Website update from Dave

Hi everyone.  It has come to my notice that some of you have been patiently dealing with an “unusual” looking website.  (And probably laughing to yourselves that these clowns really don’t know what they are doing.)  What I mean is that to some of you, pictures and columns of text appear in “different” places than what I see when I’m editing or adding things.  Many items appear shoved over to the right or just generally out of line.  What I found out is that when we constructed the basic bones of this site, we did it on a wide, flat panel, rather than a more traditional monitor.  That means that the ratio of width to height of my display is not necessarily what you may have.  Normally, the computer, monitor & operating system, deal with this and you can’t tell the difference.  That may or may not be what is happening with your display.  I am going to try to modify things on this end so that this website look great to everyone, not just those with wide format screens.  This will take a while since much of the HTML code of the website will have to be replaced.  (And I’m still a novice at doing it.)  We appreciate your patience as we tackle this task.

Dave Miecznikowski

A chance to make a real differance (up on the soap box just this once)

Friends and colleagues,

Most of you don’t know this but I have been working as a mentor at The Howard Area Community Centers “Computer Clubhouse” for a couple of years now. I’m teaching kids who have very little resources how to use technology to carve out a better life. The fact that it keeps the kids off the streets after school is a side benefit.

The Howard area community center (HACC) has been serving the poor families of Rogers Park and their children for over 40 years.

Well, that might be coming to an end or at least the youth services part of it.

The state of Illinois has not kept its funding up to date and are more than 6 months behind, with no relief in site.

To be concise, HACC is out of money and will be facing an end to youth services within the next 30 days. You would be shocked to know how little money is involved. The programs can be saved for less than $10k

These programs as worth saving, more that a hundred kids age 9 to 19 come through our doors.

So I’m calling on you my friends and colleagues to join together and help save this needed safe haven.

On this web page there is a donate button. From now till the end of May every donation will go directly to Howard area youth services.

We have an offer of matching funds so every dollar counts as two. I will keep the records available and will post progress reports on a weekly basis. Donations can also be sent directly to HACC youth services vie their web site www.howardarea.org .

As a community of model railroaders, hobbyists, Artists, Musicians and Teachers, we can do this.

Thanks for your help

Thom Miecznikowski



New kits are making an appearance.

Just a quick note. A couple of brand new kits and one classic are now available for download at our web site.www.clevermodels.net.  I love being able to put up new kits and not have to wait till I can justify mass burning disks.  The first kit is a nifty little yard shed.  Next we have a reproduction of a mine shed outside Silver City NV and our most popular early kit, which hasn’t been available in a long time is back.  The Jefferson Ice Co, as it stood in DesPlaines IL up until a year ago, when it was torn down.  The Western Store and its mirror image counterpart will be available in the next couple of weeks, so anyone who did not take advantage of the freebie will be able to get it for a very low price. Thom

A slice out of time by John Flemming

Here’s a pic sent by John to show his virtualized version of our latest freebie.  He tells us it represents January 30th 1927 in a light snow.  John’s V scale railroad models a real line during the year 1927.  He has it programed to reproduce the real weather conditions that exhisted on each day of the year.