He's Back for a Return Engagement: Gerry Willis is Our Newest Active Member

Gerry Willis

No stranger to the HP, Gerry Willis returned to club membership following a teaching career in Nevada and Sacramento. An early member from 1973-1984, he remembered stringing block wire and throwing plaster around Pinehurst when trains could be seen from cab one.

Currently the band director at Duarte High School, he is an accomplished conductor and composer for public schools, universities and professional orchestras. Further, Gerry has composed music for several computer games.

Most importantly, he is an avid fan of the Rio Grande railroad, and looks forward to running his cars with new metal wheel sets that pass inspection. We all look forward seeing to his aging equipment that runs without derailing.

Gerry Willis was (re)voted in as an Active Member of Society at the January 2018 Quarterly Business Meeting. Welcome back Gerry!

New Videos Added

The Videos page of the club's Web site has recently been refreshed and a number of new videos have been added. Videos included feature action on or about the club's large and eminently accessible layout. 

Ray Olesen, long-time member and recent retiree from Amtrak, has become the club's unofficial documentarian of Highland Pacific Railroad Annual Open House. There are now 8 videos that document the club's Open Houses back to 2010. 

Check them out on the Videos page.

Full Timetable Operations Scheduled for January 31st

Calling all Highland Pacific Crew and Guests ...

Van Facko, Founding Member

Reminder that Wednesday, January 31, 2018 is again a 5th Wednesday of the month and is the Quarterly Railroad Operation Session. We will begin scheduled operations at 8:00 P.M.

Come by early for orientation on the Rights of Trains and to begin assembling trains in the yards. We will utilize Time Table No. 10 for mainline operations.  There will be plenty of trains to run over the railroad with extras added to the dispatchers train line up and local operations via the Blue Island, Doring, and Pinehurst locals. Also available will be Commuter lines, both Metrolink and Bayshore Valley Traction running from Bayshore to Del Mar.

There are yard positions available at Bayshore, Vista Yard, West End Yard, Roundhouse and Delmar Passenger Terminal.  Yard operators will be assembling trains for departures and receiving incoming trains with cars that will need to switched out for the local deliver. 

Both DC and DCC locomotives will be used in the operating session utilizing the block control assignments.

Timetable No. 10 can be downloaded here (click anywhere on the green text).  Timetable 10 is based upon a train line up prepared by Van Facko, one of the Club's founding members. Copies will be available at the operating session.

Future Operating Session for this year will be on May 30, August 29, and October 31, 2018. Mark your calendar.

James Keena
Paymaster

HPRR Annual Banquet Set for January 13

Come one, come all, but come.

The Highland Park Society of Model Railroad Engineers, Inc. will hold its Annual Awards Banquet on Saturday, January 13, 2018 beginning at 6 PM, at the Villa Catrina in Arcadia. Click this for directions from the club to the restaurant.

Dinner will cost $25/person; pay your share to James Keena, Paymaster before the banquet.

Thanks to Steve and Holly Smith for organizing the banquet again. 

Photo of HPRR Doodlebug Wins Photo Award

Doodlebug at Bayshore

A miniature picture of Doodlebug at Bayshore has won an Honorable Mention Award for Arie Korporaal. The miniatiue print, mounted on an easel, won the award in the Photography category at the Whittier Art Gallery Miniature Show. 

Arie has won awards in the same show 3 years in a row, all images were taken on the club's layout and feature Bayshore Depot, Greely Diesel Facility, and this of James Keena's HPRR Doodlebug. 

Open House is Around the Bend

Make it a model railroad grand tour next weekend. 

The Highland Park Society of Model Railroad Engineers, Inc., operators of the Mighty Highland Pacific Railroad, will be hosting their 69th Annual Open House on the following dates:

• Wednesday, November 1, 2017 from 7:00 to 10:00 P.M.
• Saturday, November 4, 2017 from 12:00 to 5:00 P.M.
• Sunday, November 5, 2017 from 12:00 to 5:00 P.M.

Start at the Highland Pacific Railroad and take in some or all of these events on the same weekend:

• Arnie's Trains will have their anniversary event on Saturday, November 4, 2017. This is co-sponsored by the Cajon, Los Angeles and San Diego Divisions of the NMRA.
• The Santa Susana Train Depot will have their swap meet the morning of Saturday, November 4th.
• Glendale Mode Railroad Club will also have an open house the same weekend.
• The La Mesa Model Railroad Club has their November on "Tehachapi Operation Event" the same weekend.

Lots to pick and chose from. Make it a family day at the railroad!

--James Keena, Reporter

Southern Pacific Bicentennial Engine Travels to Bayshore

SP GT40T-2 Bicentennial locomotive. David Dodds, modeler.

Southen Pacific's #3197 GT40T-2 Bicentennial locomotive made an appearance on Highland Pacific trackage at the Wednesday, July 19th meeting. David Dodds, modeler, had his engine pulling a 3-car "Officers Special" over the layout. 

David Dodds, Bruce Turner, Jacob Thrasher, March Thrasher (Dispatcher), manned the cabs for a full night of model railroad operation. 

If you missed, come down to see, and hear, Dodd's latest modeling efforts. 

Summer Train Fest–Saturday, July 15th

Take a journey through time at the Union Station Summer Train Fest, a free family event featuring a rare collection of beautifully restored vintage train engines, a Kids Zone, Model Trains, LA’s hottest Food Trucks and Live Entertainment.

Santa Fe 3751 Redondo Turntable Night Photography

The San Bernardino Railroad Historical Society (SBRHS), in cooperation with Amtrak, is excited to announce the chance to photograph Santa Fe 3751 at night on the original, Santa Fe Railway Redondo turntable inside Amtrak’s Los Angeles maintenance yard on the evening of July 15, 2017 from 7:00 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. During this session, the first formal session in the 18 years 3751 has been based out of Redondo, the locomotive will be staged in a variety of different poses both on and around the turntable during this rare opportunity to step inside Amtrak’s active maintenance yard.

Western Pacific Runs Over HPRR Track

David Dodds, modeler, Highland Pacific Railroad

Modeler Marc Thrasher shared two photos of Western Pacific locos crossing over Boggs Bridge. Dave Dodds is the modeler of this fallen flag. 

Trains were running according to  Highland Pacific Railroad recently released Timetable No. 9. The timetable updates the realities of running trains over certain sections of the layout, accounts for full freight yards, and "builds in time" and makes allowances for difficulties in making up some trains in certain yards. 

Come down and join the fun. Next full-layout timetable operating session is scheduled for Wednesday, August 30, 2017. We start operating at 7 pm.  Be there or be square.