ship IT on the Frisco! Rick
In hindsight, I realize there are a few things I personally want to improve on. Foremost: figure out how the real deal worked for taking the power/caboose from 19th Street to Rosedale and then attaching it all to the waiting cars for southbound departure. I think I left my caboose all alone, ran the A-B-B-A set to the head end, pulled out on the lead and then back her back up to the track with the lone caboose. I hesitated with the sweater as we left CoMO, Karl, but Rick had assured me that it would be a safe environment! His crew lounge even had the Saturday 2nd round games playing, but I rather forgot about them all. Between the excitement of an ops session and the last 8-10 minutes of Mizzou-Marquette, my system's pretty flooded with adrenaline right now.
Big 12 looking good - with Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma all in the "Sweet 16". But .. .. they each face a severe challenge next game. Ken
Regarding the power move from 19th St Yard to Rosedale for southbound trains . . . My understanding from Chuck Hitchcock (whose father owned a business on SW Blvd) was that there was a switcher, probably a VO-1000, on the northeast end of the yard. The purpose of this switcher, among other things, was to take the caboose (dropped by the road power on the NE end of the yard) and couple it to the rear of the train while the power ran around the train and coupled on to the front of the train and started to air up the train. Chuck has flashbacks of FA1-FB1-FA1 consists coming around the curved departure tracks with their headlights giving away their location. Fortunately I have a set to keep him interested. Ship IT on the Frisco! Rick
Wow!!!! Where do I begin..... 1) I am completely in awe of Rick as a modeler and as a fantastic host. 2) What a great group of guys - such comraderie is seldom felt/built on first contacts. Bob, thanks for the DCC assistance. Mark, thanks for the tour, advice and great sound effects. Chris, I am looking forward to spending some more time talking about Southeast Missouri railroading. John, even though we were back to back at the yards during the session we didn't get much time to visit - we had our hands full - hope to see you again. Paul, thanks for being an outstanding, understanding dispatcher. Mike, enjoyed the visit. Finally, Rick, I am very thankful that you invited me and am at your disposal if you need two more hands on work crew duty - you know my skill set. 3) Three hours was not enough - the experience of working Rosedale yard was, for a first operating session, a great challenge and a huge adrenaline fix. 4) Can't wait to get my hands "dirty" using any of my skills (woodworking, electrical, electronics, digital networking, carpentry, drywall) on my own layout or helping others. It is just so much fun. I look forward to operating again sometime soon. Ship IT on the Frisco!
I'm sorry it took me so long to post this, but I don't have a computor at home aand I was off work on Monday so today was the first time I was able to see all the posting about Saturday's Op Session. So here
Let me try this again. I'm sorry it took me so long to post this, but I don't have access to a computor at home anymore. And I was off work Monday, so today was the first time I was able to see all the posting about Saturday's Op Session. So here I go. Keith, John and Chris, it was a real pleasure Operating with you new guys. It was like seeing children on Christmas morning seeing all the gifts that Santa left under the tree. The wide open eyes, joy filled faces and the bright smiles made the whole day worth while. Thanks for that warm filling that you left we me when I drove back home. Paul, you did such amazing job as Dispatcher, I swear you did it for a living. The railroad ran so smooth and on time, (well close to on time). But who;s counting. Mark. thanks to your knowlegde of the railroad and its operations, it made the Opsession less stressfull and highly much more enjoyabale. And finally Rick. Thanks for the oppertunity to be included in the Op Session. You are a great host and a fantastic modeler. You made me feel right at home. Hope to see all you in the near future. Good luck with your modeling adventures. Later, Katyslug P.S. I almost forgot about the real reaason why we came to K.C. Bob, congrats on your MMR. I knew you could do it. I'm vvery proud of you. See, I told you that you had nothing to worry about. I always had faith in you and your abilities. Thanks for the oppertunity to be a part of history. Bob Wintle, fellow modeler, fellow friend and most of all, fellow brother.
Rick, my thanks to Chuck for clarifying. At least I dropped my caboose in a "close enough" location. Next time... If I could now convince my wife to park her car outside, 19th Street and Rosedale could be reasonably squz into the remaining portion of the garage! Best Regards,
