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David Thompson

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Personal Profile — David Thompson

by Jan Poff

There never was a time that Dave Thompson did not like trains. Both the Erie and the Lackawanna passed through his hometown of Savona, in southern New York State. As a boy, he played at the Erie depot, eager to catch any action on the lightly traveled line. He spent afternoons at the Lackawanna station, watching mail drops and retrievals, thrilled to see the steel arm of the RPO snatch the mailbag. No wonder the merged pair of Erie-Lackawanna is his favorite railroad.

Of the two roads that formed EL, Dave focuses on the Erie because it is underrepresented in the NRMRC. Besides, he notes, club member "Don Cariss is such a big Lackawanna fan, he just doesn’t leave any room" for another. Among present day railroads, Dave prefers Susquehanna.

Dave had an electric train, pulled by a Santa Fe steamer, during his childhood. But he did not seriously consider rail modeling as a hobby until 1991, when his son Chris returned from the Neuse River Valley train show and told of the NRMRC’s NTRAK layout. The modular concept intrigued Dave, and Chris’s gift to him that Christmas — a caboose and other railroad cars in 1:160 scale, all in EL colors — caused the elder Thompson to wonder: "What was I to do with these cars, except to find out more about this N scale?" He helped Chris build a four-foot module, attended a NRMRC meeting, and joined the club in 1992. Since then, Dave has helped build, renovate, haul, and store club equipment, spent entire weekends working the layouts, wherever the venue, and has served two terms as Standards Committee chairman.

Admitting he will "give advice on almost anything," Dave is best known as a benchwork expert. From the time he participated in his first show, his passion has been streamlining the layout setup and tear-down process. Many NRMRCers remember the pictographic "No Bolts" signs from his campaign to replace separately attached module legs with the permanently mounted, quickly deployed, fold-down type. Dave also likes trying to solve electrical problems and is committed to the DCC revolution. To beginners in the hobby, he suggests: "Save your money until you’ve looked around. Talk to people about equipment and where to buy it, and join a club" to learn from those with experience.

Dave’s favorite prototype railroad experience occurred when he and his wife rode the California Zephyr, Capitol Limited and Silver Star from San Francisco to Raleigh. Among other cherished rail memories is a nighttime visit, at age five or six, with his family to the New York Central yard in Corning, NY. NYC’s steam era was closing fast; Dave recalls climbing into the cab of a locomotive on the verge of extinction and watching the fireman open the firebox doors to stoke the flames. And there is also the time, years later, when he took Chris to see the rail yard in Rochester, NY, and an engineer switching cars invited them along for a cab ride.

Dave graduated from DeVry Institute, where he studied electronics and communications. He worked for radio pioneer Stromberg-Carlson first in Rochester, NY and then in Florida until accepting employment with Northern Telecom in 1981. Dave is now retired from Nortel. He and his wife live in Moriah.

Long interested in things mechanical, Dave built and flew fuel and electric-powered R/C aircraft before discovering model railroading. Of the two types, he prefers battery-powered planes. "You can go off on a quiet morning and not bother anybody," he said, and there’s no wailing motor to distract from enjoying the flight, the outdoors, and the pleasure of introspection.

These days, N scale railroading is the hobby of choice, and Dave would enjoy running a freight yard as part of a layout operating session. He also finds live-steam model railroading fascinating, but says that active pursuit of that pastime would land him on a "slippery slope. I couldn’t support a Kato habit and that, too."


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Module Profiles

Lollipop Farm

 

Red Rock Junction


Legend

All descriptions refer to looking at the front of the module.
CCW = Counter-clockwise; CW = Clockwise
Crossovers indicate travel from left to right.
Div, Divn = Division
Mountain Division = Green Track
Mtn = Mountain


Module: Lollipop Farm

Under Construction

Owner Name:

David Thompson

Builder Name:

David Thompson

Date Built:

2009

Status:

Being scenicked

Module Type:

Balloon Module

Length:

6'

Width:

2' (Interface end), 4' (balloon end)

Passing Sidings:

None

Other Tracks:

Red-to-Mountain & Yellow-to-Blue transition

Industrial Spurs:

None

Yard Tracks:

None

Engine Service:

None

Crossovers:

Yellow-to-Red

Electrical:

Track Buses:

12-Gauge Wire with Powerpole Connectors

12VDC Bus (White):

 

Accessory Bus (Brown):

 

LocoNet Bus:

Installed

Special:

 

Module Photograph

Lollipop Farm End View
Lollipop Farm End View

Lollipop Farm Interface View
Lollipop Farm Interface View

Track Plan

Lollipop Loop Track Diagram

Module Parameters

•  Lollipop Farm Loop: 6' x 4'

•  | indicates insulated track, both rails

•  Red/Blue loop powered by AR1 or
   from Red Line

•  Yellow/Green loop powered by AR1 or
   from Uellow Line

Description


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Module: Red Rock Junction

Owner Name:

David Thompson

Builder Name:

D. Thompson, J. McCurry, D. Wenzel

Date Built:

1997 – 1999

Status:

Complete

Module Type:

Junction Module. Can be used as 4' Corner Module.

Length:

8' (4' corner + 4' spine)

Width:

4' on Corner, 2' on Spine

Passing Sidings:

None

Other Tracks:

Mountain Division, Wyes: Red & Mountain

Industrial Spurs:

None

Yard Tracks:

None

Engine Service:

None

Crossovers:

Red-to-Yellow, Blue-to-Yellow

Electrical:

Track Buses:

12-Gauge Wire with Powerpole Connectors

12VDC Bus (White):

12-Gauge Wire with Powerpole Connectors

Accessory Bus (Brown):

Not installed

LocoNet Bus:

Installed. Universal Panels front and back

Overall wiring compatible to RP developed for Junction Modules by Doug Stuard.

Turnout Control:

All turnouts are operated by Tortoise machines powered by Digitrax DS54 Stationary Decoders controlled by DCC switch commands. The DCC switch commands are generated by Team Digital SRC8 circuits in response to push-button operation. Three identical control panels are provided, each with push-buttons and LEDs to show the selected route. These panels are interconnected by either a private or the layout LocoNet so that a change made on any panel is reflected on the other panels. For more information click here.

Module Photograph

Red Rock Left Photo

Red Rock Right Photo

Red Rock Back Photo
Red Rock Junction (Top photo = Left half of module; Middle photo = Right half; Lower photo = Back)

Red Rock Track Plan Left

Red Rock Track Plan Right
Red Rock Junction (Top photo = Left half of module from above;Lower photo = Right half from above)

Track Plan

Description
Red Rock Junction is a free lance interpretation of railroading as might typically be found in the Appalachian Region. The red coloration of the rocks is common in this Region as is the hilly topography. Although there is no prototypical basis for the track plan, it represents the rural coal lines as well as the heavy traffic main lines common in the Region. All, of course, modified to fit the NTRAK plan. This is a "full-function junction" as it serves both Mountain Division and the Red Line Route.


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