Fall President`s Message 2022

Greetings Seacoast Members,

President`s Message November 2022 Greetings Seacoast Members, It`s hard to believe it`s already late November and Thanksgiving is just two days away. I just finished raking and blowing leaves and mowing the grass for the last time. I am glad that is over. The mover has been put away and the snow blower is fueled and ready to go. Now it`s time to get down to fun things like Thanksgiving Dinner and working on the railroad.

The Seacoast Division Fall Event was a huge success. Vice President Jay Ehlen organized the event which was held at the Stratham Fire House on October 8, 2022. Thanks again to Mike Grahame for providing the venue. James Van Bokkelen, Vice President of the Seacoast Trolley Museum, gave a presentation on the relocation of a layout that was donated to the museum. But, before they could install the layout, they had to build a building to house the layout. Tom Oxnard, MMR gave an illustrative presentation of how the Achievement program works. Rich Breton gave the third presentation on general photography and adding a video camera to a locomotive or rolling stock. After the event, Dave Kotsonis and Dick Fralich opened their layouts for visitors. I would like to thank everyone involved in putting on the Fall Event. Great job!

Summer is not usually the time for train shows, however, the Concord Model Railroad Club puts on their show every year on the second Sunday of August (Aug. 14) at the Everett Arena in Concord, NH. This show is the best show in New Hampshire and the Seacoast Division will be represented. Stop by at our table and say hello. I look forward to seeing you there.

After all of you have finished your Thanksgiving festivities, you can spend the weekend visiting layouts that are part of the Tour de Chooch tour. 36 layouts in Massachusetts and New Hampshire will be open on Saturday and Sunday, November 26-27, 2022. See the www.tourdechooch.org website for details. Several of the layouts belong to Seacoast members. The Heritage Park Railroad Museum in Union, NH will have their Boston and Maine -1909 layout, built by a group of Seacoast members, open on Sunday as part of the tour. This is a great opportunity to see a lot of outstanding model railroading.

The Seacoast Division Winter Event and Annual Meeting will be held on January 7, 2023 at the Westbrook Community Center in Westbrook, ME. Watch for event notices in your email.

The Northeastern Region (NER) will be holding another NERx event on March 20-23, 2023. NERx is an “on-line convention” held in the evenings of the previously mentioned dates. Anyone can join in and watch on-line clinics, video layout tours, roundtable discussions and model showcases. Look for it on the www.nernmra.org website. Last March, we got to see several Seacoast members` layouts which were video-taped by Bob Kotsonis. The organizers are currently looking for clinicians and layouts to videotape for 2023. If you are interested in giving a clinic or having your layout videotaped or even just showing off your work in a short Model Showcase, contact me and I will connect you with the NERx coordinators.

The Seacoast Treasury remains stable with a balance of $6599.34. The Chip Faulter Fund has a balance of $9663.85 after making a $1000.00 donation to a church youth group that is building a modular layout in Maine. We continue to look for worthy recipients of funding from the Faulter Fund. If you know any young people that could use funding to support their model railroad activities, contact Tage Erickson or me and I will make sure that information will be sent to you.

Our 2024 NER Convention Exploratory Committee continues to look for an appropriate venue for the convention. Portsmouth and Laconia are the primary areas of interest at this time. I recently sent out a request for volunteers to help with the convention. I thank all of you that have volunteered. The email contained a “strawman” list of positions that needed filling. The convention chairmen roles are well defined in the NER Convention handbook, but the rest of positions were made up by me based on what I know and have observed at other conventions. Given that, I hope that you will not get too concerned about the specific positions listed on the chart. I am sure the specific needs might change and everything will be dependent of the final choice for a venue. At this time I ask all of you this question: “Are you willing to help with the convention?” I hope many more of you can answer YES and volunteer. We will sort out the roles and positions so that every volunteer feels comfortable with the job that they take on.

That`s all I have for now. I wish everyone a happy and safe Thanksgiving. I hope to see you at the Winter Event!

Best regards,

Glenn Mitchell, Seacoast Division NMRA President and Director

Published:11 November 2022

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