Looking back we had a great 2024 and 2025 is already shaping up to be another great year for SCLS The Halloween and Holiday fundraiser train ride's where successful a lot of work for a few members. Most members added some time to helping with the events. Understandably free time is short for most members so there volunteering for is event is greatly appreciated. We received very favorable responses from the people that road the trains. We are already in the planning stages for next year's events, we have a lot of new ideas for the displays. Members Dale Van Ingen and Jens Gehrke with help from myself and other members built a raised G gauge train layout. This has proven to be a great addition to the clubs attractions. G gauge stands for Garden Trains they run on 2 1/4" gauge tracks. These trains are much smaller than our ride on trains they can be powered by DC electric, batteries, and butane gas for the live steam locomotives. Yes they have real steam locomotives this size and they are fascinating to watch. This is a great way to be involved in the hobby as most equipment is availableare to be purchased ready to run at a reasonable price. This eliminates the long demanding process of building the equipment. The size of the equipment makes it considerably easier to transport and store away after use. Speaking of smaller Trains, Member Alex O'Donnell has started to install a third rail for 4 3/4 inch gauged trains around the outer loop of track on our layout. This is for 1" scale or 1.5" scale narrow gauge equipment, 1" scale was the most popular size trains the club members used when the live steam hobby started. In the past when SCLS was located at the Lomita railroad museum there were three gauges of track trains could be run on 3 3/4, 4 3/4, and 7.5. There is still a far amount of people with 1" equipment around so this should be a great opportunity for them to be able to come run there trains. The odd thing I have found in this hobby is even though the 1" equipment is smaller they seem to have a much higher level of detail on them. This should not in anyway impede the operation of our 7 1/2 inch gauge trains and should be a great addition to our facility. Wolf Fengler has been replacing the outside aluminum rail on the turns with steel rail. We have been experiencing a large amount of wear on the aluminum rail when it's on the outside of the turns the new rail will greatly reduce the amount of wear. Wolf is 86 years old he comes out and replaces one or two 10' pieces of rail a few times a week in the morning that way he's not waring himself out. We are always looking for people interested in joining the group. This past year farther and son Criss and Michael Camarillo joined our club. Criss said they went to the small scale train culbs in the area and the cost of being a member there was too much for them to manage. They found our group and were surprised it's only 60.00 a year. They have been working there way though the training program and have both recently became locomotive engineers for public ride trains. Yes our trains are a lot more demanding than A table top type train but in reality, there far less demanding than what is needed to drive a car on the street. A lot of people are under the impression that to be a member you need to build one of our size trains. That is way more than the average person can handle but once again that is a big misconception. All a person needs is a interest in trains and having fun being part of a group that rides on them the rest will fall into place. Our members have many different interests in the hobby. Some build equipment, some buy there equipment, some only use club owned equipment, some volunteer to give public trains rides and some don't. There are many different aspects to enjoy in this hobby some give a try and decide it's not their thing. Many have there's nothing wrong with that at least they tried it out and probably learned a few new things along the way. If you're interested talk with one of our members when we're giving public trains rides or come by on a Tuesday afternoon and go to the side driveway gate and flag one of us down. You can also email me by using the President contact button, I can answer any question you may have regarding this group. |
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