It’s April and I’ve heard on the news that there is someone out there who is trying to sue Punxsutawney Phil for breach of contract. His prediction for an early spring was a little off this year. But with it being April, I hope our warm spring weather can’t be far off no matter what Phil has predicted.

I would like to thank Dick and Jean Fornwalt for hosting the March meeting at their store in Tarentum. I have never seen a pizza as large as the one we had Saturday. When Al Hartman was having trouble gets it thru the door it was too funny. As for the idea of building a modular layout, we all agreed that we need to work on putting together a lot more information and set some standards on how to go about building it before anything can be done.

Gene and Caryll Linck were given their five year membership pins a little late, two years late. We are sorry we missed giving them to you two years ago. I have no way of knowing if any of our members missed getting their pins. If you have any questions about membership pins please let me know and we’ll try to answer them for you. Being a member of any organization or club for five, ten, or fifteen years is something to be proud of, and I think it says something about that organization too.

In attendance at March meeting were Donald Goodwin, Jack Pyle, Dave & Lois Bodnar, Ed Banks, John & Tina Weimer, Dick & Jean Fornwalt, Shirley & Allen Hartman, Bill & Claudette Malick, Jan Vogt, Ann &Ed Celento, Gene & Caryll Linck, and Keith Baggus. The lucky winner of the 50/50 was Caryll Linck.  Congratulation Caryll.

Our next meeting will be at the Stewart’s in Greensburg, April 20^th 10am to 2pm please keep in mind this is a working meeting to help in getting their railroad up and running, and ready for a garden show later this month on the 27^th.  Please wear work clothes and bring any tools that you may need for this project. We will also be moving buildings from winter storage and doing any related repairs to them, so there will be some work that can be done sitting down for any who can’t get down on the ground. At the March meeting we decided to help Alycefaye out with lunch instead of her providing lunch as planned.  We will all be bring our own lunch, and be brown bagging it. The Weimers will provide the drinks. Please keep Paul and Alycefaye in your prayers and if you have a get well card to send to them I know it would be greatly appreciated.

The show that we are helping the Stewart’s get ready for is the Fifth Annual Model Railroad Home Tour sponsored by The Ligonier Valley Rail Road Association on April 27^th from 9am until 4pm. The tour will visit multiple layouts and displays in Westmoreland County. Ticket prices are: $15 adults and $5 child under 16. Tickets are advance sale only, and only 300 will be sold. No tickets will be sold after April 20. For more information and tickets go to http://www.lvrra.org/ or call (724)238-7819.

With the coming of summer some of us will be starting to make plans for vacation. This year marks the anniversary of few events in railroading you may want to make part of your vacation planning. . The first that I know about is CASS PARK 50^th ANNIVERSARY EVENT. They are celebrating with a Rail fan weekend May 16^th and 17^th-19^th with special Photo setups three different nights. Multiple Ruby with freight and passenger trains to Spruce, Old Spruce. Bald Knob, Whittaker, S-Curve, Leatherbark Creek, Gun Field. Iconic triple locomotive Ruby. Includes commemoratives, evening whistle blow, shop and town tours. Full information, http://www.msrlha.org/  or by calling 1-800-225-5982

The second is the 100th birthday of Grand Centennial Station. More than 750,000 passengers pass through its doors boarding 292 departures daily. The complex covers more than 50 acres and stretches nearly 15 city blocks from bumping post to yard limits. Touted as the “World’s Greatest Railroad Station", built at a cost of $3 million (roughly $52 million today) in 1913. If any you are vacationing in New York you may want to include a visit and see some of the extensive renovations of the historic terminal. The $197 million project included the cleaning and repair of all surfaces as well as the creation of new retail space within the terminal. The most dramatic change was the cleansing of the constellation mural.

Last for all our History buffs is the 150^th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg. The Northern Central is one of America’s oldest railroads, having been chartered in 1832 as the Baltimore & Susquehanna and completed in 1838. It was an important transportation link during the Civil War, moving material and troops during the conflict and also evacuating wounded after the battle.

To help in the celebrating of the 150^th anniversary Steam Into History, a tax-exempt, nonprofit educational organization, will begin to run steam-powered excursions over ten miles of the route in June, (the dinner train last traversed this route more than ten year ago). Three times a day, a newly-built replica of Northern Central Railroad 4-4-0 No.17 the York will pull a passenger train a Civil War-era combine and three coaches. For more information on this new steam-powered excursions go to http://www.steamintohistory.com/.  If you are interested in more information on the build of the locomotive No.17 York go to http://leviathan63.com/  

Ed Celento reports that A.B. Charles Hobby Shop in Mt. Lebanon is moving to a new location in Peters Township, at the McDowell shops off Route 19 (Washington Road), down from K-Mart next to the Dollar Tree in a space where Century Sports once existed.  It will open in two to three weeks. Hours at the new store will be 10am to 8pm Monday through Saturday and likely 11am to 4pm Sunday. All businesses in that strip mall must be open seven days a week except for major holidays. Thanks for the information Ed.  It’s good to know that Charles Hobby is just moving and not closing. I started going to  A. B. Charles Hobby shop when I was just a kid back in the sixties..