Spring 2023 President`s Letter

Greetings Seacoast Members,

We`re well into spring and I hope you have all of your yard clean-up tasks done. This year it was time to re-apply the bark mulch and after 102 bags from Home Depot, I`m done. It`s time for me to start the layout work that requires the table saw in the drive way. I still have a lot of carpentry work to do. I hope you are making progress on your railroads as well.

Seacoast Division Board of Director Activity

The Seacoast Division BOD has had two Zoom meetings since my last letter which were held on April 13, 2023 and May 18, 2023. The BOD meetings are held regularly (8 times this year). All members are welcome to attend. Please contact me and I will get your name on the Zoom invitation.

We`d like to thank Director Jim Seroskie for setting up a Seacoast division Youtube page: https://www.youtube.com/@nmra-seacoast-division/videos. Thus far we have the videos of the last three Seacoast Events (Fall 2022, Winter & Spring 2023) and a video tour of Victor Hand`s layouts. Please take a moment to view the videos. If you have a video of your layout that you would like to share on Youtube, contact Jim.

We`d also like to thank Director Guy Mason for volunteering to be the Chairman of the new Seacoast Division Publicity Committee. Guy`s first task is to take over as the administrator of the Seacoast Division Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/seacoastnmra/. Having someone who skilled on the social media platforms is crucial as try to attract new members to the Seacoast Division and the NMRA.

An action that came out of the recent BOD meetings is for me to contact the membership whenever a new Switch Tower is posted to the website. I will do my best to stay on top of this.

Spring 2023 Event

The Seacoast Division of the NMRA held its Spring 2023 Live Event with Zoom on April 15, 2023 at the James Foley Memorial Community Center in Rochester, NH. We`d like to offer a special thank you to Rich Breton for arranging the venue and Jay Ehlen for planning the event. A special thanks goes to Tage Erickson for handling the Zoom portion of the meeting. The event was attended by 17 NMRA members in person and 8 members via Zoom. Member Dave Robertson brought 3 guests who are members of the First Baptist Church of Shapleigh Train Club to the event. They presented Tage Erickson and the Seacoast Division with a Thank You card for the Faulter Fund donation that was made to their club. The club members are building a modular layout and the Seacoast Division is happy to support them.

I kicked off the meeting and welcomed everyone and gave a brief status of the progress that the 2025 Convention Exploratory Committee has made. Once again I addressed the need for members to step up and fill the Co-Chairman positions for each of the four committees (Overall Convention, Inside Activities, Outside Activities, and Publicity). The Division also needs help with the Audio/Video operation required to broadcast the event to Zoom Attendees.

Next, AP Chairman Tom Oxnard, MMR announced the award of a Golden Spike to Will Everett. Congratulations Will!

The first clinic, "Scratch Building a Through-Plate Girder Bridge", was given by John McHugh. John showed how he built an HO scale 79 foot through-plate girder bridge to earn a Merit Award. He presented how he measured and documented a representative prototype and modified the design to fit his layout requirements. He highlighted the many key details that were added in order to increase the complexity to meet the requirements for a Merit Award. John gave a very informative presentation. Thanks John!

The second clinic, "Does Your Layout Tell A Story?" was given by Jim Gore, MMR. Jim walked through the ten key areas that need to be addressed so that the structure/scene looks realistic to the typical viewer who may not be a model railroader Adding many minor details to a structure goes a long way toward the goal of creating a realistic looking model. Jim showed photos of many of his own models to help illustrate the ten topics that he describes. Outstanding! We never tire of seeing Jim`s great work.

As part of the "Show, Tell, Ask" portion of the event, Dave Emery showed how he used servos and custom built linkages to create an Operating Ball Signal, like those used by the B&M Railroad years ago in New Hampshire. Dave, very nice work!

The third clinic, "Ten Year Anniversary of the HO Scale 1909 Boston & Maine Layout at the Heritage Park Railroad Museum" was presented by Rich Breton. Rich presented about a hundred photos, out of the thousands in his collection, that walked the audience through the ten years of hard work donated by many volunteers who designed and built the layout. The layout accurately depicts the eastern New Hampshire locations traversed by the Boston and Maine Railroad in 1909. Rich included history of local people`s ancestors who lived in the area or worked on the railroad. Overall, an outstanding presentation. Thanks again Rich.

Remember, If you missed the Spring event and are interested in any of the clinics listed above, You can view them on the Division Youtube Channel.

Lastly, I reviewed upcoming events and conventions and introduced the two layout tours, The Heritage Park Railroad Museum – 1909 B&B Layout and Chris Oliver`s Donner Pass HO Layout that were open to members following the event.

Again I would like to thank everyone who helped make the Spring Event possible!

Seacoast Summer 2023 Event

The Seacoast Division Summer 2023 Event will be held on July 15, 2023 at the Great Falls Model Railroad Club in Auburn ME. Watch for the Event notice. Tage Erickson is organizing the event.

Other Upcoming 2023 Shows and Events

37th Annual Concord Model Railroad Show, Everett Arena, 15 Loudon Rd, Concord, NH 03301. Exit 14 on Route 93. August 20, 2023 - Hours 10a-3:30p. For more information please visit http://www.trainweb.org/cmrc/ or contact Rich Fifield via email at rhfsaf@aol.com or 603- 736-8061.

NER Convention – Cannonball Express 2023, Uniondale, NY, October 5-8, 2023. Enrollment is open at https://ner-conventions.org/cannonball-express/.

Seacoast Division 2025 NER Convention Exploratory Committee Status

he Seacoast Division 2025 NER Convention Exploratory Committee continues to investigate the possibility of the Seacoast Division hosting the 2025 NER Convention. At this time we have located one feasible venue in Concord NH – The Grapponne Center. Several committee members were able to tour the venue on May 24th. Each of the four major committees (Overall Convention, Inside Activities, Outside Activities, and Publicity) will be co-chaired in order to share the workload. At this time two Seacoast members have volunteered to be a co-chairman for the Inside Activities Committee and the Publicity Committee. We are still in need of at least one volunteer for each the co-chair positions in the Overall Convention Committee and Outside Activities Committee before we can commit to hosting the 2025 NER Convention. Please think about stepping up and becoming a Committee Co-chairman.

Once again, consider volunteering. This is your organization and we need help in several areas.

Glenn Mitchell
Seacoast Division NMRA President & Director

Published: 02 June 2023