Fall 2025 President's Message
Seacoast Division Fall President`s Message
Greetings Seacoast Members,
We`ve reached the end of September, and what a month we had! The Concord Flyer Convention is in the record books and it was a huge success in every respect. We had an outstanding attendance - 172 registrants plus 47 spouse/family members. Included in those numbers we had 44 Seacoast members attend. To all of you who organized and worked at the convention, attended, and supported the Concord Flyer I want to say THANK YOU!
Financially, it was a success as well. The numbers are not in yet for the Seacoast Division`s share of the gate, but we made close to $3K on the raffle. Look for a more detailed Concord Flyer Convention report in the Switch Tower.
We attempted to have a Summer Event, but we could not get a venue so the Summer Event was cancelled. In place of the Summer Event, Peter and Sue McKenney opened their layout and home to an open-house on July 26, 2025. Besides getting to see the great progress that Peter has made on the layout, we were treated to a cook out. About 30 Seacoast members and I had a great time. Thank you Peter and Sue.
The Seacoast Division Fall 2025 Event is less than a week away. It will be held at the James Foley Memorial Community Center, 150 Wakefield St., Rochester, New Hampshire from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm. The agenda includes a Concord Flyer wrap up presentation by Tage Erickson and Peter McKenney as well as encore presentations of two clinics given at the Concord Flyer. Rich Breton will present his clinic on Resin Casting and Jack Lutz will present his clinic on Pulp and Paper Railroads in ME and NH. We will have a Show and Tell presentation and we encourage any Seacoast Members that had entrants in the Concord Flyer Model Contest or Photo Contest to bring them to the Show and Tell. Chris Oliver`s Donner Pass Layout and The Heritage Park Railroad Museum will both be open for tours after the event. I hope to see many of you at the Fall Event.
Finally, I want to recognize John McHugh who was awarded Master Model Railroader #799 by the NMRA. Great job John. There is an article in the October 2025 NMRA Magazine which describes how John earned the title MMR.
Respectfully Submitted,
Glenn Mitchell
Seacoast Division NMRA President & Director
Published: 06 October 2025
Late Spring 2025 President's Message
Greetings Seacoast Members,
Seacoast Division Late Spring President`s Message
Greetings Seacoast Members,
It`s almost June and summer is around the corner. We`ve had a lot of rain, but we`ve also had a surprising number of warm clear days that I took advantage of to get out on my bicycle and hit the road. I`ve ridden 150 miles so far which is a great start for my 32nd year. Much better than the last five years..
The Concord Flyer continues to be the major focus of the Seacoast Division. Tage, Peter and Will continue to do a great job leading the team in getting ready for the convention. There have been 77 primary registrations plus 24 spouse/family registrations so far. That`s a great start. The hotels are getting filled up and we continue to add rooms. It is shaping up to be great convention and I hope to see many of you there.
The convention is in need of people to work it. We`re talking about working one or two 4 hour shifts during the convention. For example we need members to work in the raffle room or to support the clinicians during their presentations. I`m sure there will be other tasks that need support as we go forward.
If you have already volunteered we have your name on our list, but if you haven`t volunteered please contact me and I will add you to our volunteer list.
The Seacoast Division Spring 2025 Event was held on April 5, 2025 at the Stratham Firehouse from 10:00 to 2:00. Thanks again to Mike Grahame for providing the venue. There were two clinics at this event:
Tom Oxnard, MMR showed how Helicon Focus can improve your compositions and ability to get crisper images. Tom makes use of his Iphone as his camera and a downloaded app that takes a series of shots which progressively increase the focus distance with each step. The process of using Helicon Focus keeps getting easier. It was a great clinic and you can see it on the Seacoast Youtube site at https://www.youtube.com/@nmra-seacoast-division/videos
Glenn Mitchell presented the inspiration for the design of his C&NW Illinois Division layout and discussed the planning phase using XTrackCAD. His layout plan was the basis for his operational documentation which helped him earn his Chief Dispatcher AP Certificate.
Chris Carfaro gave a presentation on the photo contest for NMRA members. The winning photo will be on the cover of the summer edition of The Coupler. Chris will outlined the contest rules. Check out The Coupler to see the winning photo. Bill Huebner opened his layout for the first time for the Seacoast Division. It’s a great layout. Thanks again Bill for sharing your work with the Seacoast Division.
After several attempts to find a venue in southern Maine, in July or early August, for the Seacoast Summer Event failed, the board has decided to cancel the summer event. We kept having to look later and later in the summer and were getting too close to the Concord Flyer dates.
Instead of a traditional Summer Event, Peter McKenney has offered to host an open-house at his home layout on July 26, 2025 from 10:00 to 2:00 Peter will present the development of his layout from the inspiration through the planning and the construction. Peter models the Bangor and Aroostook Railroad in Maine and we will all get the opportunity to see his progress so far. Peter has requested that those planning to attend RSVP as soon as possible. His contact information is listed below:
I`m looking forward to seeing Peter`s layout and I hope to see you there
Respectfully Submitted,
Glenn Mitchell
Seacoast Division NMRA President & Director
Published: 31 May 2025
Spring 2025 President's Message
Greetings Seacoast Members,
Seacoast Division Early Spring President`s Message
Greetings Seacoast Members,
We`ve had a busy winter and now spring is here. The Northern New England Railroading [NER] NERx video presentation series just wrapped up. I saw a couple segments of the presentation, but I need to go back on the NER website and see the episodes that I missed. Four of the layout videos were Seacoast members` layouts. Also, the Concord Flyer convention got a lot of coverage including a panel discussion (Peter McKenney, Tage Ericson, John McHugh and Tom Oxnard) and videos by Chris Carfaro. If you missed them take a look at them at: http://nerx.org/index.html.
Preparation for the Concord Flyer continues to get more intense. We expect to have the Convention Application on line by April 1, 2025 (less than two weeks!). The Concord Flyer link is: https://conventions.nernmra.org/home/home-2025/l. If you are planning on staying at the Courtyard by Marriot don`t wait - as of last night 40 of the 67 rooms that were blocked had already been booked. Book now if you want to stay at the convention location. Other "over-flow" rooms will be available since the owner of the Grappone Center and Courtyard also owns five other hotels in the Concord area. You can go through the Concord Flyer link to reach the hotel booking page.
In support of the Concord Flyer Convention I traveled to the Vermont Railway System Car Repair Facility in North Walpole NH on March 4, 2025. Member Larry Rine arranged for the access to the facility during the Concord Flyer Convention. Many thanks go to Larry for getting us in. We both met there to check things out. I went there thinking that it`s an old roundhouse with a turntable that used to house Steamtown USA decades ago and didn`t know much else. As I drove in from the south I passed at least a hundred freight cars parked on the old mainline. I thought these were there for long term storage but later learned that they were all there for repairs. Upon entering we met Aaron Bridge, the Superintendent of Railcar Repair for the Vermont Railway System. After suiting up in PPE (hard hats and safety glasses) we were led into the facility. We quickly learned that this was not just another old structure that appeared to have seen better days, but was a working repair facility for tankcars, covered hoppers, boxcars, and gondolas. Aaron explained how every repair meets some level of federal certification and every part is tracked, even the used parts that are being discarded. (Other railroads want proof that the repair that was made there to one of their cars was required.) The roundhouse has 5 stalls and 4 of them were used for car repairs. We saw a gondola and a high cube boxcar in bays 2 and 3 undergoing work. A Green Mountain excursion passenger car was in stall 5 waiting to have it trucks removed and replaced with temporary freight car trucks while the passenger car trucks were sent out to be overhauled. The turntable, estimated to be about 90 feet long, is still used. While we were there, all the 6 other employees were called into service unloading and reloading 16 freight car wheelsets from and on a flat-bed trailer. A contractor with a backhoe was also at work in front of a couple of the stalls. Bottom line - this is a dynamic, jumping railroad facility - and we got to see it. We together as Aaron escorted us around to see most anything we wanted including a working Alco RS-1 and a 1912 built snow plow. If you are interested in seeing real railroading, sign up for the Concord Flyer Convention and join me as Aaron gives the group another tour of the facility on Thursday September 11, 2025. We`ll be car-pooling as much as possible since parking is limited. The tour starts at 2:00. More details on the Concord Flyer website. I`ll see you there!
We held our Winter 2025 Event in the Westbrook Community Center in Westbrook, Maine, on January 11, 2025. Thanks again to Jay Ehlen for organizing the event. 19 members were there in person and we had 12 more on Zoom. President Glenn Mitchell conducted the 2025 Annual Meeting of the Seacoast Division of the NMRA. All three incumbent Directors - Geoff Anthony, Jim Gore, MMR, and Jim Seroskie - retained their seats. Tage gave us the latest info on the Concord Flyer Convention. We had three clinics. The first clinic by Joe Linuqita was a presentation/clinic on "Foam Based Scenery Techniques". Next on the agenda, John McHugh took us on a slide tour of his Ossipee Valley Railroad layout. His focus was on the design and development of his two deck layout in a relatively small space. A great work in progress. Lastly, Jim Gore MMR, offered a clinic on "Improving Clinic Quality". His theme was "organize your power point around visuals and limit text". He also told us to be enthusiastic about your topic and avoid passing sample items around. All very useful tips. Rich Breton and Jim Gore gave "show and tells" displaying their structures. Following the conclusion of the event, a brief Board of Director`s meeting was held where Glenn Mitchell and Jay Ehlen were elected President and Vice President respectively. All the officers and chairmen were approved by the BOD. Finally, the Southern Maine Model Railroad Club opened their layout for a tour by the attendees after the event.
The Seacoast Division Spring 2025 Event will be held on April 5, 2025 at the Stratham Firehouse from 10:00 to 2:00. There will be two clinics at this event: Tom Oxnard, MMR will show how the use of the Helicon Focus can improve your compositions and ability to get crisper images. He will also discuss lighting, related equipment and software to make photos ready for the NMRA Calendar. Glenn Mitchell will present the inspiration for the design of his layout and discuss the planning phase using XTrackCAD. His layout plan was the basis for his operational documentation which helped him earn his Chief Dispatcher AP Certificate. Chris Carfaro will give a brief presentation on organizing a photo contest for NMRA members. The winning photo will be on the cover of the Summer Edition of the Coupler. Chris will outline the contest rules and note - the winner will also receive a special prize.
Tage Erickson will present the latest on the Concord Flyer Convention preparation. We will be holding our usual "Show and Tell" session as well as a "For Sale" table. Bill Huebner will be opening his layout for the first time for the Seacoast Division. We all thank Bill in advance for supporting the Spring 2025 Event. Watch for more details in the next event notice.
Respectfully Submitted,
Glenn Mitchell
Seacoast Division NMRA President & Director
Published: 22 March 2025
