Author: Al Lowe

Gerry Leone, NMRA Communications Director

At Grand Rails 2012, there will be a drawing for four cab rides from among the participants in the Little River Railroad tour. The cab rides will be in the railroad’s #110, a 4-6-2 Pacific built by Baldwin, during its trip to Quincy and back. The train’s consist will contain a WWII troop car, two converted stock cars, and three cabooses. In addition, the Little River RR’s two other locomotives will be on display for photographs. In fact, you can even climb on them!

More convention news: The Grand Rapids Model Railroad Historical Society is producing an HO-scale model of a true local railroad landmark: the Bridge Street Signal Tower. The prototype, still standing near the convention hotel, was built by the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad to stand guard over the railroad’s crossing of five streets. Only 100 of these craftsman laser-cut kits will be available at a special Grand Rails 2012 Convention price of $65. Members can see photos and get a brief history of the crossing tower at www.gr2012.org/towerkit.htm.

The 4^th Division of the Pacific Northwest Region has signed on as a co-sponsor of this year’s Narrow Gauge Convention in Seattle. The 4^th Division will be signing up members for the NMRA throughout the event.

Because the NMRA’s Online Archives has been such a rousing success, several prominent photographers and collectors have donated their collections to the NMRA. The first is noted author/photographer Louis A. Marre, who’s donated hundreds of large-format negatives of many subjects. Gregory Sommers has also donated a large collection of freight car slides, and David Lange has donated a large number of scanned images from the collection of the late Jim Morris.  Watch for these exciting additions to the NMRA Online Archives in the near future. Hopefully continued donations to The Diamond Club will cover the cost of scanning and preparing the images.

Grand Rails 2012 is looking for volunteers who’d be willing to donate an hour or two of their time at the convention doing things like contest room security, helping with registration check-in, silent auction set-up and tear-down, and bus loading. If you’re interested and have an hour or two you’d like to donate, contact Mark Baldwin, Vice Chair of Volunteers, at gr2012volunteers@gmail.com for more details.

Gerry Leone, Communications Director

Fundraising has begun for the Magic of Scale Model Railroading gallery at the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento, CA. As your members will probably recall, this gallery will introduce the Museum’s 600,000 annual visitors to the hobby, as well as give them a sense of its history. One of the highlights of the gallery will be actual portions of the finest model railroads ever built. The Museum has donated the space rent-free to the NMRA for the purpose of promoting the hobby.  It’s estimated that the cost to build the exhibit will be approximately $750,000, and no NMRA dues or monies will be used. Instead, it will be entirely funded by donations. To date, over $100,000 has been raised, and an anonymous donor has agreed to match donations, up to $250,000. Anyone who would like to donate should send his tax-deductable donation to NMRA Headquarters at 4121 Cromwell Road., Chattanooga, TN  37421-2119, and mark it “Gallery donation.”

In the February edition of the InfoNet News, we reported the agreement of cooperation between the NMRA and the www.Hasea.com Model Railroad Association of China. This July we’ll be seeing the first fruits of that “Hands Across The Ocean” agreement as a group of teenage Chinese modelers and railfans visits California with the purpose of seeing layouts, prototype trains, and the California State Railway Museum. Several Pacific Coast Region members are helping to organize this 2-week event.

Grand Rails 2012, the upcoming NMRA national convention, has announced their commemorative convention car. Grand Rapids, Michigan, was once known as The Furniture Capital of the World, and appropriately the model was inspired by a postcard photograph of a turn-of-the-last-century furniture manufacturer’s wood-sided boxcar. This replica, produced by Accurail, comes complete with a Grand Rails 2012 logo “poster” which can be applied by the modeler. Visit www.gr2012.org to see a shot of the prototype. Grand Rails 2012 has also posted a preliminary clinic schedule for the convention at their website. Clinicians include: NMRA Worldwide Director Tony Koester, Jim Six, Jim Sacco, and clinics by the Layout Design Sig.

Grand Rails 2012 is looking for volunteers who’d be willing to donate an hour or two of their time at the convention doing things like contest room security, helping with registration check-in, silent auction set-up and tear-down, and bus loading. If you’re interested and have an hour or two you’d like to donate, contact Mark Baldwin, Vice Chair of Volunteers. Just use the “Contact Us” link on the Grand Rails 2012 website at www.gr2012.org.

Gerry Leone, NMRA Communications Director

News from the winter Board of Directors meeting, Feb. 8–9

The NMRA has a new Development Department Manager, charged with seeking out new donation sources and methods, and coming up with ways to expand our fundraising potential. Alan Anderson of Salt Lake City, UT, volunteered to fill the slot, which had been vacant for several years. In his full-time job, Alan works with a Salt Lake City area Chamber of Commerce.

The Cruise Convention idea was officially declared “not popular enough to pursue.” Initial estimates dictated that the idea receive 800 firm commitments from members, but only 300 were received via the survey, which was printed several times in NMRA Magazine and also sent to Sacramento convention attendees.

The NMRA is in the final stages of selecting a volunteer Marketing Department Manager. To date, several professional candidates have responded to a “help wanted” ad in NMRA Magazine. The Marketing Director will help the NMRA identify ways to retain and re-rail members, as well as recruit new ones.

Jenny Hendricks, NMRA Administration Director, reports that the number of RailPass members who convert to Regular members has reached the 80% mark. Congratulations to all of you whose hard work has made this goal a reality! Should we go for 90–100%?

The Celebration of Models in Grand Rapids will introduce a new contest award in memory of Dean Freytag, the “Dean of Styrene” and former National Contest Chair. The award is funded by a donation to the NMRA in memory of Freytag and is named “The Dean Freytag Industrial Structure Award.” The winning structure will be selected by the Contest Chairman.

Other News

White River Productions, the company that prints NMRA Magazine, announced that it has purchased the assets of the now-defunct magazine, Model Railroad News.

NMRA Secretary Bob Gangwish reports that the updated version of the Executive Handbook may now be downloaded from www.nmra.org.