2018 O.C.M.E. Board of Directors

George Shearer.....( 714) 898-7275 Ken Matassa Bob Harrison........(714) 504-0291 Allen Stephens......(714) 533-4774 Paul Hammond....(818) 620-3480 Appointed Officers: Mackerel Flats Mercantile Store Co-Mgrs: Betty Cummings..*82(714) 979-9390 Stefanie Drake ..........(714) 315-6296

Way Freight Patrick Ledbetter ocmenews@aol.com

Contents

Upcoming Events 1

OCME Board of Directors 1

Dates to remember 1

President’s Message 2

High Iron 2

I’ve been working 3

Birthday Party’s 3

Classification Yard 3

DATES TO REMEMBER April 7

Work Day 8:00 AM. General Meeting 12:00 PM - Club house

Board Meeting 3:00 April 21-22

Sat. & Sun Public Run May 5

Work Day 8:00 AM. General Meeting 12:00 PM - Club house. Lunch at meeting. Board Meeting

May 19-20 Sat. & Sun Public Run

Special Events This Month

Public Run Day’s Work Day

WAY FREIGHT April 2018

Volume 35, Issue 4

The gandy dancers were really productive this work day. Approximately 240 feet of track were laid before lunch. If you walk the track south bound around the inner loop you will now be stepping along new track from engineer’s rest all the way across the bridge , around the water tower and back to the station. Soon you will be able to walk new track from the station south bound down the switchback, up Higgens, along the inner loop and back to engineer’s rest. The club has accomplished a lot. We have almost completed the total track replacement for the normal public run day train rides. Today’s track crew consisted of Andy Romer, Jeff Garrett, Luis Aguirre, Kevin Tolan, Jeff Tolan, David Smith, Lori Johnson, Jim Marsden, Dennis and Joshua Neil, Larry Ogle, Jayson Stevenson, Kyler Stevenson,Terry Koken and Bob Brooks. Hailey and Jayson Stevenson also replaced bridge railing that vandals had destroyed. Gary Kimble and Olga Reynolds were busy disassembling and salvaging the old track. Myron Peterson was busy working on the switches and showing a new club member, Gary Gorman, how we build switches. The next main line track replacement will be from the station south to the main crossing. We have lots of sidings to replace before we are done. Thank you one and all for your continued effort. Bob Brooks

Track Talk www.ocmetrains.org

Riders This Month

2162

We’ll, we ended up having more rain last month so the park is still nice and green. Unfortunately though, the majority of the rain was on weekends and we had to cancel most of the birthday parties, which took a big bite out of our revenue stream for the month. Luckily the monthly work day and public run weekend had clear skies. With the rain also come the weeds, so Hank Castignetti is on top of spraying the right-of-ways to make sure the main rails stay clear of foliage. With all the greenery around,

A FIRST CLASS RAILROAD BY PRESIDENT GEORGE SHEARER

High Iron By Bob Harrison

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the squirrels are out in force now and we are continually back-filling holes under the rails and roadbed. Club Work Day saw clear skies which allowed for track work and miscellaneous work around the compound. Most of the work concentrated on building track panels. The wooden sheds along the west fence near the walk-thru gate had become infested with bees again and a few members were stung on work day. We’ve had Bee Busters out a few times since then and as of the last Saturday in March the bees are gone. On Tuesday March 13th we got a few trains out and the club hosted rides for our park administrator Cynthia D’Agosta and about 60 other park administrators from around the state. The administrators were attending a professional conference in Long Beach and Cynthia was giving a tour of Fairview Park and had made arrangements with the club to provide the train rides. This was a big promotion for the park and OCME. The event went well and we received many nice compliments. Regarding Cynthia and the park, the City of Costa Mesa wants to keep better track of public use of Fairview Park. Any group wanting to use the park for anything from nature walks to birthday parties must apply for a permit from the city. Yes, that means anyone wanting to book a birthday party with OCME must also apply for a permit. The permits are free and Betty Cummings is sending a permit application to everyone that books a party with us. It will then be the responsibility of the person booking the party to also return the application to the city. We’re told that these rules apply to other city parks as well. Continued in Classification yard

Goathill News

We owe Jason Stevenson a great deal of thanks for providing and installing the lockers in the Club House. These lockers provide a secure place to put personal items while working at the railroad. The two wooden sheds have been placed on Craigslist to receive new homes. We have had a lot of interested new owners, but only two who have the proper equipment for removal. Removal will take place as soon as the bees are permanently removed

The April Public Ride Weekend is our special Annual Pump-In event. We expect a variety of activities as in past years, please consult the website for current status. This is also Earth Day Weekend and there will be nature walks and birding tours by other groups in the park. A trained docent will be aboard one of a nature train to describe the birds, animals and plant life in the park. The following are planned activities during the weekend:

• Costa Mesa Fire Department • Crafts for Kids by Carolyn • Face painting by Tiffany • Sensory games for Kids by Kathy & Luis • Ping Pong Sport for All by Luis • Free Fire Truck Rides • Short Wave Radio Operations

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Goathill News

Classification Yard "Where things get sorted out"

Ken Matassa, Dennis Neil, Joshua Neil, George Shearer, Kyler Stevenson*, Lew Erskine, Betty Cummings, Craig Oken, Bob Harrison, Loie Aguirre*, Glenn Swain*, Mike Springer*, Gary Kimble*, Bob Brooks*, Anthony Steinmetz*, Christine Steinmetz*, Lori Johnson*, Mark Johnson*, Jayson Stevenson*, Dixon Sheldon*, Carolyn Hayes*, Joe Hayes*, Allen Stephens, Zach Jones, Stefanie Drake*, Larry Ogle, Lois Taube, Andy Romer, Jeff Tolan, Kevin Tolan, Dane Smith, Hank Castignettie, Paul Hammond, Gary Gorman

I’ve been working on the railroad

Anyone who is a qualified engineer and or conductor please make yourself available for 1 Saturday every 6 months to help with these events. Please contact Larry Ogle at oglerail@gmail.com or call Hank Castignetti at 714-742-2335 The parties are 2 hours long morning and afternoon and plan on an additional 2 hours to setup and put away equipment and yes put out the trash. We are a smile factory, kids of all ages come to us and we do our best to send them off with a smile.

Thank you to our Birthday Party Crews

BIRTHDAY PARTY’S

President's Message Continued As for the public run, we had two sunny days with a constant chilly wind. Despite the wind and threat of rain we ended up pulling 1180 people on Saturday and 982 people on Sunday for a grand total of 2162 people. For all of you steamers, boiler testing will take place on Saturday, April 7th 2018 (the March date was rained out). Remember, you can’t run’em at the club without the

annual boiler certification.

Remember also that Work Day is the first Saturday of the month, April 7th 2018. There is plenty of work to be done, so come on out and join in the fun

O.C.M.E., P.O. Box 3216, Costa Mesa, CA 92628-3216, (949) 54-TRAIN. Our railroad is located in Fairview Park, 2480 Placentia Avenue, Costa Mesa, CA.

If you have any for sale items please send the info to ocmenews@aol.com THE WAY FREIGHT is published by ORANGE COUNTY MODEL ENGINEERS, INC. (OCME), a non-profit California Corporation

which has created THE MACKEREL FLATS & GOAT HILL JCT. RAILROAD in Fairview Park, Costa Mesa, California. It is the intent of OCME to educate and enlighten people of all ages in the rich railroad heritage of the United States of America and other parts of the world. As a qualified non-profit organization, all donations are fully tax deductible under IRS ruling 501 (C) (3). Views and opinions

expressed in THE WAY FREIGHT are not necessarily those of OCME.

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Attention on the Railroad

Way Freight Announcement

Beginning in May the Way Freight will be sent out electronically and will no longer

be sent out in the mail. The OCME Way Freight can be found at www.ocmetrains.org

ORANGE COUNTY MODEL ENGINEERS

P.O. Box 3216

Costa Mesa, CA 92628

Phone: (949) 54-TRAIN

We’re on the Web! www.ocmetrains.org

For Sale: #1185 Santa Fe Locomotive and Engineer Car $8,400.00 See Glenn or George for details

We would like to remind everyone while shopping with Amazon to please use Amazon smile. They donate .05

percent of your purchase to OCME. Please search for Orange County Model Engineers.

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