2022-23 Officers Elected

Robert “Bob” Johnson, Superintendent, NMRA South Mountain Division.

Raymond “Ray” Price, Paymaster, NMRA South Mountain Division.

Harvey Heyser III, Clerk, NMRA South Mountain Division.

SMD Business Meeting – Sunday, 15 May, 1-5 PM, Greencastle, PA

Hey, folks!

I’m writing to invite you all to our May business meeting tomorrow, May 15th, at the historic High Line Train Station depot in Greencastle, PA. You read that right: for the first time since March 2020, we’re back in person! The address is

1-75 S Jefferson St, Greencastle, PA 17225

Literal, physical, actual doors open at 2pm, with the business meeting to follow by 2:30pm. Refreshments will be provided and, in lieu of a clinic, in-person socializing at the station is welcome until 5pm. I want to take a moment to give a big shout-out to Bob Morningstar for securing this opportunity for us!

In other news, big changes are coming to the South Mountain Division in the ’22-’23 season. Taking things from the top…

… I am stepping down from the Superintendent’s desk once more. I never intended to return to it this quickly, and it’s simply not a good fit for me right now. Fortunately, Bob Johnson has accepted a membership nomination to become our next Superintendent; please join me (hopefully, literally!) in giving Bob a big hand as he takes the Super’s chair.

Harvey Heyser and Ray Price have both graciously agreed to serve another year as our Clerk and Paymaster, respectively. With assistant Super Mike Shockey acting as our Nomination Chair and only one candidate per position, I expect to elect the current slate by a motion of acclamation in lieu of a voting election.

Furthermore, with Wheel Report editor Tom Fedor retiring from more than half a decade with the Division, I’ve volunteered to fill his shoes through our ’22-’23 issues and- as you likely already know- Grant Berry has replaced Pete Clarke as our MinI-Con Coordinator, with one successful Mini already under his belt.

Looking down the line, I’m excited to see a post-pandemic SMD begin to get under steam. Judging by conversations I’ve had with folks over the last 6-12 months, I believe there’s a real appetite for what our Division can bring to the table!
If you have any questions/concerns re: the meeting, email me at southmountaindiv@gmail.com.
See you all soon,

Alex Polimeni

Superintendent

*SMD has the station from 1-5, so I plan to arrive early with bottled water, soda, coffee, donuts, snacks, etc. as our “host” for concession boxcar purposes.
** Due to technical problems, the draft March meeting minutes will not be prepared for approval until our September meeting.

Mini-Con 2022 UPDATE

From Grant Berry

On Saturday, 23 April, 2022, South Mountain Division (SMD) will present a Mini Convention in Blue Ridge Summit, PA, sponsored by Mainline Hobby Supply. Beginning at 9:00 AM, this free annual outreach programming consists of a morning loaded with informal clinics, including a couple of make-and-take opportunities, and then concludes in the early afternoon with a couple of formal presentations. Both NMRA members and the general public are invited to this no-cost gathering.

Highlights

Raffle – $150 Mainline Gift Certificate, Tickets $10ea at tegistration table. Drawing at 1:00 PM.
Food Truck on site starting at 10:00 AM.
20 Different Clinics, 3 Presentations.

PRESENTATIONS

12:30 – 1:30 Building his Western MD Railroad by Jack Brown, Author of Western MD Passenger & Freight Equipment
1:40 – 2:35 Miser’s Guide to Model Railroading by John Pursell, SMD member
2:45 – 3:40 What’s Happening on the EBT by Pete Clarke, SMD member

CLINICS

Brian Greenwalt – Make and Take using a Carolina Craftsman Kit
David Sweeney – Make and Take using simple plastic kit
Bill Martz – Make and Take DPM Kit
Ron Polimeni – Timesaver Switching
Ron Polimeni – Building Old Style Rolling Stock Craftsman Kits
Jane Clarke – Scenery from Natural Materials
Dennis Blank – Lighting a SD-40 with LEDS
Bob Johnson – Rolling Stock Tuneup
John Madden – DCC ++
Ken Mazer – Fast Track Turnouts
Jeff Adams – Loco Tuneup
Todd and Brett Wiley – Custom Buildings
Andrew Dodge – Building a Model Railroad that is Quick, Easy, and with no Mess
Bill Reynolds – Using Tortoise Switches
Dottie Caldwell – Painting Hydrocal Buildings
Bob Morningstar – How to make a Current Keeper
Alex Polimeni – Model Railroading as Game Design
Michael Groves – Fiber Optic Lighting
Jay Beckham – 3D Printing
Steve Green – Turntable and Other Electronics

The Mini-Con is Back!

From Grant Berry

This Mini-Con activity is a great opportunity for the Division. It offers an occasion to reconnect with one another, encouraging active participation as a way to give back, and a path to promote the hobby to the public. It takes a large staff of volunteers to host this event. Most are Division members. Attendance in past years averaged over 200 persons.

To encourage casual interaction and an exchange of ideas, approximately twenty informal clinics take place during the first four hours. Clinic topics this spring will cover structure building and painting, rolling stock maintenance, upgrades, and weathering, locomotive tuning, DCC topics, a fiber optic presentation, Tortoise machine operations, and more. Clinicians will be seated at tables welcoming attendees to observe their projects. Conversation and questions are entertained as the clinicians work.

In some instances, guests may be invited to try their hand at the work.

Being sensitive to physical distancing protocols, no modular layouts will be present this spring to facilitate enough space between and around clinicians.

As in the past, the SMD will have two make-and-take clinics that focus on the beginner, giving preference to the youth in our hobby. Both culminate with a small structure to take home. An entry-level craftsman kit and a basic plastic kit are the foundation for this activity which is billed as a wonderful parent and child activity.

Two formal presentations are slated for the afternoon hours. Division member John Pursell will offer a program on frugal methods to model railroad, and lastly, member Pete Clarke of the Friends of the EBT has arranged for a talk on the happenings and progress at the East Broad Top Railroad.

The sponsor for this event, Mainline Hobby Supply, is within walking distance from the Blue Ridge Mountain Fire Co location. The Division encourages all to thank owners Bonnie and Brian Wolfe and to support their business. Mainline is offering a 10% discount to every Mini-Con attendee on the day of the event. Additionally, a $150 gift certificate for Mainline Hobby will be raffled off during the day.

The raffle ticket holder must be present at the time of the drawing on Saturday to win.

Watch this site to get all updates regarding this event.

2022 MER Convention

From Bob Halsey

The next (and best) MER convention will be the Carolina Special Look South 2022 http://www.carolinasouthern.org/MER2022.html on October 20-23 next year – put those dates in your calendar! Although the last two MER conventions (both in Maryland) were definitely top-quality events, the Carolina Southern Division is well into planning for 2022, and is ensuring that your trip to Charlotte, North Carolina, will be way more than worthwhile! It will be downright memorable!

We have already planned several tours, first: on Oct. 20 to the North Carolina Transportation Museum (NCTM) in Spencer (the former main maintenance facility of the Southern Railway, including the huge backshop, large roundhouse and turntable, many historic locomotives, railcars, automobiles, firetrucks, and airplanes. You can get a ride on one of NCTM’s own passenger trains (pulled by one of their ex-Southern diesels), and if we are lucky we may get to see an impressive visitor – the N&W 611 large 4-8-4 steam locomotive, which comes to Spencer from Roanoke for regular maintenance. We will also offer a tour of the National Narrow Gauge Museum and Restoration Facility in Newton, where they have several old and not-so-old railcars and locomotives (steam and diesel). The museum not only has the original fully-restored passenger/freight station, but a separate building with several large O, HO, and N gauge layouts. We are also arranging a tour of the Lionel Corporation’s development center in Concord to see their latest projects (O and HO).

Of course, we are going to have the usual elements for a successful convention: many clinics (including some you have not seen before!), a company store (formerly “white elephant” room), and the contest room. As a judge (“evaluator”) at the last two conventions, I can say that many of the dioramas and rolling stock were not just super-detailed, they were true works of art!

And we will have many layout tours available to visit (too many to list here) including Jack Parker’s Piedmont & Western (HO mountain railroad) and Seth Gartner’s NYC Piney Fork Branch (with its large detailed steel mill). Both of these were subjects of 2018 cover articles in Model Railroader magazine. Also Ed Smith’s Erie Railroad (with its amazing 10-arch viaduct bridge), Neal Anderson’s basement-filling KKL Railroad, and a number of excellent N gauge layouts.

This spectacular convention will be held at the University Hilton in north Charlotte (just off I-485), with a reduced room rate for convention attendees. Although we are not ready to accept registrations (will be soon), our website www.carolinasouthern.org will contain convention details. We have a very interesting Saturday evening banquet speaker lined up – again, more details soon!

For non-modeler attendees (spouses and future adults) there are a number of local attractions: the Mint Art Museum, US National Whitewater Center (whitewater rafting, zip lines, hiking trails), Discovery Place Museum, Duke Energy Explorium, Charlotte Aviation Museum (at the airport), Billy Graham Library and Museum (very interesting!), Charlotte Motor Speedway (you can get really fast rides in NASCAR race cars driven by professional drivers), Concord Mills Mall (it’s a big one), and evening dinner cruises on Lake Norman, plus many good restaurants in the area. I have done all of these things!