NMRA US Membership Fee Reduced to $50

NMRA announced in the SEP/OCT e-bulletin a reduction for the annual US membership fee from $68 down to $50—without removing a single member benefit. Complete access to the NMRA Magazine, digital archives, insurance coverage, local division activities, and all standard member perks are retained.

Note that auto-renewal is now the default selection when joining or renewing online.

Basic Member (No Print Subscription) – as of 8/1/2026
All Rights and Benefits; Does include the Digital NMRA Magazine access.
Cost – $50.00 (US) per year, 2 years for $100.00 (US)

Click  this Membership link to see all classes and options for joining the NMRA.

Next Meeting; 13 SEP

Upcoming Meetings

(Note that all meetings start at 2:00 PM)

September 13th

The September meeting will be a return visit to Steve K’s home in Fayetteville (Pond Bank), PA to enjoy his large “N” scale layout.

Steve operates the Virginia Midland Railroad which is a large “N” scale layout which features heavy coal operations with just enough general freight traffic thrown in to make things interesting for the operators.  In many ways the Virginia Midland brings back memories of the N&W (post Virginian merger) and features long trains of hoppers, multi engine power consists, and even independently controlled helpers.  Even if you are not personally into heavy freight drag operations this layout is worth seeing.  This is probably one of the largest “N” scale layouts in the area.  All operations are controlled using CVP (Easy DCC) wireless throttles.

October 11

The October SMD meeting will be hosted by Dave T in Winchester, VA.

November 8

As of this writing we do not have a host for the November meeting.  If you would like to volunteer please contact the Superintendent.

December 13

As of this writing we do not have a host for the December meeting.  If you would like to volunteer please contact the Superintendent.

For street addresses and volunteer opportunities email southmountaindiv@gmail.com.

From the Desk of the Superintendent

Daniel Mulhearn NMRA, MER, South Mountain Division Superintendent 2025-2027

From Daniel Mulhearn

As September and the cooler days of autumn approach, we are about to start our annual meeting schedule. I have just returned from the NMRA National convention at Chattanooga. We are always in need of volunteers to host our Division meetings.  Please let us know if you are interested.

The Division members working on our hosting of the 2027 MER convention have been quite busy and a great deal has been done. I attended the recent MCR Region convention and noted there were no outside activities scheduled except self-drive home layout visits. There were volunteers who were available to provide information on area prototype rail and non-rail attractions. There was a Saturday banquet to close the convention; with RMC Editor Otto M Vondrak as the speaker. 

The National Convention was also limited in group outside activities. Home op sessions and layout visits were self-drive. There were nightly social get togethers scheduled at the hotel but no closing banquet; it was replaced by an award ceremony for the contest results. Op sessions were available on site with the large N gauge layout of the Operations Road Show or the large HO layout of the Reading Technical and Historical Society. The National Train Show was one of the best in years and drew enormous crowds in addition to the convention attendees. I bumped into Rick K from our Division as well as many old friends from my old Coal Division MCR days.

As this is being written I am getting ready to leave for Hershey for the first of three procedures involved with the Deep Brain Stimulation surgery process. I do hope to be up and about for the September Division meeting and certainly hope to see you there.

MER 2027 Convention Progress

Significant progress has been made in the planning for the 2027 Mid Eastern Region (MER) fall convention.  At this time I am looking for two (2) volunteers to join the planning committee.
1.  Railroad / Industrial Tours Coordinator
We have identified at least six potential sites for convention rail-related tours.  We are looking for one individual to take the lead on further exploring these locations and if possible setting up the tours (would like to get two sites).  Initially, this will primarily  involve identifying contacts and reaching out to them to see if they would be open to the tours.  As we get closer to the actual convention the coordinator will serve as a liaison between the SMD and the tour site personnel.
2.  Publicity Coordinator
As we move forward we need an individual to work on getting publicity in the commercial press (Model Railroader, NMRA Bulletin, etc.), provide timely information to the convention website manager,  assisting in the development of the convention publicity material which will be printed in the MER LOCAL, and getting publicity in the local press.   The majority of the background material will be developed by other committee members but the publicity coordinator will need to take the lead on formatting the info and submitting it for publication.
If you can volunteer, or just want further details, please email the convention manager (Bob Johnson) at rcyrilj@aol.com.