Author: Al Lowe

Gerry Leone, NMRA Communications Director

In order to ensure the financial well-being of the NMRA into the future, there will be a dues increase on January 1, 2012 for U. S. members and overseas members served by the Chattanooga office. Regular memberships will increase by $5 to $44, and subscriptions to NMRA Magazine will increase by $3 to $22. Sustaining memberships (including the magazine) will increase by $13 to $110, and student memberships (including the magazine) will increase by $4 to $32. In addition, our highly successful RailPass trial membership program will continue at $9.95. The current RailPass conversion rate to regular memberships is around 65%. Memberships administered by the A, B, and C offices are not affected.

Di Voss, who’s heading up the Cruise Convention committee, continues to receive results from the survey published in the October issue of NMRA Magazine. To date he’s received around 200 responses, and estimates those “in favor” to be about 75%. In addition, Di would like to remind those who think there won’t be enough time on a Cruise Convention for layout tours, OPSIG meets or other activities, that the ship will be in port from about 8:00 a.m. until about 10:00 p.m.

For some reason, the story that the NMRA membership has been declining over the past few years continues to persist. IT JUST AIN’T TRUE, FOLKS! NMRA membership is holding steady at around 19,500. According to the latest “Membership Thermometer” figures compiled by Marketing, Advertising and Promotions manager Tom Draper, the NMRA lost 104 members between August 2009 and August 2011, but gained 91 members between August 2006 and August 2011. Please help us set the record straight by mentioning this to your membership!

Convention news: Even though Grand Rails 2012 will have dozens of top notch model railroads open for self-guided tours, the convention committee wanted to make sure everyone has a chance to see some of their great layouts. So there will also be several bus tours to some of the area’s best layouts. Layouts include every scale from Z to G, at every level of completion. They’re also offering a very special, exclusive seven-hour limo layout tour for groups of 6 to any of the six layouts on the self-guided list. The price for the limo is only $120 per person. Get all the details and registration info at www.gr2012.org.

Repeat announcement: The Howell Day Museum is issuing a new release of its highly successful Gorre and Daphetid bobber cabooses. Two new bobbers, numbered 3 and 5, are available from Headquarters immediately. A single car is US$19.95 + $4 shipping and handling, and the set of two is US$34.95 + $4 shipping and handling. The new cars are available in HO scale only, and are ready to run. They feature operating magnetic knuckle couplers and free-rolling metal wheels. Watch for the ad running in NMRA Magazine. To order, call HQ at 423-892-2846.

NMRA-infonet@earthlink.net.

Rick Bacon

Camp 6 has been sold to Chris Baldo, of the Roots of Motive Power Museum in Willits, CA. It is not yet known what is going where, only that all equipment will be out of the Point Defiance Park within one year. Dismantling 700 tons of hardware while preserving it takes lots of effort, as does cleaning up the site after operating a railroad there for 47 years. As sad as it will be to see the logging and rail equipment leave the Northwest, at least it is not going to a scrap yard. Who knows, maybe Pacific Coast Shay No.7 may have a better chance of being returned to service. Monthly updates will be posted at www.camp-6-museum.org. And I will post pictures when things start to roll.

UP Caboose 25722, that left Camp 6 in 2001 for Fife, WA, has received a frame-up rebuild and is now on public display at the Fife Historical Museum, 2820 54th Avenue E in Fife. It is a prototype of UP’s CA series of wood cabooses. The UP Museum in Omaha, Nebraska, shows this as ex-OWR&N 3564, built in July 1910, renumbered by UP to 25722 in 1964 and later donated to Camp 6. It is on a display track shared with ALCO C415 locomotive CWWR 684.

Gerry Leone, NMRA Communications Director

The Howell Day Museum is issuing a new release of its highly successful Gorre and Daphetid bobber cabooses. Two new bobbers, numbered 3 and 5, are now available from Headquarters at $19.95 for one or $34.95 for both. Add $4 S&H. The ready-to-run cars are HO only. They feature operating magnetic-knuckle couplers and free-rolling metal wheels. See the ad in NMRA Magazine. HQ’s phone is 423-892-2846.

Registrations for Grand Rails 2012, next year’s national convention in Grand Rapids, are taking off. Half of the available Furniture City Flyers Club memberships are already gone. Details at www.gr2012.org. 90 clinic slots are filled, with topics ranging from geared locomotives to timetable/train order operation. If you’re interested in presenting a clinic, have them fill out the application form on the website. They’re especially want clinics covering prototype modeling and operations.

Speaking of the convention, there has been a change in the visitation procedure for Bruce and Janet Chubb’s Sunset Valley Oregon System. The SVOS will now be open a portion of every day from Sunday, July 29, through Saturday August 4, for self-guided tours. Special commemorative tickets will be available each day. Attendees may visit any time, any day.

If you give adult or family classes on model railroading, Fred Bock, the NMRA’s Education Department Assistant Manager, is looking for ideas, lesson plans, and course material. Tell Fred what your program is about via email at fbockLSRDiv6@aol.com. Use “Adult Education” as the Subject.

CJ Riley

Warren Wing, noted local train historian and frequent 4D clinic presenter, passed away this week. One of his obituaries is here.