Updated May 16, 2012
May NMRA InfoNews ...
Here's the May news:
- At Grand Rails 2012, there will be a drawing for four cab rides from among the participants in the Little River Railroad tour. The cab rides will be in the railroad's #110, a 4-6-2 Pacific built by Baldwin, during its trip to Quincy and back. The train's consist will contain a WWII troop car, two converted stock cars, and three cabooses. In addition, the Little River RR's two other locomotives will be on display for photographs. In fact, you can even climb on them!
- More convention news: The Grand Rapids Model Railroad Historical Society is producing an HO-scale model of a true local railroad landmark: the Bridge Street Signal Tower. The prototype, still standing near the convention hotel, was built by the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad to stand guard over the railroad's crossing of five streets. Only 100 of these craftsman laser-cut kits will be available at a special Grand Rails 2012 Convention price of $65. Members can see photos and get a brief history of the crossing tower at www.gr2012.org/towerkit.htm.
- The 4th Division of the Pacific Northwest Region has signed on as a co-sponsor of this year's Narrow Gauge Convention in Seattle. The 4th Division will be signing up members for the NMRA throughout the event.
- Because the NMRA's Online Archives has been such a rousing success, several prominent photographers and collectors have begun to donate portions of their collections to the NMRA. The first is noted author/photographer Louis A. Marre, who's donated hundreds of large-format negatives of many subjects. Gregory Sommers has also donated a large collection of freight car slides, and David Lange has donated a large number of scanned images from the collection of the late Jim Morris. Watch for these exciting additions to the NMRA Online Archives in the near future. Hopefully continued donations to The Diamond Club will cover the cost of scanning and preparing the images.
- Grand Rails 2012 is looking for volunteers who'd be willing to donate an hour or two of their time at the convention doing things like contest room security, helping with registration check-in, silent auction set-up and tear-down, and bus loading. If you're interested and have an hour or two you'd like to donate, contact Mark Baldwin, Vice Chair of Volunteers, at gr2012volunteers@gmail.com for more details.
If you have any questions or comments about any of the above, please send them directly to a Director or Officer. You'll find those addresses at www.nmra.org or in NMRA Magazine.
And if you're changing email addresses, please let me know at this email address: NMRA-infonet@earthlink.net
-Gerry Leone, MMR
NMRA Communications Director
April NMRA InfoNews ...
Here's the April news:
- Fundraising has begun for the "Magic of Scale Model Railroading" gallery at the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento, CA. As your members will probably recall, this gallery will introduce the Museum's 600,000 annual visitors to the hobby, as well as give them a sense of its history. One of the highlights of the gallery will be actual portions of the finest model railroads ever built. The Museum has donated the space rent-free to the NMRA for the purpose of promoting the hobby. It's estimated that the cost to build the exhibit will be approximately $750,000, and no NMRA dues or monies will be used; instead, it will be entirely funded by donations. To date, over $100,000 has been raised, and an anonymous donor has agreed to match donations, up to $250,000.
Any NMRA member (or non-member, for that matter) who would like to donate to the funding of the gallery should send his or her tax-deductable donation to NMRA Headquarters at 4121 Cromwell Road., Chattanooga, TN 37421-2119, and mark it "Gallery donation." - In the February edition of the InfoNet News we reported the agreement of cooperation between the NMRA and the Hasea.com Model Railroad Association of China. This July we'll be seeing the first fruits of that "Hands Across The Ocean" agreement as a group of teenage Chinese modelers and railfans visits California with the purpose of seeing layouts, prototype trains, and the California State Railway Museum. Several Pacific Coast Region members are helping to organize this 2-week event.
- Grand Rails 2012, the upcoming NMRA national convention, has announced their commemorative convention car. Grand Rapids, Michigan, was once known as The Furniture Capital of the World, and appropriately the model was inspired by a postcard photograph of a turn-of-the-last-century furniture manufacturer's wood-sided boxcar. This replica, produced by Accurail, comes complete with a Grand Rails 2012 logo "poster" which can be applied by the modeler. Visit www.gr2012.org to see a shot of the prototype.
- The folks at Grand Rails 2012 have posted a preliminary clinic schedule for the convention in PDF format, downloadable at their website. Among the clinicians are NMRA Worldwide Director Tony Koester, Jim Six, Jim Sacco, and a group of clinics by the Layout Design Sig.
- Grand Rails 2012 is looking for volunteers who'd be willing to donate an hour or two of their time at the convention doing things like contest room security, helping with registration check-in, silent auction set-up and tear-down, and bus loading. If you're interested and have an hour or two you'd like to donate, contact Mark Baldwin, Vice Chair of Volunteers. Just use the "Contact Us" link on the Grand Rails 2012 website at www.gr2012.org.
If you have any questions or comments about any of the above, please send them directly to a Director or Officer. You'll find those addresses at www.nmra.org or in NMRA Magazine.
And if you're changing email addresses, please let me know at this email address: NMRA-infonet@earthlink.net
-Gerry Leone, MMR
NMRA Communications Director
February NMRA InfoNews ...
Here's the February news:
Quite a bit of news came out of the Winter NMRA Board of Directors meeting last week. I'm going to split it between this edition of the InfoNet News and next month's, to make sure you get a chance to see everything.
News from the Board meeting:
- Tom Draper, manager of the National Train Show, reported that the number of booth sales for the show at Grand Rails 2012 is currently at the same level it was at this time last year for the show in Sacramento.
- After a necessarily short search by the NMRA Canada Nominating Committee, Clark Kooning volunteered for an appointment as NMRA Canada Director when Don Hillman stepped down from the job for health reasons. We wish Don all the best, and thank Clark for his willingness to serve at the last minute.
- Financially, the NMRA ended 2011 in very good standing and is currently rebuilding some of its funds from which it had borrowed in the past. In addition there is currently enough money in the budget to hire an IT professional to repair, maintain, and update the NMRA website.
- The NMRA has announced an agreement of cooperation between itself and the Hasea.com Model Railroad Association (HRMA) of China, a community of over 100,000 railfans and model railroaders. The HRMA, a relatively young organization, is interested in learning how the NMRA is organized, and will promote NMRA standards in China. Members of both organizations will be able to enjoy the many benefits of each. A press release and story will appear shortly in NMRA Magazine.
- The Board is in the initial stages of studying electronic balloting as a way of both saving on postage and encouraging additional member participation.
And some other news:
- The Grand Rails 2012 website at www.gr2012.org now has these new features:
- A page for the Layout Design Special Interest Group
- The Operations Special Interest Group Sign-up sheet
- PDF copies of all of the traditional Registration forms
- A complete list of all of the extra fare events and tours
- A schedule of days and times for most scheduled events
- More Sidetracks events for the non-rails
- The Silent Auction schedule
- The contest room schedule
- Have members who are interested in the Achievement Program? Yours truly was interviewed on The Model Railway Show about it. Trevor Marshall talked to me about my road to MMR, and the hurdles and joys of taking it. Episode 32 is available for listening or downloading now at www.themodelrailwayshow.com or through iTunes, and will be available through The Model Railway Show's online archives after March 1.
If you have any questions or comments about any of the above, please send them directly to a Director or Officer. You'll find those addresses at www.nmra.org or in NMRA Magazine.
And if you're changing email addresses, please let me know at this email address: NMRA-infonet@earthlink.net
-Gerry Leone, MMR
NMRA Communications Director
November NMRA InfoNews ...
Here's the November news:
- The Winter NMRA Board Meeting will be held on Wednesday, February 8, and Thursday, February 9 , 2012, beginning each day at 9:00 a.m. All NMRA members are welcome to attend the open portions of this meeting. In order save as much money as possible on the meeting, it will again be held in Las Vegas at the Palace Station Hotel. The NMRA Budget and Operations meetings, which are not open to the public, will be held on Tuesday, February 7 at the same location. The Board is expecting a packed agenda, and details of that agenda will be included in an InfoNet News eblast when they're arranged.
- Several members have asked about the current content of the NMRA's "Members-Only" section of the website, so here's some of what you'll find when you log on at www.nmra.org/ member.
- You'll find the latest reprints of the Division and Region newsletter articles Jim Zinser mentions in his "Division Business Car / NMRA@Home" column every other month in NMRA Magazine. All previously mentioned articles also remain in Members-Only, so it's a great resource to learn new tips and techniques. If your newsletter editor would like to reprint one of the articles, please have him/her contact the original newsletter's editor for an OK.
- We've been adding " NMRA Magazine Classics " -- scans of articles from bygone issues of Scale Rails and The Bulletin that are truly classic articles. Our goal is eventually to have at least one article from every issue of the magazine posted. Obviously this takes a lot of man-hours, but you'll be surprised to find how many are already online. The articles may be a few years old, but if you haven't read them (or forgot about them), they're as fresh as today.
- In the " NMRA Member Extras " section we've posted the 2011 NMRA Calendar screensaver -- a great, inspiring addition to your computer.
- Each of the photos from the 2011 NMRA Calendar also resides in Members-Only as computer wallpaper. In addition, we asked each of the photographers to give us a brief description of how they took their shot. You'll find those descriptions posted as well. Both of these are also in the "Member Extras" section.
- Our " Promotional Materials " section contains a wealth of items Divisions and Regions will find useful. We have the NMRA logo available in a wide variety of graphic formats and sizes. You'll also find a PDF of the NMRA Member Benefits chart and a new-member solicitation brochure (which you can print out and photocopy), along with a new-member sign-up sheet. Last, you'll find the National Model Railroad Month materials, which include National Model Railroad Month logos in various sizes and graphic formats, as well as a Word document, "A guide to promoting National Model Railroad Month," which can be a handy reference whenever you want to promote your Region or Division.
- In case your members are looking for more information about the Grand Rapids convention, there are two great convention videos posted on the Grand Rails2012 website at www.gr2012.org. Also, remember that members who register before November 30 will have first dibs on hotel reservations, tour reservations, and merchandise. The Furniture City Flyers Club is nearly sold out, so if members want to experience dessert at sunset on Mirror Lake, they'll need to get their registration in soon. Register online at http://www.gr2012. org/register.htm.
If you have any questions or comments about any of the above, please send them directly to a Director or Officer. You'll find those addresses at www.nmra.org or in NMRA Magazine.
And if you're changing email addresses, please let me know at this email address: NMRA-infonet@earthlink.net
-Gerry Leone, MMR
NMRA Communications Director
October NMRA InfoNews ...
Here's all the news that's fit to print for October:
- In order to ensure the financial wellbeing of the NMRA into the future, there will be a dues increase on January 1, 2012 for U.S. members and overseas members served by the Chattanooga office. Regular memberships will increase by $5 to $44, and subscriptions to NMRA Magazine will increase by $3 to $22. Sustaining memberships (including the magazine) will increase by $13 to $110, and student memberships (including the magazine) will increase by $4 to $32. In addition, our highly successful RailPass trial membership program will continue at $9.95. The current RailPass conversion rate to regular memberships is around 65%. Memberships administered by the A, B, and C offices are not affected.
- Di Voss, who's heading up the Cruise Convention committee, continues to receive results from the survey published in the October issue of NMRA Magazine. To date he's received around 200 responses, and estimates those "in favor" to be about 75%. In addition, Di would like to remind those who think there won't be enough time on a Cruise Convention for layout tours, OPSIG meets or other activities, that the ship will be in port from about 8:00 a.m. until about 10:00 p.m.
- For some reason, the story that the NMRA membership has been declining over the past few years continues to persist. IT AIN'T TRUE. NMRA membership is holding steady at around 19,500. According to the latest "Membership Thermometer" figures compiled by Marketing, Advertising and Promotions manager Tom Draper, the NMRA lost 104 members between August 2009 and August 2011, but gained 91 members between August 2006 and August 2011. Please help us set the record straight by mentioning this to your membership!
- Convention news: Even though Grand Rails 2012 will have dozens of top notch model railroads open for self-guided tours, the convention committee wanted to make sure everyone has a chance to see some of their great layouts. So there will also be several bus tours to some of the area's best layouts. Layouts include every scale from Z to G, and every level of completion. They're also offering a very special, exclusive seven-hour limo layout tour for groups of 6 to any of the six layouts on the self-guided list. The price for the limo is only $120 per person. Get all the details and registration info at www.gr2012.org.
- Repeat announcement: The Howell Day Museum is issuing a new release of its highly successful Gorre and Daphetid bobber cabooses. Two new bobbers, numbered 3 and 5, are available from Headquarters immediately. A single car is US$19.95 + $4 shipping and handling, and the set of two is US$34.95 + $4 shipping and handling. The new cars are available in HO scale only, and are ready to run. They feature operating magnetic knuckle couplers and free-rolling metal wheels. Watch for the ad running in NMRA Magazine. To order, call HQ at 423-892-2846.
If you have any questions or comments about any of the above, please send them directly to a Director or Officer. You'll find those addresses at www.nmra.org or in NMRA Magazine.
And if you're changing email addresses, please let me know at this email address: NMRA-infonet@earthlink.net
-Gerry Leone, MMR
NMRA Communications Director
September NMRA InfoNews ...
The NMRA's been rather quiet lately, but we still have some September news:
- The Howell Day Museum is issuing a new release of its highly successful Gorre and Daphetid bobber cabooses. Two new bobbers, numbered 3 and 5, are available from Headquarters immediately. A single car is US$19.95 + $4 shipping and handling, and the set of two is US$34.95 + $4 shipping and handling. The new cars are available in HO scale only, and are ready to run. They feature operating magnetic knuckle couplers and free-rolling metal wheels. Watch for the ad running in NMRA Magazine. To order, call HQ at 423-892-2846
- Registrations for Grand Rails 2012, next year's national convention in Grand Rapids, Mich., are taking off. Half of the available Furniture City Flyers Club memberships are already sold. Details about this club can be found on the convention's website at www.gr2012.org. In addition almost 90 clinic slots have been filled, with topics ranging from geared locomotives to timetable/train order operation. If one of your members is interested in presenting a clinic, have them fill out an application form on the website. They're especially looking forward to clinics covering prototype modeling and operations.
- One more convention note: there has been a change in the visitation procedure for Bruce and Janet Chubb's Sunset Valley Oregon System. The SVOS will now be open a portion of every day from Sunday, July 29, through Saturday August 4, for self-guided tours. Special commemorative tickets will be available each day exclusively for the SVOS, so attendees can choose to visit any time during any open day.
- And a repeat announcement: if your Region or Division gives adult or family classes on model railroading, Fred Bock, the NMRA's Education Department Assistant Manager, is looking for ideas. Whether your program runs as a one-day seminar or multi-week course, Fred would like to know what your program is about and is looking for lesson plans or other course material. Please email Fred at fbockLSRDiv6@aol.com . Use "Adult Education" as the subject of the email.
If you have any questions or comments about any of the above, please send them directly to a Director or Officer. You'll find those addresses at www.nmra.org or in NMRA Magazine.
And if you're changing email addresses, please let me know at this email address: NMRA-infonet@earthlink.net
-Gerry Leone, MMR
NMRA Communications Director
July NMRA InfoNews ...
In this edition, we have some news from the Sacramento convention earlier this month.
- This year's Sacramento convention attendance topped the 2,000 mark -- the continuation of an upward attendance trend.
- The folks at the NMRA Membership Booth at the National Train Show signed up 243 new members in three days!
- Many of the clinicians at the Sacramento convention have uploaded their handouts or full presentations as PDF files to the x2011 website at www.x2011west.org. Anyone can download them. Just look for the Clinics tab, then Clinic Handouts.
- Based on two big proposals for the 2015 National NMRA Convention, the Board of Directors selected Portland, Ore. as the winner. Details and exact timing of the convention will be announced in the coming months.
- The "Carpet Cutting" at the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento marked the official start of fundraising for a scale model railroading exhibit in the museum's Gallery area. No NMRA dues or regular revenue streams will be used to fund this project, so its construction will rely entirely on donations. For more details about the Gallery Exhibit, see the article in the May 2011 issue of NMRA Magazine.
- The Board continues to review the timing of all future conventions. While a mid-summer date has been traditional because of lower hotel and convention center rates over the July 4 weekend, many NMRA members have voiced the concern that it conflicts with family functions. Constructive suggestions may be directed to the Convention Committee, headed by Pacific Director Peter Jensen.
For a complete summary of the Board of Directors meeting, visit the homepage of the NMRA website at www.nmra.org in the next few weeks. The report will also be published in NMRA Magazine in the near future.
If you have any questions or comments about any of the above, please send them directly to a Director or Officer of NMRA. You'll find those addresses at www.nmra.org or in NMRA Magazine.