Page 3 - January Februray 2009

Well, I hope all survived the festive season, received lots of presents with small flanged wheels, and are looking forward to 2009.
As I write, the Benson meet beckons (weather permitting, as I can’t find my Rotary plow at present!).
A little bit of sad news in December was that Rod Welch had to cancel his plans for the Spring meet due mainly to lack of available layouts.
Still there seems to be a steady growth in active groups (usually needed to put on meets of course) and a lot of innovative ideas coming forward. Mike Hughes, for example, taking on a kind of combined publicity and marketing role for the Region, is champing at the bit! He has a lot of experience to put to good use, and wants not merely to come up with his own good ideas but to implement yours too.
In the same vein, regarding the landmark convention in 2010 (celebrating NMRA’s 75th year), a questionnaire appears in this issue, asking for your views, likes and dislikes and so on, so that planning can be well thought out. (By the way, if you do not want to tear out the page to return it, just photocopy it!)
Not, of course, to overshadow this year’s convention at Swindon, which promises to be most enjoyable. The last such event at the Swindon Hilton proved what a nice hotel it is, and the same team running this year’s event have gained from their previous experience and will be adding some further really nice icing to the Swindon Arrow!
All in all, in spite of the odd hiccup and brief slanging match (when did you ever meet a group of human beings, all in accord, all the time!!?) the Region seems to be getting stronger, more purposeful and full of good ideas. As Mike Ingham put it to me in one conversation, when you have been in the BR for a while it begins to feel like family. Yes, alright, I’ve got some cousins I can’t stand too, but by and large “family” is a nice feeling.
It is even more creditable because of the distances involved. It isn’t that easy getting around the UK these days, especially for long return journeys on the same day, yet a surprising number of members will make the effort and show up at gatherings quite some way from their local manor.
It is good to feel, in these somewhat dark days, that a group of like minded nuts . . . er, I mean members, can form such a lively and successful volunteer organisation, whose keynote often seems to be the provision of help and enjoyable leisure time for their colleagues. Let us all hope that 2009 adds another few jewels to the NMRA-BR crown, as we head towards that impressive milepost of 75 years.
Our advertising officer, Jonathan Small, wishes to know if any reader of Roundhouse has responded to Unit Models‘ advert but without mentioning they saw the advert in Roundhouse. Please could you let us know if this is the case.
Martin Boyask
CUPOLA
...FROM THE EDITOR
ROUNDHOUSE FEBRUARY 2009
CONSIST...
CUPOLA
ROUNDHOUSE AUTHOR AWARD
Tom Winlow
PRESIDENT’S CAR
UNCOUPLED CARS
REGION OFFICERS’ MEETING
BRITISH REGION STRUCTURE BOD
NMRA-BR 2010 CONVENTION
Mike Arnold
DISCOUNTS FOR NMRA MEMBERS
Mike Hughes
2010 CONVENTION QUESTIONNAIRE GRAIN EXTRA – SECOND SECTION
W A Corkill
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Roundhouse Author Award
The presentation of the Roundhouse Author Award was made by Region President, Tim Rudge, at the Kegworth Convention. The candidates were those authors with Roundhouse articles published during the 2007 calendar year. This year the winner was Alain Kap for his article “Santa Fe’s Alice Street Yard” in the June 2007 Roundhouse. Alain lives in Germany so, for the first time, the Author Award shield will be going abroad.
As usual, members’ votes decided the result. Alain was a clear winner with 74 votes. In second place was Mike Arnold with 59 votes for “Modelling SP Diesel Fleet in the final years – SD40T2s”. Third place went to Mike Carter with 40 votes for his two articles, “FSM Old Ice Station kit No 50” and “FOS Scale Ltd, Degraw’s Poultry Market & Gordo’s Fried Chicken”.
Many thanks to all 229 people who voted and to the team who generated the shortlist, Nobby Clarke, Tony Martin MMR and Terry Wynne. Thanks are also due to John and Gillian Firth for organising the collection and counting of the voting slips. Finally, congratulations to the winners and a big “Thank-you” to them and to all our authors who continue to produce such excellent articles for Roundhouse.
Tom Winlow
THE ASHLEY DANVILLE & DEANSTOWN RAILROAD 1906 Mike Hughes 17 CANADA 2008 PART 2 Ian Lampkin 18
A CHEATER’S GUIDE TO FIXING RAILS TO A TIMBER TRESTLE Jeff Hurst 19 NEW MARKETING CO-ORDINATOR 19 WHAT’S ON AND WHERE 20
INDEX OF DCC DEALERS IN MR
Ron Gager 22
DIVISION DIARY 24 REGISTRAR NEWS 25 2009/10 RENEWALS John Firth 25
COPY DATES FOR FUTURE ISSUES...
Deadline for April: 24 February and for June: 24 April.
Commercial Advertising Manager: Jonathan Small, Millfield, Vyner Road North, Bidston Hill, Prenton, Merseyside CH43 7PZ
Tel 0151 652 2763, advertising@nmrabr.org.uk
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01273 422048 before 9pm ed_nmra@mboyask.freeserve.co.uk
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ADVERTISING IN ROUNDHOUSE
Please send ‘BEANERy’ (private sales, exchanges and wants) adverts to the Editor. Insertions are free of charge though it is traditional to donate a small percentage
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february 2009