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Chilli Sub News:            

A lot of new projects are either being finished or are still under way on the Chilli Sub!

 In January, 2004, the Board Of Directors decided to add 150' of mainline to the already taxed rail system. By March of 2005, the new mainline was open for business! The single main was extended from Stronghurst to Galesburg, Ill. At Yost the single track ends and double track railroading begins, all the way the Kansas City. Extending eastward from Nerska Tower, the double track main grew also. An additional mile of track was added and CN Tower, at Corwith Yard throat now marks the eastern terminus of the Chilli Sub.

9/07 Doug Tagsold and I just got finished hosting another successful Great Lakes Getaway for 2007! This was second time we offered a special operating 3 day weekend for a host of folks we always wanted to have visit our railroads. Tony Koester, Alan Mc Clelland, Steve King, Andy Sperandeo, Lee Nicolas, Chuck Hitchcock, Alan Keller and Paul Dolkus were some of the 30 people that got invitations this year to attend. 2009 will be the next GLG.

4/7   Motive power is constantly changing or being upgraded. Only 1 blue and yellow Santa Fe units exist. Get your photos while you can! There's a bunch of new power sporting the latest BNSF logo invading the Chilli these days. This is what modeling present day is all about!

11/06 In November the finishing touches were put on the signal system and that project is behind me now. I don't know how we ever operated this long without signals.

4/06    To cope with the additional trackage, the latest and greatest wireless CVP Products DCC system was purchased and over the next couple of months, the new control system was cut in. This involved removal of all existing DC Block Control wiring, installation of all new buss wiring and installation of 100 locomotive decoders. The CVP system included 8 new RF1300 wireless throttles and 4 separate power supplies / boosters. After a few sessions of de-bugging the CVP system is working smoothly. It is very user friendly and is the easiest system I've used for programming and consisting. All the TCS T1 decoders have been replaced with T4X decoders as part of a warranty claim.

    Special thanks to Doug Tagsold of Rio Grande fame, for making my CVP learning curve smaller during installation and set up.

    At the same time of the layout expansion and DCC project, it was decided to install a complete Centralized Traffic Control System, closely patterned after a Union Switch and Signal system. I already had the CTC machine built, but not finished. During the NMRA Convention in Grand Rapids, MI. in 2003, I met Mike Burgett of Control Train Components. Mike offers all the detailed parts, plates and switches to build authentic CTC machines. We immediately hit it off and we began design in February of 2004. I'm using Bruce Chubb's Computer Model Railroad Interface system. The system is fantastic, it can execute every safety and signal aspect of the prototype. The components are offered in kit form or built up by Don Wood of Florida. I chose to purchase all the parts ready to install from Don to save time.