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May 2020

The Lakeshore Special

President's Message for May 2020 It is times such as what we are experiencing that

reminds me of “The Shining.” Those of you who

have seen the movie know what transpired

when a family of three took on the job of caring

for a remotely located resort that is closed for

the winter when snow cuts the place off from civ-

ilization. They were the only ones there and

they start to suffer from cabin fever whereby

things began to happen. Fortunately, things

aren’t quite that desperate as we all sit out this

pandemic in the comfort of our respective

homes with our trains to keep us busy and not

totally cut off from the world. We just have to

keep our distance from each other for a while for

everyone’s wellbeing.

All work and no play make Jack a dull boy.

All work and no play make Jack a dull boy.

All work and no play make Jack a dull boy…

A teleconference meeting of the minds took

place around 6:00 PM on Sunday April 26, 2020

to discuss our thoughts on what is happening

and the impact it is having on the club’s plans.

Everyone understands that the shutdown in

Ohio (and the rest of the country for that matter)

is not intended to prevent COVID-19 but to

merely slow it down so as to not overwhelm the

hospitals. Although the rate of new cases in

Ohio has leveled off, COVID-19 is expected to

continue into summer and likely to go back up

going into next winter. Items discussed are

How and when to have the election of club

officers (still accepting nominations)

A moratorium on dropping members for non-

payment of dues

No club picnic this year due to the distancing

requirement

Cancelled plans for maintenance work ses-

sions on both layouts this summer

We are all in that age group that is at risk

More train show cancellations are possible

this fall

COVID-19 will be on everyone’s mind if the

train shows go on as planned

No decision on our Snow Dogs Train Show

in January until more is known this fall

As with the cancellation of the March and April

meetings, there will be NO MAY MEETING. A

June meeting is possible but, again, we have to

wait and see.

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President's Message Continued As mentioned, nominations for club officers are

still being accepted. Additional nominations for

President, Vice President, Secretary, and Treas-

urer are to be made to Chuck Fonda who can be

reached at 216-765-0672 or by email at

cwaltf@aol.com. The cutoff for nominations is

June 1, 2020

Although there is a moratorium on dropping

members for non-payment of dues, we kindly ask

those of you who have not done so to please

take some time to renew your membership in-

stead of waiting to be button-holed at the train

shows (which were cancelled). The application

for the dues is again included with this newslet-

ter. It is also online at www.cvsga.com . Dues

are to go to Greg Melzer and no one else.

Stay healthy and hope to see you all soon.

Jim Futules

Lost Words from our childhood

Mergatroyd! Do you remember that word? Would you believe the spell-checker did not recognize the word Mergatroyd? Heavens to Mergatroyd!

The other day a not so elderly (I say 75) lady said something to her son about driving a Jalopy; and he looked at her quizzically and said,

"What the heck is a Jalopy?"

He had never heard of the word jalopy! She knew she was old ... But not that old.

Well, I hope you are Hunky Dory after you read this and chuckle.

About a month ago, I illuminated some old expres-sions that have become obsolete because of the inex-orable march of technology. These phrases includ-ed:

Don't touch that dial,

Carbon copy,

You sound like a broken record, and

Hung out to dry.

Back in the olden days we had a lot of moxie.

We'd put on our best bib and tucker, to straighten up and fly right.

Heavens to Betsy!

Gee whillikers!

Jumping Jehoshaphat!

Holy Moley!

Holy Toledo!

We were in like Flynn and living the life of Riley;

and even a regular guy couldn't accuse us of being

a knucklehead, or a nincompoop .

Not for all the tea in China!

Back in the olden days, life used to be swell,

but when's the last time anything was swell?

Swell has gone the way of beehives, pageboys and the D.A.;

of spats, knickers, fedoras, poodle skirts, saddle shoes, and pedal pushers.

Oh, my aching back!

Kilroy was here, but he isn't anymore.

We wake up from what surely has been just a short nap, and before we can say,

"Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle!"

Or, "This is a fine kettle of fish!"

We discover that the words we grew up with, the words that seemed omnipresent, as oxygen, have van-ished with scarcely a notice from our tongues and our pens and our keyboards

Poof, go the words of our youth, the words we've left behind.

We blink, and they're gone. Where have all those great phrases gone?

Long gone:

Pshaw,

The milkman did it.

Hey! It's your nickel.

I'll see you in the funny papers.

Don't take any wooden nickels.

Wake up and smell the roses.

We of a certain age have been blessed to live in changeable times. For a child each new word is like a shiny toy, a toy that has no age. We at the other end of the chronological arc have the advantage of remem-bering there are words that once did not exist and there were words that once strutted their hour upon the earthly stage and now are heard no more, except in our collective memory.

mailto:cwaltf@aol.comhttp://www.cvsga.com

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Oddball Locomotives

The Baldwin Locomotive Works was found-

ed in 1831 and was at one time the world’s

largest producer of steam locomotives. The

company began to fall on hard times follow-

ing WWII as diesel electric type locomotives

began to make major advances that eventu-

ally pushed out steam locomotives. Alt-

hough the company made an effort to pro-

duce diesel electric locomotives, they were

at a disadvantage against the likes of EMD,

Alco, and GE. The company built its last lo-

comotive in 1956. The company’s legacy

did include some rather odd locomotives.

The first photo shows a locomotive built for

the South Jersey Railroad in 1897. Just

what it was supposed to accomplish is

purely speculative but for sure, it could be

classed as a 4-12-0. It probably didn’t work

out very well and was eventually converted

to a conventional American 4-4-0.

The next one was built for the

McCloud River Railroad who wanted

a double ended locomotive that was

operated from a single cab. There

were two boilers and two sets of con-

trols so that it could be run in either

direction without having to turn it

around on a turntable. It was eventu-

ally divided into two separate locomo-

tives.

The last one was a locomotibe built

for the Minneapolis, Lyndale, and Min-

netonka railroad in 1886. It was

called a “Soda Motor” and is an exam-

ple of how weird things got. When

you mix baking soda with vinegar, you

get CO2 (carbon dioxide) as a byprod-

uct. Put the combination in a pres-

sure vessle and you get enough pres-

sure to actually drive a set of pistons.

Ohh Kayyy, so what do you do with

the resulting mixture that is left be-

hind from the chemical reaction. It

was short lived.

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Upcoming Shows / Events: June 13-14, Model Train Days at Painesville Rail-

road Museum. REVISED DATE

July 18, Trains and Toy Swap Meet, Jefferson, Ohio

Cancelled

July 25, HoBo Day, Painesville Railroad Museum

Aug. 30, Railroad Memorabilia Show, Painesville

Railroad Museum.

Be sure to check www.cleveshows.com for the most com-

plete list of NE Ohio Train and Toy Shows!

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NEXT MEETING: May Meeting is Canceled

Due to the Corvid-19 Virus, May Meeting is Canceled,

CVSG

Jim Futules,

PO Box 291

TALLMADGE, OH 44278