The Georgia Garden Railway Society has for many years maintained a traveling layout which it sets up at trade shows. The Bylaws of the GGRS adopted in 2007 created an Exhibits Coordinator who "shall coordinate the building, maintaining, storing, and displaying all exhibits of the GGRS including any club layouts. The Exhibits Coordinator may appoint and chair an Exhibits Committee to assist him/her to fulfill his/her duties." Unofficially, we call the Exhibits Committee the "Layout Crew", and we call the Exhibits Coordinato the "Layout Crew Chief". You can click here to email all the members of the Layout Crew at once. PLEASE DON'T USE THIS LINK FOR ANYTHING OTHER THAN LAYOUT CREW BUSINESS. Let's not spam each other with jokes, political messages, inspirational messages, or anything else.
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Dave Bennett, Layout Crew Chief |
(3/17/2010) Don Nute:
We budgetted $1,120.00 to be used on the layout and for show expense this year. Let's decide how to spend some of it. We will need some for mulch, etc., for shows. I suggest we begin with several of Lowell's proposals: get a new engine, convert all our rolling stock to metal wheels and standard couplers, inventory our rolling stock on the Layout Crew page, and decide what additional rolling stock we need. I think hook couplers are toy-like. So I recommend a good knuckle coupler. Kaydees might be the biggest investment, but they would also be the most versatile since they have kits for most applications. I have found Bachmann metal wheels to have overlarge flanges, but they are cheap and they stay on the rails well. Waht kind of engine do we want? Do we have any passenger cars? Maybe Dave or Lowell could send us all a list of the equipment we own so it could be added to our website page.
(3/11/2010) Dennis Bass:
I am interested in this one below, ‘Developing or purchasing a system so the engineers can control the horn and bell on the engines. The kids love this.” as I was thinking about how we could better engage the kids at our last setup. I was thinking it would be good to add something that the “kids” could somehow interact more with our layout.
Does anyone have experience using electromagnets to trigger the bell or horn in place of a fixed track magnet? Maybe we could place a button (or two) that allows the “kids” to trigger it at different points along the track. It may be better than having the horn blow at the same point all during the show J and give the kids some safe hands on interaction as well.
I like your other thoughts below as well and agree it would be good to get
the membership to set a priority. Maybe an estimated budget to go along with
each item would help.
(3/11/2010) Lowell Dietz:
There have been several emails of late concerning another engine and steel wheels. Personally I would like to propose a plan with some priorities. Right now we just seem to do things as the whim strikes us.
Below are several things I believe we should discuss, decide on, and prioritize. The list is in no particular order.
Another engine
Metal wheels on all club cars.
A coupler standard for all club cars
Expanding the layout
My proposal is to cut lengthwise the 2 curved sections that do not connect
to the yard into separate single track curves.
Place a single track module (8 ft. for example) between the curved sections
of the outer track.
A diagram is attached.
This would require 2 new fence section
Add a loading track to the layout
Experiment with a rope fence of some sort. We could do it on one end to see if it is adequate to keep children out. This would save a hugh amount of space in the trailer.
More cars, with planning, not just what is on sale.
A seating area within the layout so it looks like someone is sitting in
a garden.
A bunch of fake flowers to go around the seating area.
A couple of folding benches.
Developing or purchasing a system so the engineers can control the horn
and bell on the engines. The kids love this.
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