Tag: meeting

From the Desk of the Superintendent

Robert “Bob” Johnson, Superintendent (2022-24)

By now I am sure that most of you know about the membership promotion program that we are undertaking. This program has two objectives. First, to encourage current members of the SMD to become more active in the Division.

Second, to recruit new members by promoting the benefits of membership in the NMRA.

A December promotional event at Hobbytown – Frederick was our first effort to reach out to non-members. I want to again thank Hobbytown – Frederick’s owner, and SMD member Richard Benjamin, for his support in this endeavor. I also want to thank the Division members who participated. The results of the event were not spectacular but we did get one new member and possibly two others. We will have to wait for the January membership report to come out to determine if the two possibles actually follow through.

Being our first effort, we obviously could have done a few things better but overall, I was satisfied. Probably the biggest thing we need to improve on in the future is getting better advance publicity. For unknown reasons, one of the internet publicity efforts did not appear until the actual day of the event.

During a post event critique we have decided that we should do three promotional events each year, including the Mini-Con.

Holiday Mailing:

Following up on a suggestion from a couple of our members we sent a “Happy Holidays” card to every member of the Division, as listed in the most recent NMRA membership report, encouraging all of you to become more active.

The data in this report is not always 100% accurate and two of the cards were returned to me for incorrect addresses. If you did not get your card please let me know so that we can correct our database.

Again, thanks to the informal committee that wrote the card and got it printed.

January Meeting:

After a short break to accommodate the HobbyTown event in December we will resume our regular meeting schedule on Sunday, 12 January with the meeting starting at 2:00 PM.  Our host for this meeting is Steve King who resides in Fayetteville (Pond Bank), PA.

Please email southmountaindiv@gmail.com to obtain the street address.

Elections:

We will need to vote on our officers for the 2025 – 2026 program year at the March meeting. As of now we have one candidate for the position of Superintendent and one for Paymaster. We have a possible volunteer for the position of Clerk but it is not definite at this time. If you would like to be considered for any of these positions please let me know and/or attend the upcoming January meeting and volunteer there.

In addition, we need a number of volunteers to serve in appointed positions. A listing of the primary positions, along with a description of the associated duties, was published in the last Wheel Report and on our web site.

Thanks go out to Alex Polimeni for developing this information.

Meeting Schedule:

As previously noted, a number of volunteers have stepped up to host Division meetings. As of this writing, with the exception of May, all of the 2024/2025 meeting dates have been spoken for. The schedule is as follows.

  • 9 February, Richard Benjamin, Frederick, MD
  • 9 March, Pete and Jane Clarke, Damascus, MD
  • 5 April (first Saturday), Annual Mini-Con, Blue Ridge Summit, PA
  • 18 May (3rd Sunday to avoid Mother’s Day conflict) TBD; Volunteer needed
2025 Mini Con:

Grant Berry has agreed to take the lead on the Division Mini-Con again this coming spring (April) and Mainline Hobby Supply has again offered to support the event. It will be held on Saturday, 5 April. As always, Grant will need help with registration, event set-up, and of course clinicians. Start thinking now as to what sort of table clinic you could present at the event.

The Susquehanna Division has expressed interest in participating in the event with us this coming spring but details have not been finalized. More to come on this development.

2027 MER Convention:

We are still looking for two or three volunteers to form an exploratory committee to get things started for the 2027 MER convention which we are scheduled to host. Since the MER handles most of the convention arrangements the committee’s responsibilities at this time will primarily be centered around locating a suitable host hotel, developing a list of potential layout tour hosts, and to identify some sort of rail related prototype tour. Again, if you are interested please let me know. Email southmountaindiv@gmail.com.

From the Desk of the Superintendent

Robert “Bob” Johnson, Superintendent (2022-24)

First, I want to remind everyone that there will not be a business meeting in December. The Division will be conducting an NMRA membership recruiting event at HobbyTown – Frederick on Saturday, 14 December. It was agreed that this event would take the place of the regular meeting. The next business meeting will be held on 12 January 2025, at the home of Steve King in Pond Bank, PA.

 

On to other thoughts…

At the risk of being accused of beating a dead horse, I am again asking you to consider taking a more active role in the management and operation of the Division. It is hard to believe that we need to have candidates for the positions of Superintendent, Clerk, and Paymaster identified by the end of February so that we can follow the prescribed process for nomination and election of officers in time to notify the NMRA as to who our officers will be during the 2025/2026 program year. As of this writing Ray Price has agreed to continue as Paymaster and we have one potential candidate for Superintendent. We are still looking for volunteers to serve as Clerk. If we don’t get one we may have a “work around” but I would prefer that we had a volunteer who is qualified under MER guidelines.

In addition, we need a number of volunteers to serve in appointed positions. A listing of the primary positions, along with a description of the associated duties, can be found here. My thanks to Alex Polimeni for developing this information.

 

Business Meeting: 10 November

The monthly meeting of the South Mountain Division (SMD) will be held on Sunday, 10 November at the Cumberland Valley Model Railroad Club. The club has their own building located at 440 Nelson St, Chambersburg, PA 17201. Thanks to Division and club member John Pursell for arranging a meeting at this venue. It has been three years since we last visited their location.

The club has multiple layouts in various scales and gauges, with displays of both scale and tinplate models. In order to give us more time to take in all of the various features of the club’s activities they will be opening the doors for us at 1:30 instead of the normal 2PM.

About the Cumberland Valley:

In 1996 a small group of railroad enthusiasts recognized the need for a club in the Chambersburg area, thus in April of that year the Cumberland Valley Model Railroad Club was founded. The club derived its name from the Cumberland Valley Railroad. The Cumberland Valley Railroad’s headquarters, which was located in Chambersburg served the Cumberland Valley from 1836 to 1919, when it became part of the Pennsylvania Railroad.

Business Meeting: 13 October

The monthly meeting of the South Mountain Division (SMD) will be held at 2:00 PM on Sunday, 13 October at the home of Andrew Dodge in Olney, MD.  Following the business meeting Andrew will discuss layout design issues which will be of special interest to those of you who are planning a layout but have not yet started construction.

The Central Maine Railway is a freelanced railroad modeled in O scale Proto 48 that operated in Maine in the late 1890s. Running between Bangor and Portland and west to a connection with the Grand Trunk Railroad, the main focus of the layout is the area between Belfast and Camden with a car float/tug operation from Camden Junction and Stonington on Deer Island. A steamship company also operates a passenger side-2 wheeler between Deer Island and Camden Junction. The layout occupies two rooms plus a staging area with a total area 1,000 square feet.

All the locomotives, cars, and buildings are scratch built. The engines are operated though radio controlled NCE hand held radio devices and operate on hand-laid track. The scenery is real dirt and stones with a hand-painted backdrop.

There are also more than a thousand hand-made trees. Of special interest, besides the ships, is the fully operational rotary snowplow, and a full-size Victorian Shingle Style “cottage.”

Also included; A small HO logging railroad with geared engines and a switchback located in North Carolina. It is 2’x8′ with a 4’x2′ leg.

Please email southmountaindiv@gmail.com to obtain the street address and Andrew’s contact information.

 

Business Meeting; 19 May

The May meeting will be hosted by Jay Beckham who lives near Berkeley Springs, WV, on Sunday, 19 May starting at 2:00 PM. Please remember that this meeting is taking place on the third Sunday of the month, as opposed to the normal second Sunday, due to the Mother’s Day holiday.

Déjà vu. When Jay first started a layout in his current location he was modeling the Chicago, South Shore, and South Bend Railroad in the 1960’s but later changed to the PRR theme.When you arrive at Jay’s location you will see that he is again modeling the South Shore. <https://jaysoscalelayout.blogspot.com>

Jay writes, “My new layout concept is to model in O scale the Chicago, South Shore, and South Bend Railroad in the 60s, the time I first saw it in person. I have always had an interest in traction, and interurbans in particular. It was the railroad I modeled when we first moved into this house. I am trying to use as much of the old layout as possible as far as track design but a mid-western railroad is certainly different from the PRR that I was modeling. We have redesigned the CTC to suit the South Shore. Trying to use as many of my many buildings, most of which were scratch built. Also have corrected most of the track to a 60” minimum radius and from #5 to #6 or larger turnouts.”

He says that he hopes to have trains running, by the time of the meeting, partly through some of the old scenery and maybe some of the new.

Following the business meeting Jay will present an overview of the prototype Chicago, South Shore, and South Bend Railroad. This line has an interesting history and parts of it are still in regular use today as a commuter line.

Email southmountaindiv@gmail.com and we will provide the street address. -Ed

Election of Officers

We will be “electing” the division officers at the May meeting.

The candidates are as follows:

  • Superintendent (president) – Bob Johnson
  • Clerk (secretary) – Alex Polimeni
  • Paymaster (treasurer) – Ray Price

These are the only elected positions in the Division. There are numerous other unofficial positions (see listing at end of Wheel Report).

Please note that I have already announced that I will not serve again for the 2025 / 2026 program year, and Alex has stepped up to serve as Clerk, simply because no one else has volunteered. If we cannot get some new candidates for officers for the 2025 / 2026 we will be forced to declare the Division inactive.