The Golden Empire Historical & Modeling Society (GEHAMS) of Bakersfield will host the winter meet of the Daylight Division on Saturday, February 6th. The meet will be held at the Society’s downtown Bakersfield clubhouse, located on the 2nd and 3rd floors of the commercial building on the northeast corner of 19th and Eye Streets. The GEHAMS clubhouse will be open up at around 8:00 AM, with sign-in for the meet beginning around 10:00 AM. Don’t forget to bring along your favorite model for the Favorite Model Contest. The meeting will be held on the 2nd floor of the clubhouse in the back of the N scale layout.
GEHAMS boasts two large layouts - HO and N Scale. The 3rd floor HO layout, is approximately 35 by 100 feet. Two large yards are located at each end of the layout, with several industries located in between. The layout is a work-in-progress, but fully operational. Several scenery projects are under way. Digitrax DCC powers both layouts. Guests are welcome to run their power, as long as the locomotives have DCC decoders installed. If any of you have Digitrax throttles, especially DT400Rs, please bring them along with your locomotives. The HO layout has enough rolling stock that you won’t need to bring any. The N scale layout is 18 by 80 feet, and includes a scaled-down version of the Tehachapi Loop. We have extensive scenery work going on and I think most of you will be pleasantly surprised at the scenery that has been accomplished since your last visit. Anyone who models in N scale is welcome to bring their decoder-equipped locomotives and run them along the 15 scale miles of mainline from Bakersfield to Mojave.
We have one clinic scheduled, but it is 1-½ hours long! The clinic will start at 10:30 AM. The guest clinic presenter, Matthew Graff, will conduct a clinic on building a make-and-take HO logging bunkhouse on sleds. He wants to present some history along with pictures at the outset. If anyone wants to construct a kit as Matthew gives the clinic, the cost per kit will be $20.00. The kit is made up of quite a bit of strip wood. Bring your favorite pen knife/cutting tool, along with glue and sand paper. Some glue and sand paper will be provided. The time allotted will allow for some basic construction. Participants will take their kits home to complete. Only 20 kits will be available. Sign up now by letting Jay Smith know you are interested. You may contact Jay by email at jayaiki@comcast.net, or call Doug Wagner at (661) 589-0391. First come, first served.
The business meeting will be held after the clinic. Be sure to bring along your brown-paper or newspaper wrapped items for the Daylight’s World Famous White Elephant Auction. After the White Elephant Auction, we’ll break for food and/or the layout tours. Those who wish may stay around and run on the layouts. If anyone wants to know about a particular restaurant, please email Doug Wagner at carldw@aol.com, or phone at (661) 589-0391.
There are 2 layouts on tour HO and N scales. The HO layout is Larry Saslaw’s 12 by 22 foot HO scale layout of Southern Pacific’s route over Dunsmuir, California. Larry has scratchbuilt several of the structures on the layout from actual SP plans, including the Dunsmuir roundhouse. Larry models 1954 and 1996. He will also display an N scale modular layout, depicting the SP’s route over Donner Summit complete with snow sheds and the Yolo Bypass Bridge over the Sacramento River, between Davis and Sacramento.
Two N scale layouts will be shown by Kevin Birkbeck. The first is a shelf layout and the second is a small portable layout. Each layout is DC, freelanced and centered roughly in the 60’s. The shelf layout is in a 10 x 10 foot library room at an elevation of about 54 inches. Its average depth is 12- 14 inches, except at each end where the layout loops to make a continuous mainline run. In addition, there is a fiddle yard at one end. Kevin has squeezed a lot of railroad into a rather limited space. There are some scratch built buildings and several kitbashed buildings. Kevin runs mostly diesels on the layouts. The portable layout is complete and the shelf layout is about two-thirds completed. Maps to these layouts will be available after the business meeting. Unfortunately, Bakersfield no longer has a train shop, nor for that matter, a hobby shop that deals with model railroading. The closest one is Trains, Etc., in Tehachapi.
If you are coming into Bakersfield from either north or south on Highway 99, take the Highway 178-East/Rosedale Highway Exit. Highway 178-East is also 24th Street as it travels through downtown Bakersfield. Go east on 24th Street to Eye Street. Turn right (south) on Eye Street. After crossing over 20th Street, you may park on Eye Street.
If you are coming from the east on Highway 58, take the Chester Ave./H Street exit. Turn right onto Chester and go to 20th Street. Turn left at 20th Street and go one block to Eye Street. Turn left and park on Eye Street.
If you are traveling from the Lake Isabella area, on Highway 178, continue west on Highway 178 through downtown Bakersfield to Eye Street. Turn left (south) on Eye Street. After crossing 20th Street, park on Eye Street.
The GEHAMS clubhouse is on the second and third floors of the green building at the northeast corner of 19th and Eye Streets, in downtown Bakersfield. In the alley that runs to the north of 19th Street and east from Eye Street toward Chester Ave., you will see an open door behind the green building. Enter the door and walk up the flight of stairs. If you are unable to walk up the flight of stairs, there is a red doorbell button next to the freight elevator at the left of the door. Ring the bell and we’ll bring the elevator down to get you.
We hope a lot of you will come to the meet and visit our club to see what we’ve done since your last visit. You’ll also see a couple of great home layouts and an in-home Southern Pacific museum! For more information, call Doug Wagner at (661) 589-0391, or e-mail carldw@aol.com. See you in Bakersfield.