Summer 2008 Vol. XXXVI, No. 2

Messages from President Ken Donnelly... As we pass the mid-year point for 2008, it is only fitting that the members of the Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Historical Society receive an update on where the Society and its business stand for the year.  While such items as membership renewals have stabilized nicely, cash flow is very favorable and the Publications Committee has performed quite well, there have been a few disappointments.

Our S040 Repainting Program for the Kato S040's has been slowed by a number of factors, most of which are out of the Society's control.  The biggest problem has been the availability of time for the project on the part of our outside vendors.  This is not meant to imply that they have been lax in attending to our needs, but rather through no fault on anyone's part, they have become paradoxically, hard to pin down because of their extremely fine work.  Whereas we at one time had them pretty much to ourselves, now in 2008, other organizations have discovered them as well.  The end result being that finding time for all the various projects from numerous customers has made it increasingly difficult for the Society to get its painting/lettering projects completed in what once was an acceptable amount of time.  The prime example being the S040 Repainting Program, where completely new graphics had to be drawn from EMD lettering diagrams and photos and new printing sequences and techniques had to be implemented.  If you are a participant in this program, please bear with us!  We haven’t forgotten about you and we are pushing our vendors as hard as we can.

Another area of concern was the transfer of Society investments from one brokerage house to another earlier this year.  This was due to the downturn in the market and our displeasure concerning the investment performance we experienced with the old broker.  While the situation is not at all an unfavorable one, it nonetheless took up considerable Society man-hours to study, and act upon.  As your President, I can tell you that those investments are safe and secure in low risk ventures where we will closely monitor them until the market again upturns.  An evaluation will then be made for any strategy change in the way that these Society funds are invested.

Putting all of the above aside, I want to wish all of you a safe and happy summer.  It is undeniably the best time of the year so experience and enjoy everything you can during these glorious, yet fleeting, months from June to September.  As I’ve always maintained, go out and have some fun.  The Society will be here whenever you are ready to once again check out the NEWS or the website.  Of course, don't forget to order the Society items you want first as they never last long.  Oh yeah!  I also hope to see you at the 36th Annual Meeting of the Society being held in Union City, Tenn. over the weekend of October 10-12, 2008!

Messages from Secretary Marc Liberta... Nominations are now being accepted for the five seats on the 2009 Board of Directors as well as the offices of Secretary and Treasurer (the offices of President and Vice President are two year terms which are elected in odd numbered years).  Please send all written nominations to; Election 2009, P.O. Box 1753, Marion, IL 62959.  A simple statement for the desired candidate and your signature is all that is required to nominate a willing member. Electronic submissions are acceptable, as well.  Current Board Members are required to submit their names if they wish to run again for a seat on the BOD.  All nominations must be received by August 10, 2008.

I would just like to again welcome all of our new members that have joined since the beginning of the year.  Whether you discovered us through our website, have a friend who is a member, or responded to a brochure or postcard that you picked up, we’re very glad to have you with us.  Also, it is good to have with us again the members that we lost track of for a year or two.  Glad we’ve reconnected!

In Memoriam... The Society wishes to express our condolences to the family and friends of Member Ron McClean of Braceville, IL who passed away in March.  Both Ron’s father and grandfather had worked for the GM&O and Ron had been a member of the Society for over a quarter century.

Video Tidbits... A DVD entitled, The History of American Railroads-The Era of Diesel from Columbia River Entertainment Group has close to half an hour of footage of the GM&O in the late 1960's and early 1970's in and around St. Louis, shot by Jerry Carson.  It is available from www.allegromusic.com for only $6.39 plus shipping.  Look for product no. 500077.

Publications Committee Report by Dave Wagner... Enclosed with this Switchlist is Issue 118 of the NEWS.  You may have noticed that once again we have produced a 32-page issue for the membership.  As you know, our commitment for the membership year is to publish at least 80 pages of the NEWS.  I am happy to say that we will exceed that goal this year since Issue 119 scheduled for mailing later this year will be a 24-page issue meaning that we will publish a total of 88 pages for 2008.

This is quite an accomplishment and my thanks go out to the authors, artists, researchers and photographers that made this year possible.  Also thanks to Mike Schafer and his staff in Lee, IL.  Great job everyone!

As always, we are in need of articles to fill the pages of upcoming issues of the NEWS.  If you have an idea, please contact me at 773-581-4809 or via the web at dpwagner236@hotmail.com.  I will be glad to listen and work with you to get a story into the NEWS.

Modeling Committee Report by the staff... We have a lot to discuss model-wise this issue.  First of all, Society car project GM&OHS#33 was mailed out on Saturday June 28th to all the members that had purchased a set (or two) after the last mailing.  You should have received your cars by now and hopefully you have them assembled and running on your layouts.  As you know, we produced only 50 sets and most of them were shipped out already.  We do, however (at the time of this writing), have about a half-dozen sets still available.  If you are interested, please check out the Society's website for additional ordering information.

President Ken Donnelly gave you an update on the S040 Repainting Program on page one of this Switchlist so we will move along to another upcoming Society project.

As you know, the 36th Annual Meeting of the Society will take place over the weekend of October 10-12, 2008 at the Hampton Inn and Conference Centre at 2201 W. Reelfoot Road (U.S. 51) in Union City, TN.  In anticipation of this event, we have commissioned a special run of Classic Metal Works HO and N scale trucks, tractors and trailers lettered for Gulf Transport, the trucking subsidiary of the GM&O.

Each set (HO or N) will include two single axle tractors, one van (or box trailer if you prefer), one covered wagon (flat bed with side kit and tarp) trailer and a single axle straight job box truck.  The artwork is being drawn from photos of GT equipment which we have recently acquired.

IF...we have any sets remaining after the Union City Show, they will be made available on a first come, first served basis to the members that could not make it to the event.

Now for two reviews...With all the dismal attempts to emulate GM&O freight cars in HO scale out there, (boxcars in particular, and Athearn being the number one culprit), it is great to be able to put together a few nice words when reviewing a new product that's lettered for the GM&O. Kadee Cars of White City, OR is the recipient of our praise and well deserved it is.  As with past GM&O PS-1’s from Kadee, this new model is not only perfect in almost every aspect but it also represents a totally new direction for Kadee.  Whereas in the past, Kadee was content with covering the pre-1962, brown GM&O PS-1’s, the new model is an extremely faithful replica of the modern, green GM&O 50 foot boxcars from Pullman-Standard. Car no. 59661 is from the September 1963 series of cars that still featured roof walks and full length ladders as well as friction bearing trucks.  The color and graphics are spot on, as is the door and gussets that were a common feature on all GM&O boxcars.  The sliding sill of the Hydroframe 60 undercarriage actually works, although it remains to be seen what a string of ten cars in a train might behave like.  All detail pieces are exquisite and correct to the prototype.  The only complaint you will have won't be the price, as the model is worth every penny of its $32.95 MSRP, but rather that Kadee produced only one car number.

For those of you that ordered your Ajin-built Ingalls 4S diesels we are sure that this review will come as no surprise to you.  After a much anticipated wait (nearly four years), these unique locomotives finally made it into our hands in March of this year.  Though they were originally to be imported by Global Outlet, they came in under the Ampolex banner.  They are still the same high quality locomotives we had been expecting all along, just from a different importer.

We are fortunate to be able to review all three paint schemes, the Ingalls Demonstrator, the original GM&O two-tone red and maroon and of course the bright red scheme in which no. 1900 finished its career.

The paint is absolutely perfect, especially when it comes to the shades of red and maroon.  The maroon is the “plum maroon" of the Southern Region, not the "brown maroon" associated with the Alton end of the railroad. The bright red is exactly that.  We suggested to the manufacturer early on that they should use a light gray primer to bring out the red and it appears they heeded our advice.

The lettering was created from photos found in Issue 42 of the GM&OHS NEWS, which told the complete story of this unique locomotive.  As a result, the model is correct in every aspect.

This unit is a typical Ajin-built four axle diesel.  It runs well whether you are rolling along the mainline or performing switching duties.  Overall, the performance is above average.  It was able to pull 28 cars up a 2.75 percent grade on our club layout before it began to slip.  During yard duties we were flat switching cuts of 35 or more cars with ease.  We have spoken to a few modelers that have obtained a 4S and they have added ballast, thus attaining somewhat enhanced performance with the model.

Ampolex still has a few units in stock and if you wish to finally acquire one, please contact them via the web.

New Products... Atlas has announced the November 2008 release of GP38-2 units in N Scale.  There are to be three road numbers, nos. 740, 741 and 746, two of which will be available with factory installed DCC.

The Switchlist is a quarterly publication of the Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Historical Society, Inc. and is provided as a benefit of membership.  The Switchlist is produced for the purpose of increasing communication between members and is edited, except where noted, by Dave Wagner.  Members with information suitable for publication in the Switchlist should forward it to; GM&OHS Switchlist, P.O. Box 1753, Marion, IL. 62959.