Houston Area G Gaugers
Club polos are IN
If you ordered a club polo shirt and haven't picked it up or made other arrangements, let Brenda know your plans.
If you ordered a club polo shirt and haven't picked it up or made other arrangements, let Brenda know your plans.
e-mail Brenda
Here is a tour of Club members railroads
Charlie Caggiano's world
Abita Springs & Brazos River Bill Rickert
KD Rail end of an era 2012-2017
John Franks's Railroad
To all members, want to show case your railroad?
Are you ready to share your railroad with the world? Send me a back story and pictures of your world and I will give you your own page for the world (those train folks that visit our site) to see all that you have done.
My email is
jdmitchell@nwcable.net
HAGG Members run you trains at RRM
RRM loves it when we come by to run trains. You can run your own trains or the museum's trains. RRM is open Wedesday - Sunday and they are always looking for folks to
play operate trains on the garden railroad. You can also help with the upkeep of the railroad, work on the museum's rolling stock and help train the others to run the railroad. Call Greg today.
Members Only
This section is for HAGG Club Members only. You must have a passwork to access this section
Galveston Train Museum Train Show
The Show is days away. We will load up the Show Railroad on Thursday Apr 26 at Life Storage. We want to load up early to double check the new control panel. We will be setting up the Show Railroad on Saturday morning at Galveston Train Museum, Apr 28. The show is on Saturday and Sunday, April 28 & 29. So, watch your e-mail for the times for loading and setup. Bring your trains and let just have a grand time. I you have not been to this show or it has been a while I would like to encourage you make plans to attend, this is a fun show.
We Have a New Control Panel
As most of you know, one of the wheels broke on the control panel while loading up for the Stafford Train Show. We made it to the show and the control panel worked with one corner propped up with a brick and piece of wood. Phil MacDonald volunteered to take the control panel home and fix the wheel. He did a few other things and now our control panel is a piece of furniture. It really looks nice and it will be a show piece at the train show.
As you can see Phil really worked his magic and reworked the cabinet. He stained it and it is now ready for the Galveston Train Show. Well done, Phil, his smile says it all. When people see this at the shows I'll bet they will sit up and take notice.
Greater Houston Train Show
The Greater Houston Train Show held at The Stafford Center in Stafford Texas was a successful show. Even though we did not pick up any new members we had another good show. Once again, we had a good turnout for set up and tare down. We had plenty of HAGG members on hand during the show to answer questions. Before the show we were a little worried that we would not have enough trains to run. That was not the case. We had more than enough. Thanks to all the members who brought trains to the show. The control panel although not finished yet also worked out well.
The set up went very smooth. All track power problems seemed to be resolved. We still have a couple of switches that could not be thrown from the control panel but that did not interfere with operations. We simply used our 18 volt fingers to throw the points on the switches that were not working. Jim Mitchell and Greg Cauthen will look at that. I trust they will solve the problem.
Tare down was amazing! We performed like a well-oiled machine. From the time we stared to the closing of the trailer door took 35 minutes. We were all packed up and ready to ride in record time. I always knew this club had the potential of being a class act. The appearance of our layout and the effort put forth by our members proves it JOB WELL DONE!
There was however one thing that bothered me a little. During the show while discussing our layout, control panel, track connections, rail alignment, etc., I heard the comment “that’s good enough” a couple of times. For this club “good enough” is not good enough. Perfect is good enough. Or at least as perfect as we can get. We need to change our way of thinking.
The sponsors of the show (The San Jacinto Model Railroad Club) were pleased with the turnout. They reported an attendance of about 1,150. That was a little down from last year but they were still happy.
I would like to list all of the names of the members who showed up for this show but I’m afraid I might miss someone. I certainly don’t want to do that. At future shows and events, I would like to have a sign in sheet so we can give special recognition to those who participate in the events. Participation is key to any successful organization. If you have not participated recently, come on out and see how much we have grown.
I think we should take a few minutes to pat ourselves on the back for our accomplishments at The World’s Greatest Hobby Show and the Greater Houston Train Show but then it’s back to work. Our next show will be in Galveston at the Galveston Railroad Museum on April 28th and 29th. Your officers are already talking about what has to be done to make that another great show. Please remember we need your help. Any ideas or suggestions are welcome.
Mark your calendars for Sunday, February 25th. That will be a HAGG run day at The Rosenberg Railroad Museum. Come on out to run trains and visit with other HAGG members.
Also mark your calendars for Saturday, April 14th for RailFest at The Rosenberg Railroad Museum. That’s always a fun day.
Side Note: I am going to call another meeting of the by-laws committee to meet at the museum before we run trains on run day. I think with one more meeting we can have the preliminary copy of the by-laws completed and ready to send out to the members of the club.
Special Note to Keith and Donalda Stratton…….WE MISSED YOU GUYS!
Craig Pecora
President
The Greater Houston Train Show held at The Stafford Center in Stafford Texas was a successful show. Even though we did not pick up any new members we had another good show. Once again, we had a good turnout for set up and tare down. We had plenty of HAGG members on hand during the show to answer questions. Before the show we were a little worried that we would not have enough trains to run. That was not the case. We had more than enough. Thanks to all the members who brought trains to the show. The control panel although not finished yet also worked out well.
The set up went very smooth. All track power problems seemed to be resolved. We still have a couple of switches that could not be thrown from the control panel but that did not interfere with operations. We simply used our 18 volt fingers to throw the points on the switches that were not working. Jim Mitchell and Greg Cauthen will look at that. I trust they will solve the problem.
Tare down was amazing! We performed like a well-oiled machine. From the time we stared to the closing of the trailer door took 35 minutes. We were all packed up and ready to ride in record time. I always knew this club had the potential of being a class act. The appearance of our layout and the effort put forth by our members proves it JOB WELL DONE!
There was however one thing that bothered me a little. During the show while discussing our layout, control panel, track connections, rail alignment, etc., I heard the comment “that’s good enough” a couple of times. For this club “good enough” is not good enough. Perfect is good enough. Or at least as perfect as we can get. We need to change our way of thinking.
The sponsors of the show (The San Jacinto Model Railroad Club) were pleased with the turnout. They reported an attendance of about 1,150. That was a little down from last year but they were still happy.
I would like to list all of the names of the members who showed up for this show but I’m afraid I might miss someone. I certainly don’t want to do that. At future shows and events, I would like to have a sign in sheet so we can give special recognition to those who participate in the events. Participation is key to any successful organization. If you have not participated recently, come on out and see how much we have grown.
I think we should take a few minutes to pat ourselves on the back for our accomplishments at The World’s Greatest Hobby Show and the Greater Houston Train Show but then it’s back to work. Our next show will be in Galveston at the Galveston Railroad Museum on April 28th and 29th. Your officers are already talking about what has to be done to make that another great show. Please remember we need your help. Any ideas or suggestions are welcome.
Mark your calendars for Sunday, February 25th. That will be a HAGG run day at The Rosenberg Railroad Museum. Come on out to run trains and visit with other HAGG members.
Also mark your calendars for Saturday, April 14th for RailFest at The Rosenberg Railroad Museum. That’s always a fun day.
Side Note: I am going to call another meeting of the by-laws committee to meet at the museum before we run trains on run day. I think with one more meeting we can have the preliminary copy of the by-laws completed and ready to send out to the members of the club.
Special Note to Keith and Donalda Stratton…….WE MISSED YOU GUYS!
Craig Pecora
President
See more pictures of the Stafford Train Show