Seacoast Division January 2021 Winter Event Zoom Report

by Glenn Mitchell

The Seacoast Division of the NMRA held its Winter 2021 Zoom Event on January 9, 2021 at 10:00 am. Since Covid-19 continues to be a major health risk, especially to older people, the Seacoast Division Board of Directors had made the decision to cancel "in person" events for the foreseeable future. The BOD decided to help fill the void by holding on-line Zoom meetings

Tage Erickson, the Seacoast President, facilitated the meeting with the Zoom tool. After getting the attendees connected, through their computers or by phone, Tage gave a brief welcome. Twenty-nine Seacoast members were in attendance as well as the NMRA President, Pete Magoun and two guests from other divisions

The Winter 2021 Zoom Event included the Seacoast Division 2021 Annual Meeting. Detailed minutes of the Annual Meeting will be provided by the Seacoast Division Secretary in another report.

Two layout tour videos and two presentations were given at the Winter 2021 Zoom Event.

At the conclusion of the Annual Meeting, Herm Botzow introduced the video tour of his Buckeye Railroad. [This video was prepared in support of the 2020 NERx on-line convention.] The Buckeye railroad is a two rail O gauge layout which fills a 30 ft. by 60 ft. space. The layout is completely sceniced. The video tour consisted of two parts. First we viewed trains moving through multiple scenes of Herm`s layout. The second part of the video was a tour of the entire layout filmed from the locomotive engineer`s view. This close up view of his track work and scenery gave the viewers an up-close view of Herm`s outstanding creation. Excellent work!

Next, Jim Gore MMR, gave a presentation of cardstock structure construction. Jim stated that a well-executed craftsman quality cardstock structure will hold its own up against craftsman structures constructed of wood or styrene. He then went on to back up that statement by showing many of his excellent creations. He followed up by walking the viewers through the construction process and he revealed many special techniques he uses to create outstanding cardstock models. Jim finished the presentation by providing a list of sources for cardstock design downloads and scratch building materials. Great job Jim!

Victor Hand introduced the video of his layout: The New York Central - Cold Spring to Harmon. [This video was also prepared in support of the 2020 NERx on-line convention.] Victor closely replicates the prototype in an area that he has first-hand knowledge of. He started with a tour of the route of the railroad and showed how he faithfully re-created many geographic features and structures that existed in the 1950`s. Many of the structures were scratch built by Victor. He also showed how he designed many of the electrical control components which were well ahead of the state of the art in model railroad control. Excellent work!

Tom Oxnard, MMR, gave the final presentation of the event - Detailing a B&M Doodlebug. Tom kicked off the presentation by walking through the research that he did on the various versions of B&M doodlebugs. Tom showed photos of the multiple styles of B&M doodlebugs as well as the modifications that unique doodlebugs went through over time. Tom then showed how he kit-bashed an available model in order to closely duplicate a selected prototype. Once again Tom has given us a great clinic - Thanks Tom!

Due to the inclusion of the Annual Meeting in this event the "What`s on you Workbench?" session was cancelled.

I would like to thank all of the participants for making our Winter Zoom Event a great success and hope to see you at future events.

Respectfully submitted,
Glenn Mitchell