Category: Bill Farrell

Well, it has been hot this summer and it even got hotter last week. On Tuesday afternoon I received a call from Ricky Bivins. He asked me if I had read my emails for Tuesday.  I reply with,” no”.  Then he unloaded a ton of coal on me, with, we lost our meeting place in the Madisonville train depot. Yes, if you have not heard they started renovation on the building last week.

Ricky’s next question was, where are we going to meet for the August meeting? Well, that was another ton of coal dropped on me. Before I could even think Ricky said, we can meet at the airport. Well, with all that coal, now I at least had a shovel to start digging out. So, we will meet at the Madisonville Airport for the August meeting. I have placed time on the agenda for us as a club to discuss the future of where we will meet. I would like for the membership to give it some thought on a good place to meet.

By the time you receive the August issue of the “PennyRail” the third quarter photo contest will be over. I hope everyone had a chance to submit a photo to Jim Pearson. Our next club contest will take place in October from the 1st to the 8th. After the final judging of the pictures we plan on making up a club calendar which can be purchased at our December Christmas Party. Jim has also made reference to selling them online to other individuals who may be interested. Jim will tell us more about that later.

The Christmas Special, at the Parkway Plaza Mall is starting to pick up speed now. James Kemp who is serving as the chairperson will need everyone’s help for this to be a success. So when you get the call to help, please say yes, you will more than likely have fun. This will be an event you can show off to your family, friends and neighbors. This will be a free event to our community and people shopping at the mall.

We have several new items on the agenda this month, other than a new meeting place so please try to make an effort to attend, your input is very important.

Bill Farrell, President

 

I know many of our members have thanked Bill Thomas for opening up his home to us for the June meeting. I would like to make it official just in case anyone forgot to thank Bill, thank you Bill. It was a great change of pace from the Madisonville Depot all though I really enjoy that old station. I need to thank the Terry family for supplying the hamburgers for last month’s meeting. On a whole I though all the members who attended enjoyed themselves. As I looked around I saw lots of fellowship taking place with members just relaxed and enjoying themselves.

Congratulations to our photo contest winner Bill Grady and thank you to all the members who participated. Jim Pearson does a very good job with judging all the photos entered. Our next photo contest will take place from August 6-13 so keep those cameras ready. I think Jim has all the entries from our past contest and it looks like we will have a great start on the 2017 club calendar. Jim and I will work on the calendar later on this this year. Let’s keep this project in mind and support it by purchasing one or more calendars when they are printed in December.

We had several great items for the raffle last month let’s keep it up. The raffle is our only source of revenue at this time, so dig deep into your railroad books and artifacts for some items you’re not using. We have had some very interesting items come across the raffle table.

See you on Monday evening July 18th at the Madisonville Depot, 7:00 pm.

Bill Farrell, President

It seems like we were just meeting in Hopkinsville yesterday and here it is– we have a meeting in just a few days. Talking about the meeting, I hope everyone remembers that we are meeting at Bill Thomas’s home this month. Blair’s mom has informed him that he will be pressing out half pound hamburgers for Bill Thomas to grill. This is one meeting I don’t want to miss. Our new member Will Kling as stepped forward and will have the program for this month. Way to go Will.

I hope everyone had an opportunity to get out with a camera and get some pictures of trains or railroad related items for the photo contest we had last week. Each member can enter two (2) pictures of his or her choosing. All photos have to be turned in to Jim Pearson no later than Thursday June the 16^th.

I know Blair Terry and myself had a very special opportunity to get some photos of a locomotive in Virginia last week end. I hope all of our membership had a chance to get out and take pictures of railroading in general. Remember the top three pictures from each contest will go toward making up a club calendar for 2017. Our next photo contest is August 6-13, this gives you time to get out and find a good location.

We are still looking for members to sponsor “Railfanning” events for June, July and August. I you think you know of an area with food and facilities close by you might want to sponsor. These are great events and it gives our membership a chance for relaxation and have fellowship close to a railroad environment.

We have not had a raffle for the last two meeting because of the lack of things to raffle. I need for the membership to dig around in their store of railroad memorabilia for things to raffle in the June meeting.

Bill Farrell, President

 

May is here and what a wonderful time of the year it is to get out and watch trains on your favorite line. This is also a reminder that our meeting on May 16th will be held in Hopkinsville at the depot on 9th street. Wallace Henderson will have the program and I understand it will be outstanding as usual. Remember to bring your appetite with you as usual for the May meeting.

Ricky Bivins, has been preparing for the “Railfanning Event” in Mortons Gap on this coming Saturday (May 14). We will gather in the park next to the tracks. Ricky said there are some restaurants in Mortons Gap for food and he has made arrangements for restrooms. Bring a lawn chair, your favorite 32-ounce sipper and enjoy. We will start to meet any time after 10 AM and it will end when the last man leaves. We still have a couple of months open for club members to step up and sponsor a “Railfanning Event”. If you are interested, please contact me with a date or talk to me at the May meeting.

Congratulations to Blair Terry on winning photo contest last month with his picture of a Florida East Coast Railroad, locomotive crossing an alligator infested swamp. According to Jim Pearson we had a total of nine entries in the contest. I would like to thank all of you who entered, for taking the time and making an effort in this club activity. Our plans are to take the top photos from each contest and compile them into a club calendar for 2017. Our next photo contest will be from June 4th to the 11th.

James Kemp, Rich Hane, and myself met as a committee on our Christmas Show. I think we have some good ideas but this needs to be a club effort for it to be a success. We will need all our members to step up and be willing to work a couple of shifts while this project is under way. Things we are looking at, are, the modular layout, a standard gauge layout, antique toy display, Wally’s steam engines, the conductor from the Polar Express, continuous show of the movie “The Polar Express”, and a display of antiques toys. This project should get the Western Kentucky Chapter out into the eye of the community and help us cover the liability insurance billing for 2017. Any member who would like to be on the Christmas Show committee needs to contact me as soon as possible.

We need to thank Thomas Bryan for the excellent program last month. Betty and Donny Knight also stepped forward on the refreshments and did an exceptional job of feeding the crew. If you missed the meeting last month, you missed one of better meetings. Hope to see you in Hopkinsville this month on the 16th. This month’s program with be presented by Wally Henderson and refreshments by Terry, Farrell and Hopkinsville group.

Remember, “Show and Tell” for May and we also need raffle item.

Bill Farrell, President

 

By Bill Farrell, President, West Kentucky Chapter of the NRHS

The time sure has passed since our last meeting; it just seems like last week we were conducting the March meeting. All the membership cards have been mailed out to the membership. If you have not received yours please contact me so I can re-issue a new card.

This is the second issue of the “Pennyrail”, by Bill Thomas this year. Matt in the past did a great job with the news letter. Bill is doing a great job of dissemination of information to the club members. If you have anything worth publishing in the “Pennyrail” please submit it to Bill for publication. I think we need to have a deadline on information to Bill in order to give him time to assemble the newsletter. We can talk about it in the meeting on Monday evening.

I hope everyone had a chance to get out and get a picture for the photography contest. All pictures needed to be submitted to Jim Pearson by April 11th. Jim will announce the winners at the April Monday evening. If you have one of the trophies from the last photo contest please bring it with you or try to get it back in time for the meeting. Blair and I were in Florida last week for spring break and got some great pictures of the Florida East Coast Railroad. Needless to say I thought about all of you in Kentucky with the cool weather.

I need to set a date for a work day on the modular layout. It is very close to completion and we need to get the modules out to the members that want them. All we need to do is plaster cloth the top, wiring, and insert the legs. We need to do this within the next three week and get this project out of the way and into the hands of the members. In the last meeting the membership agreed that a module can go to a non Western Kentucky Chapter/NRHS member. So if you know of someone who is interested in “O” scale railroading and they would like to be part of the modular group invite them.

Remember to bring “Show and Tell” along with Raffle items to the meeting. This month refreshments will be provided by Betty & Donny Knight, the program by Thomas Bryan.

 

By Chapter President, Bill Farrell
Western Kentucky Chapter/NRHS

Well, for those who didn’t know Bill Thomas has stepped forward and volunteered to become the news letter editor. We need to thank Matt for the great job he did while assuming the duties as editor of the “Pennyrail”. Any information you may have concerning the club or club business needs to be forwarded to Bill Thomas in the future. I’m sure Bill will have more information at the next meeting.

In the February meeting we had fair attendance considering the weather conditions. I hope we have better weather for the March 21 meeting. In the February meeting we passed out the new club cards to those members who were current on their dues. The membership cards that are remaining will be mailed to those members who are not present after the March meeting.

Under new business, we discussed the progress of the modular layout and set a work day. The layout construction phase is within two or three hours of being finished. All we have left is some plaster cloth and laying track on each module. Then those members who wanted a module can take them home. I received an email from Ricky Bivins concerning the layout and what are the rules for construction. At this time we do not have any rules and it will be necessary to have those individuals working on the layout to set up some structure to follow. The problem is we need to get all those interested individuals together to write the rules.

We also discussed the possibility of a trip to KRM (Kentucky Railroad Museum) sometime in April. The most logical date for the trip is Saturday April 9th. It will coincide with a model train show at St. Catherine’s Junior College, not far from KRM.

We also talked about doing a Toy Train Christmas display at the Parkway Plaza Mall in Madisonville. Jim Kemp had stepped forward and volunteered to chair this event. This will not be a one or two man show but in fact will require several members to help. So if Jim calls you to help please say yes as this will be a club effort.

Where has the time gone? I would guess it goes fast when you are having fun. It seems like we were at the Christmas Party in Madisonville just last month. Talking about the Christmas Party it is already time to talk about that is our next meeting. We need to talk about where and when to hold the party this year. Last year we were close to Christmas and some members could not attend, I would like to suggest the first week of December this year. Then we have to decide where to hold the party, at a restaurant or a member’s home. We can talk about this in the July meeting.

Other business that needs to be covered is liability insurance for the chapter membership. It looks like if we decide to purchase coverage it will cost the chapter about two hundred fifty dollars per year. This might be a small price to pay for peace of mind. The other business is NRHS member numbers. Ricky is working on this and as soon as the national convention is over we hope to get a list of numbers and membership numbers from NRHS. All our members have received a membership card for this year from NRHS; on that card is your number. If you bring the card to the next meeting, you can give the member number to Wally or Ricky. Once we have the membership numbers we can start printing membership cards.

In the June meeting we talked about covering the walls of the depot with train art. If you look around at the walls of our meeting room they are bare. Ricky made contact with someone from the city and we have permission to hang picture related to railroading on the walls. If you have a nice picture (framed) which we can hang, on loan, bring it to the next meeting. At the present time we have pictures from Betty Knight, James Kemp, and Bill Farrell. Remember all the pictures, will be on loan to our chapter and you can take yours home as desired. Betty Knight has agreed to be our curator and she will select the location for the pictures to hang. I will have stickers for the backs of the pictures denoting who the picture is on loan from. Blair Terry will bring the stickers and some pictures with him to the next meeting.

Steve Miller will run the July meeting in my absence. I will be out of the state for several days. Steve, as Vice President will conduct our business meeting and what ever needs to be done. Jim Pearson will have the program and Bill Thomas will bring the refreshments. Bill, do you hear me? You have the refreshments for July. LOL.

Bill Farrell, President
Western Kentucky Chapter/NRHS

The May meeting in Hopkinsville went well and I hope all the members who attended had a good time. Our meeting was attended by Jennifer Brown one of the writers for the Kentucky New Era. Jennifer enjoyed the cookout and then covered the meeting and program by Wallace Henderson. I have some copies of the article from the newspaper for you to look at in our next meeting.

Wallace Henderson did a great job with the May program. Maybe some day in the fall we can make a road trip to the site in Nashville and have Wallace point out the highlights of the accident. Mrs. Brown seemed to be very impressed with the program. Thank you Wallace, you did an excellent job with your presentation.

Under new business in the May meeting I said I would have a rough copy of our proposed club membership card. This is something we can print out at home on any printer. I will give the membership an explanation on how it will work at this month’s meeting.

Jim Pearson did an excellent job chairing our first photo contest. We had a total of six entries and it was suggested that the club sponsor another contest this fall, when the leaves are turning colors. I think it would be a good idea if we take the pictures from the photo contest and print a, “2016 Western Kentucky Chapter” calendar. We can discuss the calendar in more detail as we get closer to October.

If any chapter members are in the Parkway Plaza Mall in the future, stop by the white display cases across from Godfathers Pizza and look at our display. The mall has allowed us to use another case for display. We have the artifacts from Archeology Saturday on display in the second case along with pictures taken on the day of the event. The mall arranged it so both cases are side by side so it makes it easier on the eye.

Ricky Bivins has obtained a copy of our National Bylaws for review by the membership. The officers had a meeting on June 4th to discuss upcoming events and the bylaws. Wally had a copy of our chapter bylaws at the meeting for review. We decided to do a survey of the membership after National concludes their meeting in June. We may want to set up a committee in the future, for review of both National and local bylaws. We will cross that bridge when we come to it.

The June meeting will have refreshments by Steve Miller and the program will be presented by Blair Terry. We will also have a representative from an insurance company to tell us about needed liability insurance to cover the officers and chapter members. Hope to see you at the June 15th meeting and most important bring a prospect for membership.

Bill Farrell

Well, we all get to travel for the next meeting, all aboard, next stop, Hopkinsville, Kentucky. Wallace Henderson has promised to provide us with a very interesting program for the May meeting. Also be sure you come with an appetite for our annual spring cookout.

In the April meeting, we talked about inviting a representative from one of the Madisonville’s local insurance companies. It was agreed that Wally will have someone on hand for the June meeting. We also sent a check to the Kentucky Railroad Museum for the sum of six hundred and fifty dollars to be used toward the boiler restoration of locomotive 152. In total our chapter and individual members have donated over one thousand dollars toward this worthy cause.

The City of Madisonville is going to start charging for venders spots in “Friday Night Live”, along the court square. We looked at the pros and cons of participating in the event and it was decided to forgo the event this year. It might be a good idea to revisit our participation in this event in April of 2016.

Our “Photography Contest” is just behind us by only a few days. Jim Pearson has done a real good job with it and we are lucky to have a member with his expertise. I did talk with him on Sunday morning and he did not indicate how many pictures have been turned in by the membership at that time. I hope all of you that participated had a good time on the day of the event. We were certainly blessed with great weather while out enjoying our favorite hobby. Jim and I came up with a great idea for the entries in the contest. We will talk more about this in the May meeting.

Well I have to go and cut grass, nine weeks ago I was shoveling snow, it doesn’t seem possible. Oh yes, send Matt Gentry a bottle of water, California needs it. See you at the meeting.

Bill Farrell, Chapter President

I think we have had a great time in the last 30 days. Our trip to the National Transportation Museum was wonderful. It was well attended by the membership and we got to meet long time members Rex and Melanie Easterly on the grounds. They now live in Springfield, Missouri and saw the opportunity to meet with some of their old friends, for me it was great just meeting them for the first time. Those members who were not able to make the trip missed a good time.

The second event our chapter held was, “Archeology Saturday”, last weekend. We met at the former site of the Nebo Train Depot at 9:00 am. I can tell you there was a lot of railroad junk stored around the outside of the depot. We found a little bit of everything which will be on display at our next meeting. The foundation revealed several things, station doorways, a loading ramp and a red brick side walk that was about six inches under the soil. The side walk ran parallel to Hwy. 502 and must have come from down town Nebo, about 300 yards away. We also found remnants of a home track and were told of a siding that once existed on the site.

The artifacts that were found will be cleaned up and placed on display in the Parkway Plaza Mall for everyone to enjoy. We have some pictures that will accompany the display. We plan on having the display available for the membership to view before we place them in the mall. I need to add, two people came along and “Kidnapped” Wally. Well, about 30 minutes later they brought him back and gave us money to keep him. Wally will have a full report on his kidnapping experience at the April meeting.

We need to keep in mind that our “Spring Photo Contest” is Saturday, May 9th. Jim Pearson will have more details for us at the April meeting. Keep in mind for the next meeting “Show & Tell” and raffle items.

 

Bill Farrell, Chapter President

By Bill Farrell, Chapter President

Well, it just seemed like last week and we were having our February meeting. We need to thank Ricky for getting the February program together for us. Rich did a good job on the refreshments; Blair Terry gave him a four star rating on the food. In other words, you did good, Rich. Our program this month will be brought to us by Wally Watts. We will have some guests from the former Owensboro Chapter of the NRHS.

We have some exciting news about events and projects coming up in March and April. On March 28th we have a trip planned to the National Transportation Museum in St. Louis, MO. We have two 15 passenger vans lined up for those who would rather ride then drive. I say 15 passengers but the plan is to carry only 10 people per van. I believe the word we are looking for is “comfortable”. We will fill the seats on a first come first serve basis, so if you would like to go, let me know soon. The cost per member and or guest to take the van is $17.00 (per person). We will discuss this in more detail at the March meeting.

We now have some thirty DVDs for the chapter Video Library. Any member that would like to put a DVD in the library on loan please bring them to the next meeting. I noticed several members checking out movies last month. Until we get the number of DVDs up in the library members can only check out one per month.

April 11th is “Archeology Saturday”.  The plan is to use metal detectors and go to a former location of a train depot in Hopkins County. We are going to list and catalog all the artifacts our club members unearth. These items can be placed in the case in the Parkway Plaza Mall or stored at the Hopkins County Historical Society. Now keep all that in mind, last Friday I called one of our chapter in house railroad historians, Wally Watts. I said, Wally lets go and find a depot site for “Archeology Saturday”, Wally said sound fine lets meet at Cracker Barrel.

Once we got on the road, Wally dragged your President through the bowels of Hopkins County looking for sites where depots once stood. I don’t know how many times I hear Wally say, “I’ll sit in the car, you wade through that water and see what is over there”. “Wally it’s just more snow and ice”. All kidding aside we did find one very interesting site, I think you will find the pictures we have of the Nebo site very rewarding. Wally and I will have the pictures for the next meeting.

Do you have a digital camera? Well if not, maybe you can borrow one from a good friend. In May, the chapter plans on having a photography contest within the club. Jim Pearson, one of the chapter members will chair this event. It will be open to all our chapter members in good standing. The pictures you submit to Jim (by email) will have to be taken in Western Kentucky on the day of the contest. Jim will have some tips and rules for the contest in the April meeting. Those members who are worried about Jim Pearson winning the photo contest need to know he will not be a contestant. We are still working on the prize to the winner. The most important thing in this event is, you have fun. In the case of Matt Gentry, he will be allowed to submit a picture from the west coast.

Those who missed the last meeting, it was announced that the GarGraves track company has donated between $1,000.00 and $1,100.00 in track for the modular layout. We still have three module’s unspoken for, any member who want to build one, let me know.

We need “Show & Tell” items and things for the raffle for the next meeting. Weather permitting I hope to see you on the 16th of March @ 7:00.

By Bill Farrell, Chapter President

We are heading into our second month of the New Year and things are looking great. We had an informal executive board meeting at the Ideal convenience store in Nortonville on January 31st. This was in an effort to save time at our regularly schedules meetings. The two hours the officers spent in that meeting were well worth the time. We worked on the club calendar for this year and tried to remove any obstacles or duplications that might occur in the next 11 months. With that said, anything we worked on or put on the 2015 calendar is subject to approval by the membership, at a regularly scheduled meeting.

In the board meeting we discussed the possibility of what to put in the second case in the Parkway Plaza Mall. One thing led to another and before we knew it we were talking about a back drop in the display case with pictures of all the train stations in Hopkins County printed on it. We decided to contact WTTL radio station 106.9 fm to see if we could be on, “Coalfield Comments”. Wally has most of the pictures of all the stations but there are a few that eluded him. So Wally, Ricky, and I will be on the show Monday, February 16th at 8:00 am. The show will be hosted by Lori Pendley, an executive with the station. Our pitch will be to explain what our chapter is all about and to get the word out that we need pictures of Hopkins County railroad stations (the ones Wally is missing). Be sure to listen in on the 16th of this month.

March is one of those months that you never know what the weather is going to bring on any given weekend. The board is looking at a one day trip to the National Transportation Museum in St. Louis, MO. next month. This is something we can discuss in the next meeting and decide if it holds any merit. Most of the board members said they had been there before but it has been a long time ago and they would like to go back. This is an event that we can move anywhere in the month of March, if the weather doesn’t suit us. We can leave early on a Saturday morning, carpool together and get breakfast along the way. I think if we all kick in for gas of the vehicle we are riding in, it would work. If your wife has any interest in our hobby, invite her to make the day long outing with us. I will be in touch with the museum this week to see if there are any discounts for the membership.

Our video library is coming together real fast. If you have any railroad related DVD’s that you wouldn’t mind in the library bring them to the meeting so we can get them cataloged in the case. At the present time we have twenty DVD’s cataloged in with room for another sixty five. We need to discuss how many videos a member can check out at one time.

If you know someone who is in good standing in the community and has interest in railroading or model railroading, please invite them to the February meeting. Organizations such as ours eventually “falter and fail”, without membership growth. We also need, “Show and Tell” items for the meeting. Do you have a raffle item?

Our guest speaker was Butch Vanderveer, a retired CSX locomotive engineer. Butch told stories of his days as an engineer with the railroad. There was a Q & A session which proved very interesting with lots of questions.

Our guest January 19th was Chris Taylor, from Oak Grove, Kentucky. Chris is a person who served 22 years in the US Army. He seemed very interested our organization and I think we will be seeing more of him in the future.

The club gave Bill Farrell the go ahead to look deeper into the Modular “O” Scale layout. The layout can be used at all type of events and where ever we are invited to set it up. Members who desire to build and or landscape a modular will be given the chance. We still have more details to work out in the future.

Wally talked about the possibility of having an open house at the depot this spring or next fall. This opened up conversation on would we need liability insurance to cover this activity with the City of Madisonville or any other city we set up at. Wallace and Ricky are check into this and report at the next meeting.

Do to health reasons Wallace Henderson feels like it is time to step down as our NRHS Representative. The membership nominated Ricky Bivins to finish out Wallace’s term this year.

We are going to try to start a video library for members only. Tommy Johnson will head this project up and members will supply the DVD’s for the library. We hope to have 50 to 60 DVD’s in the case.

Three membership chairpersons, Thomas Bryan, will serve the Henderson area, Ricky Bivins will serve the Hopkins County area, and Steve Miller in Christian County.

Steve Miller will start looking for a rail trip for the membership this spring or next fall. There was also talk of going to the train shop in Louisville in February so we can all see Matt Gentry, who works for Athearn Inc, in Calif.

                Well, the New Year is finally here and I have had several members already working hard on new and old projects. I would like to take this time to thank Tommy Johnson for his Presidency and leaving our organization in good shape. I would also like to thank everyone who attended the Christmas Party in December. We had the numbers we needed for the room at Brother’s BBQ, and everyone seemed to have a good time.

By the time you read this club bulletin we will have placed railroad artifacts in a display case at the Parkway Plaza Mall. Please stop by the Mall, and take a look. In a few months we can change out the display and involve other members in providing railroad artifacts for display.

I would like to put an emphasis on membership for the year of 2015. I think a reasonable number would be eight (8) new members for our organization this year. I have talked to three of our members and they have agreed to serve on the membership committee. We will have one each for Henderson, Madisonville, and Hopkinsville. If we retain the numbers we had last year then I know we are up one new member. All we need is another seven prospects in order to meet the set goal. If any members know of a person who likes trains or model railroading, please invite them to our next meeting on January 19th, 2015.

I would like to say that Matt does a good job with our bulletin but he is at a disadvantage with two thousand miles between the Madisonville and the west coast. He really needs our help providing information and pictures for the bulletin. If you have anything of interest please forward it on to Matt, you can email him at, info@westkentuckynrhs.org . Remember the only way we can have a good bulletin is that the membership provides Matt with the information.

I have several other new projects in mind and will bring them up at the January meeting or in due time.

 

Bill Farrell