October 2004 Model Railroader Magazine

[nw-mailing-list at nwhs.org]

At 04:56 PM 8/27/2004 +1200, you wrote:
>I chanced across a copy of the October MR in the local library, and was
>very happy to see an article on Modelling N&W Passenger Ops in the 1950s
>& 60s. I was even happier to see the author was none other than Rich
>Weyand, which gives it extra some credibility.
>
>Great effort Rich. The quick couple of minutes I had to flick through it
>convinced me to buy a copy ASAP. Fellow listmembers who don't subscribe
>(I used to, but we won't go there....) could do worse than to grab a
>copy to add to their reference collections too.

You're very kind, Simon.

I will note a couple of small errors that crept into the article in the publication process.

1) While the Welch sidebar notes that the Arrow was always kept to 7 cars at Welch in order to get the two trains past each other using the 840' siding in Welch (operating under the June 1958 timetable), the final graphic shows twelve cars in each train!  The original artwork from me was seven cars in each train.  Honest.  The art department must have thought the seven car consists looked thin, and didn't check the caption before editing the artwork to 12 cars.

2) The caption on the schedule diagram should note the meet at Welch as ~3:30 PM, not 3:00 PM.  The schedule diagram correctly shows ~3:30 PM.  (The June 1958 timetable gives 3:26 and 3:28 departures.)  My fault: I made the original error writing from memory, and then missed it in my final proofread before submission; the subsequent attempt to fix it slipped through the cracks.

3) In the Cavalier switching diagram in the Williamson sidebar, the caption notes that we will re-order the sleeper, coach, and diner-lounge for the eastbound trip *after* switching the express cars.  The diagram, while showing the express cars being switched, shows the sleeper, coach, and diner-lounge *already* in the correct order for the eastbound train.  They should be captioned in the other order, as they arrived on the westbound train that terminated in Williamson under the June 1958 timetable.  I didn't have these captioned in my original artwork, and the art department captioned them for the eastbound.

Those are the only errors I have seen in the finished product, but they are minor compared to the bigger ones both I and MR made and caught before publication!  And it's always nice to work with the MR staff.  Rick Johnson in the art department and Jim Hediger on the editorial staff did a great job getting my submission publication-ready.

It's also nice that MR gave such a prominent spot in the mag to an article on our N&W.  (It's the lead article of the main editorial content (after the ads), probably because of the two-page lead photo of the Arrow consist on the Reid brothers' beautiful Cumberland Valley System.)  They also left in the two plugs for the N&WHS that I included in the article.

In particular, this newsgroup gave me the answer to how those Arrows got past each other in Welch!  I didn't know about the 840' station track until it was answered on this list by Gordon Hamilton and others.  Thanks again, folks.


Rich Weyand
TracTronics, Incorporated
Electronics for Operations
weyand at rcn.com
www.tractronics.com
630-527-0000