Welcome to our third Valley Of Sun "S" Gaugers news letter Valley Tracks. Our
January meeting was hosted by Chuck and his wife Toni. Those who attended our
third meeting were; Marty Wik, Karl Wuepper, Nelson Steinmetz, Charlotte Rench,
Bryan Rench, William (Bill) Bahle, David Baule, James Ingram and Rita Stine.

Chuck operated his layout for all of us to enjoy. Chuck has a nicely detailed
and smooth running American Flyer layout. He enjoys finding trains that need
some tender loving care or as he says, "the basket cases". And then likes to
tinker on them. He has done a beautiful job on his latest project which is a 583
Magnetic Crane. The crane needed to be completely redone. He repainted the base
and the roof of the crane due to the loss of paint from years of play and
improper care. He also replaced the American Flyer reverse unit with a Dellee
electronic reverse unit. If you would like to see the crane project here is a
link to his webpage:
http://az-flyer.blogspot.com/p/refurbishment-electromagnetic-crane.html . But
we all have to remember these trains were built as toys, to be loved and give us
years of enjoyment. They were meant to be played with!!

Chuck gave us a demonstration on burnishing track. We were all very impressed
with his method of cleaning American Flyer Track. It really works. Most of the
track if not all of it looks like it is brand new! Here is a link to his
webpage about burnishing track:
http://az-flyer.blogspot.com/p/burnishing-american-flyer-train-track.html.

Chuck also showed us the American Flyer steam loco (Atlantic 4-4-2) that he
converted to a SnS can motor and a Dellee Electronic reverse unit. I was
impressed how well the steam engine preformed. With these new can motors you can
really make these engines crawl at a snails pace or run like the wind. Chuck is
going to order a half speed can motor to install in another steam engine. This
will be interesting to see and watch it run. He also has this information on
his website. Here is the link to his webpage on that:
http://az-flyer.blogspot.com/p/can-motor-conversion.html.

Chuck has a lot of great information and links to other S scale website's on his
site. You can also find pictures and video clips of his layout. Be sure to you
check out his entire website: http://az-flyer.blogspot.com/

In the past months our club has been continuing to grow. One of our new members
is a retired TV show producer. His name is David Baule. He worked for a TV Show
that I know we all enjoy named Tracks Ahead!! I talked to him during our
meeting and enjoyed our conversation very much. I hope in the near future we
can get together to see each others trains and layouts. Maybe we can get a
little inside look at the workings of the show and its future.

We all had a great time at Chuck's home and enjoyed his hospitality. Chuck
served us lunch and we all sat down to eat, talk and have a good time. After
our meeting some of us went to Burling's Ton of Trains Store in Fountain Hills.
That was a nice treat. It is wall to wall and floor to ceiling with trains. The
place is packed! I mean packed! We were all like little kids in a candy store.
Thanks Chuck for having Ken open his store for us at a time when it is normally
closed.

Our next meeting will be at Nelson Steinmetz home in Scottsdale, AZ on Saturday,
February 18, 2012. Meeting time is 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Nelson brought some
pictures of his layout just to entice us on what we are going to see. According
to the pictures I saw we will all be in for a treat! I hope to see you all
there.

Remember to keep your tracks clean and your signals green,

Karl H. Wuepper